Earliest Human Origins
Until recently it has been nearly impossible to speak with authority of ancient origins. However, modern scientific advances in fields such as DNA research, combined with new research and finds in archaeology, linguistics, and other fields have given us new insights into where humanity ultimately came from, and how these early people migrated and divided into the various ethnic, cultural, and linguistic subsets from which formed later groups, such as the Indo-Europeans.
I will not cover in any depth the earliest development of humanity, as that is a subject in itself, and the field is always developing. However, a brief over-view may be of use to people who are unfamiliar with the subject matter.
A substantial proportion of the scientific community currently supports the general theory of a series of evolutionary developments that eventually led to the appearance of modern humans.
(Note: Some religious and other belief groups hold other beliefs of human origins. As these differ {sometimes radically} from one religion to another, and as they are based on metaphysics, these will not be covered here, except as they pertain to the main topic of discussion - i.e., the Celts and the cultures that preceded them. However, the individual reader is free to take or leave what they wish of the knowledge presented.)
"Ex Africa semper aliquid novi"
(Out of Africa always something new.)
According to the latest archaeological studies and findings from other disciplines, such as the exploding field of DNA, the human race appears to have originated in Africa from a series of pre- and proto-human ancestors, over a period of millions of years.
Some of these pre-humans developed into different branches, such as Neanderthal Man (who apparently last shared a common ancestor with modern humanity about 500,000 years ago) and others, some of whom emigrated from Africa during periods when the Sahara was much lusher and less of an impediment to travel during glacial periods, heading first north and then East into SW Asia, (perhaps as far as India), and later north and west to Europe.
No one is certain, but current theory holds that about 195,000 years ago, the ancestors of anatomically modern humans appeared, also in Africa. (Based on remains discovered by Richard Leakey in the Omo River Valley of Ethiopia.)
About 60,000 years ago, a male who lived in Africa was the common ancestor of all living humans. Known as "Adam," he was the only human male alive at that time whose DNA has survived to modern times. The present San tribe of Bushmen in Africa have ancient DNA which represents a close link to this "Adam."
Early modern humans also began a series of emigrations at about this time. These emigrations eventually took modern humans to Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Within about 10,000 years, they had spread all over the planet. These latter-coming humans are thought to have eventually either out-competed, exterminated, or otherwise replaced earlier branches they encountered (such as the Neaderthals), who eventually drifted to extinction. There are also those who believe that in some cases, anatomically modern humans may have sucessfully cross-bred with the Neanderthals, but again controversy is rife, even among those who hold the belief that it happened.
However, it is interesting to note the recent find of remains believed by its discoverers to belong to a newly discovered human species ("Homo floresiensis"), after the island they found on (part of Indonesia). They are believed to have grown no larger than a modern three-year-old, and to have survived until about 18,000 years ago. They are popularly referred to as "hobbit people" after Tolkien's fantasy creation. As in most theories, there is controversy regarding the remains. See National Geographic News for details.
(NOTE: For an interesting look at the latest in DNA theory and evidence, visit the National Genographic Project for a fascinating tour of the field, and an opportunity to participate personally in one of the most interesting scientific projects in the field.)
Here is a DNA map that reflects that journey from Family Tree DNA, a group providing testing services for the National Genographic Project (above). They also provide more detailed testing that allows the individual to trace his or her ancestry, both "far-back" and more recently.
These migrations, which led to the splitting of the human family into distinctive ethnic sub-groupings, also resulted in the splitting of human languages, eventually forming a series of language groups and sub-groups, one of which, Indo-European, is the subject of this discussion.
Possible Indo-European Origins
From the Upper Paleolithic period to the beginning of the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC) Europe was inhabited by a pre-agrarian culture which seems to have been somewhat sedentary and fairly peaceful, extending from the eastern shores of the Black and Mediterranean seas to the Aegean and Adriatic seas.
This period was followed by a rapid spread of agriculture, and improvements in technology. The reasons for this change are not clear, but have been ascribed to a changing social structure.
It is generally believed that agriculture and later other technologies originated for the most part in the Near East in the Neolithic about 10,000 years ago, and spread to Europe via Turkey, although some cultures seem to have developed food production and some other technologies independently.
Some scholars attribute this to the spread of a new and possibly warlike ethno-linguistic group that spread both agriculture, technology, and language to the existing population. Other scholars believe that as Proto-Indo-European speaking groups split into smaller groups (and dialects that would eventually become off-shoot languages), the innovations spread more peacefully. These views have been and remain much disputed.
Jared Diamond, in his recent book; "Guns, Germs, and Steel" provides some interesting possible reasons for these changes, and other matters. Though not without error (e.g., the oft-repeated but demonstrably incorrect statement that cavalry ruled the battlefield from its inception until fairly modern times), and some areas of controversy, it is an impressive and interesting work of multi-disciplinary scholarship that covers a large swath of human history and development over a wide geographic area, comparing and contrasting cultures, while attempting to answer the question of why Western Europeans and their descendants eventually became the currently dominant culture.
A recent DNA study conducted by a team of researchers has also led to some interesting developments. Archaeologists and geneticists recently analyzed DNA from 24 7500-year-old skeletons from Germany, Austria and Hungary, of people known as the "Linear Pottery" culture.
The team analyzed mtDNA (mitochondrial) transmitted through the female line. Use of mtDNA enabled them to distinguish cultural migrations, (which would include females), from Y-DNA transmitted as a result of warfare or other male-dominated activities.
Comparing these to a worldwide database of 35,000 modern DNA samples, they found DNA types now rare in Europe, which indicates that these people are probably not the ancestors of modern Europeans.
Professor Joachim Burger (U. of Mainz) said; "...most scholars tended to believe that modern day Europeans were descendents of the first farmers of 7,500 years ago. Our new data.. ...show that these farmers were not our ancestors."
Dr. Peter Forster, a geneticist (U. of Cambridge, who also collaborated on the linguistic study mentioned below) said: "...less than 50 Europeans today have these ancient farmer DNA types. In order to learn more about the fate of these early farmers and their rare DNA types, we now need an extensive sampling of people of European descent."
Dr. Forster is encouraging the public to contribute DNA to a project aimed at widening the database. For further information see here.
For further research, see the full article at the U. of Cambridge Newhall site.
Sir William Jones and the Indo-European Language
The earliest linguistic evidence of the Indo-Europeans stems from a theory propounded by a most remarkable polymath, Sir William Jones (1746-1794). Though of modest birth, he rose through his outstanding abilities in many fields.
He studied at Harrow and University College, Oxford from 1764 to 1768, and was engaged for some years in translating.
However, his interests were wide-ranging, and included anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, history, law, literature, music, physiology, politics, and religion, in addition to languages.
Jones knew and corresponded with many contemporary intellectuals including Burke, Gibbon, Johnson, Percy and Reynolds in Britain, and Franklin in America.
Sir William Jones as a young man
Jones eventually became a lawyer due to financial necessity, being admitted to the bar in 1771.
He continued his Oriental studies, however. He eventually learned 28 languages including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, many self-taught. His knowledge of Middle Eastern languages and culture was so encyclopedic that he became known as "Oriental" Jones. His "Grammar of the Persian Language" (1771) was considered an authoritative work for many years. "Moallakât" (1782), was a translation of several pre-Islamic Arabic odes.
His new career prospered, and in 1783 he was knighted. He then voyaged to Calcutta as a judge of the Supreme Court. In 1784 he founded the Asiatick Society of Bengal, which stimulated great interest in India and the Orient in Britain and the West.
He took up Sanskrit originally in order to better understand the laws of the people he was judging, and to prepare a digest of Hindu and Muslim law. ("Institutes of Hindu Law" (1794) and his "Muhammedan Law of Inheritance (1792) were, unfortunately, the only parts of this vast proposed work to be completed.)
Jones is best known now for his "Third Discourse of 1786" which stated that the resemblance of some Sanskrit words to Greek and Latin could best be explained by a common, earlier source. His thesis laid the groundwork for what is now known as comparative linguistics. (See Wikipedia for some of his work.)
Sir William Jones later in life
Here is an extract from his work on "The Sanscrit Language"
"The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have spring from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists: there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit, and the old Persian might be added to this family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia."
For further information, see these links:
Wikipedia's biography of Sir William
Characteristics of Indo-European Languages
As the name implies, the Indo-European peoples speak languages that are spread from India to Europe. Hindi, Russian, Gaelic and English all apparently have a common root, far back in time.
These early people and their language were originally referred to as Aryan, but that term was later perverted by racists, especially the Nazis, to the extent that most scholars no longer use it, referring the term Indo-European, due to the extremely wide geographical dissemination. 19th century German linguists called the language "Ur-Spräche" ("original speech"). It now appears possible that it is the descendant of a still earlier language.
Indo-European languages share some basic vocabulary, including grammatical affixes, whose shapes in the different languages can be related to one another by phonetic rules, especially the shared patterns of alternation of sounds.
The similarities Jones had noted in the sound and meaning of certain words in widely disparate languages (i.e., mother and three) are known in linguistics as cognate words, as opposed to borrowed words. For example, Irish Gaelic: "muinteoir" and Peshtu (Afghanistan): "munshi", both meaning "teacher". (In Peshtu, the word can also mean "scribe")
A form of the word "lachs" (meaning the Baltic salmon) is found in every country bordering that body of water. It appears that the original term in Indo-European may have referred to an inland fresh-water salmon-like species, as it seems likely from the linguistic evidence the Indo-Europeans originated in an inland region. (The Atlantic salmon, by contrast, is known in Gaelic as "bradan".) Linguists have used cognates to help determine probable Indo-European words, and ascertain the possible area of origin of the Indo-Europeans.
Also, as mentioned above, DNA research is now starting to play a larger role. The Human Genome Project, the National Genographic Project (mentioned above), and others are making headway in tracking the migration of people in far-distant times and places.
In addition, an interesting study may revise the dates and other aspects of both the Indo-Europeans and the Celts.
Dr. Peter Forster, a DNA researcher from Cambridge (see above), and Alfred Toth, a linguist (then at the University of Zurich, now at U. of New Mexico), used a novel combination of DNA sequencing and phylogenetic network methods to study Celtic languages.
Focusing on Gaulish using bilingual Gaulish–Latin inscriptions from a bronze calendar tablet and other sources, they revealed early split of Celtic within Indo-European, then separated Gaulish (Continental Celtic) from Insular Celtic languages, with Insular Celtic subsequently splitting into Brythonic and Goidelic.
Bronze Gaulish-Latin calendar tablet
The study suggests that the Celts arrived in Britain as single wave, then differentiated locally, rather than traditional two-wave scenario ("P-Celtic" to Britain and "Q-Celtic" to Ireland).
The new tentative dates for the rise of the Indo-Europeans is 8100 BC (± 1,900 years), and for the arrival of the Celts in Britain, 3200 BC (± 1,500 years).
(For details, see: PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We have also found archaeological traces of peoples far away from the previously supposed "limits" of their range, who may have been Indo-European speaking people. These include the mummies of the Tarim Basin. (See below.)
Indo-European is divided linguistically into two major groups, "centum" and "satem" representing the word for one hundred in Latin and Avestan (an extinct branch of Indo-Iranian) respectively. This family of languages is spoken in most of Europe, European settlements, and in areas of Southwest and South Asia. Evidence for European languages at the end of the prehistoric period makes it clear that, with exceptions (such as Basque or Etruscan), they belonged to the Indo-European language group. Such diverse groups and languages as Indo-Iranian (i.e.; Persian); and Germanic (English) are all members of the Indo-European group. Other examples include: Italo-Latinic (Latin); Balto-Slavic (Polish); Hellenic (Greek); Anatolian (Hittite, now extinct). All have sub-groups and branches. (i.e., Germanic > English) With the spread of English as the language of world commerce, an Indo-European tongue has become predominant world-wide.
Theories of Homeland
Again, trying to ascertain the physical origins of a pre-historic people can be challenging. Professional opinion is still divided on many issues. Nobody has discovered a precise and reliable way to determine from linguistic evidence alone the date at which any set of related languages began diverging.
The best methods estimate the degree of difference between the languages in question, taking into account all that is known about them, and then compare them. The Human Genome Project, (collecting DNA/genetic materials from all possible sources world-wide) and other DNA projects have already produced much of interest. It is to be expected that as these projects go forward, much more will unfold, and an entirely new dimension will be added to paleoanthropology and history.
The Kurgan/Steppe theory of origin was advanced by the late Marija Gimbutas of UCLA,depicting the Indo-Europeans as a chariot warrior aristocracy, with primarily a herding economy from the area between the Don and Volga Rivers, on the steppes of the Caucasus and the Carpathian Mountains.
In this model, early domestication of the horse, and use of it in battle, gave them the edge in spreading East and West, conquering new territories needed to support and increase their herds. A modified version of this view has achieved some consensus.
However, her model was attacked for some aspects, especially as it relates to one feminist interpretation, painting the Indo-Europeans as a "wicked" patriarchal culture responsible for all the ills of modern society.
She was also assailed in some quarters for her interpretations of archaic religious practices, which she put forward in her later works. ("Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe" "The Language of the Goddess" and "The Civilization of the Goddess.")
Despite her fall from favor with some scholars, there is little doubt that she did a massive amount of work and study, and helped formulate views on the Proto-Indo-Europeans, some of which, in modified form still stand.
Colin Renfrew (University of Southhampton, and later Cambridge), who collaborated with Ms. Gimbutas on some work, correlated the spread of farming with the spread of the Indo-Europeans. ("Archaeology and Language", C. Renfrew et al, 1988, Current Anthropology 29(3): 437-468.)
Renfrew's version of events is viewed by many linguists with skepticism, because of the dates. Linguists generally place Proto-Indo-European at c. 6000 years ago. However, Renfrew places it several thousand years further back to match the known dates for the spread of farming. However, some modern research (Forster and Toth, above, and others) seems to support his dates and ideas of the dispersion and spread of both languages and cultures.
Renfrew's concept has been attacked for his seeming ignorance of the Afro-Asiatic language family. For instance, in an article ("World Linguistic Diversity", C. Renfrew, 1994, Scientific American, January, pp. 104-110), he gives migration-arrows that leave out the vast majority of Afro-Asiatic languages, (those spoken in Africa), which could invalidate his claim for the "original" homeland of Afro-Asiatic speakers.
Renfrew elaborated his ideas into a model for the peopling of the planet. He also later challenged the generally accepted model of cultural diffusion from the Fertile Crescent to Europe, arguing that European culture and civilization was much more ancient than previously thought. (See Bibliography. )
J. P. Mallory is another noted authority on Indo-European language and possible origins. His work, ("In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth" (See Bibliography) does not specifically rebut Renfrew. He only addresses Renfrew in some footnotes. However, he presents evidence for a more "orthodox" position.
Mallory (unlike Renfrew) reads Russian, and thus can directly access the site reports of the Soviet archeologists who investigated the steppes of the Ukraine.
His summaries of Indo-European legacies and issues are interesting. He discusses innovations such as the domestication of the horse, the tripartite system of the Indo-Europeans (nobles / warriors, clerks / priests, and farmer / cultivators) and its possible influences on later forms of government (including possibly the three branched system in use in America today), and other such issues. He states in part;
"...horse domestication and the consequences this revolution in transportation and warfare brought to the world. In addition, the Indo-Europeans are at least one of the candidates for the inventors of wheeled vehicles...
...the trifunctional ideology of the Proto-Indo-Europeans permeates the religious texts of the ancient Indians and Iranians, emerges in the epic poetry and drama of the Greeks, hides behind the facade of history among the early Romans, and expresses itself in the prose tales of the medieval Germanic and Celtic people...
...the most secure legacy of the Indo-Europeans is surely to be found in the language spoken by over two billion people in the world. It is irrelevant whether we regard ourselves as Europeans, Asians, Africans or Americans; we cannot escape this legacy if we speak an Indo-European language.
...In characteristic hyperbole, Hitler once wrote that the collapse of the Aryans would see the light of civilization extinguished in the world; given the distribution of nuclear arms on this planet, it is far more likely that it will be Indo-Europeans who will end it themselves.
Yet we need not finish pessimistically, but rather hope to remind, the great superpowers, that whatever their political differences, when they speak to one another, they do so in words that were once common when they shared the same language, the same home and the same beliefs."
Mallory has been the subject of heated debate also, but seems to state his position convincingly. His book, while written primarily for the academic, offers much to the lay reader willing to work through it.
Some interesting recent developments have captured the attention of scientists and scholars, as well as the imagination of the general public.
The Tarim Basin/Xinjiang Mummies
In recent years, the Tarim Basin mummy finds have spurred further speculation.
Four thousand years ago, there were ancient oasis towns in the Tarim Basin, near the end of the "Silk Road" in what is now the Xinjiang (aka Xin Zhiang) region of NW China on the edge of the Gobi Desert. They flourished for at least 1,500 years, and there are indications that they survived as a culture even into the second century.
About the turn of the 20th century, a few well-preserved mummies were discovered in the area by early European explorers of the Silk Road (including Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin). They had been preserved naturally by the saline soil and extreme aridity of the Taklamakan desert region. They are believed to have been buried between c. 4000-2000 BC.
"The Bohemian Burgher" - a Tarim mummy photographed by Aurel Stein, c. 1910
The remains are Caucasoid. Many had long red or blond hair, and features that could be those of modern Europeans. They were largely ignored at the time because they were considered atypical, perhaps just a few traders or wanderers who had been in the region and perished.
Further exploration was put on hold by World War I, followed by years of unrest, civil war and then WW II. Following that came the Communist revolution and regime, and the closing to the West of many of China's archaeological treasures.
However, in the 1970s, Chinese exchanges with the West became more open. More of the mummies began to come to light, buried together in large cemeteries. The principal work was conducted by Wang Binhua in 1978, who excavated the cemetery at Qizilchoqa. As China became more open in terms of trade and cultural exchange, more was learned about the ancient inhabitants of the area.
Victor H. Mair, an Austrian Oriental scholar, was in the region's museum when he came across some of the bodies. Struck by their appearance, particularly that of one mummy (who according to Mair, strongly resembled his own brother, David), he began a search to seek their origins and whether they had any contact with early Chinese civilization.
"Cherchen Man"
Eventually, he enlisted J. P. Mallory, a Proto Indo-European language scholar, Paolo Francalacci a DNA specialist, and other specialists in clothing and related fields, and a considerable amount of work was done, including analysis of both new and existing finds. (See the ( Bibliography for their book, "The Tarim Mummies".)
The colorful fabrics found included felt, plaited wool, and what we now call tartan. The weave of their clothes is identical to that of "clo mor", the twill tweed and tartan weave used by the Gaels. In fact, one of the females is wearing a tartan dress! Here are some interesting fabrics. (These are covered in depth in "The Mummies of Urumchi" by Elizabeth Wayland Barber, the cover of which is shown below.)
Here are some pieces of tartan from the sites - the top is an actual fragment, the second is a reproduction.
There are some female burials with trappings that may indicate a high social status, perhaps of a religious nature.
One of the older females is wearing an extremely tall conical hat, reminiscent of a "witch's hat" of yore. Tall, conical caps and helmets were worn in historic times by the Celtic aristocracy, and in Gaelic Ireland, tall conical hats were worn by the high chiefs and nobility until at least 1719, as witnessed by portraits of that date. A very similar style was worn by rustic women until the 19th century in Wales, and still constitutes women's "traditional" garb at folk festivals. The design may possibly have come down over the centuries, though what its significance may have been we have no way of ascertaining.
The precise origins of the mummies remain unresolved, but Mallory and Mair postulate that these early Bronze Age settlers originated on the north-west shore of the Black Sea, and that they may have been part of or related to the Afanasevo culture, which originated on the easternmost part of the Eurasian Steppe and highlands north of East Central Asia. (These steppes extend from the mouth of the Danube River along the north shore of the Black Sea, across the lower Volga to the east as far as the Altai Mountains.) They may have been Proto-Tocharians, but there is no way to prove that at present, since they left no written records.
The Tocharians are the most easterly known Indo-European speaking people, and their language is now extinct.
We only learned of the Tocharians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a result of finds of ancient manuscripts from the region.
There appears to have originally been two distinct Tocharian languages, Eastern ("A") and Western ("B"). Some scholars hold that only the Eastern should be called Tocharian. Today, the name for the Western form is sometimes referred to as Kuchean. Their nearest linguistic relative appears to be Hittite, which was anciently spoken in Asia Minor (c. 1600 to 1100 BC).
Tocharian A seems to have died out in daily usage, becoming a liturgical language like Sanskrit, while Tocharian B seems to have survived longer. The texts include religious liturgy, monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, medical and magical texts, and a love poem.
Tocharian seems to have died out after c. 840 AD. At that time, the Uyghurs (aka Uighurs) were expelled from Mongolia by the Kirghiz, and retreated to the Tarim Basin. Tocharian texts have been found translated into Uighur.
The genetic evidence, as well as the appearance of light hair and eyes among the modern Uyghur, seems to support the Uyghur contention that they are descended from the Tarim Basin people. See the article by Mark Dickens, the Wikipedia articles on Tocharian, and the Uyghurs for details.
The ancient Chinese seem to have been fascinated with a group or groups of people on the peripheries of their domain, whom they term "Yuezhi." These may refer to the Tocharians, and/or the earlier Tarim Basin people.
If so, what little we can know of the Tarim people and their culture beyond the physical remains can be gleaned from the Chinese manuscripts, in the way that much of our knowledge of the Celts in ancient times is gleaned from Classical commentators.
They seem to have been warriors, herdsmen, and traders, and been highly skilled in medicine. The few clues to their language are in the form of words that appear to be transliterated in the Chinese manuscripts. Their physical appearance seems to have had Caucasoid traits, including red hair (the Chinese described them as being like red monkeys), and light colored eyes.
They appear to have died out in antiquity, and no recognizable remnant cultures have survived, though as noted, the present-day native Uyghurs firmly believe themselves descended from them.
The mummies may represent an Indo-European group, though we cannot of course determine their language from the remains. However,their physical appearance, clothing and accouterments strongly resemble those depicted in extant paintings of the later Tocharians, a nearby Indo-European speaking community known from written and pictorial remains. It is fair to postulate the possibility of some degree of linguistic affinity, based on the similarity in cultural aspects and clothing, as well as physical appearance.
Tocharian Knights (c. 6th century AD fresco, Qizil, Tarim Basin)
These and other period depictions of Tocharians resemble the Tarim mummies. These may be the "Knights with Long Swords" mentioned in Chinese accounts. All depictions show light hair and light eye color. These men are dressed in Sassanian style. These frescoes were found with notations in Tocharian and Sanskrit apparently made by the painters.
Buddhist Monks
A picture of a blue-eyed, red-haired, and large-nosed Buddhist monk, with an obviously Asian colleague, from Bezaklik, Eastern Tarim Basin, c. 9th-10th century AD)
There is also the possibility that these people may have introduced the chariot, and possibly bronze-working to the Chinese.
Unfortunately, many of the fabric and DNA samples were confiscated at the last minute from Mair's party by Chinese authorities. However, due to the courage of a Chinese colleague who took the risk of slipping them some of the confiscated samples as they were leaving, some DNA tests were able to be completed. The sample showed genetic relationships to present-day Europeans, including Swedes, Finns, Tuscans, Corsicans and Sardinians. It also seems as though the Uyghurs do indeed have some of their genetic make-up, not surprising given that these otherwise Mongol people sometimes have reddish hair, and green eyes.
There remains considerable ambivalence among the Chinese political and scientific leadership on how to treat these people, both because of political considerations with the current indigenous Uyghur people, and how much {if at all} these Caucasoid people may have influenced Chinese development. It has the possibility of upsetting the Chinese official history of development in "splendid isolation" from the West.
If true, it matters little, because the Chinese obviously came up with much of their own culture. If they borrowed some useful techniques or technologies, they wouldn't be the first to do so - and of course, an exchange could have gone both ways, as it has in more historic times.
For more information, see: Xinjiang, the Tarim Basin mummies, and the Tocharians
The Tribe in the Khyber Pass
In the early 1990's, a French anthropological team working in Afghanistan in the area of the Khyber Pass found a Caucasoid tribal group, matrilineal, speaking a seemingly archaic Indo-European dialect and with what appeared to be some archaic Indo-European customs. I have not heard of the final outcome, but the team members at the time believed the tribe might possibly be a remnant group of the ancient Indo-Europeans. The unfortunate series of events in that region has caused so much disruption for over a decade that the opportunities for investigation are currently almost nil.
Non-mainstream Theories
Other origins have been postulated, though some seem rather dubious. They would seem to be unsupported by the existing linguistic or archaeological record. However, I will address a few of them here because they are interesting.
In a religious context, an Iranian group called the Aryans, also known as Zarathrustians or Zoroastrians, claim to be the original Indo-Europeans. They believe their ancestors originated in what is today the Arctic 20,000 years ago.
They worship a being called Ahura-Mazda, whom they credit as their creator. Their devil is styled Ahriman, and he is said to have created all things evil (including, according to their beliefs, women, goats, and cats!).
Due to the machinations of Ahriman, the Arctic, formerly a Paradise, became cold and inhabitable. They then made their way to Persia (modern Iran), and became the ruling people. Most now reside in India as a result of the later Muslim conquest and conversion of Iran.
In an interesting side-light to this origins legend, there are some admittedly non main-stream views {most of which follow the discredited Velikovsky's theories}, that aver that the Arctic climate changed extremely rapidly and devastatingly. Stories are told of "flash frozen" mammoths being found whose last meal was fresh summer grass. Countering that argument is the fact that there appears to have been less than 50 such carcasses found, all in varying states of advanced decomposition, and most of the circumstances are explicable without resort to sudden and massive catastrophe. For further information, see this article.
Summary
In the final analysis, it seems probable that at some time in the remote past, a group of Caucasoid people from the steppe regions in the vicinity of an area spreading from the Caucasus and Carpathian Mountains spread out both East and West. Whether by relatively peaceful migration, war-like invasion, cultural assimilation or some combination of these factors, they spread their language and to some extent their religious and cultural practices over a wide area.
The Indo-Europeans seem to have had some continuity of culture, as exemplified by their linguistic and archaeological remains. The war-wagon or chariot was apparently an essential part of most of their societies, as was a warrior aristocracy.
(Further evidence for the continuity of the Indo-European warrior culture will be explored in the chapter on music in the section dealing with heroic poetry.)
