The horse, the wheel, and language : how bronze-age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world /

"Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantaliz...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Anthony, David W.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [2007]
Subjects:
Table of Contents:
  • pt. 1. Language and archaeology.
  • The promise and politics of the mother tongue
  • How to reconstruct a dead language
  • Language and time 1: the last speakers of Proto-Indo-European
  • Language and time 2 : wool, wheels, and Proto-Indo-European
  • Language and place : the location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland
  • The archaeology of language
  • pt. 2. The opening of the Eurasian steppes.
  • How to reconstruct a dead culture
  • First farmers and herders : the Pontic-Caspian Neolithic
  • Cows, copper, and chiefs
  • The domestication of the horse and the origins of riding : the tale of the teeth
  • The end of Old Europe and the rise of the steppe
  • Seeds of change on the steppe borders : Maikop chiefs and Tripolye towns
  • Wagon dwellers of the steppe : the speakers of Proto-Indo-European
  • The western Indo-European languages
  • Chariot warriors of the northern steppes
  • The opening of the Eurasian steppes
  • Words and deeds.