1. Indo-European Migrations
Mr. Locke
World History A.P.
2010

2. Indo-European Migrations: Origins
The Indo-European language speakers of the second and third century were a very influential group. Their migrations throughout much of Eurasia profoundly influenced historical development in both southwest Asia and the larger world as well.

3. Indo-European Languages
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, linguists noticed that many languages of Europe, southwest Asia and India featured remarkable similarities in vocabulary and grammatical structure.
Because of the geographic regions that these languages are found, scholars refer to them as Indo-European languages.
The reason for the high degree of linguistic coincidence lies in the idea that speakers of Indo-European languages were all descendants of ancestors who spoke a common language and migrated from their homeland.
The new languages evolved from the original changing, yet keeping the basic grammatical structure and vocabulary, albeit in a changed form.
The chart to the right illustrates similarities in vocabulary indicating close relationships between select Indo-European languages.
English
German
Spanish
Greek
Latin
Sanskrit
father
vater
padre
pater
pitar
one
ein
uno
hen
unnus
ekam
fire
feuer
fuego
pyr
ignis
agnis
field
feld
campo
agros
ager
ajras
sun
sonne
sol
helios
surya
king
konig
rey
Basileus
rex
raja
god
gott
dios
theos
deus
devas

4. Indo-European Homeland
The original homeland of the Indo-European speakers was probably the steppe region of modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia, the region just north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
The earliest Indo-European speakers built their society there between 4500 and 2500 B.C.E.
These people lived by herding cattle, sheep and goats while cultivating barley and millet in at least small quantities.
These peoples also hunted horses which flourished in the grasslands of Eurasian steppe.

5. Horses
Indo-Europeans were able to domesticate horses about 4000B.C.E. after close observation of the animals and studying their behavioral patterns.
Horses were probably first used for food, but shortly after domestication people began to ride them.
By 3000 B.C.E. Sumerian knowledge of bronze metallurgy and wheels spread north into the Indo-European homeland and sparked people to find ways to hitch horses to wagons , carts and chariots.
Possession of domesticated horses vastly magnified the power of Indo-European speakers.
This king's tomb in the Indo-European settlement in the Karakum (modern Turkmenistan) contains a valuable horse to accompany him into the afterlife.

6. Horses
Domesticated horses led to increased power for the Indo-Europeans in a number of ways:
Horses allowed for development of transportation technologies that were much faster and more efficient than alternative forms that relied on cattle, donkey or human power.
Horses provided a tremendous military advantage over those peoples without them.
Horses provided a way for expanding far beyond their original homeland.

7. The Nature of Indo-European Migrations
Thanks to the domestication of the horse, Indo-Europeans were able to expand past their original lands.
The flourishing of the Indo-Europeans caused a population explosion, this resulted in the first move away from the original area in about 3000 B.C.E.
These migrations occurred until about 1000 C.E. These were not mass migrations but a gradual and incremental process.
These beginning small migrations laid the groundwork for further expansion.

8. The Hittites
The most influential Indo-European migrants in ancient times were the Hittites.
About 1900 B.C.E. the Hittites migrated to the central plain of Anatolia, where they imposed their language and rule on the regions inhabitants.
In the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries the Hittites had built a powerful kingdom established close ties with the Mesopotamian peoples.
They traded with the Babylonians and Assyrians, adapted cuneiform writing to their Indo-European language, and accepted many Mesopotamian deities into their own parthenon of gods.
In 1595 B.C.E., the Hittites toppled Mesopotamia and became the dominant power in southwest Asia.
After 1200B.C.E. a unified Hittite state dissolved, as waves of invaders attacked the region.

9. War Chariots
The Hittites were responsible for the construction of light, horse drawn war chariots.
This innovation greatly strengthened Hittite society and influenced other peoples throughout the ancient world.
About 2000B.C.E. Hittites fitted chariots with recently invented spoked wheels, which were lighter and more maneuverable than the wheels on the slow and heavy Sumerian chariots.
The Hittites speedy chariots were a crucial component in the campaign to establish a state in Anatolia.
Chariots were used extensively in Mesopotamia and in Assyria in empire building.
Chariot warfare was so effective and was used so widely that charioteers became the elite strike forces in armies throughout the ancient world.

10. Iron Metallurgy
Another technological innovation of the Hittites was the refinement of iron metallurgy around 1300 B.C.E.
The Hittites were now able to produce effective weapons cheaply and in large quantities.
Hittite craftsmen discovered that by heating iron in a bed of charcoal, then hammering it into the desired shape, they could forge tough, strong implements.
Hittite methods of iron production spread throughout the Eurasia rapidly, especially after the 1200 B.C.E. collapse of their kingdom which sent Hittite craftsmen throughout the region.
Although the Hittites did not originally invent either the Chariot or iron metallurgy, (both were from Mesopotamia), they were able to greatly improve upon existing technologies.

11. Indo-European Migrations to the East
While the Hittites were state-building in Anatolia, other Indo-European speakers were migrating from the steppe into different regions.
Some people went east into central Asia, venturing as far as the Tarim Basin (now western China) by 2000 B.C.E.
The picture to the right shows the remains of a man with European features who was found buried in the Xinjiang province in China. This illustrates that Indo-Europeans reached far into Asia.
Descendants of the Indo-European migrants survived in central Asia and spoke Indo-European languages until well after 1000 B.C.E., but most of them were later absorbed into societies of Turkish-speaking peoples.

12. Indo-European Migrations to the West
Still other Indo-European migrants moved west. One wave took migrants to Greece after 2200 B.C.E., with their descendants moving into central Italy by 1000 B.C.E.
Another migratory wave by 2300B.C.E. had people moving into southern Russia and central Europe (modern Germany and Austria) and by 1200 B.C.E. to western Europe (modern France) and shortly thereafter to the British Isles, the Baltic region and the Iberian peninsula.

13. Indo-European Celtic Peoples
For most of the first millennium B.C.E., Indo-European Celtic peoples dominated Europe north of the Mediterranean, speaking languages and honoring similar deities throughout the region.
They recognized three principal social groups:
a military ruling elite
a small group of priests
a large class of commoners who tended hers and cultivated crops, some were miners, craftsmen or producers of metal goods.
The Celtic peoples traded copper, tin and handicrafts throughout most of Europe.

14. Indo-European Migrations to the South
A group of Indo-Europeans also migrated south at this time. These migrations sent the Indo-Europeans into the regions of Iran and India.
About 1500 B.C.E. the Medes and Persians migrated into the Iranian plateau, while the Aryans began moving into northern India.
These groups herded animals, cultivated grains, and divided themselves into classes of rulers, priests and commoners.
These groups (Aryans, Medes and Persians) built powerful states on the basis of horse based military technologies and their possession of iron weapons.