We look at the emergence of the Usatovo culture which spoke an Indo-European dialect believed to be the ancient ancestor of the Germanic languages – including English. We also look at the later migrations of the Indo-European tribes throughout Europe and Central Asia.
Map Prepared by Louis Henwood (Click Map for Larger Image)
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There’s a small historical error in this episode. The Bell Beaker people did not build Stonhenge. It was Neolithic farmers decended from the population that entered the Balkans from Northwest Anatolia that raised and used Stonehenge long before the arrival of the Beaker folk. Beakers and associated artifacts have been found on the site, but those were left long after the original construction of the circle. Beakers had a habit of burying their dead in the mounds of others – probably as a seal-the-deal take-over statement.
Is there any connection between the plant hardiness zones of Europe and IE migration? Maps look similar.
I’m not sure. I haven’t come across any research connecting those two features.
See also – Europe between the Oceans by Barry Cunliffe, which I recall addresses migrations mostly via geography but with some discussion about climate.
That book is a huge reference supported by tons of research.
I’m not sure if this answers your query, but Jared Diamond has a book, and a documentary, called Guns, Germs, and Steel, which offers a theory as to the development of technology at different locations throughout history.
He proposes that the continuous zone from eastern China to western Europe experienced similar climate, and this facilitated migration east and west. The continent of Africa and both North and South America, being orientated north-south made migration more difficult, as new crops and methods had to be developed as people moved from one climate to a different climate.
Both the book and the documentary are fascinating, and in my opinion present a well argued theory as to the distinct rates of human technological progress across the globe.
A heartfelt thank you to Kevin Stroud for this wonderful podcast. It is a work of astonishing scope and depth, and must involve a tremendous amount of time and energy.
Could the sound shift from PIE to Proto-Germanic be due to interaction with large numbers of non-PIE speaking peoples who had difficulty with some of the sounds in PIE who adopted the language of the Indo-Europeans but spoke a pidgin form of it?
Perhaps. Linguists can identify the specific sound changes based on diligent research, but generally speaking, I don’t think they can identify the specific causes that triggered the changes. Perhaps one day they will be able trace those linguistic factors as well.
you’re so ignorant and classically racist it goes from enraging to comical. and what a snowflake you are! you can’t handle a diverse world that changes and evolves! it’s always been that way and it’s beautiful. do us all a favor and die out.
?
FYI, the above comment by ‘biology’ was in reference to a post that was subsequently deleted.
Hahahahahaha riiiiiiiight!
Kevin, would you please delete this person’s comment. The website he links to through his runic name is full of pro-Germanic/anti-other race soundtracks.
At the end of this episode you mention that the Indo-Iranians established the Indus Civilization. This has largely been ruled out. The Indus Valley Civilization sites give no evidence that there were even horses at all, which contrasts with the importance of horses in Indo-Iranian Cultures. In addition, in 2018, (which was long after this episode was made) analysis of the preserved DNA from one of the Indus Valley sites indicated that residents had no steppe-pastoralist (IndoEuropean) ancestry.
I know this is fairly inconsequential in an episode about IndoEuropean migrations in Europe, but it’s a pretty key fact in Indian history.
These episodes have been very good but I must say that your distinctions between Corded Ware and migrating NW Indo-Euros (saying they interacted between eachother and traded) is quite absurd given Corded Ware skeletons have thorough genetic continuity with the Yamna Steppe populations and material continuities; and are thus clearly an extension of the culture genetically and materially rather than an exonomous trading partner!
Hi Martin,
Keep in mind in that this episode was written and released back in 2012 before the DNA studies you referenced were conducted. Those studies were compiled a few years later, and while they tended to confirm much of the information contained in the early episodes of the podcast, they also provided a stronger link between the Yamnaya herders and the Corded Ware people than I suggested in the episode. I’m not sure if there is a consensus that the two groups are essentially the same, but I do recognize that the relationship has been re-evaluated in light of those subsequent studies. Given that this episode pre-dates those studies, I’m not sure that it’s fair to state that the information provided is “quite absurd.”
The Corded Ware people have been thought to be Indo-European for quite some time. Recent DNA studies have merely confirmed that. The current thinking (as of 2025) is that the Corded Ware people were the ancestors of the Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian branches of Indo-European. The Indo-Iranian group is now commonly regarded as representing an eastward extension of the Corded Ware Culture that developed into a secondary culture, the Sintashta Culture, at the southern end of the Ural Mountain range.
On another topic, there’s now reason to think that the Anatolian branch of Indo-European may have reached Anatolia from the steppes not by going around the western side of the Black Sea, but instead by traveling east of the Black Sea, most likely along the western shore of the Caspian Sea.
Hi – Thank you for this Podcast. I was just given this podcast info by a freind this week. I speak German as a second language and lived in Germany, am also an intermediate Spanish learner. I am only as far as #11 but am finding it very interesting. It is also great that people bring in new info that has come to light since an episode has been made, here in the comments. I really appreciate learning about the history of, as well as the relationships between the languages that I am familiar with. I am excited to keep listening and have this resource. Best Regards,
T.
Very late to the podcast, but I’m curious, where do all these ancient names come from? Usatovo, Aryan, Semitic, etc. They sound so specific, like they weren’t made up by linguists. Did each of these cultures have written languages, and that’s how we know what they called themselves? But the Aryans (PIEs) didn’t have a written language.