What was the Kurgan theory?

The Kurgan hypothesis describes the initial spread of Proto-Indo-European during the 5th and 4th millennia BC. As used by Gimbutas, the term "kurganized" implied that the culture could have been spread by no more than small bands who imposed themselves on local people as an elite.

What is the Kurgan hypothesis AP Human Geography?

Kurgan Hypothesis. the Proto-Indo-European language diffused from modern day Ukraine through conquest. Language. system of communication through the use of speech, collection of sounds and understood by a group of people to have the same meaning. Language Branch.

What is the Anatolian hearth theory?

Anatolian Hearth Theory. Theory of how language first began to diffuse. According to this theory, Indo-European diffused along with agricultural innovations west into Europe and east into Asia. Diffusion based in Agriculture.

What are the Kurgan and Anatolian heart theories?

The Kurgan theory centres on possible archaeological evidence for an expansion into Europe and the Near East by Kurgan horsemen beginning in the sixth millennium BP. In contrast, the Anatolian theory claims that Indo-European languages expanded with the spread of agriculture from Anatolia around 8,000-9,500 years bp.

What does the name Kurgan mean?

: a burial mound of eastern Europe or Siberia.

The Criticism of Kurgan Theory

Are kurgans real?

The Kurgan is a fictional character from the first Highlander film. He is portrayed by Clancy Brown. He is an Immortal and the main antagonist to Connor MacLeod in Highlander, and the latter's ultimate opponent in the Gathering. The Kurgan's life story is fleshed out in several Highlander spin-offs in various media.

Where did the kurgans come from?

The earliest kurgans date to the 4th millennium BC in the Caucasus, and researchers associate these with the Indo-Europeans. Kurgans were built in the Eneolithic, Bronze, Iron, Antiquity and Middle Ages, with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia.

How did the Kurgan theory spread?

In contrast to the Anatolian hypothesis, which defends that the diversification of PIE occurred some 8,500 years ago, when the first farmers from the Near East (currently Turkey) brought it to Europe, there is the Kurgan hypothesis, which proposes that the language was spread by nomadic herders of the steppes found to ...

Who developed the Anatolian theory?

Renfrew's revised views place only Pre-Proto-Indo-European in the 7th millennium BC in Anatolia, proposing as the homeland of Proto-Indo-European proper the Balkans around 5000 BC, which he explicitly identified as the "Old European culture", proposed by Marija Gimbutas.

What is the Steppe hypothesis?

This article provides new support for the "steppe hypothesis" or "Kurgan hypothesis", which proposes that Indo-European languages first spread with cultural developments in animal husbandry around 4500 - 3500 BCE.

What are the 2 theories of language diffusion?

However, the langage's origin and its diffusion are often debated, with two main theories: the Nomadic Warrior Thesis and the Sedentary Farmers Thesis.

What is the conquest theory?

Conquest theory is when a person or a group of people take control of an area and make everyone in that area follow their rules and beliefs.

What language family did English come from?

English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and is therefore related to most other languages spoken in Europe and western Asia from Iceland to India.

Who were the Kurgans and how may they have been important to the geography of language?

Between 3500 and 2500 BC, Kurgan warriors using their domesticated horses as weapons, conquered much of Europe and South Asia. They spread their language with warriors and their horses as weapons. A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago.

What is animism in AP Human Geography?

Animism. Definition. Def: Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

What is an Isogloss AP Human Geography?

An “isogloss” is a boundary line between two distinct linguistic regions. It can be a boundary between two different languages, or, more frequently, the boundary between two different dialects of the same language.

Where is Anatolia?

Where is Anatolia located? Anatolia, also called Asia Minor, is the peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey.

What are the 2 largest language families?

Although the Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language families two of the largest in the world, linguists have categorized more than one hundred language families around the globe.

What is Indo-European theory?

According to the widely accepted Kurgan hypothesis or Steppe theory, the Indo-European language and culture spread in several stages from the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat in the Eurasian Pontic steppes into Western Europe, Central and South Asia, through folk migrations and so-called elite recruitment.

Why is the Kurgan hypothesis important?

The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory or Kurgan model) or Steppe theory is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and parts of Asia.

Is Kurgan in Siberia?

Kurgan, oblast (region), west-central Russia, on the southern edge of the West Siberian Plain, in the Tobol Basin. It is a level plain with innumerable small lakes, often saline, in shallow depressions.

What language did the Yamnaya speak?

Anthony, the genetic evidence suggests that the leading clans of the Yamnaya were of EHG (Eastern European hunter-gatherer) and WHG (Western European hunter-gatherer) paternal origin and implies that the Indo-European languages were the result of "a dominant language spoken by EHGs that absorbed Caucasus-like elements ...

How many kurgans are there?

Even though many kurgans disappeared due to the land- scape transformation activities such as agricultural intensifi- cation and the expansion of urban areas, there are still about 400,000–600,000 kurgans in Eurasia.

How did the Scythian build their burial chambers?

The tomb-chambers were effectively log cabins. They were built of larch wood logs which were felled nearby, incised with marks and dragged on rollers to the burial place before reassembling. The ends of the logs were notched so that they interlocked and the logs used for the roofs were dressed.