| Description |
xii, 553 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [507]-545) and index. |
| Contents |
I: 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 -- II: 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. |
| Summary |
Argues that the domestication of the horse and the use of the wheel by the prehistoric peoples of the central Eurasian steppe grasslands facilitated the spread of the Proto-Indo-European language throughout civilization. |
| Subject |
Proto-Indo-European language.
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Bronze age -- Eurasia.
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Horses -- Eurasia -- History.
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Animals and civilization -- Eurasia -- History.
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Archaeology -- Eurasia.
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| ISBN |
9780691058870 hardback |
|
0691058873 hardback |
|
