Indo-Iranians

Map of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red), its expansion into the Andronovo culture during the 2nd millennium BC, showing the overlap with the BMAC in the south. The location of the earliest chariots is shown in purple.

Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples, that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages. An archaic term for these peoples is Aryan.

Origin

The Indo-Iranians are commonly identified with the Andronovo culture, and their homeland with an area of the Eurasian steppe that borders the Ural River on the west, the Tian Shan on the east (where the Indo-Iranians took over the area occupied by the earlier Afanasevo culture), and Transoxiana and the Hindu Kush on the south. Historical linguists broadly estimate that a continuum of Indo-Iranian languages probably began to diverge by 2000 BCE, if not earlier,^[1]:38–39 preceding both the Vedic and Iranian cultures. The earliest recorded forms of these languages, Vedic Sanskrit and Gathic Avestan, are remarkably similar, descended from the common Proto-Indo-Iranian language. The origin and earliest relationship between the Nuristani languages and that of the Iranian and Indic groups is unrecoverably obscure.

Expansion

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC). The Andronovo, BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan movements.

Arkaim in Russia is believed to have been constructed by Indo-Iranian tribes some 4000 years ago.

Two-wave models of Indo-Iranian expansion have been proposed by Burrow (1973) and Parpola (1999).

First wave

Main article: Indo-Aryan migration

The Indo-Iranians and their expansion are strongly associated with the chariot. It is assumed that this expansion went into the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau, Afghanistan and India. They also expanded into Mesopotamia and Syria and introduced the horse and chariot culture to this part of the world. Sumerian texts from EDIIIb Girsu (2500-2350 BC) already mention the 'chariot' (gigir) and Ur III texts (2150-2000 BC) mention the horse (anshe-zi-zi).

They left linguistic remains in a Hittite horse-training manual written by one "Kikkuli the Mitannian". Other evidence is found in references to the names of Mitanni rulers and the gods they swore by in treaties; these remains are found in the archives of the Mitanni's neighbors. The time period for this is about 1500 BCE.^[2]:257

The standard model for the entry of the Indo-European languages into India is that this first wave went over the Hindu Kush, either into the headwaters of the Indus or the Ganges (and probably, both). The earliest stratum of Vedic Sanskrit, preserved only in the Rigveda, is assigned to roughly 1200 BCE.^[2]:258 From the Indus, the Indo-Aryan languages spread with the migrants who, from c. 1500 BCE to c. 500 BCE, were able to spread over the northern and central parts of the subcontinent, sparing the extreme south. The Indo-Aryans in these areas established several powerful kingdoms and principalities in the region, from eastern Afghanistan to the doorstep of Bengal. The most powerful of these kingdoms was Magadha, which lasted until the 4th century BCE, when it was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya and annexed into the Mauryan empire.

In eastern Afghanistan and southwestern Pakistan, whatever Indo-Aryan languages that were spoken they were eventually pushed out by the Iranian languages. Most Indo-Aryan languages, however, were and still are prominent in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Today, Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Second wave

The Second Wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave.^[1]:42–43 The Iranians would take over all of Central Asia, Iran, and for a considerable period, dominate the European steppe (the modern Ukraine) and intrude north into Russia and west into central and eastern Europe well into historic times and as late as the Common Era. The first Iranians to reach the Black Sea may have been the Cimmerians in the 8th century BCE, although their linguistic affiliation is uncertain. They were followed by the Scythians, who are considered a western branch of the Central Asian Sakas. The Rigvedic Kambojas may correspond to the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian^{[citation needed]}. The Medes, Parthians and Persians begin to appear on the Persian plateau from ca. 800 BCE, and the Achaemenids replaced Elamite rule from 559 BC. Around the first millennium of the Common Era (CE), the Iranian Pashtuns and Baloch began to settle on the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, on the mountainous frontier of northwestern India in what is now the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, displacing the earlier Indo-Aryans from the area.

In Central Asia, the Turkic languages and culture have replaced Iranian, but a substantial minority remains in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Iranian languages are now confined to Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, western Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and the Caucasus.

Archaeology

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian expansion include:

• Central Asia
  • Poltavka culture (2700-2100 BCE)
  • Andronovo horizon (2200-1000 BCE)
    • Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (2200-1600 BCE),
    • Alakul (2100-1400 BCE)
    • Fedorovo (1400-1200 BCE)
    • Alekseyevka (1200-1000 BCE)
  • Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (2200-1700 BCE)
  • Srubna culture (2000-1100 BCE)
  • Abashevo culture (1700-1500 BCE)
  • Yaz culture (1500-1100 BCE)
• India
  • Swat culture (1600-500 BCE)
  • Cemetery H culture (1900-1300 BCE)
  • Painted Gray Ware culture (1100-350 BCE)
• Iran
  • Early West Iranian Grey Ware (1500-1000 BCE)
  • Late West Iranian Buff Ware (900-700 BCE)

Parpola (1999) suggests the following identifications:

Language

Main article: Proto-Indo-Iranian language

The Indo-European language spoken by the Indo-Iranians in the late 3rd millennium BC was a Satem language still not removed very far from the Proto-Indo-European language, and in turn only removed by a few centuries from the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda. The main phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto-Indo-European is the collapse of the ablauting vowels *e, *o, *a into a single vowel, Proto-Indo-Iranian *a (but see Brugmann's law). Grassmann's law and Bartholomae's law were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-Aryan is the loss of the voiced sibilant *z, among those to Iranian is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.

See also

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Mallory 1989
2. ^ ^{a b} Mallory & Mair 2000

Sources

• Diakonoff, Igor M. (1995), "Two Recent Studies of Indo-Iranian Origins", Journal of the American Oriental Society 115 (3): 473-477.
• Jones-Bley, K.; Zdanovich, D. G. (eds.), Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC, 2 vols, JIES Monograph Series Nos. 45, 46, Washington D.C. (2002), ISBN 0-941694-83-6, ISBN 0-941694-86-0.
• Kuz'mina, E. E. (1994), Откуда пришли индоарии? (Whence came the Indo-Aryans), Moscow: Российская академия наук (Russian Academy of Sciences).
• Mallory, J.P. (1989), In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth, London: Thames & Hudson.
• Mallory, J. P. & Adams, Douglas Q. (1997), "Indo-Iranian Languages", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn.
• Mallory, J. P. & Mair, Victor H. (2000), The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, London: Thames & Hudson.
• Parpola, Asko (1999), "The formation of the Aryan branch of Indo-European", in Blench, Roger & Spriggs, Matthew, Archaeology and Language, vol. III: Artefacts, languages and texts, London and New York: Routledge.
• Witzel, Michael (2000), "The Home of the Aryans", in Hintze, A. & Tichy, E., Anusantatyai. Fs. für Johanna Narten zum 70. Geburtstag, Dettelbach: J.H. Roell, pp. pp. 283-338.

External links

• The Origin of the Pre-Imperial Iranian Peoples by Oric Basirov (2001)

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