Indo-Europeans: History And Characteristics Of This Prehistoric People
Have you ever heard of the Indo-Europeans? Maybe you don’t know that, if your native language is Spanish, English or German, you are speaking an Indo-European language.
And practically all European languages ​​(and some from India and Iran) have their origin in the ancient language spoken by this mysterious people. And why do we say mysterious? Because the Indo-Europeans have not left any trace in history; We only intuit its existence in the common roots that the various languages ​​have to which we have referred.
In this article, we propose a trip to the past; a journey to the origin of our ancestors, the Indo-European peoples
A people that leaves no traces is condemned to oblivion, and the Indo-Europeans were for millennia. In ancient times, it does not seem that either the Greeks or Romans realized the similarities that their languages ​​had, not only with each other, but also with that of the Celts or the Persians.
And, a little later, in the Middle Ages, this striking similarity continued to be ignored. The multitude of languages ​​spoken in the world was explained as God’s punishment imposed on human pride, as stated in the Tower of Babel passage in the Bible.
But From the 15th century and, more specifically, the 16th century, something begins to change It is the time of great discoveries and great journeys. Thus, some merchants who travel to the East begin to realize the great similarity that some Eastern languages ​​have with Latin and Greek. Without a doubt, this discovery must have stunned them. How could it be that cultures so far apart from each other had so many points of union?
In 1686, Andreas Jägger published his From Lingua Vetustissima Europae, that is, “From the oldest language in Europe.” In this play, Jägger points to the Caucasus as the place of origin of an already extinct language , but which was still alive in the languages ​​spoken in Europe. Without knowing it, the author was sketching the first idea about the Indo-European peoples.
Who were the Indo-Europeans?
But who was this enigmatic town? Where did it come from? **What were the origins, both geographical and ethnic, of the Indo-Europeans? **
And… Was it true that they expanded throughout Europe and Asia during Prehistory and left traces both in the languages ​​and in the social structure of Greeks, Latins, Germans and Indians, among others?
Let us, then, shed a little light on these very mysterious ancestors.
What was the place of origin of the Indo-Europeans?
Unfortunately, and despite numerous investigations in this regard, it cannot be certain which is the original homeland of the Indo-European peoples. Historically, four possible locations have been proposed: India, Lithuania, the Danube area and, finally, the southern Russian steppes.
It was in the 19th century when studies related to the Indo-European peoples began to take shape In those years, and within the framework of the passion that any oriental theme aroused in Europe, India was pointed out as the place of origin of these tribes. Those who claimed this were based on the existence of Sanskrit, which for millennia has been used in the Indian subcontinent as a language of culture. For these researchers, the fact that, of the languages ​​derived from Indo-European, Sanskrit was the oldest, was reason enough to consider India as the cradle of this culture.
However, as the decades passed, this theory lost followers. At the end of the 19th century, the Baltic area and, specifically, Lithuania, was pointed out as the cradle of the Indo-European peoples, a location that conflicted with that pointed out by other scholars, supporters of the Danube area as the homeland of the Indo-Europeans.
A little more recently, researchers such as archaeologist Marija Gimbutas pointed out as a more than probable place of origin the southern steppes of Russia
Specifically, he defended the discovery of the remains of a prehistoric culture in that area, known as the Kurgan culture. According to Gimbutas, this culture had enjoyed enormous expansion throughout Europe starting in the 5th millennium BC, an expansion that could be demonstrated with archaeological finds. To reinforce the theory there was the fact that the culture of the Kurgans was semi-nomadic, so their constant migrations were justified.
Theories have continued to be proposed, but none achieve unanimous acceptance by experts. For the moment, the original land of the Indo-Europeans remains in the shadows.
What was Indo-European society like?
As we have already noted previously, the Indo-Europeans were a semi-nomadic people. This does not mean, however, that they did not enjoy more or less stable settlements during times of prosperity. In fact, in the excavations of the Kurgan culture (presumably the place of origin of the Indo-Europeans), evident remains have been found that attest the existence of fortifications in high places to facilitate defense
This type of construction implies the existence of a more or less hostile environment, with frequent clashes or wars, so the Indo-Europeans had to be good horsemen and better warriors. On the other hand, European burials from the 1st millennium BC show rich funerary goods, full of elements related to war, so the theory that the Indo-Europeans They were strongly hierarchical warrior societies
The tripartite Indo-European society (the rulers-priests, the warriors and the producers) is present in many of the cultures that are daughters of the Indo-European culture. Thus, we find examples in the Greek world (in Plato’s Republic, the philosopher proposes an identical structure as an ideal society), as well as in the Middle Ages, whose class society based on oratores, bellatores and laboratores is almost a carbon copy of the Indo-European social hierarchy. Nor can we forget about India, whose caste system is also a faithful reflection of this primitive hierarchization of the Indo-European peoples.
What was the religion of the Indo-Europeans?
Of course, like many other aspects of their culture, Indo-European religion is unknown to us. However, we have numerous clues, since This archaic religion left its mark on mythologies as seemingly disparate as the Greek, the German, and the Hindu
Thus, it is assumed that the Indo-Europeans had a supreme god, the god of the sky, who could have been called Dieus (based on the common roots that the word god has in all cultures descended from the Indo-European). Indeed, the Indian god Dyaus, the Roman Jupiter (Iovis, in its original Latin form) or the Greek Zeus are divinities that come from this ancestral god. In his magnificent essay Treatise on the History of Religions, Mircea Eliade proposes that this early Indo-European god was related to the sky and, later, to atmospheric phenomena. And, indeed, both the Roman Jupiter and the Greek Zeus as well as the Germanic god Tyrzio are celestial gods, lords of the sky.
As Francisco Villar argues in “The Indo-Europeans and the Origins of Europe”, it makes sense that the Indo-Europeans, a people from the Russian steppe, had as its main god the god of the sky, thunder and rain since life in the steppe meant being at the mercy of the elements.
It is also not surprising that they worshiped other gods related to other phenomena; among them, fire, whose cult we find extended from India to the western end of Europe. And following Villar again, It is more than likely that these Indo-European peoples did not have temples, but rather practiced their worship in the open air A cult that, by the way, was based on the sacrifice of animals, something natural in a semi-nomadic people of shepherds and that we see replicated in cultures such as the Roman or Greek.
And what language did they speak?
Although, as we have already mentioned, in many of the Eurasian languages ​​we preserve many roots that come from this ancestral language, it is absolutely impossible for us to reconstruct the language of the Indo-Europeans, and we can only make assumptions.
The most common words (such as those related to family or nature) have indeed left traces in today’s languages Let’s look at some examples:
From the common root, it has been possible to guess what the word mother was like in Indo-European: mater.
As the Indo-European peoples were livestock farmers, words related to animals abound in their lexicon Thus, in Spanish we have the word sheep, which in other languages ​​of Indo-European origin is:
In latin, avis; in sanskrit, avi; in Lithuanian, too avis; in irish, I heard; in ancient greek, ὄϊς (oïs); in old bulgarian, ovi-ca; in old english, eowu.
Once again, from the common root, the original Indo-European word, hewi, has been reconstructed.
In this second example we see, again, to what extent our European languages ​​are impregnated with Indo-European roots, and how this disappeared culture influenced our current speech.
Indo-European peoples remain a mystery to scholars Although part of its culture has been reconstructed, we are still very far from knowing it in depth. However, their language still resonates in many of the languages ​​present in the world: this is the heritage that has survived from the Indo-Europeans, a people whose origins date back no less than 7,000 years.
