Far East Kingdoms

Indo-Europeans

Scholars first noticed similarities between Indian Sanskrit and Latin and Greek in the sixteenth century, as Europeans came into contact with India. But it was the British Asiatic Society in eighteenth century India under Sir William Jones that compared words across the three languages and found remarkable similarities. From this it was deduced that a common Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root lay at the heart of all three languages and their peoples, linking them back to an ancestral homeland that was probably located in the sweeping expanse of the Russian Steppes of Central Asia. Scholars disagree about this, although the steppes north of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea are the favoured location. Others suggest the original Indo-European homeland was Anatolia in around 7000 BC.

How they got there is unknown, but India was one of the first places to be colonised by early humans after they left Africa. Some scholars propose that there never was an Aryan migration into India from the north, while others believe implicitly in it. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the middle, in that some of the first peoples in India continued to migrate north (as they certainly did east, to populate China and South East Asia). Eventually, some of these peoples could have become the early Indo-Europeans in the steppes to the north and east of the Caspian Sea. Unfortunately, proof for this is almost impossible to come by.

Various groups of Indo-European peoples migrated out of Central Asia in the third millennium BC, pushed westwards and southwards by a combination of climate change, population movements, and perhaps pressure from other peoples further east. Their language broke down into dialects that can be divided into twelve branches, ten of which contain surviving languages. Very briefly, these are the Anatolians (the Hittites, Luwians, and Lydians), the Balts (such as the Latvians and Lithuanians on the eastern Baltic Sea coast), Celts (who once dominated Central and Western Europe), the Germanic peoples (who originate from Old Norse and Saxon peoples), the Greeks (most notably the Mycenaeans), the Illyrians (of the northern and eastern Adriatic coast, surviving in Albania), the Indians (the Aryan peoples), the Iranians (in the form of the Persians and Scythians), the Latins (embodied by the Romans), the Slavs (who came to dominate Eastern Europe after the fall of the Roman empire), the Thracians (of northern Greece and the Balkans which also includes Armenian), and finally the Tokharians (in north-west China, closely related to the Anatolian, Celtic, and Latin branches).

Indo-Europeans account for some of the world's most notable ancient languages, including Greek, Latin, Pali, Persian, and Sanskrit. Many of the most important modern languages in the world are Indo-European, such as Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Russian, and Spanish. More than half of the world's population speak one or more of these languages, either as a mother tongue or a business language.

c.4000 - 3000 BC

Between these dates, proto-Indo-Europeans emerge in Central Asia to form a homogenous people who all speak the same general language. In the third millennium BC, groups begin to migrate west and south, beginning a fragmentation that sees them occupy large swathes of Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. One of the first groups to arrive in Europe form the Corded Ware culture which settles around the Baltic coast to become the later Belarus, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians.

c.2800 BC

Groups of Indo-Europeans first begin migrate into Greece, blending in with the indigenous populations to later form Mycenaean, Minoan, Cypriot and Italian culture. They also begin to arrive in north-western Europe, settling amongst earlier populations of Neolithic farmers and Palaeolithic hunters.

c.2350 -2300 BC

The Gutians, possible Indo-European tribes in the Zagros Mountains, are first mentioned, and go on to dominate southern Mesopotamia for a century. In the same period, Indo-European tribes in the form of the Luwian peoples settle in Anatolia.

c.2200 - 1700 BC

A Bronze Age culture emerges in Central Asia between modern Turkmenistan and down towards the Oxus. It is known as the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, or Oxus civilisation, and is peopled by Indo-European tribes.

This king's tomb in the Indo-European settlement in the Karakum (modern Turkmenistan) contains a valuable horse to accompany him into the afterlife

Climate change from around 2000 BC onwards greatly affects this civilisation, denuding it of water as the rains decline. The people are forced to migrate southwards, with some groups penetrating into central Anatolia as the Hittites, who conquer the indigenous peoples over the course of a century, and the Kaskans. Other groups cross the Afghan rivers and the Hindu Kush mountains and enter India between 1700-1500 BC. They eventually form their own kingdoms there such as Magadha, plus Kalinga and Kauravas. The most easterly group are the Tocharians, who are later identified as the Yeuh Chi in Chinese writings. They later migrate into Afghanistan and India as the Kushans, and into China where they are absorbed by local populations.

c.1600 BC

The Luwian peoples of Anatolia emerge into history divided into two groups; the Arzawans to the west and the Kizzuwatnans in the east. The poorly-attested peoples of Ishuwa, Karkissa, and Lukka are probably also Indo-Europeans. The Mycenaeans also emerge into history at this time, in Greece and Cyprus. Around the same time, an Indo-Aryan group, perhaps part of the migration towards India, arrives in northern Mesopotamia to rule the Hurrians as a warrior class called the Mitanni.

c.1450 BC

The Indo-European Phrygians begin to infiltrate into Bithynia in western Anatolia from the Balkans. Within about two and-a-half centuries they create their own kingdom in western Anatolia. Various other Indo-European peoples also populate the area, such as the Thracians.

c.1200 - 900 BC

Social collapse and a dark age engulf the Middle East. During this period, various tribal groups found new cities and kingdoms, among them the Medians and Persians on the Iranian Plateau. Indo-European groups in Europe filter into Italy, where they form the two main groups of Italic peoples, the Oscan-Umbrians (including the Umbri) and Latino-Faliscans (including the Latins). Celtic groups spread over central and western Europe and reach Britain, where they push back or integrate with the indigenous population and settle in the fertile south and east. They also later infiltrate into Ireland.

8th century BC

An Indo-European people known as the Armenians first enter Anatolia from northern Mesopotamia, migrating into the region around Lake Van which will be their homeland for the next 2300 years. In Europe, while the Indo-European Celts are beginning to expand from their traditional territory in southern Germany, the Germanic peoples still seem to be occupying a possible original homeland in southern Sweden and the Jutland peninsula.

6th century BC

The Indo-European Bactrians are conquered by their cousins, the Persians.