![]() ![]() So first the language: appealing to historical linguistics, Anthony discusses how Proto-Indo-European has been reconstructed. At the very least cultures from the US to India to China to Iran and Russia can trace concepts and words back to these people living on the steppes 6000 years ago. ![]() The overarching theme of the book is that the Eurasian Steppes (roughly the areas of modern-day Ukraine and Kazakhstan near the Black and Caspian Seas) is the source for not just the languages that large portions of the world speaks, but also of important aspects of European and Asian cultures. This is important material for grounding the argument he is making, but it wasn’t what I was ultimately reading the book for (I admit to skimming through the more detailed descriptions of pottery and their dating). There are dozens of dozens of pages detailing archaeology sites and finds, including pottery and burial descriptions. And deeper it is! Anthony’s book, though quite readable, is a scholarly work of archaeology. Those episodes fascinated me so I got Anthony’s book to dive deeper into it. ![]() One of his main sources was David Anthony’s The Horse, The Wheel, and Language. Stroud starts his history thousands of years before English appears one the scene by starting with the history of Proto-Indo-European. I came to this book through The History of English podcast, hosted by Kevin Stroud. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. ![]()
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