A number of scholars have tried to present Central Asia as the Aryan ancestral home. The main advantage of this hypothesis is that the Central Asian steppes (now turned into deserts) in ancient times were the habitat of a wild horse. The Aryans were considered skillful riders, and it was they who brought horse breeding to India. A significant argument against is the absence of European flora and fauna in Central Asia, while the names of European plants and animals are found in Sanskrit.
There is also a hypothesis that the Aryan ancestral home was located in central Europe - in the territory from the Middle Rhine to the Urals. This area is indeed inhabited by representatives of almost all species of animals and plants known to the Aryans. But modern archaeologists object to such localization - in ancient times, peoples of such different cultural traditions and so different in appearance lived on this territory that it is impossible to unite them within the framework of one Aryan culture.
On the basis of the dictionary of words common to the Aryan peoples that had developed by that time back at the end of the 19th century. German linguist Friedrich Spiegel suggested that the Aryan ancestral home should be located in Eastern and Central Europe between the Ural Mountains and the Rhine. Gradually, the borders of the ancestral home were narrowed down to the steppe zone of Eastern Europe. For more than 50 years, this hypothesis was based solely on the conclusions of linguists, but in 1926 it received unexpected confirmation when the English archaeologist Vir Gordon Child published the book Aryans, in which he identified the Aryans with the nomadic tribes of the Eastern European steppes. This mysterious people buried the dead in ground pits and sprinkled them abundantly with red ocher, which is why this culture received in archeology the name “culture of burials with ocher”. On top of such burials, mounds were often poured.
This hypothesis was accepted by the scientific community, since many scientists speculatively placed the Aryan ancestral home there, but could not connect their theoretical constructions with archaeological facts. It is curious that during the Second World War, German archaeologists carried out excavations in the Russian and Ukrainian steppes. They were probably trying to find magic weapons in the ancient Aryan burial mounds that could help Germany gain world domination. Moreover, according to one version, the Fuhrer's delusional military plan - to advance in two diverging wedges on the Volga and the Caucasus - was associated with the need to protect German archaeologists who were going to unearth Aryan burials at the mouth of the Don. Fifty years later, it was at the mouth of the Don and on the Russian coast of the Azov Sea that the legendary city of Odin Asgard was sought by the outstanding Swedish scientist Thor Heyerdahl.
In the postwar period, the most active supporter of the steppe hypothesis among foreign scientists was Maria Gimbutas, a follower of V. G. Child. It seems that Soviet archaeologists, historians and linguists should have been glad that world-famous scientists have an Aryan ancestral home on the territory of the USSR. However, ideology intervened: the whole thing was in the biography of Maria Gimbutas, there was a sin behind her, and such that belonged to the jurisdiction of the notorious "first section", and anyone who spoke positively about the "barrow hypothesis" Gimbutas got on the note of "historians in civilian clothes ".
Maria Gimbutas was born in 1921 in Vilnius, which at that time belonged to the Poles, and later moved with her family to Kaunas, where in 1938 she entered the University of Vitovt the Great to study mythology. Already in October of the following year, Soviet troops entered Lithuania, although the state retained formal independence. And in the summer of 1940, Soviet troops finally established Soviet power in the country. Sovietization began, many scientists, including those who taught Maria at the university, were shot or exiled to Siberia. The mass deportation of Lithuanians took place in mid-June 1941, a week before the German attack. Already under the Germans, Maria graduated from the university and married the architect and publisher Jurgis Gimbutas. Meanwhile, the front line is getting closer and closer to Lithuania, and in 1944 the couple decide to leave with German troops. In Lithuania, Maria leaves her mother. Once in the western zone of occupation, she graduated from the university in Tübingen, since her Nazi diploma from Kaunas University is considered invalid, and after another three years she leaves for the United States, where she will work for many years at Harvard and California universities. In addition, she flew out to excavations in Europe almost every year.
In 1960, she was allowed to come to Moscow to see her mother. In the early 1980s, she was allowed to visit the USSR again - she would give several lectures at Moscow and Vilnius universities, but the official anathema from her scientific heritage would be lifted only with the collapse of the USSR. Back in 1956, M. Gimbutas defended his doctoral dissertation, confirming the hypothesis of Gordon Child on the belonging of the pit burials to the Aryans. However, she goes further than Child and develops the chronology of the life of the Aryan civilization in the Black Sea-Caspian steppes and the chronology of the invasions of the Aryans in Europe and Asia. According to her theory, the Aryans as a linguistic and cultural community were formed more than 6 thousand years ago on the basis of the archaeological cultures of Ukraine (Sredny Stog and Dnieper - Donets [10]) and Russia (Samara and Andronovskaya). During this period, the Aryans or their predecessors successfully domesticated the wild horse.
At the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. e. under the influence of factors unknown to science (most likely, these were unfavorable climatic conditions with frequent alternation of cold winters and dry years), several Aryan tribes left to the south. One of the waves of the Aryan migration crosses the Greater Caucasus Range, invades Anatolia (the territory of modern Turkey) and in the place of the conquered kingdom of the Hittite tribe creates its own Hittite state - the first ever Aryan state on Earth. Another wave of migrants was less fortunate - they penetrate the Trans-Caspian steppes and wander there for quite a long time. After 2 thousand years, the Iranian tribes, who broke away from the Aryan community, will push these nomads to the borders of the Harappan civilization. On the territory of Ukraine, the Aryans assimilate the Sredniy Stog and Trypillian tribes. It was under the influence of the invasions of nomads that the Trypillians built large fortified settlements, such as, for example, Maidanetskoe (Cherkasy region).
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In the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. for the first time, two- and four-wheeled carts appear, which later will become the hallmark of many Aryan cultures. At the same time, the Aryan nomadic society reaches the peak of its development. Under the influence of the Sredniy Stog culture and the tribes of the mountainous Crimea, the Aryans began to erect stone anthropomorphic steles. The Soviet archaeologist Formozov believed that stone steles in the Black Sea region were related to more ancient Western European ones. In such steles, according to the ideas of the Aryans, for some time (presumably a year or a month) after death the soul of a deceased person entered, sacrifices were made to it and asked for magical help in everyday matters. Later, the stele was buried in the grave along with the bones of the deceased, and a mound was erected over the burial. It is interesting that such rituals, reconstructed by modern archaeologists, are absent in the Vedas,the most ancient Aryan ritual texts. This is not surprising, because, as we have already said, the Indian branch has already left for the Central Asian steppes. At the same time, the first bronze weapons appeared in the steppes [12], brought by traders along large rivers - the Don, its tributaries and, possibly, the Volga.
By the end of the 4th millennium BC. e. The Aryans invade Europe, but they are quickly assimilated by the local population. About 3000 in the Trans-Volga region, the Iranian tribes are isolated, they are mastering the steppes of Western Siberia and gradually penetrate the Trans-Caspian steppes, where the future Indians live. Under pressure from the Iranian tribes, the Aryans penetrate Northeast China. Most likely, it was at this time that there was a division into the veneration of devas among the Indians and the veneration of the asuras-ahura among the Iranians.
After 3000 BC e. the Aryan steppe community ceases to exist. Most likely, climatic factors are again to blame for this: the steppe stopped feeding the nomad, and most of the Aryan steppe inhabitants were forced to become sedentary. A second wave of Aryans invades Europe. In general, the boundary of the IV and III millennia BC. e. is a key date for many civilizations in the Old World. Around this time, the first pharaoh of the 1st dynasty Menes ascends the Egyptian throne; in Mesopotamia, the cities are united into the Sumerian kingdom; Crete is ruled by the legendary king Minos; and in China this is the era of the reign of the legendary five emperors.
In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Aryans actively mix with the local population - the Balkan-Danube in Europe, the Finno-Ugric (in Russia, Belarus and the Baltic countries). The descendants of such mixed marriages speak dialects of the Aryan language inherited from their father, but retain the mythology and folklore of their mothers. That is why the myths, tales and songs of the Aryan peoples are so different from each other. In addition, the Aryans quickly adopted the customs of the local tribes, in particular the construction of permanent housing. The dwellings of the Aryan peoples of Russia and the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea are built according to the Finno-Ugric models - from wood, dwellings in central Europe and the Balkans - from clay, according to the traditions of the Balkan-Danube civilization. When the Aryans, several centuries later, penetrated the Atlantic coast of Europe,where it is customary to build houses of stone with round or oval walls, they will also borrow this custom from the local population. The Aryan peoples who lived in central and Western Europe, at this time, got acquainted with real tin bronze. It was supplied to the tribes of itinerant merchants, who received the name of the "bell-beaker culture" from archaeologists.
On the vast expanses of Europe from the Rhine to the Volga, a new type of ceramics appears - decorated with prints of twisted rope. Scientists call such ceramics "Corded", and the cultures themselves are called Corded Ware cultures. How did this first Aryan dish come about? It is known that ancient people tried to protect themselves from the effects of evil forces with the help of various amulets. They paid special attention to food, because along with it, damage sent by a sorcerer or an evil spirit could enter the human body. The western neighbors of the Aryans, the Trypillians, who belonged to the Balkan-Danube civilization, solved this problem in this way: all their dishes were made in the temple of the patron goddess of the city, and sacred patterns and images of gods and sacred animals were applied to the dishes, which were supposed to protect the eater from damage … Arians communicated with Trypillians,exchanging grain and metal products, linen fabrics and other gifts of the land from them, and, no doubt, knew about this Trypillian custom. In the ancient Aryan religion, a rope played an important role, which was supposed to symbolize the connection, the attachment of a person to heavenly deities (Zoroastrian priests still gird themselves with such ropes in our time). Imitating the Trypillians and other peoples of the Balkan-Danube civilization, the Aryans began to protect themselves from damage when eating by imprinting a rope on clay. Imitating the Trypillians and other peoples of the Balkan-Danube civilization, the Aryans began to protect themselves from damage when eating by imprinting a rope on clay. Imitating the Trypillians and other peoples of the Balkan-Danube civilization, the Aryans began to protect themselves from damage when eating by imprinting a rope on clay.
In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. Aryan dialects become independent languages, for example, Proto-Greek, Proto-Iranian. At this time, a strange custom of mummification of the dead appears among the Aryans who lived in Northeast China. Its main mystery is that it arose spontaneously, without any external influences: neither the Chinese nor other Aryan peoples had anything like this. The closest analogies of mummification are known tens of thousands of kilometers from Northeast China - in the Caucasus. Some Caucasian peoples up to the 19th century. n. e. practiced mummification of corpses, but historians do not know Caucasian mummies of such an early time.
Around 2000 BC e. the Iranian tribes have an amazing military invention - the war chariot. Because of this, the Iranians invade what we call Iran today. Over time, this invention was adopted by other Aryan peoples. The war chariots of the Aryans invade China, and the Aryans for a short time become the ruling elite of the Celestial Empire, but then they are assimilated by the Chinese. War chariots enable the Indo-Aryans to defeat the Harappan civilization of India. Other Aryan tribes - the Hittites - use chariots to defeat the Egyptians in Syro-Palestine, but soon the Egyptians also master the art of chariot fighting and defeat the Hittites with their own weapons, and the Egyptian pharaohs of the 18th dynasty often order court artists to depict themselves striking enemies on such a chariot.
At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Iranian tribes remaining in Central Asia are building the capital of their empire - the city of Arkaim. According to some reports, it was there that Zarathustra delivered his sermons.
In 1627 (± 1) BC. e. an event occurred that changed the history of the Ancient World. On the island of Tera (other names Fira, Santorini), a terrible volcanic eruption took place. The consequence was a tsunami up to 200 m high, which hit the northern coast of Crete, and the Cretan cities were covered with a layer of ash. A huge amount of this ash was released into the atmosphere. Even in Egypt, far enough from Crete, because of the volcanic fog in the sky, the sun was not visible for several months. Some records in the ancient Chinese chronicles suggest that the consequences of the eruption of the Tera volcano were noticeable even in China. It led to a significant cooling, and this, in turn, led to hunger and drove people out of their homes. At this time, the protoitalists migrated from central Europe to Italy, and the Greeks, descending from the Balkan mountains,occupy mainland Greece and conquer Crete. During the XVII and several subsequent centuries BC, the Aryans populated almost the entire territory of Europe, with the exception of the Iberian Peninsula. The wave of migrations that swept Europe at this time led to the appearance in the Mediterranean of the mysterious "Sea Peoples" who made daring raids on Egypt and the wealthy Phoenician cities.
India was the only region of the world that was benefited by these climatic changes. There is a flourishing of Vedic civilization. It was at this time that the Vedas and other ancient religious and philosophical treatises were written down.
The last invasion of the Aryans-steppe people into Europe around 1000 BC. e. leads to the appearance of Celtic tribes in central Europe. True, some historians argue that this wave of migrants did not come to Europe of their own free will, they were squeezed out of the Black Sea region by the Iranian tribes of Cimbri (Cimmerians) who came from beyond the Volga. The Celts will begin their victorious march across Europe around 700 and will conquer vast areas from Spanish Galicia to Galicia, the Romanian port of Galati and Galatia (modern Turkey). They will conquer the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula.
This is, in brief, the history of the Aryan migrations to Europe, migrations that made the Aryans Indo-Europeans, that is, peoples living in both parts of Eurasia. At the time of their greatest distribution, the Aryan peoples occupied an area even larger than the empire of Genghis Khan, their lands stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.
However, even among the supporters of the Kurgan hypothesis, there is no unity. Ukrainian archaeologists insist that the Aryans formed in the European steppes between the Danube and the Volga on the basis of the Sredny Stog and Dnieper - Donets cultures, because the oldest bones of a domestic horse in Europe were discovered at the Dnieper - Donets culture settlement; Russian scientists suggest that the Aryans were formed on the basis of the Andronov culture of the trans-Volga steppes and only then, having crossed the Volga, they conquered the European steppes.
Some linguistic studies allow us to consider the latter hypothesis more reliable. The fact is that in the Finno-Ugric and Kartvelian (Transcaucasian) languages there are common words that are not in the Aryan languages, which means that they appeared at a time when the Aryans were not yet in the Eastern European steppes. In addition, this migration does a good job of explaining why the Aryans preferred to move to Asian lands - to China, India, Iran, Turkey, while migrations to Europe were less significant and much less population left to the west. It is the invasion of the Aryans after the crossing of the Volga that explains the early and unexpected decline of Trypillian culture.