[books 2016] The Horse, the Wheel and Language
15 The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W Anthony
In which Anthony puts forth his theory that Proto-Indo-European was spoken by nomads on the Pontic-Caspian steppes between roughly 4500 and 2500 BCE, and that they were the first people to domesticate horses (not the ancient Near East city states) and this is reflected in the way Indo-European languages developed. Very long, but he makes compelling archaeological and linguistic points.
The linguistics was a lot easier to follow than I expected. About 2/3 of the way in it gets bogged down in the archaeology & way too much description of pottery with not enough explanation of why it matters. However, still worth while - I think I took more notes from this than any other book I've read in recent years, I found his arguments made sense, and there are a lot of fascinating facts.
In which Anthony puts forth his theory that Proto-Indo-European was spoken by nomads on the Pontic-Caspian steppes between roughly 4500 and 2500 BCE, and that they were the first people to domesticate horses (not the ancient Near East city states) and this is reflected in the way Indo-European languages developed. Very long, but he makes compelling archaeological and linguistic points.
The linguistics was a lot easier to follow than I expected. About 2/3 of the way in it gets bogged down in the archaeology & way too much description of pottery with not enough explanation of why it matters. However, still worth while - I think I took more notes from this than any other book I've read in recent years, I found his arguments made sense, and there are a lot of fascinating facts.