The formation of nations. The end of the former equality of people. As a result, the former, mostly uniform, development is disrupted. human society over the vast expanses of Europe, Asia and Africa. The new opportunities that appeared then for people allow them to better, more efficiently use the natural advantages of the area in which they lived. Conversely, where nature and climate were harsh, it was more difficult for people to use new remarkable achievements.
From now on, the rates of development of individual regions of the world become different. The areas with a mild climate and fertile soils developed most rapidly, where farmers could get huge harvests. This happened in Western Asia, North Africa (the Nile Valley), the Mediterranean, India, and China. Almost simultaneously in the steppe regions of Eastern Europe, Siberia, the Far East was the formation of nomadic pastoral societies.
Both farmers and nomads rapidly grew in population and accumulated wealth. It became possible to single out individual families from the tribal communities, which could independently provide for their existence. The former equality of people from the time of the tribal system was leaving in the past.
Tribal leaders, elders, warriors had the opportunity to get into their hands the best lands for plowing and pastures, to collect great wealth in their hands, to hire people to protect and increase this wealth, to organize their capture in foreign territories. It was about creating states.
Even in the Neolithic period, they originated in the fertile river valleys of Western Asia (Euphrates and Tigris), Egypt (Nile), India (Indus). Later, already in bronze age, states arose in China, the Mediterranean, among some nomadic peoples of Europe and Asia.
Development was slower in the south of Europe and very slowly in the north and east of this continent, in the vast expanses of Asia. A few thousand years later, there was a transition from hunting, fishing, gathering to agriculture and cattle breeding. The inhabitants of these places lagged behind the inhabitants of the south in everything: in the type of tools and weapons, utensils, dwellings, religious rites and even decorations.
Folding nations . Differences in the development of mankind also influenced the formation of separate large groups of people who spoke their own special languages, had their own special customs and even external differences.
So, in the north-east of Europe, in the Trans-Urals, Western Siberia a type of people began to take shape who became ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples.
IN Eastern Siberia in the undivided steppe spaces of Asia, in the zone of the appearance of pastoral tribes, began to form ancestors of the future Mongolian and Turkic peoples.
In the southeast of Europe and adjacent territories, agricultural and pastoral tribes developed, which became ancestors of future Indo-Europeans.
In the Caucasus region began to form Caucasian peoples.
In all these groups of tribes of Eurasia there was a rapid population growth. They became crowded in the former territories, and the land was great, plentiful and beautiful. People have understood this for a very long time. They continued to move from place to place in search of better share. And this means that already in those days not only the isolation of large groups of the Earth's population began, but also their mixing.
This process was facilitated by the exchange of food products, tools, weapons, familiarization with each other's production experience. War and peace continued to go side by side on our planet.
Scientists call Indo-Europeans the ancient population of the vast territories of Europe and Asia, which gave rise to many modern peoples of the world, including Russians and others.
Where was the ancient ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans? And why are the ancient ancestors of most of the peoples of Europe, including the Slavs, called Indo-Europeans? Most scientists believe that a large region of South-Eastern and Central Europe, in particular the Balkan Peninsula and the foothills of the Carpathians, and probably the south of Russia and Ukraine, became such an ancestral home. Here in the bathed warm seas parts of Europe, on fertile soils, in forests warmed by the sun, on mountain slopes and valleys covered with soft emerald grass, where shallow transparent rivers flowed, and the most ancient Indo-European community of people took shape. There are other points of view on the place of the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans.
Once upon a time, people belonging to this community spoke the same language. Traces of this common origin are still preserved in many languages of the peoples of Europe and Asia. So, in all these languages \u200b\u200bthere is the word "birch", denoting either a tree in general, or the name of the birch itself. Many in these languages and others common names and terms.
The Indo-Europeans were engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture, later they began to smelt bronze.
An example of Indo-European settlements are the remains of an ancient settlement in the region of the middle reaches of the Dnieper near the village of Trypillya, dating back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e.
"Trypillians" no longer lived in dugouts, but in large wooden houses, the walls of which were covered with clay for warmth. The floor was clay. The area of such houses reached 100-150 m2. Large groups lived in them, possibly tribal communities, divided into families. Each family lived in a separate, fenced-off compartment with a fired clay oven for heating and cooking.
In the center of the house there was a small elevation - an altar, where the "Trypillians" performed their religious rites and sacrifices to the gods. One of the main ones was considered the mother goddess - the patroness of fertility. Houses in the village were often located in a circle. The settlement consisted of dozens of dwellings. In the center of it there was a corral for cattle, and it itself was fenced off from attacks by people and predatory animals with a rampart and a palisade. But it is surprising that in the settlements of the "Trypillians" no remains of weapons were found - battle axes, daggers and other means of defense and attack. And this means that mostly peaceful tribes lived here, for whom war had not yet become a part of life.
The main occupation of the "Trypillians" were agriculture and breeding of domestic animals. They sowed large areas of land with wheat, barley, millet, peas; they cultivated the field with hoes, harvested with wooden sickles with silicon inserts inserted into them. "Trypillians" bred cattle, pigs, goats, sheep.
The transition to agriculture and cattle breeding significantly advanced the economic power of the Indo-European tribes and contributed to the growth of their population. And the domestication of the horse, the development of bronze tools and weapons made the Indo-Europeans in the 4th - 3rd millennium BC. e. more easy-going in search of new lands, more daring in the development of new territories.
Settlement of the Indo-Europeans. From the southeast of Europe, the spread of the Indo-Europeans across the expanses of Eurasia began. They moved west and southwest and occupied all of Europe to the Atlantic. Another part of the Indo-European tribes spread to the north and east. They populated the north of Europe. The wedge of Indo-European settlements crashed into the environment of the Finno-Ugric peoples and bumped into Ural mountains beyond which the Indo-Europeans did not go. In the south and southeast, they moved into Asia Minor, the North Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia, and settled in India.
In the myths and fairy tales of the peoples of India, memories of their ancient northern ancestral home have been preserved, while in the north of Russia there are still names of rivers and lakes, dating back to Sanskrit, the ancient language of India.
During the migrations of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. e. Indo-European community, which occupied vast lands from Western Europe to India (hence the name), began to disintegrate. In conditions of constant movement, the development of new territories, the Indo-European tribes were increasingly moving away from each other.
belligerent, energetic Indo-Europeans came to places where other peoples already lived. These incursions were far from peaceful. Long before the first states, armies appeared on the territory of Eurasia, wars began, our ancient ancestors fought for convenient lands, generous fishing grounds, and forests rich in animals. On the site of many ancient sites, traces of a fire, hot fights are distinguishable: skulls, bones pierced by arrows and broken by battle axes were found there.
Indo-Europeans and ancestors of other peoples. Already during the period of settlement of the Indo-Europeans, their interaction and mixing with other tribes began. So, in the north-east of Europe, they coexisted with the ancestors of the Finno-Ugric peoples (now they include many Russian peoples - Mordovians, Udmurts, Mari, Komi, as well as Hungarians, Estonians and Finns).
In Asia and Europe, the Indo-Europeans encountered the ancestors of the Turks and Mongols (their descendants from the Russian peoples are Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Kalmyks, Buryats, etc.).
The ancestors of the Ural peoples were located in the region of the Northern Urals. The ancient Altaians developed in Southern Siberia.
Turbulent processes took place in the Caucasus, where a population was formed that spoke Caucasian languages (the ancient inhabitants of Dagestan, Adygea, Abkhazia).
Settled in the forest zone Indo-Europeans Together with other local inhabitants, they mastered cattle breeding and forest-type agriculture, and continued to develop hunting and fishing. The local population, living in the harsh conditions of the forest and forest-steppe, lagged behind the rapidly developing peoples of the Mediterranean, southern Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt. Nature at that time was the main regulator of human development, and it was not in favor of the north.
Traditionally, ancient history begins to be studied from the civilizations of Ancient Egypt, the Sumerians, and Babylon. No doubt, these civilizations have made a significant contribution to the development of mankind. But in parallel with the emergence and development of these civilizations in the north, on the territory of modern Russia, events were taking place no less, and probably even more important for world history. These events were connected with the ancient Indo-Europeans, which we will talk about in this post.
Why Indo-Europeans? Back in the 18th century, Europeans who visited India noticed a clear similarity between Sanskrit and European languages. Sanskrit was an ancient language whose position in India resembled that of Latin in Europe, with some Sanskrit texts over 3,000 years old. Similarities were found not only in language, but also in traditions and beliefs, so it became clear that ancient Indians and ancient Europeans had common ancestors.
More than a hundred years of disputes and searches followed, spent on reliably establishing where the ancient Indo-Europeans lived, where their ancestral home was. There has been a lot of speculation on this subject. The German Nazis, for example, at one time announced that the ancient Indo-Europeans, or the ancient Aryans, lived on the territory of modern Germany and represented a special superior race. However, studies have shown a very different picture.
In ancient times, the Indo-Europeans really were one people. They lived relatively compactly in the basin of the Don and Volga, on the territory of modern Russia. The most ancient archaeological culture, for which its Indo-European origin has been proven, is Samara. It belongs to the 5th millennium BC. e., and the area of its distribution affects the territory of modern Samara, Saratov and Orenburg regions. In the next millennium, Indo-European cultures expanded their range, capturing the Urals and the Kazakh steppes in the east, and reaching the Dnieper in the west. Up to 3-4 millennium BC. e. Indo-Europeans were a single community.
Who were the ancient Indo-Europeans? They were warlike people, but at the same time they had a developed mythology and valued knowledge. According to the ideas of modern scientists, the society of the ancient Indo-Europeans was divided into three main groups - priests, warriors and those who were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. They worshiped various gods, the main of which was the god of thunder and lightning (the same one that was known in Ancient Rus' as Perun, and in Ancient Greece as Zeus). The ancient Indo-Europeans believed in afterlife and the existence of hell and heaven. They also had a cult of heroes, about whose exploits legends were composed.
About 5-6 thousand years ago, the Indo-Europeans made one of major discoveries in the history of mankind - they invented the wheel and learned how to harness horses to wagons. This event turned the history of Eurasia upside down. Soon the warlike Indo-Europeans, who by that time already knew how to smelt copper and bronze, moved in all directions from their ancestral home.
The resettlement of the Indo-Europeans (red color shows the distribution by the middle of the III millennium BC and orange - by the I millennium BC)
The Indo-Europeans were divided. Part of the Indo-Europeans moved to Europe, the entire local population living there was conquered and assimilated (it is believed that the only fragment of pre-Indo-European culture is the small Basque people in Spain). Indo-European peoples in Europe created outstanding ancient civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome, while the "barbarians" living to the north - Slavic, Germanic and Celtic tribes were also Indo-Europeans. Part came to Asia Minor (the territory of modern Turkey). The Indo-European people of the Hittites created a powerful kingdom and were the first in history to master the smelting of iron. Part of the Indo-European tribes, having lingered for some time in the Southern Urals, moved south, coming first to Central Asia, and then to India and Iran. It was these peoples who called themselves Aryans and were the very first to write down their myths in Sanskrit. The oldest Vedas are believed to have been written down in the 16th century. BC e. Finally, part of the Indo-European tribes moved east, reaching the Yenisei and settling in northwestern China. In a relatively short period of time, the Indo-Europeans occupied most Eurasia.
Origin of the Indo-Europeans
Lysenko Nikolay
Indo-Europeans, as a socio-cultural community, have been of genuine interest for more than a decade. But there are many unresolved problems that give rise to heated disputes. There are discussions about their origin, ways of resettlement. There is not even a generally accepted definition of the term "Indo-Europeans".
Summing up the accumulated knowledge, one can only postulate that the definition of Indo-Europeans includes large group people who speak closely related languages (possibly having a common origin), belonging to the European or Caucasian race. This community is characterized by haplogroups R1a and R1b, its representatives use certain strategies for survival and life arrangement, and their religious views have a common past and similar evolution. Only by the totality of all these signs can the Indo-Europeans be distinguished into a certain separate community. We must not forget that their ethnogenesis has been going on for thousands of years, and continues at the present time. Mass migrations, cultural exchanges, conquests, it would seem, should forever erase the contours of that original core, which gave rise to this ethnic group. But no. Without the use of this concept, the development of social, historical and other sciences is impossible.
Indo-Europeans as a whole began to be perceived in the 19th century, when it became clear that the languages of many peoples scattered around the world have similar grammar, phonetics, etc. They began to look for the linguistic ancestral home of this community. The structure and structure of languages, the patterns of their development and interaction with other ethnic groups were analyzed in detail. Archaeological, climatic and genetic data were involved. Studied literary sources And oral creativity. Even mathematical programs describing the spread of viruses were used. It turned out that pathogenic organisms and languages spread in the same way. At present, most scientists agree that the Indo-European parent language was formed in Western Asia at the end of the last glaciation. It was here that a significant part of the population, displaced by the glacier from Europe, should have concentrated. Pastoral tribes from the south, including from the Sahara, also arrived here. Gradual warming changed the air currents, drying up the north of Africa, and then the Middle East. All this drove animals and people north, along the coast. mediterranean sea. This also contributed to the rise in the level of the oceans. In particular, the lands that became the bottom of the Persian Gulf were covered with water. Thus, on the territory of modern Turkey accumulated a large number of pastoral and hunting tribes. Europe was then unsuitable for life, and the oases in Mesopotamia and in neighboring regions were firmly mastered by sedentary peoples. Only the lush pastures and forests of Anatolia could provide shelter for herds of cattle and large wild animals. Here a "melting pot" was formed, where the Indo-European languages arose. Secondary centers of linguistic ethnogenesis have also been found: the Balkans, the Srednestog culture.
During this period, the anthropogenic type of people characteristic of the Indo-Europeans also took shape. The most ancient layers of the mythology of many Indo European nations testify to the struggle and subsequent unification of two powerful ethnic groups. Most often these are god-like Ases and Vans. Ases were warriors and hunters, Vans were grain growers, livestock breeders and fishermen. The former worshiped the sun, the latter worshiped water. These characters are present in the Germanic sagas, the Indo-Iranian Vedas, in the self-names of many peoples and toponyms. One of the numerous examples is the name of Lake Van, the shores of which are considered the homeland in the legends of many peoples. Vishaps - stone fish or dragons - are often found here. These ritual objects personified fertility. And all Indo-European symbolism is based on the eternal opposition of the solar deity in the form of a spiral or swastika and the ruler of the underwater world.
Who were these legendary ancestors? Here we can only build hypotheses based on numerous facts obtained by science in recent years. It is known about the Indo-Europeans that they had cattle breeding in ancient times. Moreover, both archeology and mythology indicate that they preferred cattle. They also developed a mutation that allows them to consume milk as adults. They also had agricultural skills. Therefore, in the ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans, there must be a group of people who participated in the Neolithic revolution. It is known that the domestication of animals and the development of plant growing skills occurred simultaneously in different places. It has been established that one of the places of domestication of cattle was the Sahara during its drying. Both people and animals accumulated near increasingly rare reservoirs, thirst brought them together. Later, the pastoral tribes inevitably had to migrate either to the equator or to the north. Groups of shepherds reached Asia Minor and settled here. One can trace the chain of cultures genetically related to each other: Tassilin-Adjer; Göbekli Tepe; Chatal Huyuk - from the Sahara to the environs of the modern Turkish city of Konya. The similarity is manifested in religion, art, organization of life. Even in fairy tales there are similar plots. The hero kissing the princess sitting high in the tower is found both in the ancient Egyptian and in the modern European epic. It is these cultural communities that most researchers correlate with the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans. The only problem is that their representatives for the most part belonged to the Mediterranean type of people. At the same time, the ancestors of the Hurrians and Hattians were formed in the same territories. In passing, it should be noted that shepherds with herds of cattle from the Sahara also moved south. Among the nomadic livestock breeders of Central Africa, the tradition of creating hecatombs has been preserved - to slaughter and bury cattle with a deceased owner. We find the same custom among the ancient Greeks, Scythians and other Indo-European peoples. Among the Ethiopian tribe Hamer, bull games are popular. Here direct analogies with the Mediterranean cultures are found.
What ethnic group should be considered the second "ancestor" of the Indo-Europeans? From whom most of them light eyes and skin high growth and much more. Cro-Magnons are best suited for this role. But one should not think that these ancient big game hunters lived exclusively in Europe. Following the herds of animals, they moved across the steppes of Eurasia. And in certain periods of the Great Glaciation, they were completely forced out into a narrow strip around the Mediterranean Sea. These people settled not only in the European, but in the Asian and African parts of this reservoir, which was thoroughly shallow by that time. Ancient Egyptian chronicles mention the white population of the Libyan desert, Europeans encountered it in the Canary Islands, and even today many groups of Berbers bear the features of Cro-Magnons. Recently found in southern Egypt near the village of Kurta cave drawings stone age strikingly resemble similar works from the Spanish and French caves. No wonder they were called the African Altamira. Similar drawings were found in the north of Libya, in Sicily.
Thus, upon completion ice age hunters of the Cro-Magnon type had long-term contacts with primitive farmers and pastoralists, close in origin to the Proto-Hurrites and Proto-Hattas. Moreover, the interaction between them took place on the territory of North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor and Europe. This is how the Indo-European community was formed.
This conclusion is supported by genetic studies. Among the Indo-Europeans, subclades from the haplogroups R1a and R1b are common. It should be emphasized that the connection between languages and genetic data can only be found in huge amounts of information collected according to certain rules. Particular examples may also contradict the general mainstream. So among the Karachays, Ossetians - Digorians and individual communities of the Adyghes, the "Khatt" haplogroup G1 prevails, but they speak languages from completely different language groups. But in general, the relationship between these indicators is mathematically proven. R1b appeared first about 16 thousand years ago in Asia Minor or the Middle East. It is impossible to establish more precisely, since genetic information in human communities does not always spread radially. Currently, this haplogroup is most often found around the Mediterranean Sea. Its distribution deep into Asia, Africa and Europe, to other continents is secondary. In general, this is in good agreement with the previously proposed ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans. Haplogroup R1a arose from R1 somewhat later in the Northern Black Sea region. Gradually, its carriers settled in Europe, reached China, India, Iran, Egypt. Which of the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans originally carried R1. For the time being, this cannot be established. But we know that the Cro-Magnon population of Eurasia and Africa did not just roam behind herds of animals. It created grandiose cultural communities and was distinguished by militancy. Faced with the peaceful Neolithic farmers and pastoralists, these people inevitably dominated the emerging syncretic communities. Their men passed on their genetic information more women. Therefore, haplogroup R1 c highly likely can be associated with the descendants of the Cro-Magnons. Less common among the Indo-Europeans, I and J, may have been introduced by the settled population of Asia Minor. At the same time, the core of the Indo-European languages, most likely, was formed precisely among the tribes of Asia Minor experiencing the Neolithic revolution. Their thinking and speech, enriched by the increasingly complex social structure, undoubtedly had a significant impact on the life of hunters. This is confirmed by examples from other eras. For example, the Turkic-Bulgarians, after the conquest of the Slavs, gradually forgot their language. indo-european race commonality evolution
Each ethnic group chooses its own strategy for survival and life. Millennia pass, forms change public organization and methods of production, but the same ugrofins in their essence remain forest dwellers. The Turkic peoples, having formed in the steppe zone, even living in megacities, according to their worldview, are largely nomads. Even more unique are the inhabitants of the desert and tundra. Indo-Europeans from ancient times specialized in large animals. At first they hunted them, later they tamed them. Of course, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, and so on were used along the way. Just given ethnos always chose such ecological niches where cattle and horses were freely bred. Bulls and cows are deified in all Indo-European cultures. In archaic Greece, Hera, the wife of Zeus, had the appearance of a cow. Cows acquired a sacred status in India with the arrival of the Aryans there. Climatic changes, demographic processes often forced the Indo-Europeans to move with their herds over great distances. They have always been great travelers. And this, in turn, stimulated the exchange of goods, contributed to the evolution of technology and technology. But their agriculture sometimes faded away. This is unthinkable for the sedentary cultures of Mesopotamia, the Indus, the Mekong, the Nile, and the Yellow River.
These trends were most clearly shown in the example of mastering the horse. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Indo-Europeans were the first to do this. Perhaps they were carriers of the Srednestog culture. Other centers of domestication could also exist. There was an opinion that the horse was tamed in Mesopotamia or in the mountains of Zagros. But the authors of such theories should be asked if these animals existed there. Donkeys lived there, which were mastered by early civilizations. But tarpans were found in the Great Steppe from Central Europe to Mongolia. The Cro-Magnon population of these areas hunted horses since ancient times, some groups even specialized in them. Naturally, they were repeatedly tamed by people, but the need for their domestication did not arise until the arrival of settled livestock breeders and farmers from the south. It was economic expediency and the need to move over long distances that contributed to the domestication of the horse. The unification of life paradigms of various ethnic groups created a completely new socio-cultural reality. The inhabitants of the steppes shared their ability to survive in open spaces, hunting and military traditions. They were donors of a special anthropogenic type - tall and strong people, optimally adapted to existence in the forest-steppe. The southerners brought the skills of settled life, agriculture, crafts, and a more perfect language.
Religious beliefs are among the most stable categories human being. Their foundations have been preserved for thousands of years. And it is very difficult to single out those layers of beliefs that are objectively associated with the Indo-European community. Many authors consider the gods to be Indo-European only on the grounds that their names have common roots in Greek, Russian, Sanskrit, etc. But one must also take into account the fact that religious tradition, to which this or that deity belongs, can be very ancient. It is capable of being included in the spiritual life of the most diverse peoples, undergoing only purely external changes. It is necessary to highlight the transcendental tradition, which is uniquely associated with the Indo-European ethnic groups. Initially, magic, animism, animalism, deification of the forces of nature should be discarded. These views arose as early as the Middle Paleolithic, and in one form or another are found in all cultures. It should be a religion that maximally corresponds to the way of life and intellectual searches of the Indo-Europeans during a long period of their ethnogenesis.
Indo-Europeans from ancient times occupied the open spaces of Eurasia from the forest zone to the semi-deserts. These territories are subject to constant climatic changes, processes in human formations are actively taking place here. Such a way of life implies constant movement, and, consequently, a firm binding to spatial and temporal coordinates. The forest hunter follows the game, the farmer performs work as certain phases occur in plants. And only a migrating shepherd needs to have a "calendar" and a "compass" every day. Moreover, he must be able to foresee the future. Otherwise, his herds will simply die from drought or cold. The best reference point is the revolution of the Earth around the Sun. The luminary, depending on the season, always rises and sets at certain points on the earth's surface. Probably, even Paleolithic hunters in Europe were able to determine the time of the summer and winter solstices. After all, they depended on large wild animals that went north in the spring and returned back in the winter. Ancient painting is found only in those caves that are illuminated during the solstice. Later, this effect was used in the construction of tunnel tombs, temples of the sun. The altar there was illuminated only in certain periods of the year.
All cultures, from antiquity to the Middle Ages, reliably associated with the Indo-Europeans, are usually accompanied by cromlechs of a certain type. These are stones or logs installed in a circle. They were oriented by solar periods and served as both an observatory and a temple. There are grandiose buildings, like the famous Stonehenge. There were also temporary structures. Only one thing is invariable - the Indo-European communities could not exist without them. All of them religious life was rigidly tied to the calendar. We find images of calendars on vessels, headdresses and stone slabs. The year began with the summer or winter solstice, the autumn and spring equinoxes were noted, the holidays in the remaining months were correlated with them. Traces of these pagan celebrations absorbed even Christianity and Islam. The whole world was involved in the eternal cycle (the wheel of Samsara). Every morning, the solar deity began its journey across the sky, bestowing order and blessings on people, and at night it went under the ocean, where it fought with a water monster. There were also annual cycles, which are more pronounced in temperate latitudes. In difficult periods, people helped God in his struggle (hence the stormy winter festivities among all Indo-European peoples). The rest of the time, they themselves turned to a higher being for help. But the most important thing is that the priests entered into co-creation with God and seemed to control time. After all, the cattle breeder in the steppe himself decided where and when to go. Communicating directly with the deity, he perhaps for the first time realized himself the master of his own destiny. It is clear that not only the Indo-Europeans worshiped the solar deity. But it was they who understood divine providence as an eternal cycle of struggle between light and dark principles, as a source of order that formalizes the entire human life. It is clear that, due to various social processes, these views have repeatedly become the property of other ethnic groups. But it was among the Indo-Europeans that they existed for millennia, became the basis of their worldview. Christianity has existed in Rus' for more than 1000 years, but Kupala, a sunny holiday with roots in the Paleolithic, still excites the minds of people. It is preceded by a mermaid week. And the water maidens were originally dragons.
If we trace the distribution of cromlechs around the world, then the most ancient of them are located in North Africa (Nabta Playa 15 thousand years ago). After 5 thousand years, they appeared in the Middle East - Göbekli Tepe. Given culture genetically related to Chatal-Hyuyuk, which researchers attribute to Proto-Indo-European. On the "Göbeklin" stelae, eagles were often depicted tormenting people on high towers. This plot is typical for the Indo-Europeans and even entered the religious practices of the Iranian Aryans in the form of Zoroastrianism. The further spread of the Cromlechs across Europe and Asia is associated with the migrations of the Indo-European tribes: Karahunj (Armenia); Goseck circle (Germany); Arkaim (Russia); Stonehenge (UK). It turns out that the core religious beliefs Indo-Europeans formed long before the isolation of their language. And it probably happened in North Africa during the end of the last ice age. Migrating to the north, the carriers of this paradigm took part in the formation of the Indo-European community. All this is consistent with the previously given data of genetics, archeology, anthropology, mythology.
Bibliography
- 1. Lysenko N.F. Development of agriculture and processing industry of the Kuban. - Krasnodar: Kubankino, 2006. C 54 - 156.
- 2. Lysenko N.F. Religions of the North-Western Caucasus. Tutorial. - Maykop: Polygraph Adygea, 2007. From 12 -96.
- 3. Lysenko N.F. Ancient Christianity of the Western Caucasus (collection of articles) "Issues of the history of Pourupye". Issue 1.
To imagine where the Indo-Europeans could come from and how to spread across Eurasia, it is necessary to use the knowledge of archeology, history, linguistics, genetics and religious studies.
The most common territory among researchers, which is taken as the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, is the region of the Middle Volga and the Dnieper. The authoritative archaeologist and culturologist Maria Gimbutas places the starting point of the spread of the Indo-Europeans in the area of Samarskaya Luka at the beginning of the 5th millennium BC. Let's take this place as a conditional starting point of the Indo-European settlement in Eurasia.
South!
Let's turn to linguistics. It is believed that the first of the historically known Indo-European languages \u200b\u200bis Hittite. The Hittites can be clearly traced in Anatolia from 1650 BC. Before them, the Hatti people existed in this territory (in Anatolia since 2300 BC), which some researchers also classify as Indo-Europeans. Thus, it can be assumed that the Indo-Europeans first appear on the historical arena in Anatolia. Why exactly here? After all, the Black Sea stands in the way of migration here from the Middle Volga, Caucasian mountains and the Caspian Sea. We will offer an answer to this question below.
The next language that evolved from Proto-Indo-European is Greek. From Anatolia, we are transported to the west and see that around 1850, the Achaians invade the territory of modern Greece from the north. They push the local Pelasgians, who, under the onslaught of the Achaians, move south and east (to Western Anatolia). Note interesting detail. The name of the Achaians (Ἀχαιοί) is consonant with the name of the Aryans (ahaya - araya). Having settled in Greece, the Achaians established close ties with the Hittites. This is not surprising, since they were related by language, genetics and religion. We will talk about genes and beliefs below.
The next branch was the Indo-Iranian languages. In the territory of modern Iran and Pakistan, Indo-Europeans invade in separate streams around 1700 BC. If practically nothing is known about Iranian expansion, then in Hindustan the Indo-Europeans became the cause of the decline of the Harappan civilization. Such large and surprisingly highly developed cities as Harappa and Mozhenjo-Daro died out sharply at this time. Then there was a gradual penetration into the territory modern India. In Hindustan, the Indo-Europeans still formed an oral corpus of religious hymns "Vedas", the ordering of which dates back to around 1700 BC. Indo-Europeans on the territory of modern Iran, Pakistan and India called themselves Aryans.
Here it is necessary to chronologically return to the Greek linguistic community, since about 1200 BC, the Indo-European Dorians invaded Greece from the north. Now the Achaians had to make room. All these movements seem to have caused quite a few problems. Among them and Trojan War, and the movement of the Sea Peoples south into Palestine. Note that the Dorians are also consonant with the Aryans and not only in Russian.
Here the Greek-Anatolian expansion stopped and closed in on itself, and then on the Iranian expansion. The Dorians jostled with the Achaians, and the Achaians with the Anatolian Hittites. Why didn't the Indo-Europeans go further south? The fact is that there were powerful Egypt and Mesopotamia, in which culturally (and genetically) more ancient and more developed peoples lived. Therefore, here the Indo-European expansion ran into an insurmountable obstacle.
So the Indo-Aryan branch ran into a more cultured and ancient people in Hindustan - the Dravidians. Further advance into the depths of Hindustan was extremely slow and painful. The local population was forced out to the south and east extremely reluctantly.
The next branch is Italian. Mythology says that when the warrior of Troy devastated by the Achaians - Aeneas arrived on the territory of modern Italy, he found a tribe of Latins here. The Etruscans and Sabines also lived here. All these tribes are attributed to the Indo-Europeans, who came here somewhere between the invasions of the Achaians and Dorians in Greece. The descendants of Aeneas and the Latin woman he took as his wife founded Rome and the dynasty of its rulers. That's why Latin language since the time of the military expansion of Rome on the Apennine Peninsula began to dominate. The tribes of the Indo-Europeans who settled in Italy had to go further from their ancestral home than the Hittites, Achaians, Dorians and Aryans. Therefore, their sedentary culture was formed later and they entered the historical arena belatedly, but no less triumphantly. In Italy, the Indo-Europeans ran into a natural obstacle - the sea. The water element stopped them. They were forced to master the sea much later, when they fought with the Semites by the Phoenicians of Carthage.
Drankh nah westen
The Celtic branch may have formed around the same time as the Italic branch. Speakers of the Celtic languages did not meet in Europe either natural obstacles or strong opposing peoples. Therefore, they walked for a long time until they reached the Atlantic coast of Europe and to modern Britain. There they stopped, but failed to develop in the same way as their Indo-European relatives, who followed a shorter path to areas where they could develop and enrich themselves culturally from more ancient neighboring peoples.
The speakers of the Balto-Slavic branch also moved west, but the bulk of the speakers of these languages did not go further than Central Europe. Researchers tend to place the approximate time of the formation of the Balto-Slavic languages around the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC. This branch is older than the Celtic. That is, we have a picture when the "younger" and more active cultures are moving west further than the "older" cultures.
The Germanic languages can be attributed to the young Indo-European language cultures. Their beginning is usually attributed to the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Representatives of these languages went from the north of Central Europe to the south between the representatives of the Celtic languages in the west and the representatives of the Balto-Slavic languages in the east. But this is about our time.
The main migration flows of the Indo-Europeans went west, south and southeast. If in the south and southeast they met powerful cultures that left a memory of themselves, then in the west, in Europe, apparently, the cultures were weak, or their representatives were small. Therefore, pre-Indo-European Europeans were culturally assimilated.
Since culture is closely related to language, it is the remains of pre-Indo-European languages in pre-literate Europe that are of greatest interest. And those leftovers are scarce.
In the west it is Basque. The Basques live in the mountainous regions of the Western Pyrenees. That is, the speakers of the non-Indo-European Basque language were actually pressed against the ocean and driven into the mountains. So intense was the conquest of Europe by the Indo-Europeans. The Basques, by the way, gave the name to the Gascons. d'Artagnan was a descendant of the Basques.
In the north, these are the non-Indo-European Finno-Ugric languages of the Uralic language family. But, as we can see, migration to the north was not a priority for the Indo-Europeans. The speakers of the languages of the Uralic language group are now the northern neighbors of foreign Europeans throughout Eurasia from Finland to Siberia.
In the south, these are the Kartvelian languages, localized in the mountainous regions of the Caucasus, mainly in Georgia. All other languages of Europe are Indo-European languages.
Thus, we see that all non-Indo-Europeans in Europe were culturally assimilated by the Indo-Europeans, either pressed to the sea, driven into the mountains or left in the cold. This is how they carried out the aggressive “dranh nah westen”.
Tokhary
We see another picture in the east of the alleged ancestral home. If in Europe the Indo-Europeans still rule the ball, then in the Far East they left several vivid traces of their stay and literally disappeared into local peoples. Around 3000 BC in Altai, on the border with the Far East, carriers of Afanasyevka are announced archaeological culture, which is identified with the Indo-Europeans. On the territory of modern China, the Tarim mummies of red-haired and fair-haired people of European appearance are dated to the middle of the 2nd millennium. In the 1st millennium, this territory was inhabited by the Rong tribe, whose ancestors, according to ancient Chinese historians, were blue-eyed and fair-haired. It is noteworthy that around this time, the Chinese rulers in the army appear war chariots, which did not exist before. The appearance of chariots in China is associated with the Indo-Europeans. It is known that in the territory of the Tarim Basin people spoke Indo-European Tocharian languages somewhere from the 1st millennium BC until almost the time of Genghis Khan - until the 1st millennium AD.
Thus we see what different fate befell the Indo-Europeans who settled in Eurasia.
Genetics
Now let's see if the genetic data confirm this picture. We will be interested in the haplogroups of the Y-chromosome of the modern population of Eurasia. Haplogroups show the relationship of people to each other in the male line by identifying gene mutations. Haplogroups are related to each other by kinship. We roughly know which haplogroups (mutations) appeared when, but we don’t know where. Therefore, if we combine the data of linguistics, history and genetics, we must
get a more or less objective picture. These data will complement each other. So, closely related haplogroups R1b and R1a are usually associated with the original speakers of Indo-European languages. The distribution of these haplogroups among people on the territory of Eurasia coincides with the distribution of Indo-European languages.
R1a
The oldest haplogroup R1a, which originated around 16500 BC, is distributed from Central Europe to China and India. R1a has the highest concentration among the population in Eastern Europe and in the Pamir and Tien Shan mountains. Among modern peoples, R1a has the highest concentration among the Slavs, especially among the Lusatian Slavs in Germany, as well as among upper castes Northern Hindustan and some Iranian peoples.
That is, the distribution of R1a today just covers the area dominated by the oldest Indo-European languages, with the center at our conditional point of migration reference. But why is the highest concentration of these haplogroups today observed in the population at the edges of this region. Why is there no concentration in the center? This question can be answered by history and geography. Steppes, deserts and semi-deserts lie between Eastern Europe and the mountains of the west of South Asia, along which there was a brisk trade (Silk Road) and conquering trans-Eurasian raids (Huns, Genghis Khan, Turks, Chinese, etc.). All this activity "trampled" and diluted the concentration of R1a in the center of the area of its current distribution. That is, later historical activity, as it were, drove the Eastern Indo-Europeans R1a in the south into the mountains, cutting them off from the Western Indo-Europeans, who settled in the dense and impenetrable forests of Eastern Europe.
R1b
The distribution of the haplogroup R1b related to R1a also coincides with the distribution of Indo-European languages. Therefore, R1b is also considered among the ancient Indo-Europeans. R1b appeared around 14500 BC. She is younger than R1a by two millennia. But the representatives of this haplogroup went much further west than the representatives of R1a. The highest concentration of R1b is observed among the peoples of the Ural Mountains and the population of Western Europe. That is, the carriers of this younger mutation turned out to be the most active in matters of territorial expansion in the western direction. Someone stayed in the area of the beginning of resettlement, and someone went on a long journey.
This can be explained by the fact that the younger clans wanted more free space for life, so they went further than the older clans, which quickly occupied good spaces near the conditional settlement point. For some reason, R1b did not go to the East. The haplogroup of Tarim mummies is R1a. Maybe the young generations of R1b received information from the elders of R1a that it is not worth going to the east (snow will fall into the head), but it is worth going to the west. There they went, eventually resting in the Atlantic.
Whom they met in Western Europe is not known. R1b, apparently, took girls from local tribes as wives, but did not give their girls to the locals. That is, they treated the local population rudely. Therefore, the haplogroups of the original ancient Western Europeans have not been preserved. Even the Basques, the only people in Western Europe who speak a non-Indo-European language, also have a predominant R1b haplogroup. That is, the Indo-Europeans in Western Europe pressed to the sea and drove into the mountains their own descendants, who assimilated into culture local residents, but passed on their dominant genetics to them.
The Indo-Europeans reached modern Spain, France and Britain in the form of the Celts in the first millennium BC.
Ungrateful euro-natives at the dawn of history
The R1a Indo-Europeans in Europe seem to have treated the local population more respectfully. Representatives of the ancient haplogroup I remained in Northern and Southern Europe, which is older than haplogroups R1a and R1b by 5-10 thousand years. A high concentration of the population with this haplogroup is now observed in Scandinavia and in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. These people speak Indo-European languages, but their genes tell that they are descendants of the pre-Indo-European population of Europe.
The Indo-Europeans R1a took pity on I, but the representatives of this haplogroup turned out to be ungrateful. In Scandinavia and Northern Germany in the 1st millennium BC, there was a merger of three groups of genera with haplogroups R1b, I and R1a. The product of the merger was a new genus, which is called the ancient Germans. At the turn of the eras, they began their movement to the west, south and east. In the west they pushed back the Celts, in the south they entered into military interaction with the Italics, and in the east they pushed back the R1a Slavs, who from then until the present day have constantly experienced military pressure from aggressive Germans.
Nevertheless, all of Europe became the property of the Indo-Europeans. What cannot be said about all other regions of Eurasia, where the settlers were opposed by ancient, highly developed civilizations with strong culture and economy.
Opponents of the Indo-Europeans
Earlier we considered the Hittites (descendants of the Hatti) in Anatolia, the Achaians and Dorians in Greece, and the ancient Iranians, the ancestors of the Persians in Iran. These peoples were forced to close in on themselves, as they were opposed by powerful civilizations in the south - Egypt and Mesopotamia. There already existed writing and a developed economy by the time of contact with the Indo-Europeans who came from the north. brisk trade, advanced culture with writing - perhaps this attracted the Indo-Europeans to the south. From our conditional point of migration reference to Anatolia, the ancestors of the Hittites could go down the Volga and further through the Caucasus.
In North Africa (including Egypt), the most ancient haplogroup E dominates, which arose 55-50 thousand years ago in Africa. The Egyptians already had pyramids, writing, developed relationships with Crete, Santorini, Palestine and Mesopotamia. It was the territory of Palestine that became the battlefield of the Indo-Europeans and the Egyptians. It was from the Indo-Europeans, directly or through intermediaries, that the ancient Egyptians, like the Chinese, adopted chariots.
Mesopotamia also had writing, culture and economy. Haplogroup J dominated there (Assyrians, Phoenicians, Semites). The age of this haplogroup is about 30 thousand years. She is approximately the same age as haplogroup I, much younger than E, but older than R1a and R1b. Therefore, the Indo-Europeans also ran into Mesopotamia as an insurmountable obstacle. Even the Ahmenid Persians in the 1st century BC were forced to have four imperial languages, two of which were Semitic, one Afroasian. And only one of the imperial languages was Old Persian. There was also no cultural and religious uniformity in the Persian Empire.
In Hindustan, the Indo-Europeans R1a met with representatives of the L and H haplogroups. They were also much older than R1a. Haplogroup L today has a maximum concentration in the northern mountainous regions of Hindustan and near the mouth of the Indus. Between these areas, the Indo-Europeans R1a passed. Some L were driven into the mountains, while others L were pressed to the sea. Haplogroup H (gypsies, Bangladeshis) was forced out to South India. Mobile islets H still roam the world in the form of gypsies.
Representatives of haplogroup L were Dravidians who created the Harappan civilization, swept away by the Indo-European Aryans in the territory of modern Pakistan. True, many elements of the culture of this civilization were borrowed by the Aryans and became part of Hinduism, which was already formed on the territory of Hindustan.
In the Far East, the Indo-Europeans were the least fortunate. They gave away their cultural achievements, but, apparently, they did not receive local women. But the Indo-European women, apparently, went to the Far Eastern men. Therefore, the Indo-European genetics of patrilineal haplogroups did not take root here.
Common features of the Indo-Europeans
Of course, the linguistic community makes all the considered Indo-Europeans related. Language is an element of culture, which cannot be reduced to language. There must be some common features in sociology and religion.
Three strata
It is known that when the Aryans came to Hindustan, they separated themselves from the local population and formed their own three castes: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas. Brahmins were a few representatives of spiritual and intellectual pursuits. Kshatriyas were engaged in public administration and war. They were also few. The Vaishyas were the remaining members of the community, who were supposed to thrive under the spiritual protection of the Brahmins and the physical protection of the Kshatriyas. Vaishyas were supposed to create material wealth and enjoy a happy family life. In the fourth caste, the Shudras, were the infidels, that is, the local population of Hindustan. The rest are more lower castes appeared even later.
Thus, it can be assumed that the three-membered own structure of the Aryans was transferred from the ancestral home. Was there a similar structure among the Indo-Europeans, who diverged from their ancestral home in other directions?
The social division of the Indo-Europeans who came to the territory of modern Iran can be judged by the class structure of the state under the Persian ruler Ardashir I at the beginning of the first millennium AD. The society was divided into four estates: priests (priests, magicians, judges), warriors, scribes, people (peasants, artisans). If we take into account that the Indo-Europeans who came to the modern territory of Iran did not have a written language, then scribes can be removed from the estates. There are three estates: priests, warriors, people.
In ancient Greece, the tribal community was called phyla. It was a community that had its own priests and its own warriors, headed by a philarch. Separately, a group of fila warriors in the general army was also called fila. Therefore, the phylum can be represented as a society, which is divided into three parts: priests, warriors and everyone else. Subsequently, the phylum became a unit of the territorial division of Greece.
There were tribes in Rome. It must be remembered that in all Indo-European languages the number "three" sounds the same. From the word "tribe" came the Latin word tribuo (to divide). Perhaps the tribe originally meant a community divided into three parts: priests, warriors, people. Therefore, the name of this division was given to the word, which began to denote the very action of division.
All of the above Indo-Europeans met with societies that were economically superior to them and had a written language. Perhaps this made it possible to preserve their ancient culture in a more or less intact form.
But the early Slavs and Celts in Europe did not meet anything like that, they stayed outside of history for too long and “forgotten” themselves. But the Celts were "helped" by distant relatives.
At the turn of the era, the still young Roman adventurer-commander Julius Caesar, who attacked the Gauls (Celts), described their three estates: druides, equites and plebs. Priests, warriors and people. The warriors of the Gauls could still be called "fillets". From this word came the English field (battlefield). Compare with the military phylum of the Greeks. Julius Caesar did not know that he was destroying his distant relatives.
It is difficult to say anything about the Slavs and Germans in relation to the social structure dating back to the times of the Indo-European ancestral home. The Slavs have long and comfortably settled in impenetrable forests without writing and did not much come into contact with literate and active sea peoples. Lazy and "wild". The Germans themselves formed very late from the Slavs, the Celts and the local pre-Indo-European Scandinavian population. Therefore, their sociological memory was even worse than that of the Slavs.
With regard to the Slavs and Germans, one can only make rough guesses. For example, it can be assumed that for some reason the originally tripartite (three-stratum) society was divided. Warriors with a minimum number of priests and representatives of the people went north and joined with the local Scandinavians, giving the Germans. And the people who are accustomed to live safely and engage in a peaceful life, remained in comfortable forests on the banks of convenient rivers and lakes. If everything happened just like that, the episode with the calling of the Varangians by the Slavs is understandable. Our land is plentiful, we are fattening here, but everyone quarreled, because we do not have rulers-administrators (warriors) who would manage society. Therefore, the Slavs turned to the Varangians. The Vaishya caste turned to the kshatriyas who had long gone to the west, so that they would come and streamline their life together, as in the old days.
This can also explain the extreme militancy of the Germans and the calm, peaceful disposition of the Slavs.
A similar situation can be observed in ancient Sparta. Where only warriors were citizens. The military estate existed separately from the people, which, moreover, was not related to it. That is, speaking in Hindu terms, there were no Vaishyas and Brahmins, but only Kshatriyas and Shudras (representatives of the conquered people). The Spartans called priests from neighboring Greek cities. In times of acute need, the role of the priest was performed by the main warrior - the king. At the same time, the Spartans were excellent warriors (they staged the famous massacre of their distant relatives, the Persians, at the Battle of Thermopylae), but lawless people. They staged deadly raids on their Shudras and engaged in the most disgusting eugenics - killing babies with bodily defects. That is, these valiant warriors clearly lacked spiritual and intellectual mentors who would teach them mercy and explain that they true purpose not to kill, but on the contrary - to protect (save lives).
Both the Spartans and the Germans may have "forgotten" their role in the three-stratum society and engaged in robbery and violence.
Religion
It is generally accepted that the Indo-Europeans were pagans. The pantheon of Indo-European gods is known, which have many parallels and similarities in different Indo-European cultures very far from each other in time and territory. But we are interested in the ancestral home and metamorphoses in the process of settling in Eurasia.
The most remarkable thing is that in different Indo-European cultures there are signs of the presence of the category of the Creator. One God who created everything, including many lower gods.
In the early Vedas, there are hymns that tell about the Heavenly Father (Dyaus Pita), who was the original creator of the world. God of light and day. He figured together with the female principle (Mother). The Slavic word "day" is related to the word "dyaus", since the day is characterized by a bright sky. The cult of the Heavenly Father was already fading away at the time of the Rig Veda ordering in 1700 BC, when the Aryans came to modern Pakistan. So he was of greater importance where the Aryans came from to Hindustan.
In the Avesta in the 1st millennium BC, the reformer of the Iranian religion Zarathustra speaks of Ahura Mazda (Initially Thinking) - the One God.
In Greece, at the time of Homer, when there was already confusion and vacillation in the religion of the people, and there was no written language yet, Zeus was the main god. The relationship of the Greek "Zeus" and the Aryan "Dyaus" has been firmly proven by linguists, historians and religious scholars.
In Rome, the main god, the sky god Jupiter, is none other than "Dyaus Pita". This has also been proven and beyond doubt.
But the most interesting thing is that the Tocharians, who have sunk into obscurity, left us a beacon here too. In the 1st century BC, on the territory of modern China, in the area near the area of distribution of the Zhong tribes (descendants of the Tokhars), the category Tian-di (Sky First Ancestor) appears. Compare the words of Dyaus Pita and Tian-di. And the words "day" and "tian". The meaning of this category absolutely coincides with the Indo-European Heavenly Father. The category of Tian-di in the steppe expanses of Eurasia later turned into the category of Tengri, that Heavenly Father, whom Genghis Khan worshiped.
It is extremely interesting that the haplogroup R1b was recorded by Pharaoh Akhenaten, who in the middle of the 2nd millennium, when Egypt was already in full contact with the Indo-Europeans in the north, tried (unsuccessfully) to establish monotheism. That is, the pope of the pharaoh was either himself an Indo-European, or was their descendant. The presence of Indo-Europeans in Egypt may explain the high concentration of R1b among Cameroonians. The descendants of the Indo-Europeans, once in Egypt, could climb the Nile and for some reason move to the territory of modern Cameroon.
It is difficult to consider Slavic and Celtic deities in relation to the most ancient categories. Since there was too much non-written period and a huge number of foreign cultural contacts and influences.
It can be assumed that at the time of the beginning of the movement of the Indo-Europeans from their ancestral homeland, they had, if not monotheism, then stereotheism, when the One Primal Creator as a male principle was revered with a feminine principle, through which the world was created (born). The rest of the gods were revered as hypostases of these two principles, applicable to certain life situations. Many religious historians defend this position. In their opinion, the wild polytheism of paganism is the decomposition of the initially spiritually and intellectually harmonious ancient high religious concept.
For example, the Israeli archaeologist Zeev Herzog in 1999, in his article “The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho” in the weekly Haaretz, writes that, according to his data, strict monotheism was finally formed among the Jews already in the period of the kingdoms. Up to this point, “…the God of Israel, Jehovah, had a female spouse…” It is possible that Herzog's archaeological data record the remnants of an ancient stereotheistic cult among the Jews. And only a strong centralized royal power was able to finally stop the ancient cult inertia.
It is also noteworthy that there is only one step from such stereotheism to monotheism. Need to be removed from religious system feminine beginning. Which was done by Abraham at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC in Northern Mesopotamia. Where there was an area of contact between the ancient Semites and the Indo-Europeans who came from the north.
Why was this step taken? Because the ancient stereotheism by that time everywhere had degenerated into the most terrible bloody paganism. The main source of the destruction of religion was the sexual sphere, since the main religious symbols of that time were the male and female genital organs. Rituals and ceremonies had corresponding symbols and actions. Blood sacrifices of children flourished. In the most terrible forms, this paganism manifested itself precisely among the representatives of highly developed peoples with more ancient haplogroups, in which the younger and still more pious ancient Indo-Europeans "rested". There are hymns in the Rigveda that openly condemn "member-worshippers". Among the ancient Indo-Europeans, the sexual sphere was in a chaste state. Among the ancient Aryans, for example, murder and adultery were considered equivalent crimes and were punishable by death.
To stop the pagan madness of the 2nd millennium BC, it is not enough to return to the ancient pious stereotheism, it was necessary to remove the feminine principle from rituals and religious images, along with sexual iconography and reference to the sexual act as an act of creation of the world. This was done by the pious ancient Jews. The sexual sphere from the public ritual has been moved to the hidden area of the family sacrament. That is why the One Creator God in Judaism and Islam cannot be portrayed in any way at all. Because earlier it was universally depicted as a phallus.
It is possible that one of the destinations of the ancient Indo-Europeans was to bring their relatively young pious religion to the realm of older, already degenerate cults, in order to communicate a new bright impulse for the purification of the spiritual sphere of mankind.
After all, if this had not happened, the era of atheism would have begun much earlier. This can be seen from Ancient Greece and the philosophy "originated" there, as a movement light religion, through the decay of paganism into atheism of the denial of the spiritual sphere and the transformation of a person into a lustful biorobot, that is, into an animal. It is no coincidence that the first sparks of atheism in Europe were the Renaissance, which is characterized by a return to the ideals of antiquity, which is in a state of transition from the horrors of occult paganism to atheism.
fate
The spiritual destinies of the Indo-Europeans in the places where they came and settled are interesting. The Aryans of India absorbed elements of the degenerate paganism of the Dravidians, through the Shramans they came, on the one hand, to extreme occultism (Shiva, Kali, Khajuraho), and on the other, to Buddhism. The latter became the prototype of modern atheism, since it does not imply the category of God the Creator at all.
The Iranian branch attempted to fix the primordial God in Ahura Mazda, but in that territory was absorbed into the more concrete young monotheism of Islam.
Greeks and many Palestinians and Syrians became Christians. The Copts, the original Egyptians, also became Christians. All Europe became Christian. Even some descendants of alien Indo-Europeans on the territory of modern China and Mongolia became Christians. During the military strengthening of the young Genghis Khan, the Christian tribes in Mongolia came to an end. But Genghis Khan himself, like Moses, went to communicate with the Heavenly Father (Tengri) on the Sacred Mountain (Burkhan Khaldun).
Apparently Christianity as a development of Judaism was especially close to the descendants of the ancient Indo-Europeans. It is tempting to assume that the reason for this is the influence of the alien ancient Indo-Europeans on the teachings of Abraham.
Today we see that monotheism is gradually losing ground.
The Jews became mothballed and ceased to militantly prove the correctness of their monotheism. Some Jews turned to the occult pagan corruption of Judaism - the Kabbalah. Some Jews became atheists. Even representatives of the elected ancient Jewish priesthood of the Levites become militant atheists (K. Marx). Other Semites tend to practice Islam. But the latter are stubbornly pulled into the marginal realm of fanatical terrorism, which in its essence is also paganism and occultism.
The carriers of the Indo-European haplogroup R1b and non-Indo-European I are trying to free themselves from the remnants of Christianity in Western Europe and have fallen into fanatical atheism. As if occult paganism was ripening in this territory in parallel with the flowering of Christianity, in order to one day break out and plunge everyone into extreme godlessness. Economically subjugating the whole world, they are also trying to aggressively impose their unbelief on all the peoples of the world.
Only lazy R1a in comfortable forests are still trying to resist the onslaught of atheism from the West and preserve the spiritual tradition of Orthodoxy. How long will the strength last?
The history of all peoples is rooted in ancient times. Often people traveled long distances in search of suitable conditions for their homes. You can learn more about who the Indo-Europeans are and how they are related to the Slavs from this article.
Who is this?
Indo-Europeans are called native speakers of the Indo-European language. Currently to this ethnic group include:
- Slavyan.
- Germans.
- Armenians.
- Hindus.
- Celts.
- Greeks.
Why are these peoples called Indo-European? Nearly two centuries ago, great similarities were discovered between European languages and Sanskrit, the dialect spoken by the Indians. The group of Indo-European languages includes almost all European languages. The exceptions are Finnish, Turkic and Basque.
Europe was the original habitat of the Indo-Europeans, but due to the nomadic way of life of most peoples, it spread far beyond the original territory. Now representatives Indo-European group can be found on all continents of the world. Historical roots Indo-Europeans go far into the past.
Ancestral home and ancestors
You may ask, how is it that Sanskrit and European languages have a similar sound? There are many theories about who the Indo-Europeans are. Some scholars suggest that the ancestor of all peoples with similar languages were the Aryans, who, as a result of migrations, formed various peoples with different dialects, which remained similar in the main. Opinions also differ about the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. According to the Kurgan theory, widespread in Europe, the territories of the Northern Black Sea region, as well as the lands between the Volga and the Dnieper, can be considered the homeland of this group of peoples. Why is the population so different? different countries Europe? Everything is determined by the difference in climatic conditions. After mastering the technologies of domesticating horses and making bronze, the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans began to actively migrate to different directions. The difference in territories explains the differences in Europeans, which were formed over many years.
Historical roots
- The first option is Western Asia or Western Azerbaijan.
- The second option, which we have already described above, is certain lands of Ukraine and Russia, on which the so-called kurgan culture was located.
- And the last option is eastern or Central Europe, and more precisely - the Danube valley, the Balkans or the Alps.
Each of these theories has its opponents and adherents. But this issue has not yet been resolved by scientists, although research has been going on for more than 200 years. And since the homeland of the Indo-Europeans is not known, it is also not possible to determine the territory of the origin of the Slavic culture. After all, this will require accurate data on the ancestral home of the main ethnic group. The tangled tangle of history, which is fraught with more mysteries than answers, cannot be unraveled by modern humanity. And the time of the birth of the Indo-European language is also shrouded in darkness: some give the date as 8 centuries BC, others - 4.5 centuries. BC.
Traces of a former community
Despite the isolation of peoples, traces of commonality are easily traced among the various descendants of the Indo-Europeans. What traces of the former commonality of the Indo-Europeans can be cited as evidence?
- First, it's language. He is the thread that still connects people at different ends of the planet. For example, the Slavic ones have such general concepts as “god”, “hut”, “axe”, “dog” and many others.
- Commonality can also be seen in applied arts. The embroidery patterns of many European peoples are strikingly similar to each other.
- trace common homeland Indo-European peoples can also follow the "animal" footprints. Many of them still have a cult of a deer, and some countries annually hold holidays in honor of the awakening of a bear in the spring. As you know, these animals are found only in Europe, and not in India or Iran.
- In religion, too, one can find confirmation of the theory of generality. The Slavs had pagan god Perun, and the Lithuanians have Perkunas. In India, the thunderer was called Parjanye, the Celts called him Perkunia. Yes, and the image ancient god very similar to the main deity of ancient Greece - Zeus.
Genetic markers of the Indo-Europeans
The main distinguishing feature of the Indo-Europeans is only the linguistic community. Despite some similarities, different peoples of Indo-European origin are very different from each other. But there are other proofs of their generality. Although genetic markers do not prove the common origin of these peoples by 100%, they still add more common features.
Haplogroup R1 is most common among Indo-Europeans. It can be found among the peoples who inhabited the territories of Central and Western Asia, India and Eastern Europe. But in some Indo-Europeans, this gene was not found. Scientists believe that the language and culture of the Proto-Indo-Europeans were transmitted among these people not through marriages, but through trade and socio-cultural communications.
Who applies
Many modern peoples- Descendants of the Indo-Europeans. These include the Indo-Iranian peoples, Slavs, Balts, Romanesque peoples, Celts, Armenians, Greeks and Germanic peoples. Each group, in turn, is divided into other, smaller groups. Slavic branch is divided into several branches:
- South;
- Eastern;
- Western.
South, in turn, is divided into such well-known peoples as Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Slovenes. There are also completely extinct groups among the Indo-Europeans: the Tocharians and the Anatolian peoples. the Hittites and Luvians are considered, who appeared in the Middle East two thousand years BC. Among the Indo-European group there is one people who do not speak the Indo-European language: the Basque language is considered isolated and it is still not exactly established where it originates from.
Problems
The term "Indo-European problem" appeared in the 19th century. It is associated with the still unexplained early ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans. What was the population of Europe during the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages? Scientists have not yet come to a consensus. The fact is that in the Indo-European languages that can be found on the territory of Europe, sometimes elements of a completely non-Indo-European origin are found. Scientists, studying the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, combine their efforts and use all possible methods: archaeological, linguistic and anthropological. Indeed, in each of them lies a possible clue to the origin of the Indo-Europeans. But so far, these attempts have come to nothing. More or less studied areas are the territories of the Middle East, Africa and Western Europe. The rest of the parts remain a huge white spot on the archaeological map of the world.
The study of the language of the Proto-Indo-Europeans also cannot give scientists much information. Yes, it is possible to trace the substratum in it - the "traces" of the languages displaced by the Indo-European ones. But it is so weak and chaotic that scientists have not come to a consensus about who the Indo-Europeans are.
resettlement
The Indo-Europeans were originally settled peoples, and arable farming was considered their main occupation. But with climate change and the coming cold, they had to start developing neighboring lands that were more favorable for life. From the beginning of the third millennium BC, it became the norm for the Indo-Europeans. During the migrations, they often entered into military conflicts with the tribes living on the lands. Numerous skirmishes are reflected in the legends and myths of many European peoples: Iranians, Greeks, Indians. After the peoples who inhabited Europe managed to tame horses and make bronze products, the resettlement gained even greater momentum.
How are Indo-Europeans and Slavs related? You can understand this if you follow the settlement. From the southeast of Eurasia, their distribution began, which then moved to the southwest. As a result, the Indo-Europeans settled all of Europe up to the Atlantic. Some of the settlements were located on the territory of the Finno-Ugric peoples, but did not go further than them. The Ural Mountains, which were a serious obstacle, stopped the Indo-European settlement. In the south, they moved much further and settled in the territories of Iran, Iraq, India and the Caucasus. After the Indo-Europeans settled in Eurasia and began to lead again, their community began to disintegrate. Under the influence of climatic conditions, peoples became more and more dissimilar to each other. Now we can see how strongly anthropology was influenced by the living conditions of the Indo-Europeans.
Results
Modern descendants of the Indo-Europeans inhabit many countries of the world. They speak different languages, eat different foods, but still have common distant ancestors. Scientists still have many questions about the ancestors of the Indo-Europeans and their settlement. It remains to be hoped that over time, however, exhaustive answers will be received on them. As well as the main question: "Who are the Indo-Europeans?".
