Formation of the Indo-European branches [2]
Formation of the Indo-European branches in
the light of the Archaeogenetic Revolution
John T. Koch
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
Draft [13-ii-2019] of paper read at the conference ‘Genes, Isotopes and Artefacts. How should we
interpret the movement of people throughout Bronze Age Europe?’ Austrian Academy of Sciences,
Vienna, 13–14 December 2018.
Introduction
Using the historical-comparative method, linguists can recover many details of unattested
languages. With enough of the right kind of data, it is even possible to reconstruct detailed
lexicons and grammatical descriptions. Even so, it is often difficult to assign an absolute date,
geographical location, and cultural context to some of the most fully reconstructed prehistoric
languages. The common ancestor of the attested Indo-European languages is such a case,
and the question of its homeland has been keenly disputed since the 19th century, through
the 20th, and into the 21st. In recent years, with the availability of ancient DNA data, the
situation has suddenly improved, adding to the evidence base genetic relationships between
populations in the historical period speaking attested languages and prehistoric groups.
This essay works from recently published archaeogenetic evidence, drawing attention to what
it might imply for some longstanding issues in historical linguistics. Seven working hypotheses
are presented concerning prehistoric languages in western Eurasia. These hypotheses aim to
situate speech communities in time and space, and to identify archaeological cultures and
genetic populations associated with them. Hypotheses 1–6 deal with particular nodes and
splits on the tree model of the Indo-European macro-family, the seventh with the prehistoric
ancestor of the non-Indo-European language Basque.
As essential background, it is noted, but will not be recapitulated at length, that aDNA data
published in two milestone papers in 20151, 2 was argued to support elements of the steppe
or kurgan hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European homeland. This hypothesis was formulated
by Gimbutas in the mid 20th century,3, 4 then advanced by Mallory5–7 and Anthony8–10. The
implications of this strong, but not closely precise, archaeogenetic support can be summarized
as follows.
The common ancestor of most of the attested Indo-European languages was spoken on the
grasslands of what is now Ukraine and South Russia about 5000 years ago. This language’s
territory then expanded by mass migration. There is a significant correlation between
speakers of this proto-language and the Yamnaya material culture and a genetic ‘steppe’
cluster, which reflects a mixture of two earlier distinct populations: approximately 50%
Eastern European Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) and 50% Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer (CHG, also
known as ‘Iranian-associated’).
Before attempting to build on this foundation, it is important to recognize its limits, what it
does not mean. It does not mean that everyone on the Pontic–Caspian steppe ~5000 BP spoke
Proto-Indo-European, or conversely that all speakers of PIE ~5000 BP lived on the Pontic–
Caspian steppe. It does not mean that all users of Yamnaya culture ~5000 BP spoke PIE, or
conversely that all speakers of PIE ~5000 BP used Yamnaya culture. It does not mean that all
individuals carrying the steppe component at high levels ~5000 BP spoke PIE, or conversely
that all speakers of PIE ~5000 BP carried the steppe component, either at high levels or
necessarily at all. How closely or loosely these categories coincide should become clearer, even
precisely quantifiable, as more evidence comes in.
Preliminaries 1: A tree model of the Indo-European macro-family
The Indo-European sub-families or branches are usually reckoned as ten: (in order of
attestation) Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Balto-
Slavic, Albanian.6, 7 It should be mentioned also that there are several fragmentarily attested
ancient Indo-European languages (such as Phrygian, Thracian, and Lusitanian) that cannot be
certainly affiliated with any of the ten branches. It is possible that there were other IE branches
that died out completely unattested.
At the stage when each of the ten branches was first attested in writing, they were all fully
separate languages. In other words, in a hypothetical encounter between speakers of any two
of them, there would have been little mutual intelligibility. At the horizon of written evidence,
the separation of each of these from Proto-Indo-European (and from any post-PIE intermediate
ancestor) lay deep in the past.
It is common for the ten Indo-European branches to be represented with a tree model.
Sometimes all ten will be shown branching from a single point from the end of the Proto-Indo-
European trunk.8 But that is surely not what happened. More scientific trees are constructed as
a series of two-way splits. So, for example, the Anatolian branch comes off first, as universally
agreed, with the rest of Indo-European, still a single unified language, on the other side of that
split. Most, but not all, Indo-Europeanists think that Tocharian branched off next. This again
would involve all the rest of Indo-European as a still unified proto-language on the other side
of the split, and so on until all ten branches were separate and there was no residual Late PIE
commonality.
If archaeogenetics has now brought increasing confidence concerning the homeland of PIE,
it should also be possible to combine linguistics, archaeology, and genetics in a similar way
to locate the reconstructed languages occupying the gap between PIE and the attested Indo-
European languages. We might expect this task to be easier, as it deals with times closer to
the horizon where we have written records in their archaeological contexts, as well as now
increasingly information about the genetic connections of the associated human remains.
However, there remain unresolved questions about how PIE split up and diversified, as well as
the most meaningful way to conceptualize these processes. So, the question is not just which
family tree (Stammbaum) but whether any tree model will provide an accurate enough roster
of Indo-European linguistic groupings in later prehistory.
 [3] Koch | draft Formation of the Indo-European branches [4]

For several reasons, the tree of Ringe et al. 2002 is used here. First of all, their study aims to With this tree, no details relevant presently are lost by following Mallory’s 2013
do exactly what is of interest presently, “... to recover the first-order subgrouping of the Indo- simplification.23 However, for reasons explained below, it is the less problematical tree of Ringe
European family ...”11, rather than, say, work out the time depth of PIE12–18, 98, 99 or merely to et al., omitting Germanic, that is simplified here (Fig. 2).
illustrate the subclassifications of numerous attested IE languages8. Secondly, Ringe et al. use
In this tree Proto-Indo-European first divides, as expected, into the Anatolian branch on one
a robust base of phonological, morphological, and lexical evidence, which is rigorously filtered
side and the rest of Indo-European on the other. Next, that ‘rest of Indo-European’ divides,
for known and conceivable pitfalls. Thirdly, they seriously consider an alternative model for
becoming Tocharian on one side and a new, smaller rest of Indo-European on the other. Then,
the formation of the IE branches, namely one of a shallowly diversified dialect continuum
another split with Albanian on one side and yet a newer and smaller rest of Indo-European
formed by rapid expansion into new territory followed by the crystallization of branches from
on the other. Then Italo-Celtic splits off, then Greco-Armenian. The last residual common
neighbouring dialects within emerging sociocultural areas.19, 20 Such a model is favoured by
ancestor of more than one branch is Balto-Slavic+Indo-Iranian, which will be of special interest
myself in earlier work.21 Ringe et al. conclude that Garrett’s proposal for the IE branches is
here. Amongst the evidence supporting such a commonality are two shared innovations in
compatible with their Stammbaum. In other words, the basic groupings and their structure
the consonant system, known as the satǝm and RUKI innovations. (satǝm is the Avestan word
would remain the same whether they had arisen by groups of speakers arriving in new lands
for ‘100’, contrasting with Latin centum, both from PIE *k̂m̥tóm.) In the first change, the PIE
and abruptly losing contact with their homeland or the crystallization of branches from
consonant series *k *g *gh and *kw *gw *gwh merged as *k *g *gh. PIE palatovelars*k̂, *ĝ, and
mutually intelligible dialects in contact.
*ĝh become assibilated (s-like sounds) in the satǝm languages. In the second change, PIE *s
Schleicher’s 1861 tree model (Fig. 1) shows several basic features have persisted for over 150
years.22 He recognized Balto-Slavic (slawolitauisch) and Indo-Iranian (arisch), which remain
standard features, as well as Italo-Celtic (italokeltisch), which is a common—probably the Proto-Indo-European PIE 1
most common—view today.95 An Italo-Celtic node (representing an undifferentiated speech
community) is a feature of the Ringe et al. tree. There is also a Greco-Armenian node, which PIE 2
has been proposed elsewhere,12, 16–18,29 but Ringe et al. are more ambivalent about such a
proto-language, finding the evidence for it to be ‘disappointingly meager’.
Tocharian PIE 3 Anatolian
Figure 1. August Schleicher’s 1861 tree model
of the Indo-European language family. deutsch.
German (Germanic)
PIE 4
litauisch.
Lithuanian (Bal�c)
Albanian
Figure 2. Simplified version of
slawisch. Ringe et al. 2002, Fig. 8, ‘One of
Slavic the best trees with Germanic
omitted’, to which is added labels
Celtic
Italic
vic for the nodes PIE 1–6 as explained PIE 5
o-Sla
B alt keltisch. in this essay. The bracketed
ch. position of Germanic in the tree
uis Cel�c
lita model is that indicated in the [Germanic] PIE 6
wo h. italisch. passage quoted from Ringe et al.
sla isc Greek
elt Italic 2002. Armenian
h. lok
tsc ita -Cel�c
eu lo albanesisch.
wo
d
is ch. Ita
sla kelt Albanian
alo
e coit griechisch.
indogermanische gra Greek
ursprache . a r iograe arisch.
Proto-Indo- italoke co-
ltisch. Indo-Itr
European anian eranisch.
Iranian Indic
Slavic Iranian
indisch. Baltic
Indic
[5] Koch | draft
became *š (something like English seat versus sheet), following the sounds *r, *w, *k, *g, *gh,
or *y.86
In historical linguistics various labels are attached to the recurring ‘rest of Indo-European’
unities. These include ‘Late Indo-European’, ‘Middle Indo-European’, ‘Nuclear Indo-European
(NIE)’, and ‘Surviving Indo-European (SIE)’ (meaning after the now-extinct Anatolian and
Tocharian branches split off). The usage has been inconsistent and confusing. Purely for
present purposes, the following terms will be used for the ancestral core of the family and
successive residues of this core:
• the earliest Proto-Indo-European (ancestor of all the branches including Anatolian) =
PIE 1;
• the residual core after Anatolian branches off = PIE 2;
• the residual core after Tocharian branches off = PIE 3;
• the residual core after Albanian branches off = PIE 4;
• the residual core after Italo-Celtic branches off = PIE 5;
• the residual core after Greco-Armenian branches off (bearing in mind that the existence
of such a branch is uncertain for the reason explained above) = PIE 6, which can also be
called Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian.
¶Note. As will be important in connection with Working Hypothesis 4 below, PIE 6 originally
included Pre-Germanic also. But at an early prehistoric stage, Pre-Germanic separated from
Pre-Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian and reoriented towards Italo-Celtic.
Preliminaries 2: some terminology and concepts
The term dialects refers here to genetically related forms of speech (i.e. having a common
ancestral form of speech, nothing to do with genetics per se) retaining a high degree of mutual
intelligibility. This relationship may be the case when the communities speaking the dialects
have lost contact with each other more-or-less abruptly and completely, but at a relatively
short time previously, say eight generations or fewer, so that linguistic entropy has not set in
sufficiently to block mutual intelligibility. On the other hand, the related speech forms may
be distinct for far longer than eight generations and still be dialects rather than separate
languages in the senses used here, for example the Greek dialects or the largely mutually
intelligible national ‘languages’ of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In these cases, mutual
intelligibility has been maintained by prolonged intense contact, in which speakers habitually
used their own dialect—rather than switching or using a lingua franca—in speaking to speakers
of another dialect. For historical linguistics, an important implication of the concept of dialect
as used here is that borrowings between dialects will often not be detectable linguistically
because cognate sounds will be substituted in the borrowing dialect. (This, incidentally,
has been one chief argument supporting the Anatolian Neolithic hypothesis of Indo-
Formation of the Indo-European branches [6]
European origins, despite shared Indo-European vocabulary for a later [Copper Age] material
culture.96–100)
Related languages, on the other hand, will refer to genetically related varieties of speech with
relatively low, even virtually no, mutual intelligibility. Such cognate speech forms will usually
have been separate from one another longer with less regular contact. Communication will
require a speaker from one language to learn a second language, or the use of a shared lingua
franca. Borrowings between separate related languages will more often be detectable as such
by linguists because they are less likely to involve assimilative substitution of cognate sounds.
In referring to reconstructed prehistoric languages the prefixes Pre- and Proto- will be used for
concepts along the same lines as dialect and language. So, for example, Pre-Indo-Iranian could
be thought of as a dialect within a still intact larger linguistic unity and speech community,
Proto-Indo-Iranian/Balto-Slavic in this case. Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Balto-Slavic would
belong to a later stage, no longer a single speech community with a relatively high degree of
mutual intelligibility. Loanwords between Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Balto-Slavic would
more often be detectable as loanwords, than between Pre-Indo-Iranian and Pre-Balto-Slavic,
which were still part of a coherent dialect continuum.
Another important point in the distinctions between dialects versus related languages and pre-
versus proto-languages is that it is more common for an adult to successfully change dialect
than to learn a second language and use it like a native speaker. Accordingly, in the languages
of the world, mixed dialects are common, mixed languages (as distinct from a language with
numerous loanwords) are rare. So, as proposed below, at the stage Pre-Germanic/Balto-Slavic/
Indo-Iranian, it was possible for the western part of that continuum to shift speech areas,
becoming reoriented towards Pre-Italo-Celtic. We do not need to think of this process as
speakers at the western end of Pre-Germanic/Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian changing language, but
rather contacts intensifying with mutually intelligible dialects in the West—permitting shared
innovations—and declining with those in the East.
Working hypothesis 1: PIE 1 and Anatolian
The homeland of PIE 1—ancestral to all Indo-European, including the Anatolian branch—was
more probably south of, or possibly in, the Caucasus than on the Pontic–Caspian steppe. The
speakers of PIE 1 were probably not closely associated genetically with the ‘steppe component’,
that is, ~50 EHG and ~50% CHG.
In its unrevised form, the steppe hypothesis is that the parent language of all Indo-European,
including the Anatolian branch, what is called here PIE 1, came from the Pontic–Caspian
steppe. Thus far, the archaeogenetic evidence—including that published in the two seminal
papers of 20151, 2—has supported the Pontic–Caspian steppe as the homeland of PIE 2 (Proto-
Indo-European after Anatolian branched off) rather than PIE 1. Therefore, on this basic matter,
the new evidence has not confirmed the steppe hypothesis.
For purely linguistic reasons Anatolian has always been a vulnerable point in the hypothesis.
Not only is it universally recognized as the first branch to separate—and therefore the most
[7] Koch | draft
relevant for dating and locating PIE 1—but also the reason why it is universally agreed to be
the first branch is that it is so different and so much more archaic than the other branches. For
example, it is the only branch to retain the laryngeal sounds directly; their former presence
must be reconstructed to explain features of the other branches, but they have not survived
in any of them, even those attested in the Bronze Age, i.e. Mycenaean Greek and Old Indic.
Anatolian is also the only branch lacking a feminine gender, which is also usually understood
to be an archaism retained from PIE 1 rather than a subsequent innovation. Tense and aspect
in the verbal system of Anatolian is also significantly simpler and can be seen as reflecting a
state of affairs preceding changes common in all the languages descended from PIE 2. In other
words, there is a big gap between PIE 1 (reflected in Anatolian) and PIE 2. It is hard to imagine
that there could be less than 1000 years between the first split and the second or that both PIE
1 and PIE 2 could be assigned to a single archaeological culture.
This same point is now made more concretely by Kroonen et al. 2018. They present personal
names recorded ~2500/2400 BC, relating to a country somewhere in Anatolia called Armi.
These names appear to be in an early Anatolian, leading to the conclusion: “... since the
onomastic evidence from Armi is contemporaneous with the Yamnaya culture (3000–2400
BCE), a scenario in which the Anatolian Indo-European language was linguistically derived
from [Proto-]Indo-European speakers originating in this culture can be rejected”.24 These Armi
names are provisionally accepted here as including archaic Anatolian at the proposed date,
though the matter requires further study.
In a lucid overview of ‘The evolutionary history of human populations in Europe’ published on
the internet on 4 May 2018, Iosif Lazaridis writes:
In the next few years this lingering mystery will be solved: either Anatolian speakers will be
shown to possess steppe-related ancestry absent in earlier Anatolians (largely proving the
steppe PIE hypothesis), or they will not (largely falsifying it, and pointing to a Near Eastern
PIE homeland).25
As if to emphasize the pace of discovery, an answer—at least the beginnings of one—came in a
few days rather than a few years with the appearance of the preprint of Damgaard et al. 2018,
publishing evidence of full genomes of 74 ancient individuals, including five deemed probably
to be speakers of Hittite. These five had no steppe component, nor any EHG ancestry.26
Without further confirmation, it would premature to see the matter decisively settled at
this point. There are only five individuals. The Hittite Empire of the Late Bronze Age was a
complex, stratified society—a fairly brittle structure that terminally shattered as part of the
widespread upheavals ~1200 BC. The empire contained influential groups with exceptional
political power, specialist expertise, and mercantile wealth. In such a society, individuals who
were not descended from Old Hittite-speaking founders might have seen it as advantageous
to learn Hittite as a second language and pass it on to their children as a first language, that
is, assuming that Damgaard et al. are right in first place that their five individuals were Hittite
speakers.
Slight though this evidence may be and provisional any conclusions drawn from it, we are
at present looking at falsification of the steppe hypothesis as formulated by Lazaridis rather
Formation of the Indo-European branches [8]
than support for it. And though that evidence could be said to support a model of infiltration
by small, culturally influential groups with steppe ancestry, it could just as well—and more
economically—be used to bolster the case that the PIE 1 homeland was not the Pontic–Caspian
steppe and was not spoken by groups with steppe or EHG ancestry.
The alternative proposal made by Reich (before Damgaard et al. 2018 was available) appears
viable, as we await further evidence to fill in gaps and reinforce (or not) preliminary findings:
Ancient DNA available from this time in Anatolia shows no evidence of steppe ancestry
similar to that in the Yamnaya (although the evidence here is circumstantial as no ancient
DNA from the Hittites themselves has yet been published). This suggests to me that the
most likely location of the population that first spoke an Indo-European language was south
of the Caucasus Mountains, perhaps in present-day Iran or Armenia, because ancient DNA
from people who lived there matches what we would expect for a source population both
for the Yamnaya and for ancient Anatolians [i.e. CHG]. If this scenario is right the population
sent one branch up into the steppe—mixing with steppe hunter-gatherers in a one-to-one
ratio to become the Yamnaya … —and another to Anatolia to found the ancestors of people
there who spoke languages such as Hittite.27
Incidentally, on the strength forthcoming genetic evidence mentioned in Kroonen et al. 2018,24
the dynamic and influential Maykop culture of the north-western foothills of the Caucasus
~3700–3000 BC does not look immediately promising as a context for PIE 1, as EHG ancestry
has been found in samples from this culture, unlike the five Hittite individuals of Damgaard et
al.26
If this pattern continues as more samples are sequenced—that is, no steppe or EHG ancestry
in the genomes of probable Anatolian speakers—more researchers will wish to reopen the
question of how Indo-European is defined. When Hittite was first deciphered over a hundred
years ago,28 its differentness from Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit upset philologists. One reaction
was to model Hittite (and then the Anatolian branch, as the subfamily became known) as a
sister of PIE rather than a daughter.34, 35 This Indo-Hittite theory, which nowadays could more
accurately be called Indo-Anatolian, lost ground in the later 20th century, as fewer linguists
were deeply invested in the painstaking 19th-century Greco-Aryan reconstruction of Proto-
Indo-European. Nonetheless, Indo-Hittite has been retained by Hamp,29 and most linguists
see Anatolian as clearly the first branch to separate and uniquely affording insights into an
earlier stage of the proto-language. For many, ‘Indo-Anatolian’ versus ‘Early Indo-European’
is an arbitrary choice of terminology. The archaeogenetic evidence may now prove decisive in
favouring a shift, if it continues to indicate that the common ancestor of Anatolian and the rest
of the family had been spoken in a different region and by a different population from those
associated with the separate evolution of the residual core following Anatolian’s branching off
(i.e. PIE 2). If PIE 1 becomes henceforth ‘Indo-Anatolian’, or the like, the hypothesis that the
homeland of Proto-Indo-European was the Pontic–Caspian steppe will possibly be saved by a
terminological sleight of hand, moving the goal posts.
[9] Koch | draft Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 10 ]

Working hypothesis 2: PIE 2, Afanasievo, and Tocharian daughter language formed by a clean break might look more archaic than a related language
which formed at the same date but stayed in contact with other members of the family. The
The homeland PIE 2—following the branching off of Anatolian, but before the branching off
latter was in position to share innovations as borrowings. Because the Indo-European that
of Tocharian—was the Pontic–Caspian steppe. There was a general close association between
became Tocharian was geographically widely separated from the rest of the family, with
speakers of PIE 2 and users of the Yamnaya material culture and a genetic population with the
3000+ kilometres and, as explained below, a non-Indo-European language or languages were
steppe component (~50% EHG : ~50% CHG).
originally in that gap, it is likely that it would be a case of abrupt separation, at least relatively
This hypothesis would be supported by affirmative answers to the three questions below. so. The Indo-European languages of Europe would not be. So, while accepting that the
linguistic evidence supports a model of Tocharian as the second branch to separate from Indo-
1. Are the populations associated with the Yamnaya and Afanasievo archaeological
European, caution is advisable.
cultures the same (or very closely related) genetically?
In the case Anatolian, the barrier of the Caucasus Mountains with its non-Indo-European
2. Is the link between the Tocharian languages and Afanasievo culture secure?
languages might similarly have caused a clean break with the rest of the family. But for
3. Was Tocharian the second branch to separate from Proto-Indo-European? Anatolian, its differentness from the rest of Indo-European is more clear-cut and the written
evidence is much earlier. It is not credible that all the innovations that distinguish the rest of
Current evidence favours all three, but not with equal confidence. The strongest yes is for
Indo-European from Anatolian spread by inter-dialect borrowing.
question 1. The six Afanasievo individuals sequenced as part of Allentoft et al. 2015 were
virtually indistinguishable from the Yamnaya samples, showing ‘steppe ancestry’.1 This result At present, the available evidence implies an intriguing story in which Pre-Tocharian became
is now confirmed in 20 of 23 Afanasievo individuals in Narasimhan et al. 2018, as well as detached from PIE 2 by a long-distance migration across the central Eurasian steppe of
subsequent sampling of Yamnaya individuals.30 Kazakhstan ~3300–3000 BC when Yamnaya migrants founded Afanasievo in the Altai. Other
recent aDNA findings provide a possible explanation for why so much intermediate grazing
Turning to question 2, the Afanasievo culture of the Siberian Altai ~3300–2500 BC and the
land was bypassed. The clearest evidence for early horse domestication comes from the
attested Tocharian language in the Tarim Basin ~500–1000 AD are separated by three millennia
pre-agricultural Botai–Tersek culture of the North Kazakh steppe ~3700–3000 BC.11, 36, 37 The
in time and over 1000 kilometres in space. On the other hand, there is no viable alternative
aDNA evidence published by Damgaard et al. 2018 finds that Botai and Yamnaya/Afanasievo
scenario for a how a centum language became established—and seemingly stranded—on the
individuals differed greatly genetically. The Botai people did not have steppe ancestry or either
far side of a vast area of Central, South-west, and South Asia, dominated by satəm Indo-Iranian
of its main subcomponents.26 As Botai–Tersek was also wholly unlike Yamnaya/Afanasievo as a
languages from the time the earliest of them was attested (as the closely similar Mitanni Indic
culture,11 it is unlikely that the groups spoke related languages.
and Vedic Sanskrit).8, 24, 31, 32, 33 The publication of a high-coverage genome of typical Yamnaya/
Afanasievo type, dating to ~2900 BC from Karagash in central Kazakhstan,26 bridges the Another finding of Damgaard et al. 2018 was that Botai horses were not the ancestors of
geographical gap between the main Afanasievo territory and the culture’s suspected Yamnaya other tested ancient populations of domestic horses.26 In other words, this implies a second
source. centre of domestication. Therefore, it remains possible, on the basis of the genetic evidence,
that a parallel domestication had taken place on the Pontic–Caspian steppe at approximately
For question 3, the answer yes is provisional—probably the best, but not the only possibility.
the same time, a possibility that further evidence will either confirm or rule out. However, at
That Tocharian is the second branch is not the universal view. Its separation is plotted further
present it may be pointed out that the wild horse is a powerful and aggressive animal. Taming
along the tree according to Hamp,29, 31 for example. As explained above, a tree model is more
an adult wild stallion is extremely difficult. Therefore, there are reasons of logical economy to
unambiguously suitable when speech communities split cleanly by migration followed by
suppose that the horse was not domesticated independently by two groups living near each
abrupt loss of contact across a geographic barrier, as was at least sometimes the case in the
other (Yamnaya and Botai–Tersek) at about the same time, but easier to suppose that the
linguistic prehistory of Oceania.11 An alternative scenario in which the rapid expansion of a
complex skillset arose amongst one group and then passed between the central and western
language forms a dialect continuum, followed by ongoing contact between neighbouring
steppe. In either case, the Yamnaya pastoralists of the western steppe may have found the
dialects with a high degree of mutual intelligibility, will complicate the picture.19, 20 An
specialized herders and hunters of horses on the central steppe difficult to displace or live
innovation could occur in the lexicon, sound system, or morphology of one dialect then spread
beside, so migrated well beyond them to unexploited pastures further east.
to others. If this occurs at a relatively early stage of linguistic prehistory—before most of the
innovations distinguishing the languages within the family had occurred—it can be hard to
distinguish such inter-dialect borrowings from shared inheritances. With a language family
as vast and complex as Indo-European, both types of separation—abrupt loss of contact and
prolonged mutual influence within a dialect continuum—probably occurred in various facets
of its history. That means we won’t be comparing like with like. All else being equal, the
[ 11 ] Koch | draft Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 12 ]

Working hypothesis 3: The Beaker expansion and the genetic and linguistic heterogeneity of probably spoke Indo-European. The CWC groups east of the Rhine who came into contact with
the Beaker People Beaker People also had high levels of steppe ancestry and therefore probably also spoke Indo-
European. The eastern connections of CWC and western genesis of the Beaker Phenomenon
The earliest Beaker package arose amongst speakers of a non-Indo-European language by
means that it is likely that there was a dialect difference.
the Tagus estuary in present-day central Portugal ~2800 BC. Beaker material was adopted by
speakers of Indo-European as it spread east and north from its place of origin.

14
C dates imply that the region around modern Lisbon was the home of the earliest Beaker
package ~2800 BC, including the eponymous ceramic vessel, archery equipment, daggers,
Working hypothesis 4: PIE 6, Corded Ware cultures, Germanic/Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian, and
and continued or renewed interest in megalith-related funerary practices.38–42, 94 The aDNA
Alteuropäisch
data published by Olalde et al. 2018 shows that individuals associated with Beaker material
were genetically heterogeneous. Most of the sequenced individuals associated with Beaker ~2800–2550 BC the region of Corded Ware cultures (CWC) in Northern Europe—bounded
material found in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Britain had high levels approximately by the Rhine in the west and the Volga in the east—was the territory of an
of the steppe component. However, of the 32 Beaker-associated individuals from the Iberian Indo-European dialect continuum ancestral to the Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic
Peninsula, only 8 showed the steppe component at all. None of the 5 Beaker individuals from branches. The separation of the Pre-Germanic dialect from Pre-Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian, and
Portugal had any. Most Iberian Beaker men did not have R1b Y chromosomes of any of the its reorientation towards Pre-Italo-Celtic, was the result of Beaker influence in the western CWC
subclades found in Indo-European-speaking areas. The Iberian Beaker People who lacked the area beginning ~2550 BC.
steppe component were of an ancestry closely related to Iberian Neolithic and pre-Beaker
One important finding of Ringe et al. 2002 (a version of whose tree model is Fig. 2 here) is the
Copper Age individuals sequenced in the same study.43, 44
difficulty encountered in seeking the place of Germanic within the first-order subgroupings of
After spreading eastward across Spain, the Beaker package spread rapidly ~2600 BC along the Indo-European. They offer the following plausible explanation, which takes on new meaning in
Atlantic façade and along the North-west Mediterranean to the western Alps. ~2550 BC the light of archaeogenetic evidence.
Beaker Phenomenon entered West-central Europe, spreading into areas where Corded Ware
This split distribution of character states leads naturally to the hypothesis that Germanic
cultures (CWC) were already established, within an area that can be defined as bounded by
was originally a near sister of Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian (possibly before the satem
the Rhine in the west, the Upper Danube in the south and Jutland and the western Baltic in
sound changes spread through that dialect continuum, if that is what happened); that
the north.40, 42 The Beaker Phenomenon reached Britain and Ireland beginning ~2450 BC41, 42, 45
at that very early date it lost contact with its more easterly sisters and came into closer
The Olalde et al. study found a 90% population replacement in Britain at this time, from British
contact with the languages to the west; and that contact episode led to extensive
Neolithic individuals lacking the steppe component to Beaker associated individuals showing
vocabulary borrowing at a period before the occurrence in any of the languages of any
high levels of it.43 The four individuals sequenced by Cassidy et al. 2016 are consistent with a
distinctive sound changes that would have rendered the borrowing detectable. (p. 111)11
similar dramatic shift in Ireland:
Now that we know both CWC People and the Beaker groups in West-central Europe had high
1) a Rathlin Island cist burial with three Early Bronze Age men (2026–1534 cal BC)
levels of steppe ancestry, but had followed different histories after their ancestors left the
showing a significant steppe component, R1b Y chromosome; like modern Irish
Pontic–Caspian steppe, we can contextualize this realignment of dialects. As purely a matter
(Scottish, Welsh) population, the Rathlin men had genes for haemochromatosis, blue
of geographic correspondence, an early Indo-European dialect bloc giving rise to Germanic,
eyes, tall stature, lactase persistence;
Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian strongly suggests the geographic distribution of CWC, especially
2) the Ballynahatty Neolithic woman (3343–3020 cal BC) showed no steppe once we take into account the case for placing the origins of Indo-Iranian in Eastern Europe in
component, mostly Anatolian Neolithic ancestry (differing from the Neolithic Hypothesis 5 below.
admixture of the Rathlin men) and WHG admixture; overall she was less similar to the
It has many times been pointed out that the geographic distribution of the Beaker
modern Irish gene pool and more similar to the Sardinian.46
Phenomenon corresponds approximately, but strikingly, with that of the Ancient Celtic
The Olalde et al. study’s British Beaker People were found to be virtually indistinguishable languages. Within the CWC area, the dialect shift that Ringe at al. envision for Pre-Germanic
genetically from its Dutch Beaker People.43 on purely linguistic evidence has an exact analogue in archaeology. ~2550 BC the Beaker
phenomenon entered the CWC area from the west and was henceforth interacted and partly
The above evidence suggests that the first Beaker People along the Lower Tagus spoke a non-
fused with CWC in West-central Europe, in that zone extending as far east as the Middle
Indo-European language inherited from earlier inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula.47 As it
Danube and Jutland. These ‘Beakerized’ regions henceforth had reduced contact with non-
then spread north and east, the package was taken up by groups with steppe ancestry who
Beakerized CWC to the east, and entered a cultural sphere with non-CWC areas in the West
[ 13 ] Koch | draft
with Beaker culture, including the Iberian Peninsula, northern Italy, parts of France, and Britain
and Ireland. Linguistically, these developments may be plausibly interpreted as intensification
of contacts with Pre-Italo-Celtic and reduction of contacts with Pre-Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian.
When the Beaker phenomenon reached the CWC area ~2550 BC, the linguistic result of the
ensuing cultural interaction was to detach Pre-Germanic in the west from the Balto-Slavic/Indo-
Iranian bloc to the east, bringing it into the Italo-Celtic sphere dominant amongst the Indo-
Europeanized Beaker groups.
There is another linguistic phenomenon with a geographic distribution corresponding
strikingly with CWC and necessarily assigned to a time depth pre-dating the Late Bronze Age
and emergence of the post-PIE 2 Indo-European branches as separate languages. This is the
phenomenon of the so-called ‘Old European’ or alteuropäisch river names. The linguistic
earmarks of this early layer of place-names include IE word roots having to do with water and
most often surviving in Baltic languages and the merger of earlier ŏ and ăas ă, as occurred in
Germanic, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian. Kitson describes the core geographic distribution of
these names as follows.48–53
The contribution of river-names to this argument [about the PIE homeland] is that in
Europe south of the Baltic and north of the Alps and Carpathians, between roughly
the Rhine in the west and perhaps the Don in the east, all ancient river-names are
etymologically alteuropäisch. At least so say the hydronymists, and river-names in the area
have been so intensively studied, and attempts to overturn the assertion have been so
conspicuously unsuccessful, that I think we must take it as established.54 (p. 101)
Although Kitson is arguing here for a North-European homeland for PIE 1, the alteuropäisch
evidence he cites suits PIE 6 (Germanic/Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian) linguistically as well as
geographically.
The altoeuropäisch river names remain problematical and controversial for many linguists.
Mallory and Adams’s overviews of Indo-European studies do not include them as a meaningful
category.6, 7 Vennemann has argued that they are ‘Vasconic’, i.e. a prehistoric non-IE
language family ancestral to Basque.57 Kitson’s paper focuses on the alteuropäisch type in
Britain,54, 55 where, like other parts of Europe west of the Rhine, they are found together with
unproblematically Celtic names. Kitson hovers somewhat, hinting at an interpretation of layers
belonging to different Indo-European languages—at first one not on the branch leading to
Celtic then followed by Celtic—but he appears to favour alteuropäisch evolving into Celtic
in Britain, rather than being replaced by it. This process would involve a reinterpretation of
obsolete and opaque names. One example is the recurrent British river-name Derwent, Welsh
Derwennydd. Its original form was PIE *Dreu̯ entiH2- ‘Running [river]’, attested widely on the
Continent as Druentia, &c. (Pokorny *dreu- ‘to run’).58 Becoming opaque, the PIE river-name
was then reinterpreted as a meaningful Celtic *Deru-u̯ ent- ‘[river] with oaks’. This is a plausible
enough explanation, and there is nothing in it requiring that the original river name was coined
in a language other than the PIE dialect that evolved into Brythonic Celtic.
Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 14 ]
Working hypothesis 5: Eastern CWC, Sintashta, Andronovo, and the attested Indo-Iranian
languages
After Pre-Germanic reoriented towards Italo-Celtic, in the context of the Beaker phenomenon in
Central Europe ~2550–2200 BC, the satəm and RUKI linguistic innovations spread through the
remainder of the Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian continuum. The dialect(s) at the eastern end of CWC
developed towards Indo-Iranian. The Abashevo culture between the Don and southern Urals
(~2500–1900 BC) is a likely candidate for the Pre-Indo-Iranian homeland. The Sintashta culture,
east of the southern Urals ~2100–1800 BC, can be identified as a key centre from which an early
stage of Indo-Iranian spread via the Andronovo horizon of central Asia ~2000–1200 BC to South
and South-west Asia by 1500 BC. That Indo-Iranian came as a reflux from north-eastern Europe
(rather than a direct migration from Yamnaya on the Pontic–Caspian steppe) is shown by the
European Middle Neolithic (EMN) ancestry present in Sintashta individuals and carried forward
to Andronovo and South Asian populations.
The hypothesis that the Sintashta culture was the homeland of Indo-Iranian (or specifically
Proto-Indic) developed and gained considerable acceptance on the basis of archaeological
and philological evidence alone, before supporting aDNA data became available.8, 56 The key
archaeogenetic detail is that the signature for most Sintashta individuals has ~68% steppe
ancestry, ~24% EMN, ~8% West Siberian HG. This profile is thus distinct from Yamnaya/
Afanasievo, which lacks EMN.1, 26 In this light, the Sintashta population cannot be explained as a
result of a primary direct migration by Yamnaya groups on the Pontic–Caspian steppe ~3300–
2400 BC, as is the case with the primary migration giving rise to the Afanasievo population.
This model finds further confirmation in archaeological evidence for the origins of the
Sintashta material culture, which indicates sources in eastern CWC, such as the Fatyanovo
culture ~3200–2300 BC, Middle Dnieper culture ~2800–1800 BC, and most especially the
Abashevo culture between the Middle Don and southern Urals ~2500–1900 BC.56, 8, 59–61, 86, 92, 93
This culture is epitomized by Anthony, as ‘the easternmost of the Russian forest-zone cultures
that were descended from Corded Ware ceramic traditions. The Abashevo culture played an
important role in the origin of Sintashta.’8 Abashevo is identified as the source of Sintashta
metallurgical and ceramic traditions and stock-breeding economy, as well as the key detail of
the disc-shaped cheek pieces characteristic of the distinctive horse gear of Sintashta chariotry.
Sintashta is widely credited with invention of the light-weight war chariot, with two spoked
wheels and tightly controlled two-horse teams. 56, 8, 59–61 The Abashevo people who moved
eastward to found the Sintashta culture were attracted by abundant arsenic-rich copper ores
in Transuralia.59 That Abashevo was associated with an early stage of Indo-Iranian, or already
specifically Proto-Indic, had been proposed on the basis of archaeological evidence together
with the linguistic evidence of ~100 Indo-Iranian loanwords in the Uralic languages and
correspondences between Sintashta burial rites and Vedic religion.86 As I write now, there is no
Abashevo aDNA to confirm or contradict the expectation that its gene pool was the source of
the genetic type found at Sintashta with steppe + ~24% EMN ancestry.
That genetic signature can be traced forward to sampled individuals of the Sintashta-derived
Andronovo horizon widely spread across Central Asia ~2000–1200 BC and, afterwards, to
genomes of probably Indic-speaking groups in Iron Age South Asia.26, 30 It is present in South
[ 15 ] Koch | draft
Asia today—at higher levels in the North of Pakistan and India and among Indic-speaking and
high-caste Hindu groups. Modern South Asian mitochondrial DNA implies that the immigrants
who introduced this steppe+EMN type were mostly men.62
Working hypothesis 6: Non-IE influence in the West and the separation of Celtic from Italo-
Celtic
1. The Beaker phenomenon spread when a non-Indo-European culture and identity
from Atlantic Europe was adopted by speakers of Indo-European with steppe ancestry
~2550 BC.
2. Interaction between these two languages turned the Indo-European of Atlantic Europe
into Celtic.
3. That this interaction probably occurred in South-west Europe is consistent with
the historical location of the Aquitanian, Basque, and Iberian languages and also
aDNA from Iberia indicating an intrusion of a relatively small, but disproportionately
powerful, mostly male group of steppe ancestry ~2500–2000 BC (the Early Bronze
Age).
4. The older language(s) survived in regions that were not integrated into the Atlantic
Bronze Age network.
¶NOTE. This hypothesis should not be construed as a narrowly ‘Out of Iberia’ theory of Celtic.
Aquitanian was north of Pyrenees. Iberian in ancient times and Basque from its earliest
attestation until today are found on both sides of the Pyrenees. The contact area envisioned is
Atlantic Europe in general and west of the CWC zone bounded approximately by the Rhine.
In separating from Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Celtic developed new features found also
in Palaeo-Basque that can be explained as the result of contact, including the four below.
First, the weakening, followed in most phonetic environments by complete loss, of the PIE
consonant*p in Proto-Celtic is now seen by several historical linguists as the result of contact
with languages like the non-Indo-European Iberian and Palaeo-Basque/Aquitanian.63–69 That
Iberian and Aquitanian were p-less is directly observable in the substantial remains of those
ancient languages.70–72 Linguistic reconstruction applied to the modern Basque language also
indicates that Palaeo-Basque lacked *p.74–76
Secondly, when the series of stop consonants of Proto-Celtic is compared to that of that of
centum PIE and the reflex of this system in Proto-Italo-Celtic in the tables below, an overall
reduction of 12 to 7 consonants is seen in the evolution from centum PIE or Proto-Italo-Celtic
to Proto-Celtic.77
Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 16 ]
Centum PIE63
p t k kw
(b) d g gw
bh dh gh gwh
Proto-Italo-Celtic (after Schrijver)78
p t k kw
(b) d g gw
β δ γ γw
Proto-Celtic63
_ t k kw
b d g gw
Michelena’s ‘sistema fonológico principal del vasco antiguo’ follows.
Palaeo-Basque 74, 75
fortes: _ t c ć k N L R
lenes: b d s ś g n l r
A third parallel is shown in the table of Palaeo-Basque consonants as reconstructed by
Mitxelena above. Opposed series of corresponding strong and weak consonants (fortes and
lenes) is also a characteristic of the Celtic languages, though it was not an inherited feature
from PIE. Systems of fortis and lenis consonants are found in all medieval and modern Celtic
languages. This is the phonological basis of the mutations that are a pervasive characteristic
of the grammars of the Celtic languages.79–81 Lenition is not regularly shown in written Ancient
Celtic languages. However, in texts in the Roman alphabet, it is not uncommon to find
etymological p, t, and k standing between vowels in Ancient Celtic forms written as b, d, and
g, implying that phonetic lenition had already taken place. There is also a structural argument
explaining the simplification of the Proto-Celtic consonant system from the Proto-Italo-Celtic
as the result of phonetic lenition: in other words, with the reflexes of PIE */bh dh gh gwh/
becoming Italo-Celtic / β δ γ γw/ in all positions, and the Proto-Celtic reflexes of PIE /(b) d
g/ then articulated as [β δ γ] in lenis position, the two series of consonant phonemes were no
longer distinctive enough to be kept separate, which resulted in reductions in the consonant
inventory at the beginning of Proto-Celtic. 95
[ 17 ] Koch | draft Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 18 ]

A fourth detail in which the centum PIE consonant system and that reconstructed for Proto-
Italo-Celtic, on the one hand, differed from those of Palaeo-Basque/Aquitanian, Iberian, and
Proto-Celtic, on the other, is the phoneme */b/. This existed in PIE and in Proto-Italo-Celtic, but
was remarkably rare at those stages, occurring in extremely few words. For this reason, it is
printed in the tables above in parentheses. However, /b/ appears with great frequency in the
written evidence for Aquitanian and Iberian and is reconstructed as part of the basic consonant
system of Palaeo-Basque. */b/ likewise had high frequency in Proto-Celtic, as the high-
frequency centum PIE consonant phonemes */gw/ and */bh/ both became Proto-Celtic */b/.
All of the stop consonants eliminated between centum PIE and Proto-Italo-Celtic, on the one
hand, and Proto-Celtic, on the other, were absent also from Palaeo-Basque. Conversely, the
stop consonant */b/ that had been extremely rare in centum PIE and Proto-Italo-Celtic then
became extremely common in Proto-Celtic, as it was likewise in Palaeo-Basque. It follows that
an adult native speaker of a language with a consonant system like that of Palaeo-Basque
would find it easier to learn Proto-Celtic (or a least to master competently this central aspect
of it) than centum PIE or Proto-Italo-Celtic. This transformation of the consonant system is
consistent with a situation in which adult learners of this description were numerous and in a
position to influence Indo-European speech as passed on to the next generation.47, 77
The steppe component has now been found widely in aDNA samples from Atlantic Europe
(Ireland, Britain, the Iberian Peninsula, and Western France).27, 43, 44, 46, 82–5 It was not present in
the Neolithic or earlier populations of these areas.27, 44, 43, 46 In the various sub-regions the key
transition period appears to be ~4500–4000 years ago.

Figure 3. Zones
of pre-Roman
Indo-European and
non-Indo-European
names in the
Iberian Peninsula:
the dashed green
line shows the
divide, pointing
out group names
with ‘Celt-’ and
the diagnostically
Celtic -briga ‘hill,
hillfort, major town’,
contrasting with
non-IE il(t)i. Some
IE (mostly Celtic) Figure 4. Map illustrating the mutually exclusive distributions of metalwork of the Atlantic Late Bronze Age and
outliers are shown evidence for ancient non-Indo-European languages around the western Mediterranean.
in green.
[ 19 ] Koch | draft
Samples from all sub-regions of the Iberian Peninsula now show basically the same pattern
in which the steppe component appears at this period at a low level (rarely more than
15%) and with a strong male bias (90% of the males with any steppe ancestry have R1b Y
chromosomes).27, 43, 44, 84, 85 This pattern is found both in parts of the Peninsula with evidence
for Ancient Celtic languages (that is the zone of place-names with Celtic brigā ‘hillfort’, Fig.
3) and in parts where non-Indo-European Iberian and Basque languages predominated.47 It
is also the pattern in the modern gene pool of the Basque area, where R1b is predominant
amongst Basque men today. The situation is analogous to parts of South Asia where R1a Y
chromosomes, often found together with Eastern Indo-European languages, are common
also in some non-Indo-European- (Dravidian‑)speaking areas.62 Similarly, the Old Indic from
the Mitanni empire (in present-day northern Syria and Iraq) survives only as the names of
kings and gods and horse and chariot terminology; the incoming warrior élite gave up their
ancestral language for non-Indo-European Hurrian.86 It appears, therefore, that paternal steppe
ancestry was not enough in and of itself to determine the survival of an intrusive steppe
language, i.e. Indo-European. A continued pattern of contacts with and influences from Indo-
European-speaking areas was also necessary.47 This pattern can be illustrated by comparing the
survival of Palaeo-Basque/Aquitanian73 and Iberian languages87 in South-west Europe to the
distribution of the metalwork that defines the Atlantic Bronze Age (~1300–900 BC)88, 89: these
show a direct inverse relationship (Fig. 4).47
The aDNA evidence from the Iberian Peninsula—specifically a widespread low level of the
steppe component with a strong male bias27—is consistent with a scenario of substratum
influence from the language of mothers. The pattern reflects a situation in which successive
generations of men with steppe DNA were exceptionally successful in producing offspring with
indigenous Iberian women, who probably spoke an indigenous non-IE language or languages
with a consonant system similar to that of Palaeo-Basque.
On the other hand, the result of Olalde et al. for British Beaker People—which showed a 90%
replacement of the British Neolithic population43—would not lead us to expect substratum
influence on the language of the incoming group. However, the same study also detected
a reduction of steppe ancestry in samples of the Iron Age and Roman Period from South-
east Britain. One possible explanation is that this reflects a resurgence of surviving Neolithic
ancestry that had remained invisible in the remains available for the British Beaker Period and
Bronze Age. That is what many archaeologists expect, as the high population-replacement
figure was startling, seemingly inconsistent with the less complete break reflected in the
material culture.90, 91 In other words, it may not be only in the Iberian Peninsula that there were
favourable conditions in Atlantic Europe for indigenous languages to have had an impact on
the incoming Indo-European.
Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 20 ]
Working hypothesis 7: The origins of Basque
1. The prehistoric ancestor of the Basque language was already in SW Europe when Indo-
Europeans with steppe ancestry arrived in the Early Bronze Age (~4500–4000 BP).
2. That prehistoric non-IE language could go back to the First Farmers from Anatolia
(arriving (~7500 BP).
3. However, Iberian aDNA shows Western Hunter-Gather (WHG) admixture—so a
linguistic continuity from the Mesolithic or Palaeolithic cannot be immediately ruled
out.
4. Comparative evidence for other pre-IE languages in Europe and Anatolia may help to
decide. In other words, was the language of the First Farmers related to Basque?
As formulated by Renfrew, the Anatolian Hypothesis of PIE origins envisioned Indo-European
reaching Western Europe, brought by the first farmers of Anatolian ancestry (arriving ~5500
BC in Iberia), and their language evolved into Celtic in situ there.96, 97, 100 By default, that would
push the origins of Basque back before farming, to WHG. Now that archaeogenetic evidence
consistent with the steppe hypothesis is known and reveals in particular the arrival of a large
and dynamic group of newcomers related to other Indo-European speakers ~2500–2000 BC,
the linguistic forebears of pre-IE Basque can be moved forward to the available slot of the First
Farmers. That is the least problematical solution. A key element of Renfrew’s original reasoning
remains compelling: if the First Farmers expanded across Europe from a compact homeland in
the Near East, it is likely that they introduced a single new language or a single family of closely
related languages. In that much, the new aDNA evidence has actually confirmed Renfrew’s
hypothesis in showing that the First Farmers in Europe were associated with a specific genetic
type.1, 2, 106, 107, 109
However, the Neolithic Iberians were not of pure Anatolian Neolithic ancestry, but also show
WHG admixture.44, 85 It could be possible to judge better whether or not a pre-Neolithic source
in Western Europe is a remote possibility for the Basque language through further research in
three areas. First, additional gauging of WHG admixture: as more genomes at higher resolution
become available we will gain a clearer idea of the degree of survival of pre-Neolithic
population in South-west Europe. Second, the building of megalithic monuments was a
distinctive cultural feature that, to a certain extent at least, united Neolithic Atlantic Europe as
a region and distinguished it from other parts of Neolithic Europe.40, 101 Where did this tradition
come from? Were its origins pre-Neolithic? Recent work by Schulz Paulsson supports the case
that monumental earthen burials began in North-west France ~5000 BC, then spread from
the Paris Basin to Brittany (Carnac), by ~4800 BC. The earliest megalith building arose there in
the following centuries, then spread by sea. For Brittany this dating is early enough to allow
that the ideology and practice might precede farming.102 Of course, these two points—WHG
admixture and possible pre-Neolithic origins for megalithism—are circumstantial and only
suggestive rather than decisive regarding possible WHG origins for the Basque language.
Linguistic evidence could be more decisive. In this last area, we might make progress with
a detailed comparison of Basque, the closely related Aquitanian, and typologically similar
[ 21 ] Koch | draft
Figure 5. Map showing developments before ~4500 BP: 1) primary outward migration from Yamnaya on the Pontic–
Caspian steppe, bringing with it the genetic steppe component and PIE 2 speech to found CWC in northern Europe
and Afanasievo in the Siberian Altai; 2) the Proto-Beaker package spreads by sea from its origin in the Tagus estuary
to Brittany and Mediterranean France. In Figures 5 and 6, straight sans-serif type indicates archaeological cultures,
italic sans-serif type indicates linguistic stages, and straight serif type indicates genetic structure.
Iberian, on the one hand, and traces of other non-IE languages, following back eastwards along
the route farming took from Anatolia—thus studying Palaeo-Sardinian, Etruscan and Rhaetian,
Minoan and the pre-Greek words and names in the Aegean,103 Eteo-Cypriot,104 and in Anatolia
itself Hattic105 and Hurrian106, as well as the better known Semitic and Caucasian language
families. Such a programme would certainly be a challenge and possibly fruitless. There are
known pitfalls and numerous failed attempts to connect past with several of these languages.75
It would require sustained effort to push past the superficial. But a rigorous project along these
lines might uncover evidence for one non-IE language or family of languages spreading west
with farming. Or, with the reverse outcome, such research could give us a clearer idea whether
non-IE languages in the West look fundamentally unlike those in and nearer to Anatolia?
Continuity or discontinuity? If the former, that would be consistent with deriving Basque
from the language of the First Farmers. A clear case of the latter would be consistent with the
hypothesis deriving Basque from a WHG language.
Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 22 ]
Conclusion
From about 500 BC written history achieves a much wider awareness of Eurasia and its
peoples, opening a new window onto non-literate groups in the North. At this time the two
most extensive branches are documented at opposite ends of the Indo-European world. In
the West, stretching from the Atlantic to Central Europe, was Celtic. Indo-Iranian extended far
eastwards to the great mountain ranges in the middle of Asia—the Altai, Tian Shan, Pamirs,
Hindu Kush, and Himalayas. As Celts and Iranian-speaking Scythians, the two branches met
along the Danube. This cultural confrontation gave rise to the systematized Classical view of a
northern barbaricum divided between Celts in the West and Scythians in the East.
Archaeogenetic evidence published in 201826, 43 shows that the Botai–Tersek culture (~3700–
3100 BC on the North Kazakhstan steppe, credited with first domestication of the horse37,
110
) and the Proto-Beaker package (~2800 BC on the Tagus estuary in central Portugal) arose
amongst populations genetically unrelated to their contemporaries on the Pontic–Caspian
[ 23 ] Koch | draft Formation of the Indo-European branches [ 24 ]

Figure 6. Map showing developments after ~4500 BP: 1) reflux of from north-eastern Europe
bringing with it Proto-Indo-Iranian from PIE 6 and a genetic signature with ~68% steppe
component and ~24% MNE; this genetic signature and Indo-Iranian speech subsequently spread
from the Sintashta culture eastward to the Andronovo horizon and thence to South Asia; 2) the
reflux of the Bell Beaker Complex westward from west-central Europe, bringing with it a form of
Indo-European speech, probably Pre-Italo-Celtic.

steppe. From this, it is inferred that the Botai–Tersek and Proto-Beaker People probably spoke
non-Indo-European languages.
In Hypotheses 3 and 5 above, it is argued that the migrations that resulted in the vast extents
of these two branches took place after ~2500 BC. They were not the immediate effects of the
primary gene flow from the Yamnaya Pontic–Caspian steppe ~3100–2700 BC, but secondary
refluxes some centuries later, pushing out at either end of Corded Ware northern Europe,
between the Rhine and Volga. In the West, an innovative version of the Beaker package
expanded, returning westward, including new movements into Britain and Ireland. These
issued from the Beaker–CWC fusion zone by the Lower Rhine. The genetic populations
associated with the Beaker Package were heterogeneous, and it is argued here that they were
linguistically heterogeneous likewise—beginning amongst probable non-Indo-Europeans in
Iberia, then adopted by speakers of Pre-Italo-Celtic PIE north and east of the Pyrenees, then
coming into contact with Pre-Germanic/Balto-Slavic/Indo-Iranian when they settled alongside
western CWC groups, east of the Rhine. Apart from the ambiguous evidence of some probably
alteuropäisch names west of the CWC zone, most of the linguistic evidence associated with
this reflux is Celtic.
On the eastern end of the CWC, Abashevo can be seen as the main forebear of Sintashta on
the Transural steppe. Sintashta was itself the forerunner of the vastly extensive Andronovo
horizon of western Central Asia. That Sintashta’s founders represented a reflux of a group of
steppe background returning from northern Europe is indicated by a genetic profile ~68%
steppe ancestry, ~24% EMN, ~8% West Siberian HG.
The chief competitive advantages behind both the western and eastern reflux expansions
were technologies of mobility. Whatever the appeal had been of the communal drinking
of the Beaker People, their ideal of warrior as bowman, and burial rites harking back to
the Atlantic megalithic past, the Proto-Beaker homeland on the lower Tagus and the rapid
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