«Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans»

The next fundamental work devoted to the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, the main provisions of which I would like to dwell on, is the work of T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans», where the idea of a common Indo-European ancestral homeland on the territory of the Armenian Highland develops and is thoroughly argued and the adjoining regions of Western Asia, from where part of the Indo-European tribes then advanced into the Black Sea-Caspian steppes.

Paying tribute to the very high level of this encyclopedic work, which collected and analyzed a huge number of linguistic, historical facts, data from archeology and other related sciences, I would like to note that a number of provisions postulated by T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov cause very serious doubts. Thus, V. A. Safronov notes that: «The linguistic facts cited by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov in favor of the localization of the Indo-European ancestral home on the territory of the Armenian Highlands can receive other explanations. Lack of IE hydronymy in the specified area can only testify against the localization of the Indo-European ancestral home in it. The environmental data presented in the analyzed work contradicts such localization even more. On the territory of the Armenian Highlands, almost half of the animals, trees and plants indicated in the list of flora and fauna given by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov, reconstructed into a common Indo-European (aspen, hornbeam, yew, linden, heather, beaver, lynx, black grouse, salmon, elephant, monkey, crab)».

It is precisely on these ecological data given in the work of T. V. Gamkrelidze and Viach. Sun. Ivanova, I would like to dwell in more detail. The authors of the «Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans», in support of their concept, indicate the most ancient names of trees recorded in the ancient Indo-European proto-language. This is birch, oak, beech, hornbeam, ash, aspen, poplar, yew, willow, willow, spruce, pine, fir, alder, walnut, apple, cherry, and dogwood.

As for the Armenian Highlands, at present it is a combination of folded-block ridges and tectonic depressions, often occupied by drainless saline lakes (Van, Urmia), and less often by flowing freshwater (Sevan). The deepest depressions are characterized by semi-desert and even desert landscape. «There are dry feather-grass-fescue steppes, turning into forb-grasses» in places in the middle regions (between 1000 m and 2300 m) there are dry sparse forests of deciduous oaks, pines and junipers. «On the Iranian highlands, in the Zagros mountains (on the western slopes and in the more humid northern part, between 1000 m and 1800 m), park oak forests with the participation of elm and maple are widespread, and in the valleys there are wild mulberries, poplar, oak, and figs. Due to the fact that in the period of the middle of the 1st millennium BC until now is defined by climatologists as a period of cooling and humidification in relation to the climatic optimum of the Holocene (4—3 thousand BC) and the previous time (7—5 thousand BC), there is no reason to assume in these southern territories there is a much more humid and colder climate at 7—3 thousand BC, i.e. time referred to in the work of T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov.

It should be noted that significant fact that the names of many trees are completely absent in the common Indo-European vocabulary, widespread in Anterior and Asia Minor since ancient times. These are: olive (the primary focus of morphogenesis in Asia Minor); apricot (which was even grown in Tripoli settlements in 4 thousand BC); edible chestnut, known in these territories from the Tertiary period; quince in the wild growing in northern Iran, Asia Minor and the Caucasus; loquat, in the wild distributed in the Caucasus, Crimea and the North.

Iran (the primary focus of shaping and introducing into the culture of Asia Minor); almonds (the primary focus of forming Asia and the surrounding areas); figs, found in the wild in the Near East, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean; and, finally, a date, the primary source of domestication of which is South Iran and Afghanistan, de this plant was introduced into the culture in 5—3 thousand BC.

This list can be greatly expanded. But even in such a fragmented form, he confirms that neither Front, nor Asia Minor, nor the Armenian Highlands could be the oldest ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans. And here again I would like to refer to the conclusion of P. Friedrich that: «the Pre-Slavic best of all other groups of Indo-European languages retained the Indo-European tree naming system», and «speakers of the common Slavic language lived in the ecological zone during the general Slavic period (in particular, defined by woody flora), similar or identical to the corresponding zone of the common Indo-European, and after the general Slavic period, the carriers of various Slavic dialects continued to a significant extent to live in a similar area».

Who are these Andronovites?

«I did not write anything about the original Indo-Aryans – about which -the ancestors of the people of Andronovo culture – archaeologists do not know anything yet, but they certainly existed» N. Chlenova.

Yes, they existed, but it should be written about the Andronovites in a broad sense, without taking the final decision on the question of whether they were Indo-Iranians or Iranians by language (although a significant part of the names of rivers, for example, on the territory of Srubnik and Andronovites, is recognized as Iranian). Indeed, some researchers, studying this problem, even came to the conclusion that the Andronovites were a «historical fiction», although most archaeologists and historians pay the most serious attention to the characteristics of the Andronovo culture, its distribution, the connection of Andronovites with other ethnic groups and their influence on the cultural development of these ethnic groups.

We can associate this influence with the period of the settlement of the Andronovites from the main centers of their folding in the middle and southern Urals and adjacent lands, i.e. with the period of their obvious separation from the array of Indo-Iranians, who are usually called by the common name of the Aryans (Aryans). The timing of this release has not yet been determined by researchers.

The monuments of the Andronovo culture, attributed to different periods of its historical development, differ markedly from one another. This should be considered the result of the mixing of separate groups of the Andronovites with other groups of the population that surrounded them or with whom they met, jointly settling in the same territory during their waste from the original common Indo-Iranian lands. Such contacts had to continue for a long time, otherwise archaeologists would not have found clear traces of their stay both in vast territories to the east of the Urals, and in some areas quite remote to the west of it.

The results of such mixing or combining them with other peoples include, quite obviously, the assimilation by these peoples of the elements of their language, which is supposed to be the Iranian language, from which Scythian subsequently developed.

Both branches of the Old Aryan (Indo-Iranian) language (the speakers of which in this collection are called Indo-speaking and Iranian-speaking) have left their noticeable traces on the territory of Eastern Europe – mainly in the vocabulary and names of some rivers. These names are often very persistent and persist for millennia.

Since in that distant era, writing did not yet exist, many words of the Andronovo language, like the forms, their economies and some trends of their religion, were reflected in the ancient parts of the Zoroastrian Avesta they created. The analysis of this monument made it possible to partially reconstruct the pictures of their life and ritual performances close to the Indo-lingual Aryans.

The discovery by archaeologists of many obvious traces of the Andronovo culture on vast lands east and southeast of the Urals makes it possible to identify the massive resettlement of Andronovites in Iran and in areas close to northwest India. It is not excluded that the battles of the Aryans with the Aryans described in the Avesta refer precisely to the border Iranian-Afghan and North Indian regions. It is difficult to define in another way such military contacts, if one does not take into account the fact that in the north-west of India already from the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 2nd millennium BC settled groups of Indo-speaking Aryans, coming wave after wave from the southeastern regions of Europe, mainly from the lands of the Northern Black Sea region. Subsequently, the gradual mixing of the Andronovites with the ancient Iranian (or, which is more often found in literature, the ancient Persian) society was promoted (and accelerated by this process) by the fact that representatives of the ruling dynasties adopted the religion of Zoroastrianism: in Parthia – the Arshakids (3rd century BC – 2nd century AD), and in Iran – the Sassanids (2nd -4th centuries AD).

The Avesta language was formed on the basis of ancient Iranian and ancient Indian dialects familiar to Andronovites (which dates back to the time of the existence of the Aryan, the ancient Indo-Iranian community, which was not divided into two branches). Apparently, that’s why the Avesta is so close to the Rigveda both in language and in the names of the gods.

Zarathushtra reformed common Indo-Iranian beliefs dating back to ancient times, and under the influence of these changes, some Aryan gods began to be described in the Avesta and perceived by the Iranians as enemies of the Zoroastrian gods. Such a transformation, like the folding of the Avesta itself, lasted for several centuries, although its authorship is attributed to one Zarathushtra, who lived at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC.

In the west, among the Indo-European peoples, there are relatively few Iranian borrowings taken from the Andronovites (the main borrowings from this language are associated with the Scythians, 1 millennium BC).

The Finno-Ugric tribes that lived in the Urals, in the Middle Volga region and beyond the Urals, gradually, over the course of a number of centuries, borrowed from the Aryans a certain number of words that are still preserved in their languages. The contacts of the Finno-Ugrians with the Aryans (or, as some scholars call them, common Indo-Iranians) took place in about the second half of the 2nd millennium BC and lasted until the Scythian time, the beginning of which is recognized as the 7th century BC.

Other influences of the Andronovo culture, in addition to borrowing a part from them, vocabulary, are not traced between representatives of these completely different two language families, although the existence of their cultures was almost synchronous.

It is even suggested that some Trans-Ural Finno-Ugric peoples were bilingual, they also knew the Iranian language.

As for the dating of the Andronovo culture, now there is a series of dates established by the radiocarbon method: in particular, the West Andronovo monuments date back to the second half – the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

An extremely interesting point for everyone who is attracted by the history of our distant ancestors is that in the ancient literature of Indo-speaking and Iranian- speaking Aryans, i.e. in the Vedas and Avesta there are indications that the Volga was known to the Aryans.

In the Rig Veda there is only one mention of it – in its 10th book, in the «Hymn to the Rivers,» it speaks of a certain river called the Race. Researchers consider it to be a tributary of the Indus, i.e. rivers on the lands of the settlement of Aryans in India, which had already passed into the realm of myths by some apparently half-forgotten river flowing in heaven.

In the Avesta, the Ranha River (Rangkha, Raha), flowing down from a high mountain, is chanted. Its upper reaches (this word is translated also as coasts) are captured by severe frosts – «the scourge of this country».

And if, as many scholars believe, the Indo-speaking branch of the Aryans left the lands of southeastern Europe east of the Andronovites, it is not surprising that in their memory the memories of this Race, explained as the Volga, were weaker than those of the Andronovites, who settled a considerable part of the coast Volga.

Their Ranha hydronym is close to the names of the Volga, such as Rava, Ravo, Rav, which, as many believe, are borrowed from the Aryan languages, preserved in Mordovian language, for example. So maybe Ranha is the Volga?

In the writings of the Greeks, the Volga is mentioned under the name Rha and Ra. And this series of names Rasa – Ranha – Rangha – Rava – Rha – Ra, in which the last three relate reliably to the Volga, makes us assert in the opinion that the ancient Aryans (both of their branches, but especially the Andronevites) knew the Volga. It is sometimes suggested that the Avestan Ranha could be both the Syr Darya and even the Kabul River in Afghanistan. But such assumptions are immediately crossed out by descriptions of frosts in the «country of this river», and the Avesta speaks of the amazing Ranha Delta, where it flows into the sea «with a whole thousand channels and a thousand lakes» (the anthem of Ardvi-Sure). This is an almost accurate indication of the Volga delta.

Zoroastrians in the Avesta liken the Ranha River to the great goddess Ardvi-Sur, «River-goddess Ardvi.» They glorify her as Ardvi full-flowing, wide and healing, growing vein, feeding herd and the size equal to «all waters taken together». But this entire still does not mean that the word «Ardvi» is a hydronym, i.e. the name of the river. No, this is her mythologized, heavenly name. She is the goddess of the river and it is often difficult to understand in the hymns which one is being discussed. For example: "…the good Ardvi flows from its Creator: beautiful white hands in spacious sleeves» or she "…in a chariot, holding a bridle, strives», and at the same time it flows down from the same mountain as the Ranha river and has a thousand channels. It is clear that by chanting the same object, under a real and celestial name.

It is said about the goddess Ardvi-Sura that she should make abundant sacrifices – a sacrifice that accompanies every appeal to the gods, this is the oldest custom of all the Aryan tribes – and in the Avesta the number of sacrificed animals is brought (as in the Rig Veda) to unprecedented, clearly mythologized volumes like a hundred stallions, a thousand cows and a myriad of sheep. But even such sacrifices do not achieve the goal, if Ardvi is asked to help defeat the Aryans – in this case, she invariably refuses the one asking. This means that the river-goddess, the patroness of the Aryans; was considered Ardvi-Ranha-Volga.

This cannot but be recognized as indisputable evidence of the stay of the Aryan tribes, and a long one, in Eastern Europe; and it is in the Volga and Ural lands. The northern nature is clearly stated in the hymn to Ardvi-Sura, in the description of the fact that four stallions are given to her: «Rain and Wind, Cloud and Hail, they constantly pour moisture… Innumerable snow and hail are poured on her… I pray to Mount Hukarya, …from which the good Ardvi-Sura flows down to us.»

This is all too similar to the Volga, especially in its upper reaches, in the «country of frosts.» But a certain doubt here can be caused by the description of the high altitude of Mount Hukarya, which does not coincide with the Valdai Upland.

Where is this mountain? So let us remember that until relatively recently, the Kama or Belaya rivers were considered the beginning of the Volga. The Russians also call this last White Volozhka, i.e. «White Small Volga». This river really originates from Mount Tiremel, one of the two highest peaks of the Southern Urals (in the Avesta, the Ranha River flows down from a mountain of «a thousand men»).

This means that in this matter, doubts about the identity of Ranha and the Volga should disappear. It is also interesting that Ranha is glorified in the Avesta as a beautiful woman, dressed in a luxurious tuba of 300 beaver skins. Firstly, the very fact of the need to wear a fur coat sharply pushes the mother river from the southern countries to the north. And secondly, it should be remembered that beavers are not found in Iran, and only the Aryan-Andronovites could bring here memories of the need to resort to warm clothes in the winter, and the memory of beavers abundantly found throughout the Volga basin.

Combining all the above data together, we inevitably come to the conclusion – about the irrefutability of the identification of Ranha and Volga, as well as confirming the idea that that the Iranian-speaking branch of the Aryans – Andronovites – came to the southern countries precisely from the region of the Volga-Ural lands, where they lived until the end of the 2nd – beginning of the 1st millennium BC.