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'Indo-Iranian' peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples, that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages. An archaic term for these peoples is Aryan.

Contents

Origin

Expansion

First wave

Second wave

Archaeology

Language

See also

Notes

Sources

External links

Origin

The Indo-Iranians are commonly identified with the Andronovo culture, and their homeland with an area of the Eurasian steppe that borders the Ural River on the west, the Tian Shan on the east (where the Indo-Iranians took over the area occupied by the earlier Afanasevo culture), and Transoxiana and the Hindu Kush on the south. Historical linguists broadly estimate that a continuum of Indo-Iranian languages probably began to diverge by 2000 BCE, if not earlier, preceding both the Vedic and Iranian cultures. The earliest recorded forms of these languages, Vedic Sanskrit and Gathic Avestan, are remarkably similar, descended from the common Proto-Indo-Iranian language. The origin and earliest relationship between the Nuristani languages and that of the Iranian and Indic groups is unrecoverably obscure.

Expansion

Two-wave models of Indo-Iranian expansion have been proposed by and .

First wave

Main articles: Indo-Aryan migration

The Indo-Iranians and their expansion are strongly associated with the chariot. It is assumed that this expansion went into the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau, Afghanistan and India. They also expanded into Mesopotamia and Syria and introduced the horse and chariot culture to this part of the world. Sumerian texts from EDIIIb Girsu (2500-2350 BC) already mention the 'chariot' (gigir) and Ur III texts (2150-2000 BC) mention the horse (anshe-zi-zi).
They left linguistic remains in a Hittite horse-training manual written by one "Kikkuli the Mitannian". Other evidence is found in references to the names of Mitanni rulers and the gods they swore by in treaties; these remains are found in the archives of the Mitanni's neighbors. The time period for this is about 1500 BCE.
The standard model for the entry of the Indo-European languages into India is that this first wave went over the Hindu Kush, either into the headwaters of the Indus or the Ganges (and probably, both). The earliest stratum of Vedic Sanskrit, preserved only in the Rigveda, is assigned to roughly 1200 BCE. From the Indus, the Indo-Aryan languages spread with the migrants who, from c. 1500 BCE to c. 500 BCE, were able to spread over the northern and central parts of the subcontinent, sparing the extreme south. The Indo-Aryans in these areas established several powerful kingdoms and principalities in the region, from eastern Afghanistan to the doorstep of Bengal. The most powerful of these kingdoms was Magadha, which lasted until the 4th century BCE, when it was conquered by Chandragupta Maurya and annexed into the Mauryan empire.
In eastern Afghanistan and southwestern Pakistan, whatever Indo-Aryan languages that were spoken they were eventually pushed out by the Iranian languages. Most Indo-Aryan languages, however, were and still are prominent in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Today, Indo-Aryan languages are spoken in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Second wave

The Second Wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave. The Iranians would take over all of Central Asia, Iran, and for a considerable period, dominate the European steppe (the modern Ukraine) and intrude north into Russia and west into central and eastern Europe well into historic times and as late as the Common Era.
The first Iranians to reach the Black Sea may have been the Cimmerians in the 8th century BCE, although their linguistic affiliation is uncertain. They were followed by the Scythians, who are considered a western branch of the Central Asian Sakas. The Rigvedic Kambojas may correspond to the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian. The Medes, Parthians and Persians begin to appear on the Persian plateau from ca. 800 BCE, and the Achaemenids replaced Elamite rule from 559 BC. Around the first millennium of the Common Era (CE), the Iranian Pashtuns and Baloch began to settle on the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, on the mountainous frontier of northwestern India in what is now the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan, displacing the earlier Indo-Aryans from the area.
In Central Asia, the Turkic languages and culture have replaced Iranian, but a substantial minority remains in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The Iranian languages are now confined to Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, western Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and the Caucasus.

Archaeology

Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian expansion include:

★ Central Asia

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★ Poltavka culture (2700-2100 BCE)

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★ Andronovo horizon (2200-1000 BCE)

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★ Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (2200-1600 BCE),

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★ Alakul (2100-1400 BCE)

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★ Fedorovo (1400-1200 BCE)

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★ Alekseyevka (1200-1000 BCE)

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★ Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (2200-1700 BCE)

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★ Srubna culture (2000-1100 BCE)

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★ Abashevo culture (1700-1500 BCE)

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★ Yaz culture (1500-1100 BCE)

★ India

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★ Swat culture (1600-500 BCE)

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★ Cemetery H culture (1900-1300 BCE)

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★ Painted Gray Ware culture (1100-350 BCE)

★ Iran

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★ Early West Iranian Grey Ware (1500-1000 BCE)

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★ Late West Iranian Buff Ware (900-700 BCE)
suggests the following identifications:

date range	archaeological culture	identification suggested by Parpola
2800-2000 BCE	late Catacomb and Poltavka cultures	late PIE to Proto-Indo-Iranian
2000-1800 BCE	Srubna and Abashevo cultures	Proto-Iranian
2000-1800 BCE	Petrovka-Sintashta	Proto-Indo-Aryan
1900-1700 BCE	BMAC	"Proto-Dasa" Indo-Aryans establishing themselves in the existing BMAC settlements, defeated by "Proto-Rigvedic" Indo-Aryans around 1700
1900-1400 BCE	Cemetery H	Indian Dasa
1800-1000 BCE	Alakul-Fedorovo	Indo-Aryan, including "Proto-Sauma-Aryan" practicing the Soma cult
1700-1400 BCE	early Swat culture	Proto-Rigvedic = Proto-Dardic
1700-1500 BCE	late BMAC	"Proto-Sauma-Dasa", assimilation of Proto-Dasa and Proto-Sauma-Aryan
1500-1000 BCE	Early West Iranian Grey Ware	Mitanni-Aryan (offshoot of "Proto-Sauma-Dasa")
1400-800 BCE	late Swat culture and Punjab, Painted Grey Ware	late Rigvedic
1400-1100 BCE	Yaz II-III, Seistan	Proto-Avestan
1100-1000 BCE	Gurgan Buff Ware, Late West Iranian Buff Ware	Proto-Persian, Proto-Median
1000-400 BCE	Iron Age cultures of Xinjang	Proto-Saka

Language

Main articles: Proto-Indo-Iranian language

The Indo-European language spoken by the Indo-Iranians in the late 3rd millennium BC was a Satem language still not removed very far from the Proto-Indo-European language, and in turn only removed by a few centuries from the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda. The main phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto-Indo-European is the collapse of the ablauting vowels ''
★ e,
★ o,
★ a'' into a single vowel, Proto-Indo-Iranian ''
★ a'' (but see Brugmann's law). Grassmann's law and Bartholomae's law were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian.
Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian to Indo-Aryan is the loss of the voiced sibilant ''
★ z'', among those to Iranian is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.

See also

★ Chariot

★ Soma

★ Mitra

★ Andronovo culture

★ BMAC

★ 'Indo-Aryans'

★ Indo-Aryan migration

★ Mitanni

★ Aryavarta

★ Hinduism

★ 'Iranian peoples'

★ Avestan

★ Zoroastrianism

★ Proto-Indo-Iranian language

★ Vedic Sanskrit

★ Avestan

★ Satemization

★ Graeco-Aryan

★ Iran-India relations

★ Iran-Pakistan relations

Notes

Sources

★ .

★ Jones-Bley, K.; Zdanovich, D. G. (eds.), ''Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC'', 2 vols, JIES Monograph Series Nos. 45, 46, Washington D.C. (2002), ISBN 0-941694-83-6, ISBN 0-941694-86-0.

★ .

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★ .

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★ .

External links

★ The Origin of the Pre-Imperial Iranian Peoples by Oric Basirov (2001)