Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe with J.P. Mallory

J. .P Mallory speaks on Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe at the Silk Road Symposium held at the Penn Museum held in March 2011.

Contacts between Europe and China that bridged the Eurasian steppelands are part of a larger story of the dispersal of the Indo-European languages that were carried to Ireland (Celtic) in the west and the western frontiers of China (Tokharian, Iranian) in the east. Reviewing some of the problems of these expansions 15 years ago, the author suggested that it was convenient to discuss the expansions in terms of several fault lines -- the Dnieper, the Ural and Central Asia. The Dnieper is critical for resolving issues concerning the different models of Indo-European origins and more recent research forces us to reconsider the nature of the Dnieper as a cultural border. Recent research has also suggested that we need to reconsider the eastern periphery of the Indo-European world and how it relates to its western neighbors.

J.P. Mallory is Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

More at http://www.penn.museum

Category:

Education

Tags:

• silk road
• china
• xinjiang
• celtic
• iran
• indo-european

[ZEHM89]

@loojinrome well when you decide to basically ignore the strongest evidence available, then you're kinda asking for at least one academic feud.

[AntiochusMegas]

Always loved Jim Mallory's lectures, his dry wit and wide ranging examples really added flavour to his presentations. Anytime I watch a great mind like his present a lecture I suddenly realise just how little I know about archaeology and how much I still have to learn.

[loojinrome]

Very entertaining on his academic feud with Renfrew.

[AmHaArez]

The more proper name of the culture is "Cucuteni", not "Trypolie", and I find it disappointing that Mallory only uses the latter term, especially because the models he presents refer particularly to this western aspect of the "Cucuteni-Trypolie" civilization.