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The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory or Kurgan model) is the most widely accepted proposal of several solutions to explain the origins and spread of the Indo-European languages. It postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language. The term is derived from ''kurgan'' (), a Turkic loanword in Russian for a tumulus or burial mound. The Kurgan hypothesis was first formulated in the 1950s by Marija Gimbutas, who used the term to group various cultures, including the Yamna, or Pit Grave, culture and its predecessors. David Anthony instead uses the core Yamna Culture and its relationship with other cultures as a point of reference. Marija Gimbutas defined the "Kurgan culture" as composed of four successive periods, with the earliest (Kurgan I) including the Samara and Seroglazovo cultures of the Dnieper/Volga region in the Copper Age (early 4th millennium BC). The bearers of these cultures were nomadic pastoralists, who, according to the model, by the early 3rd millennium BC had expanded throughout the Pontic-Caspian steppe and into Eastern Europe.〔Gimbutas (1985) page 190.〕 ==Overview== Arguments for the identification of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as steppe nomads from the Pontic-Caspian region had already been made in the 19th century by Theodor Benfey and pre-eminently Otto Schrader.〔Otto Schrader (1890). ''Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte'', vol. 2. Jena, Ger.: Hermann Costanoble.〕 In his standard work about PIE and even more in a later abbreviated version, Karl Brugmann took the view that the Urheimat could not be identified exactly at that time, but he tended to Schrader’s view.〔Karl Brugmann (1886). ''Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen'', vol. 1.1, Strassburg 1886, p. 2.〕〔Karl Brugmann (1904). ''Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen'', vol. 1, Strassburg 1902, p. 22-23.〕 Later on, some scholars favoured the view of a Northern European origin. The view of a Pontic origin was still strongly favoured, e.g., by the archaeologist Ernst Wahle.〔Ernst Wahle (1932). ''Deutsche Vorzeit'', Leipzig 1932.〕 One of Wahle's students was Jonas Puzinas, who in turn was one of Gimbutas’ teachers. Gimbutas, who acknowledges Schrader as a precursor, was able to marshal a wealth of archaeological evidence from the territory of the Soviet Union (and other then-communist countries) not readily available to scholars from western countries, enabling her to achieve a fuller picture of prehistoric Europe. When it was first proposed in 1956, in ''The Prehistory of Eastern Europe'', Part 1, Marija Gimbutas's contribution to the search for Indo-European origins was an interdisciplinary synthesis of archaeology and linguistics. The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins identifies the Pontic-Caspian steppe as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) Urheimat, and a variety of late PIE dialects are assumed to have been spoken across the region. According to this model, the Kurgan culture gradually expanded until it encompassed the entire Pontic-Caspian steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Pit Grave culture of around 3000 BC. The mobility of the Kurgan culture facilitated its expansion over the entire Pit Grave region, and is attributed to the domestication of the horse and later the use of early chariots. The first strong archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from the Sredny Stog culture north of the Azov Sea in Ukraine, and would correspond to an early PIE or pre-PIE nucleus of the 5th millennium BC. Subsequent expansion beyond the steppes led to hybrid, or in Gimbutas's terms "kurganized" cultures, such as the Globular Amphora culture to the west. From these kurganized cultures came the immigration of Proto-Greeks to the Balkans and the nomadic Indo-Iranian cultures to the east around 2500 BC. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kurgan hypothesis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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