Who Were the Proto-Indo-Europeans?
Tides of History
Audible / Patrick Wyman
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 November 2020
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, everywhere from Bengal to British Columbia, some 3.2 billion people speak an Indo-European language. All of these diverse languages are descended from a common ancestor spoken long before the advent of writing. But where and when was that, and who were the speakers of Proto-Indo-European? Follow us more than 5,000 years back in time to a story about livestock herding, horseback riding, chieftains, burial mounds, and powerful new gods.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Tides of History, add free on Amazon Music. |
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| 0:06.0 | The wheels creaked and moaned as they rolled over the grassland, solid wood crushing parallel |
| 0:21.5 | trails in the tall, swaying stalks. |
| 0:25.6 | The oxen pulling the wagon fell out occasionally as they strained against their yokes, slowly |
| 0:29.9 | plotting up the gentle rises and shallow depressions of the endless Eurasian step. |
| 0:35.4 | It was dry here in the middle of summer and hot. |
| 0:38.7 | Sweat soaked the wool and leather clothing of the herders. |
| 0:41.6 | They were calling out to each other and their dogs from the backs of their horses as they |
| 0:45.7 | maintained order among their great crowds of cattle and sheep. |
| 0:49.6 | The sun beat down on them from a cloudless sky, a canopy of unbroken blue that seemed to |
| 0:54.0 | stretch on and on into eternity. |
| 0:57.1 | The herders gods were sky gods, deus prachter for most among them, and he watched over |
| 1:02.0 | them as they lived out their lives on the infinite grassland. |
| 1:06.0 | Finally, the wagons rolled to a halt. |
| 1:09.2 | They stopped just short of a cluster of tents pitched on the bluff above a small river |
| 1:13.0 | staking its way through the grass. |
| 1:15.3 | A series of enormous earthen mounds rose up still higher above the flowing water, bumps |
| 1:19.9 | visible from miles around against the blue sky. |
| 1:24.6 | This was where the herders' chieftains were buried when they died, where the poets came |
| 1:28.3 | to sing songs of praise for their deeds and raids and battles. |
| 1:32.3 | This was where the priests slaughtered animals as sacrifices to the divine, renewing the oaths |
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