Who Were the Proto-Indo-Europeans?

Tides of History

Wondery / Patrick Wyman

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | 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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