Laura Spinney

So it's the same term they use to describe the Mongols, the Sarmatians, the Scythians, and the Yamnaya were the original Perikartipoli.

So linguists have reconstructed probably about 1600 words of their vocabulary. Yeah. Essentially, they're stems, not words. That means that they are the stem of a word that can be turned into other words when it's treated by the rules of grammar. But it's still a skeleton of the original vocabulary they would have used.

So linguists have reconstructed probably about 1600 words of their vocabulary. Yeah. Essentially, they're stems, not words. That means that they are the stem of a word that can be turned into other words when it's treated by the rules of grammar. But it's still a skeleton of the original vocabulary they would have used.

So linguists have reconstructed probably about 1600 words of their vocabulary. Yeah. Essentially, they're stems, not words. That means that they are the stem of a word that can be turned into other words when it's treated by the rules of grammar. But it's still a skeleton of the original vocabulary they would have used.

But those are the words they're fairly sure of having been able to reconstruct from the living descendants or from the vocabulary of the dead languages that are related. And it's enough to say a little bit about the world that those people inhabited, even about their social norms, the way they organized their families, the way they For example, we know that it was a patriarchal society.

But those are the words they're fairly sure of having been able to reconstruct from the living descendants or from the vocabulary of the dead languages that are related. And it's enough to say a little bit about the world that those people inhabited, even about their social norms, the way they organized their families, the way they For example, we know that it was a patriarchal society.

But those are the words they're fairly sure of having been able to reconstruct from the living descendants or from the vocabulary of the dead languages that are related. And it's enough to say a little bit about the world that those people inhabited, even about their social norms, the way they organized their families, the way they For example, we know that it was a patriarchal society.

We know that it was a patrilocal society, meaning that the women moved into their husbands' houses at marriage. Why do we know that? We know that because, for example, there are many words for a woman's in-laws in the reconstructed vocabulary, but none for a man's in-laws. which would make sense if the woman moves into the man's household upon marriage.

We know that it was a patrilocal society, meaning that the women moved into their husbands' houses at marriage. Why do we know that? We know that because, for example, there are many words for a woman's in-laws in the reconstructed vocabulary, but none for a man's in-laws. which would make sense if the woman moves into the man's household upon marriage.

We know that it was a patrilocal society, meaning that the women moved into their husbands' houses at marriage. Why do we know that? We know that because, for example, there are many words for a woman's in-laws in the reconstructed vocabulary, but none for a man's in-laws. which would make sense if the woman moves into the man's household upon marriage.

So we know, for example, that they did quite a lot of raiding, that they could be violent, but they also had words for things like restitution and blood price. So they had ways of dealing with violence, ways of regulating violence. relationships, ways of dealing with disputes, pacifying people. And we can see all that from this reconstructed vocabulary.

So we know, for example, that they did quite a lot of raiding, that they could be violent, but they also had words for things like restitution and blood price. So they had ways of dealing with violence, ways of regulating violence. relationships, ways of dealing with disputes, pacifying people. And we can see all that from this reconstructed vocabulary.

So we know, for example, that they did quite a lot of raiding, that they could be violent, but they also had words for things like restitution and blood price. So they had ways of dealing with violence, ways of regulating violence. relationships, ways of dealing with disputes, pacifying people. And we can see all that from this reconstructed vocabulary.

So we can tell quite a lot about the world that they inhabited, not the full picture, but aspects of that world from the vocabulary.

So we can tell quite a lot about the world that they inhabited, not the full picture, but aspects of that world from the vocabulary.

So we can tell quite a lot about the world that they inhabited, not the full picture, but aspects of that world from the vocabulary.

Absolutely crucial. If you think about it, before history, before states, before any kind of government that could impose a language on a large group of people, how do languages spread? They spread essentially with the people who speak them. And the Yamnaya we know were very mobile people.

Absolutely crucial. If you think about it, before history, before states, before any kind of government that could impose a language on a large group of people, how do languages spread? They spread essentially with the people who speak them. And the Yamnaya we know were very mobile people.

Absolutely crucial. If you think about it, before history, before states, before any kind of government that could impose a language on a large group of people, how do languages spread? They spread essentially with the people who speak them. And the Yamnaya we know were very mobile people.

And we know because, again, back to the genetics from the ancient DNA, we can trace people in different kergans under these burial mounds and different step cemeteries. And then in cemeteries further afield, we can trace genetic links. And we can see from the ancestry that the Yamnaya carried and cross-referencing that with that of their descendants. We can see that they moved vast distances.