I've long been fascinated with Indo-European studies, so I really enjoyed and appreciated this episode!
One thing I realized while researching Indo-European migration (after listening to your episode) is how similar the Proto-Indo-Europeans were to other ethnic groups of the Eurasian Steppe, as they were also nomadic pastoralists with domesticated horses. When I studied world history in high school, I was disappointed that our textbook mostly treated Central Asia and the Steppe as a backwater where random groups of invaders come from; the focus was on the societies being invaded. But the Steppe is an influential region and somewhat contiguous culture in its own right.
Your podcast is fascinating. I remember reading about Indo-European in school but so much has been learned since then. I thank you for bringing me more up to date!
Thanks so much for the great episode! I love this topic and it was an entertaining listen.
You mentioned that there are calcified remnants of the Yamnaya Horizon that show up in later cultures around the Mediterranean and I was wondering if you have any examples of that? I find it fascinating when these traces of a long-past world show up in more familiar parts of history.
No dude @_@ I just looked up their rugs. They may indeed have grasped the depths of civilization... the people on their rugs... their moustach- THEIR MOUSTACHES OMG.
This is borderline literary criticism, not history stuff, but I want to praise your narrative format in particular! I've tried to read various history books and having a narrative flow makes it so much more accessible and understandable, and that narrative is what drew me to your podcast to start with. It occurred to me this week that doing this narrative work for prehistory must be really hard! You don't have characters, you barely even have events to work with. It's so cool that you've managed to do it so well.
The other thing I love about your podcast is the vivid visual language, that activates the imagination, and there was less of that with the PIE this week. I also picked up "The Horse, The Wheel, and Language" (by accident, before your recommendation) and it's so full of technical information that I wonder if the technical side of things crowded out the imagination, just for this episode.
I'm really curious about how the PIE made their way out of the steppe, so I'm hoping you come back to them? I guess the book will get to it. :)
I also had a brainwave this week about the genetics of lactose tolerance/intolerance ... In the specific sense it's clearly (probably?) related to pastoralism, so I wonder if it's geographic spread is related to the Proto Indo Europeans.
More generally lactose tolerance is a rare example of a biological difference that's "recent" in evolutionary terms, and entirely driven by behavior. So it seems like a really interesting thing that might fall in the scope of your narrative. Or a mailbag episode.:)
I've long been fascinated with Indo-European studies, so I really enjoyed and appreciated this episode!
One thing I realized while researching Indo-European migration (after listening to your episode) is how similar the Proto-Indo-Europeans were to other ethnic groups of the Eurasian Steppe, as they were also nomadic pastoralists with domesticated horses. When I studied world history in high school, I was disappointed that our textbook mostly treated Central Asia and the Steppe as a backwater where random groups of invaders come from; the focus was on the societies being invaded. But the Steppe is an influential region and somewhat contiguous culture in its own right.
Your podcast is fascinating. I remember reading about Indo-European in school but so much has been learned since then. I thank you for bringing me more up to date!
Thanks so much for the great episode! I love this topic and it was an entertaining listen.
You mentioned that there are calcified remnants of the Yamnaya Horizon that show up in later cultures around the Mediterranean and I was wondering if you have any examples of that? I find it fascinating when these traces of a long-past world show up in more familiar parts of history.
No dude @_@ I just looked up their rugs. They may indeed have grasped the depths of civilization... the people on their rugs... their moustach- THEIR MOUSTACHES OMG.
I have a background in linguistics so some of this was familiar to me, but a lot was not.
I appreciate your accessible and engaging writing style.
Patrick, in case you haven't seen it, you might find this link interesting given this episode on language. https://mymodernmet.com/comic-artist-illustrated-linguistic-tree/
Jeff
This is borderline literary criticism, not history stuff, but I want to praise your narrative format in particular! I've tried to read various history books and having a narrative flow makes it so much more accessible and understandable, and that narrative is what drew me to your podcast to start with. It occurred to me this week that doing this narrative work for prehistory must be really hard! You don't have characters, you barely even have events to work with. It's so cool that you've managed to do it so well.
The other thing I love about your podcast is the vivid visual language, that activates the imagination, and there was less of that with the PIE this week. I also picked up "The Horse, The Wheel, and Language" (by accident, before your recommendation) and it's so full of technical information that I wonder if the technical side of things crowded out the imagination, just for this episode.
I'm really curious about how the PIE made their way out of the steppe, so I'm hoping you come back to them? I guess the book will get to it. :)
I also had a brainwave this week about the genetics of lactose tolerance/intolerance ... In the specific sense it's clearly (probably?) related to pastoralism, so I wonder if it's geographic spread is related to the Proto Indo Europeans.
More generally lactose tolerance is a rare example of a biological difference that's "recent" in evolutionary terms, and entirely driven by behavior. So it seems like a really interesting thing that might fall in the scope of your narrative. Or a mailbag episode.:)