Over the next few days, you're going to hear some very 'excited' takes about this recent Lazaridis, Reich et al paper - "The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe" - effectively 'dethroning' the Pontic Steppe by positing a pre-Yamnaya "Armenian" Indo-European ur-urheimat. Yet the paper doesn't actually disprove … Continue reading On The Recent Archaeogenetic Speculation As To An Armenian Ur-Urheimat
Indo-European Origins
“Our Mother, Who Reigns Supreme – A Western Reflection of Indian Independence Observance
Where do you come from, Indo-European Man? The Steppe or the Indus Valley? This is a question that has some serious resonancy both in the West and in India, for reasons that are somewhat similar and somewhat different. The answers to that question also differ, driven more or less by the similar reasons. Now, I … Continue reading “Our Mother, Who Reigns Supreme – A Western Reflection of Indian Independence Observance
Musings on a Germanic Hermes
I have often mused that despite sometimes being rather shallow and limited, almost an afterthought, Interpretatio Romana can indeed be sometimes rather insightful. Take for instance, the identification of Odin with Hermes.Now to modern eyes this seems a bit strange to cast the lord of victory and father of the Aesir in the role of … Continue reading Musings on a Germanic Hermes
Warrior-Women of the Steppe?
'Scythian' female horse archer; broadly representative of a perhaps surprisingly viable typology of the Indo-European folk of the Steppe. In my previous piece on Naga Panchami, I briefly mentioned the flawed speculative etymology of Sauromatai, the Sarmatians - noting that some had sought to suggest it derived from scale-like armour and serpentine standards of this … Continue reading Warrior-Women of the Steppe?
GHOST DIVISION – On The BhutaGana of Mahadev & The Einherjar of Odin
GHOST DIVISION - On The BhutaGana of Mahadev & The Einherjar of Odin [Author's Note: This piece was initially intended as an offering for MahaShivRatri, which was this year in early March. A combination of delays in the writing and peer-review process - for which I take full responsibility - meant that it was not … Continue reading GHOST DIVISION – On The BhutaGana of Mahadev & The Einherjar of Odin
Indo-European Origins, Part II: The Nordic, Kurgan, and Anatolian Theories
As Alain de Benoist has noted, there are two main schools of thought on the Indo-European urheimat (homeland): one which derives the Indo-Europeans from the North, and another which brings them from South Russia (and ultimately the Near East). Suprà: Zones of Indo-European origin proposed by scholars over the 19–20th centuries, showing a trend toward … Continue reading Indo-European Origins, Part II: The Nordic, Kurgan, and Anatolian Theories
The Origin of the Indo-Europeans, Part I: Early Theories
The scientific study of the Indo-European language family is generally dated to 1786, when Sir William Jones read his famous paper before the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, which includes these immortal lines: ‘The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and … Continue reading The Origin of the Indo-Europeans, Part I: Early Theories