the horse the wheel and language by david w anthony

During that time, Anthony, along with a handful of others, has pioneered American participation in the study of Eurasian prehistory, including writing the winner of the 2010 SAA Book Award, 'The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.' In-between and since these seminal publications, David Anthony has continued to be highly influential among not just his fellow archaeologists, but also historical linguists and geneticists. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory,' at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.įrom his 1990 article, 'The Baby and the Bathwater: Migration in Archaeology', onwards David Anthony set himself on a sometimes-controversial course: tackling subject matter that many, if not most, archaeologists would rather avoid. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries-the source of the Indo-European languages and English-and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled 'Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European.

The horse the wheel and language by david w anthony