Anatolian hypothesis

Theory of origin of Proto Indo Europeans

The Anatolian hypothesis, also known as the Anatolian theory or the sedentary farmer theory, first developed by British archaeologist Colin Renfrew in 1987, proposes that the dispersal of Proto Indo Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia. It is the main competitor to the Kurgan hypothesis, or steppe theory, which enjoys more academic favor.

Research published in 2003 of "87 languages with 2,449 lexical items" by Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson found an age range for the "initial Indo European divergence" of 7800 to 9800 years, which was found to be consistent with the Anatolian hypothesis. Using stochastic models to evaluate the presence or absence of different words across Indo European, concluded that the origin of Indo European goes back about 8500 years, the first split being that of Hittite from the rest (Indo Hittite hypothesis). In 2006, the authors of the paper responded to their critics. In 2011, the authors and S. Greenhill found that two different datasets were also consistent with their theory. An analysis by Ryder and Nicholls (2011) found support for the Anatolian hypothesis:
Our main result is a unimodal posterior distribution for the age of Proto Indo European centred at 8400 years before Present with 95% highest posterior density interval equal to 7100–9800 years before Present. Bouckaert et al. (2012), including Gray and Atkinson, conducted a computerized phylogeographic study, using methods drawn from the modeling of the spatial diffusion of infectious diseases; it also showed strong support for the Anatolian hypothesis despite having undergone corrections and revisions. Colin Renfrew commented on this study, stating that "[f]inally we have a clear spatial picture." The linguist Andrew Garrett, commenting on Bouckaert et al. (2012), stated, "There is bias in the underlying data that leads to an erroneous conclusion, and strong evidence that is ignored which still strongly supports the Kurgan hypothesis." "Bayesian analysis has come to be widely used in archaeological chronologies Its application to linguistic prehistory, however, has proved controversial, in particular on the issue of Indo European origins. Dating and mapping language distributions back into prehistory has an inevitable fascination, but has remained fraught with difficulty. This review of recent studies highlights the potential of increasingly sophisticated Bayesian phylogenetic models, while also identifying areas of concern, and ways in which the models might be refined to address them. Notwithstanding these remaining limitations, in the Indo European case the results from Bayesian phylogenetics continue to reinforce the argument for an Anatolian rather than a Steppe origin." Chang et al. (2015) also conducted a lexicostatistical (and some glottochronological) study, which produced results different from the results produced by Gray and Atkinson. The study instead supported the Kurgan hypothesis.

Piggot (1983) states that PIE contains words for technologies that make their first appearance in the archaeological record in the Late Neolithic, in some cases bordering on the early Bronze Age, some belonging to the oldest layers of PIE. The lexicon includes words relating to agriculture (dated to 7500 BC), stockbreeding (6500 BC), metallurgy (5500 BC), the plough (4500 BC), gold (4500 BC), domesticated horses (4000–3500 BC) and wheeled vehicles (4000–3400 BC). Horse breeding is thought to have originated with the Sredny Stog culture, semi nomadic pastoralists living in the forest steppe zone, now in Ukraine. Wheeled vehicles are thought to have originated with Funnelbeaker culture in what is now Poland, Belarus and parts of Ukraine. According to Mallory and Adams (2006), linguistic analysis shows that the Proto Indo European lexicon seems to include words for a range of inventions and practices related to the Secondary Products Revolution, which postdates the early spread of farming. On lexico cultural dating, Proto Indo European cannot be earlier than 4000 BC. According to Anthony and Ringe (2015) the main objection to the Anatolian hypothesis is that it requires an unrealistically early date. Most estimates date Proto Indo European between 4500 and 2500 BC, with the most probable date around 3700 BC. It is unlikely that late PIE, even after the separation of the Anatolian branch, postdates 2500 BC, as Proto Indo Iranian is usually dated to just before 2000 BC. On the other hand, it is not very likely that early PIE predates 4500 BC, as the reconstructed vocabulary strongly suggests a culture of the terminal phase of the Neolithic bordering on the early Bronze Age.

Many Indo European languages have cognate words meaning axle: Latin axis, Lithuanian ašis, Russian: os', and Sanskrit: ákṣa. (In some, a similar root is used for the word armpit: eaxl in Old English, axilla in Latin, and kaksa in Sanskrit.) All of them are linked to the PIE root h₂eḱs The reconstructed PIE root yeu g gives rise to Old High German joh, juh, Hittite iukan, Latin iugum, Greek ζυγόν, zygón and Sanskrit yugá(m), all meaning yoke. Words for wheel and cart/wagon/chariot take one of two common forms, thought to be linked with two PIE roots: the root kʷel "move around" is the basis of the unique derivative kʷekʷlo "wheel" which becomes hvél (wheel) in Old Icelandic, kolo (wheel, circle) in Old Church Slavonic, kãkla (neck) in Lithuanian, κύκλος, kýklos (wheel, circle) in Greek, cakka /cakra (wheel) in Pali and Sanskrit, and kukäl (wagon, chariot) in Tocharian A. The root ret(h) becomes rad (wheel) in Old High German, rota (wheel) in Latin, rãtas (wheel) in Lithuanian and ratha (wagon, chariot) in Sanskrit. The trail of plant domesticates indicates an initial foray from the Levant by sea. The overland route via Anatolia seems to have been most significant in spreading farming to Southeastern Europe.

A genetic study from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2015) favors Gimbutas's Kurgan hypothesis over Renfrew's Anatolian hypothesis but "does not reveal the precise origin of PIE, nor does it clarify the impact Kurgan migrations had on different parts of Europe". Lazaridis et al. (2016) noted on the origins of Ancestral North Indians:
"Nonetheless, the fact that we can reject West Eurasian population sources from Anatolia, mainland Europe, and the Levant diminishes the likelihood that these areas were sources of Indo European (or other) languages in South Asia." However, Lazaridis et al. previously admitted being unsure "if the steppe is the ultimate source" of the Indo European languages and believe that more data is needed. Archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen argues that the combination of recent linguistic research and evidence from ancient DNA studies has 'largely falsified' the Anatolian hypothesis. Linguist Alwin Kloekhorst has stated that the confirmation by recent ancient DNA studies of massive migrations from the steppe to areas of Europe and Asia means that "no one can seriously uphold the Anatolian hypothesis for Classical Proto Indo European anymore."