Lecture
Horse domestication and Indo-Europeans: a Linguist’s View
- Date
- Thursday 16 July 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 0.11
Abstract
Recent genetic studies have shown that all modern domesticated horse breeds descend from horses associated with the Sintashta culture of the Trans-Urals (ca. 2000 BC). Most scholars identify the inhabitants of this culture as speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian, and this fits well with the linguistic evidence: the proto-language possesses an extensive vocabulary connected with horses, harnessing, and chariot warfare. Yet genetics also reveals that horse populations underwent a sharp decline in genetic diversity already around 2700 BC, indicating that domestication must have begun much earlier. What can historical linguistics tell us about these earlier phases? In this lecture, we shall examine how linguistic evidence can complement archaeology and genetics in reconstructing the prehistory of horse domestication.
This lecture is part of the Summer School in Languages and Linguistics, but is open to anyone who is interested.