Draft:Chronology of Indo-Aryan migrations

Chronology of Indo-Aryan migrations


 * 7th millennium BCE to the second: PIE must have been spoken as a single language or a group of related dialects (before divergence began), though estimates of when this was by different authorities can vary massively, from the 7th millennium BCE to the second


 * Late 6th and early 5th millennium BCE: The Samara culture develops at a bend in the Volga, marking the introduction of cattle on the Pontic steppes and the change from foragist to pastoralist cultures.
 * c. 5200 BCE: The introduction of cattle leads to the development of a hierarchical social system with chieftains, patron-client systems, and the exchange of goods and gifts.￼
 * 5th or 4th millennia BCE: A number of hypotheses have been proposed for the origin and spread of the language, the most popular among linguists being the Kurgan hypothesis, which postulates an origin in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Eastern Europe in the 5th or 4th millennia BCE
 * 5th–4th millennia BCE: The diffusion of Indo-European languages begins from the proto-Indo-European homeland at the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
 * c. 4200–4100 BCE: Climate change causes colder winters in Europe, prompting migrations and the collapse of Old Europe.￼
 * 4200–4000 BCE: A migration of archaic Proto-Indo-European speaking steppe herders into the lower Danube valley took place about 4200–4000 BCE, either causing or taking advantage of the collapse of Old Europe.
 * c. 4000 BCE: Indo-European languages begin to spread west, south, and east from the Pontic steppes.
 * 3500–3000 BCE: Yamna horizon adapts to drier and cooler climates, resulting in a more mobile pastoral lifestyle.￼
 * 3rd millennium BCE: Ecological changes cause the collapse of sedentary urban cultures in South Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, and India.￼
 * c. 2200 BCE–100 CE: Admixture between Ancestral North Indians (ANI) and Ancestral South Indians (ASI) in the Indian subcontinent, followed by a shift to endogamy.￼
 * c. 2200–1900 BCE: The Proto-Indo-Iranian culture develops on the Central Asian steppes as the Sintashta culture, situated in present-day Russia and Kazakhstan.
 * 2nd millennium BCE: Climate change leads to water shortages and ecological changes across the Eurasian steppes and Indian subcontinent.￼
 * 2nd millennium BCE: Accumulated linguistic evidence points to the Indo-Aryan languages as intrusive into the Indian subcontinent, some time in the 2nd millennium BCE.


 * 2nd millennium BCE: Widespread aridization leads to water shortages and ecological changes across Eurasia, causing migrations and resulting in the merger of migrating peoples with post-urban cultures.


 * After 2000 BCE: Indo-European migrations out of the Eurasian Steppes begin, spreading Indo-European languages.


 * After 2000 BCE: Indo-Aryan migrations begin into the Levant and possibly Inner Asia.


 * 2000 BCE: Beginning of the Andronovo culture in the same region, extending to approximately 1450 BCE.


 * c. 2000–1600 BCE: Indo-Aryans split off from the Indo-Iranians and migrate southwards to the Bactria–Margiana culture (BMAC).


 * c. 2000–1600 BCE: Indo-Aryans borrow religious beliefs and practices from BMAC.
 * c. 2000–1600 BCE: Indo-Aryans migrate to the Levant and South Asia, while Iranians move into western Iran.￼


 * After 2000 BCE: Indo-Aryan migration into the Indian subcontinent begins during the Late Harappan period, leading to a language shift in the northern Indian subcontinent.


 * c. 2000–1600 BCE: Indo-Aryans migrate into northern Syria and, possibly in multiple waves, into the Punjab (northern Pakistan and India).
 * 1800 BCE, there is a major cultural change in the Swat Valley with the emergence of the Gandhara grave culture.
 * Mid-2nd millennium BCE: The oldest known inscribed Indo-Iranian words and invocations of Indo-Aryan deities appear as loanwords in Hurrian treaties of the Mitanni kingdom.Rigvedic and Avestan similarities: Religious practices depicted in the Rigveda and Avesta show similarities, suggesting a shared cultural origin.
 * 1500–1200 BCE: The language of the Rigveda, the earliest stratum of Vedic Sanskrit


 * Before 1300 BCE: The Iranians may have reached western Iran.
 * 800 BCE: Medes, Parthians and Persians begin to appear on the western Iranian Plateau