Kurgan hypothesis facts for kids

Map of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to 1000 BC based on Kurgan model. The red area corresponds to the area that may have been settled by Indo-European-speaking peoples up to ca. 2500 BC, and the orange area by 1000 BC.

The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins is about both the people and their Proto-Indo-European language.

It uses both archaeology and linguistics to show the history of their culture at different stages of the Indo-European expansion.

Background

When it was first suggested in 1956, Marija Gimbutas's answer to the question of Indo-European origins was a pioneering interdisciplinary synthesis of archaeology and linguistics. From the nineties on, new archaeological evidence from Northern European prehistoric cultures was put forward on the influence and expansion of Kurgan cultures.

Related pages

• proto-Indo-Europeans
• Shaft tomb, Tumulus
• Anatolian hypothesis
• Armenian hypothesis

Images for kids

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  Overview of the Kurgan hypothesis

See also

In Spanish: Hipótesis de los kurganes para niños