The termAryan has long been used to denote theIndo-Iranians, becauseĀ́rya was the self-designation of the ancient speakers of theIndo-Iranian languages, specifically theIranian and theIndo-Aryan peoples, collectively known as the Indo-Iranians.[13][14] Despite this, some scholars use the term Indo-Iranian to refer to this group, though the term "Aryan" remains widely used by most scholars, such asJosef Wiesehofer,[15]Will Durant,[16] and Jaakko Häkkinen.[17][18]Population geneticistLuigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, in his 1994 bookThe History and Geography of Human Genes, also uses the term Aryan to describe the Indo-Iranians.[19]
Based on its use by Indo-Aryans inMitanni and Vedic India, its prior absence in the Near East and Harappan India, and its 19th–20th century BC attestation at the Andronovo site ofSintashta, Kuzmina (1994) argues that the chariot corroborates the identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian.[note 2]Anthony & Vinogradov (1995) dated achariot burial atKrivoye Lake to about 2000 BC, and aBactria-Margiana burial that also contains a foal has recently been found, indicating further links with the steppes.[25]
Historical linguists broadly estimate that a continuum of Indo-Iranian languages probably began to diverge by 2000 BC,[26]: 38–39 preceding both theVedic andIranian cultures which emerged later. The earliest recorded forms of these languages,Vedic Sanskrit andGathicAvestan, are remarkably similar, descended from the commonProto-Indo-Iranian language. The origin and earliest relationship between theNuristani languages and that of the Iranian andIndo-Aryan groups is not completely clear.
The Mitanni, a people known in easternAnatolia from about 1500 BC, were of possibly of mixed origins: An indigenous non Indo-EuropeanHurrian-speaking majority was supposedly dominated by a non-Anatolian,Indo-Aryan elite.[29]: 257 There is linguistic evidence for such asuperstrate, in the form of:
the names of gods invoked by these rulers in treaties.
In particular, Kikkuli's text includes words such asaika "one" (i.e. a cognate of the Indo-Aryaneka),tera "three" (tri),panza "five" (pancha),satta "seven", (sapta),na "nine" (nava), andvartana "turn around", in the context of a horse race (Indo-Aryanvartana). In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni, theAshvin deitiesMitra,Varuna,Indra, andNasatya are invoked. Theseloanwords tend to connect the Mitanni superstrate toIndo-Aryan rather thanIranian languages – i.e. the early Iranian word for "one" wasaiva.[citation needed]
The second wave is interpreted as the Iranian wave.[26]: 42–43
Eurasia around 1000 BC, showing location of the Iranians and their neighbors
The first Iranians to reach theBlack Sea 'may' have been theCimmerians in the 8th century BC, although their linguistic affiliation to Iranians is uncertain. They were followed by theScythians, who are considered a western branch of the Central AsianSakas.Sarmatian tribes, of whom the best known are theRoxolani (Rhoxolani),Iazyges (Jazyges) and theAlani (Alans), followed the Scythians westwards into Europe in the late centuries BC and the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (TheAge of Migrations). The populous Sarmatian tribe of theMassagetae, dwelling near the Caspian Sea, were known to the early rulers of Persia in theAchaemenid Period. At their greatest reported extent, around 1st century AD, the Sarmatian tribes ranged from theVistula River to the mouth of theDanube and eastward to theVolga, bordering the shores of theBlack andCaspian seas as well as theCaucasus to the south.[note 3] In the east, the Saka occupied several areas in Xinjiang, from Khotan to Tumshuq.
TheMedians,Persians andParthians begin to appear on theIranian plateau fromc. 800 BC, and theAchaemenids replaced the language isolate speakingElamites rule over the region from 559 BC, although the Iranic peoples were largely subject to theSemitic speakingAssyrian Empire until the 6th century BC. Around the first millennium AD, Iranian groups began to settle on the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau, on the mountainous frontier of northwestern and westernIndian subcontinent, displacing the earlierIndo-Aryans from the area.
TheIndo-European language spoken by the Proto-Indo-Iranians in the late 3rd millennium BC was aSatem language still not removed very far from theProto-Indo-European language, and in turn only removed by a few centuries fromVedic Sanskrit of theRigveda. The main phonological change separating Proto-Indo-Iranian from Proto–Indo-European is the collapse of theablauting vowels*e, *o, *a into a single vowel, Proto–Indo-Iranian*a (but seeBrugmann's law).Grassmann's law andBartholomae's law were also complete in Proto-Indo-Iranian, as well as the loss of the labiovelars (kw, etc.) to k, and the Eastern Indo-European (Satem) shift from palatized k' to ć, as in Proto–Indo-European *k'ṃto- > Indo-Iran. *ćata- > Sanskrit śata-, Old Iran. sata"100".
Among the sound changes from Proto-Indo-Iranian toIndo-Aryan is the loss of the voiced sibilant*z, among those toIranian is the de-aspiration of the PIE voiced aspirates.
Proto-Indo-Iranian religion is an archaic offshoot ofIndo-European religion. From the various and dispersed Indo-Iranian cultures, a set of common ideas may be reconstructed from which a common, unattested proto-Indo-Iranian source may be deduced.[37]
Indo-Iranians shared a common inheritance of concepts including the universal force*Hṛta- (Sanskritrta,Avestanasha), the sacred plant and drink*sawHma- (SanskritSoma, AvestanHaoma) and gods of social order such as*mitra- (SanskritMitra, Avestan and Old PersianMithra,Miθra) and*bʰaga- (SanskritBhaga, Avestan and Old PersianBaga). TheRig-VedicSarasvati is linguistically and functionally cognate with Avestan*Haraxvaitī Ārəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā.[citation needed] Both are described as world rivers. Vedic Saraswati is described as "Best of Mothers, Best of Rivers, Best of Goddesses".[38] Similarly, in early portions of the Avesta, Iranian *Harahvatiis the world-river that flows down from the mythical central Mount Hara. She is blocked by an obstacle (Avestan for obstacle:vərəθra) placed there byAngra Mainyu.[37]
R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) is the sub-clade most commonly associated with Indo-European populations. Most discussions purportedly ofR1a origins are actually about the origins of the dominant R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade. R1a1a is found in two major variations: Z93 and Z282.[39] R-Z93 appears to encompass most of the R1a1a found in Asia, being related to Indo-Iranians.[40] On the other hand, R-Z282 is the main European branch of R1a1a predominantly related toBalts andSlavs inEastern Europe.[40] Data so far collected indicates high frequency of R-Z93 in the northernIndian Subcontinent,Tajikistan, andAfghanistan:Bengali Brahmins carry up to 72% R1a1a,[41]Mohana tribe up to 71%,[42]NepalHindus up to 69.20%,[43] andTajiks up to 68%.[44] In the western part ofIran, Iranians show low R1a1a levels, while males of eastern parts of Iran carry up to 35% R1a1a.[44] The historical and prehistoric possible reasons for this are the subject of on-going discussion and attention amongst population geneticists and genetic genealogists, and are considered to be of potential interest to linguists and archaeologists also.
Out of 10 human male remains assigned to the Andronovo horizon from the Krasnoyarsk region, 9 possessed theR1a Y-chromosomehaplogroup and oneC-M130 haplogroup (xC3). mtDNA haplogroups of nine individuals assigned to the same Andronovo horizon and region were as follows: U4 (2 individuals), U2e, U5a1, Z, T1, T4, H, and K2b.
A 2004 study also established that during the Bronze Age/Iron Age period, the majority of the population ofKazakhstan (part of the Andronovo culture during the Bronze Age), was of west Eurasian maternal lineages (with mtDNA haplogroups such as U, H, HV, T, I and W), and that prior to the 13th–7th century BC, all Kazakh samples belonged to European lineages.[45]
A 2022 study found that modern individuals from Southern Central Asia, especiallyTajiks andYaghnobis, display strong genetic continuity towardsIron Age Indo-Iranians, and were only marginally affected by outside geneflow, while modernTurkic peoples derive significant amounts of ancestry from a 'Baikal hunter-gatherer' source (mean average ~50%), with the remainder being ancestry maximized in Tajik people. Historical Indo-Iranians showed high genetic affinity towards European hunter-gatherers and Iranian Neolithic farmers.[46]
^The exact relation between the Shintashta-culture and the Corded Ware culture remains unclear; while they are linguistically and culturally related, the genetic relation is still to be solved.[8][9]
^Klejn (1974), as cited inBryant 2001:206, acknowledges the Iranian identification of the Andronovo culture, but finds the Andronovo culture too late[clarification needed] for an Indo-Iranian identification, giving a later date for the start of the Andronovo culture "in the 16th or 17th century BC, whereas the Aryans appeared in the Near East not later than the 15th to 16th century BC.[22] Klejn (1974, p.58) further argues that "these [latter] regions contain nothing reminiscent of Timber-Frame Andronovo materials."[22] Brentjes (1981) also gives a later dating for the Andronovo culture.[23] Bryant further refers to Lyonnet (1993) and Francfort (1989), who point to the absence of archaeological remains of the Andronovans south of the Hindu Kush.[23] Bosch-Gimpera (1973) and Hiebert (1998) argue that there also no Andronovo remains in Iran,[23] but Hiebert "agrees that the expansion of the BMAC people to the Iranian plateau and the Indus Valley borderlands at the beginning of the second millennium BC is 'the best candidate for an archaeological correlate of the introduction of Indo-Iranian speakers to Iran and South Asia' (Hiebert 1995:192)".[24] Sarianidi states that the Andronovo tribes "penetrated to a minimum extent".[23]
^Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q., eds. (1997).Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. p. 2.ISBN978-1-884964-98-5.
^Pamjav H, Feher T, Nemeth E, Padar Z (2012). "Brief communication: new Y-chromosome binary markers improve phylogenetic resolution within haplogroup R1a1". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 149 (4): 611–615. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22167. PMID 23115110. "However, with the discovery of the Z280 and Z93 substitutions within Phase 1 1000 Genomes Project data and subsequent genotyping of these SNPs in ∼200 samples, a schism between European and Asian R1a chromosomes has emerged"
^Kristiansen, Kristian; Kroonen, Guus; Willerslev, Eske (11 May 2023).The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 70–71.ISBN978-1-009-26174-6. "How exactly the emergence and expansion of the Corded Ware are linked to the emergence and expansion of the Yamnaya horizon remains unclear. However, the Y chromosome record of both groups indicates that Corded Ware cannot be derived directly from the Yamnaya or late eastern farming groups sampled thus far, and is therefore likely to constitute a parallel development in the forest steppe and temperate forest zones of Eastern Europe. Even in Central Europe, the formation of the earliest regional Corded Ware identities was the result of local and regional social practices that resulted in the typical Corded Ware rite of passage."
^Chen, Sanping. "SOME REMARKS ON THE CHINESE" BULGAR"." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (1998): 69–83.
^Motti, Victor Vahidi. "Richard Slaughter: The master interpreter of alternative planetary futures." Futures 132 (2021): 102796.
^Dwyer, Arienne M. "The texture of tongues: Languages and power in China." Nationalism and ethnoregional identities in China. Routledge, 2013. 68–85.
^The "Aryan" Language, Gherardo Gnoli, Instituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Roma, 2002.
^. Schmitt, "Aryans" in Encyclopedia Iranica: Excerpt:"The name "Aryan" (OInd. ā́rya-, Ir. *arya- [with short a-], in Old Pers. ariya-, Av. airiia-, etc.) is the self-designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the "non-Aryan" peoples of those "Aryan" countries (cf. OInd. an-ā́rya-, Av. an-airiia-, etc.), and lives on in ethnic names like Alan (Lat. Alani, NPers. īrān, Oss. Ir and Iron.". Also accessed online:[1] in May, 2010
^Wiesehofer, Joseph:Ancient Persia. New York: 1996. I.B. Tauris. Recommends the use by scholars of the term Aryan to describe the Eastern, not the Western, branch of the Indo-European peoples (see "Aryan" in index)
^Durant, Will:Our Oriental Heritage. New York: 1954. Simon and Schuster. According to Will Durant on Page 286: "the name Aryan first appears in the [name]Harri, one of the tribes of theMitanni. In general it was the self-given appellation of the tribes living near or coming from the [southern] shores of theCaspian sea. The term is properly applied today chiefly to theMitannians,Hittites,Medes,Persians, andVedic Hindus, i.e., only to theeastern branch of the Indo-European peoples, whosewestern branch populatedEurope."
^Brzezinski, Richard; Mielczarek, Mariusz (2002).The Sarmatians, 600 BC-AD 450. Osprey Publishing. p. 39.(..) Indeed, it is now accepted that the Sarmatians merged in with pre-Slavic populations.
^Adams, Douglas Q. (1997).Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. p. 523.(..) In their Ukrainian and Polish homeland the Slavs were intermixed and at times overlain by Germanic speakers (the Goths) and by Iranian speakers (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans) in a shifting array of tribal and national configurations.
^Atkinson, Dorothy; et al. (1977).Women in Russia. Stanford University Press. p. 3.(..) Ancient accounts link the Amazons with the Scythians and the Sarmatians, who successively dominated the south of Russia for a millennium extending back to the seventh century B.C. The descendants of these peoples were absorbed by the Slavs who came to be known as Russians.
^Slovene Studies. Vol. 9–11. Society for Slovene Studies. 1987. p. 36.(..) For example, the ancient Scythians, Sarmatians (amongst others), and many other attested but now extinct peoples were assimilated in the course of history by Proto-Slavs.
^abPamjav, Horolma; Tibor Fehér; Endre Németh; Zsolt Pádár (2012). "Brief communication: new Y-chromosome binary markers improve phylogenetic resolution within haplogroup R1a1".American Journal of Physical Anthropology.149 (4):611–615.doi:10.1002/ajpa.22167.PMID23115110.
^Saha; Sharma, Swarkar; Bhat, Audesh; Pandit, Awadesh; Bamezai, Ramesh (2005), "Genetic affinity among five different population groups in India reflecting a Y-chromosome gene flow",Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 49–51,doi:10.1007/s10038-004-0219-3,PMID15611834
^Underhill, P.A.; Myres, Natalie M; Rootsi, Siiri; Metspalu, Mait; Zhivotovsky, Lev A; King, Roy J; Lin, Alice A; Chow, Cheryl-Emiliane T; et al. (2009), "Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a",European Journal of Human Genetics,18 (4):479–484,doi:10.1038/ejhg.2009.194,PMC2987245,PMID19888303
^Fornarino; Pala, Maria; Battaglia, Vincenza; Maranta, Ramona; Achilli, Alessandro; Modiano, Guido; Torroni, Antonio; Semino, Ornella; Santachiara-Benerecetti, Silvana A (2009), "Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the Tharus (Nepal): a reservoir of genetic variation",BMC Evolutionary Biology,9 (1): 154,Bibcode:2009BMCEE...9..154F,doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-154,PMC2720951,PMID19573232
^abWells, R. Spencer; Yuldasheva, Nadira; Ruzibakiev, Ruslan; Underhill, Peter A.; Evseeva, Irina; Blue-Smith, Jason; Jin, Li; Su, Bing; Pitchappan, Ramasamy; Shanmugalakshmi, Sadagopal; Balakrishnan, Karuppiah; Read, Mark; Pearson, Nathaniel M.; Zerjal, Tatiana; Webster, Matthew T.; Zholoshvili, Irakli; Jamarjashvili, Elena; Gambarov, Spartak; Nikbin, Behrouz; Dostiev, Ashur; Aknazarov, Ogonazar; Zalloua, Pierre; Tsoy, Igor; Kitaev, Mikhail; Mirrakhimov, Mirsaid; Chariev, Ashir; Bodmer, Walter F. (28 August 2001)."The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity".Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.98 (18):10244–10249.Bibcode:2001PNAS...9810244W.doi:10.1073/pnas.171305098.JSTOR3056514.PMC56946.PMID11526236.
^Guarino-Vignon, Perle; Marchi, Nina; Bendezu-Sarmiento, Julio; Heyer, Evelyne; Bon, Céline (2022-01-14)."Genetic continuity of Indo-Iranian speakers since the Iron Age in southern Central Asia".Scientific Reports.12 (1): 733.Bibcode:2022NatSR..12..733G.doi:10.1038/s41598-021-04144-4.ISSN2045-2322.PMC8760286.PMID35031610."the qpAdm modelling shows that at least 90% of the ancestry of current Indo-Iranian ancestry is modelized as inherited from Iron Age individuals from southern Central Asia with an affinity with BMAC. Consequently, Indo-Iranians present a strong genetic continuity in the region since the Iron Age with anecdotic admixture with BHG ancestry related individuals, and, for the Tajiks, with South Asian ancestry related populations possibly after Iron Age."
Anthony, David W. (2007),The Horse, The Wheel And Language. How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped The Modern World, Princeton University Press,ISBN978-0-691-14818-2
Anthony, David W.; Vinogradov, Nikolai B. (1995). "Birth of the Chariot".Archaeology.48 (2):36–41.ISSN0003-8113.JSTOR41771098.
Bryant, Edwin (2001),The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate, Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0-19-513777-4
Diakonoff, Igor M.; Kuz'mina, E. E.; Ivantchik, Askold I. (1995), "Two Recent Studies of Indo-Iranian Origins",Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 115, no. 3, American Oriental Society, pp. 473–477,doi:10.2307/606224,JSTOR606224.
Jones-Bley, K.; Zdanovich, D. G. (eds.),Complex Societies of Central Eurasia from the 3rd to the 1st Millennium BC, 2 vols, JIES Monograph Series Nos. 45, 46, Washington D.C. (2002),ISBN0-941694-83-6,ISBN0-941694-86-0.
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