Research shows ‘eastern cowboys’ brought language to Europe

“EASTERN cowboys” who tended herds more than 4500 years ago deserve more credit for the gift of language, rather than the first farmers, research shows.

**ONE TIME USE ONLY** Remains of a male associated with the Middle Neolithic Salzmünde culture, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Photo copyright: Juraj Lipták, LDA Sachsen-Anhalt.

“EASTERN cowboys” who tended herds more than 4500 years ago deserve more credit for the gift of language, rather than the first farmers, research shows.

The University of Adelaide led research using ancient DNA from more than 90 people who lived 3000 to 8000 years ago.

This approach promises to resolve debate surrounding the spread of closely related Indo-European languages such as English, Spanish, Russian and Hindi.

Writing in today’s issue of the journal Nature, the authors propose “early Indo-European speakers were pastoralists of grasslands north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and their languages spread into Europe after the invention of wheeled vehicles”.

The idea challenges the popular theory that language arrived in Europe from Anatolia with the first farmers some 8500 years ago.

Dr Wolfgang Haak from the University’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA said it was thought the first farmers’ DNA remained dominant.

But the results revealed another major wave of migration 4500 years ago, “Eastern cowboys you could call them.”

“They also domesticated the horse. The fact they had these new techniques, wheels and carts, which are really needed in an open grassland environment to get around, make them the perfect people to spread languages around as well,” he said.

“Because farmers would obviously stay with their homestead and not move around a lot apart from the original expansion. You move into new territory but once you’re settled you hardly move away from your fields anymore.”

Dr Haak said it was important to know about the history and realise we’ve had a number of dynamic times in the past, like we have in the present day.

“We are all migrants, we are all newcomers and a mix of different waves of people moving around,” he said.

“That’s an important political statement as well.”

Originally published as Research shows ‘eastern cowboys’ brought language to Europe