Indo-European expansion into the Caucsus

Indo-European expansion into the Caucasus beganfrom the middle of the III mill. B.C. According to archaeological evidence at that time the regions near the foothills of the western and centralpart of the Northern Caucasus were inhabited by mixed groups of the peoples of the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC), the Globular AmphoraeCulture (GAC) and the Corded Ware Culture (CWC) who came from from Central Europe. They are assumed to belong to the "AncientEuropeans", the northern branch of the Proto-Indo-European community (PIE). The term "Ancient European" was suggested by H. Krahe inoder to stress the differences of names of the rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea from those ones in Proto-Indo-European language. That iswhy the ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Italics, the Illyrians, the Balts, the Slavs who occupied this territory in historical times werenamed Ancient Europeans. The climate changes caused the Indo-European migrations. The Indo-Europeans of the North (Ancient Europeans=FBC, GAC, CWC) started moving and formed new secondary unities with the Indo-Europeans of the South. The Greek-Indo-Iranianunity became one of them and took place in the Middle Danubian area. The time of disintegration of this unity is the first half of the III mill.B.C. The Ancient Europeans and Indo-Iranians reached the Norhern Caucasus in 25 -23 B.C. and gave an impact to the transition of thenative population to the Bronze Age. The first intruders from Central Europe into the Caucasus were small groups of herdsmen on horseback.They are supposed to be Indo-Iranians or Toharians and their burials were designated with such symbols as horse-headed scepters. Thebuilders of the dolmens of Novosvobodnaya Culture replaced them in the west of the Northern Caucasus (23/22 B.C.) but Kuban-Terekculture in their turn replaced them in the centre of the Northern Caucasus (22-13 B.C.). In the author's opinion these three cultures could berelated to the Ancient Europeans in any way. Their neighbours in the steppes of the Western Caucasus were the tribes of Kuban-Dniepr Culture,the main feature of which were four wheeled wagons. The author gives luinguistic arguments that Kuban-Dniepr population can beregarded as Indo-Arians. Moreover the author can assume the formation of the Indo-Hittite unity on the basis of common features in the assembledgesof Novosvobodnaya dolmens and those ones in barrow burials of Kuban-Dniepr Culture. In the author's view there was a unitybetween Ancient Europeans and Indo-Arians as well. This entity is related to Kuban-Terek cultural -historucal unity. The Indo-Europeanloanwords in the Cartvellian (40 items) and the Ossetic (40 items) languages originated from all or some Ancient European languages areadditional arguments for benefit of the Central European origin of the Bronze Age in the Northern Cacasus. Linguistical evidence make possiblethat the intruders from the Carpathians represent a slightly differentiated dialect Ancient European community in the Northern Caucasus.

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