Location of the Uralic proto-language in the Kama River Valley and the Uralic speakers' Expansion east and west with the 'Sejma-Turbino transcultural phenomenon’ 2200-1900 BC

• Published in: Археология Евразийских степей
• Main Author: Asko Parpola
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: State institution «Tatarstan Аcademy of Sciences» 2022
• Subjects: archaeology; volgo-kama neolithic; kama river valley; sejma-turbino; garino-bor; abashevo; sintashta; chariot; uralic; indo-european; indo-iranian; CC1-960; Bor; Kama; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2022.2.258.277; https://doaj.org/article/d233ee6b6bb04230af0d7e26d65c6343

Volgo-Kama Neolithic resulted from an expansion of the Elshan culture to Lower Kama c. 5700 BCE. Corresponding “Indo-Uralic” linguistic parallels attest to an expansion of pre-Proto-Indo-European speakers to the area of pre-Proto-Uralic speakers. This supports the evidence of linguistic palaeontology (Proto-Uralic words for ‘cembra pine’ and for ‘bee’ and ‘honey’) for the Kama River Valley as the Uralic homeland. Proto-Uralic had loanwords from pre-Proto-Indo-Iranian, whose speakers can now be traced to the Abashevo culture of 2200–2000 BCE: the Abashevo expansion from Lower Kama to the Ural-Tobol interfluve created the Sintashta culture (2000–1900 BCE), which has the earliest archaeological evidence for horse-drawn chariots, matching Proto-Indo-Iranian chariot vocabulary. Between 2200 and 1900 BCE, the Sejma-Turbino network (ST) of warrior-smith-traders distributed high-quality weapons along the border of taiga and steppe between the Upper Ob and Finland. This long but narrow corridor matches the distribution of the intermediate proto-languages of the Uralic family. It is argued that the ST came into being when Abashevo smiths moved from Balanbash on Lower Kama to Turbino on Mid-Kama and there created the ST metal axe-celt to replace the local stone-celt. The metal axe and Abashevo-like lance-heads and other weapons were then traded west and east, to hunter-fisher-cultures of Europe and Siberia (where weapons of tin-bronze were produced), establishing Proto-Uralic as the language of the areas of ST rule.