The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. AnthonyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
You pretty much need to be an archaeologist to follow along with most of this book.
The initial part is fascinating, but the author then decides he wants to prove he left no stone unturned.
I don’t doubt that archaeological knowledge is needed in order to get to the bottom of PIE and its origins. In fact, I fully support his thesis and linguistic historians and archaeologists should work in tandem on this.
Having said that, it doesn’t really make for the most entertaining book. I’m sure he did his homework (the chapter on horses, their teeth, and whether they were domesticated is nuts), but this read more like a thesis than a book.
I also thought it was curious how, after stating that PIE didn’t expand due to conquests (he said it was more like franchises), he then claims that the language of conquerors pretty much always prevails. This may we true, but we know of at least one glaring exception throughout time. The territory of what we now call China was conquered by the Mongols, and then later by the Manchus. However neither of their languages even left a dent in modern Chinese. Shouldn’t we at least acknowledge something similar may have occurred with the spread of PIE?
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