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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 950.1 EAN: 9780691058870 ISBN: 0691058873 Label: Princeton University Press Manufacturer: Princeton University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 566 Publication Date: November 19, 2007 Publisher: Princeton University Press Studio: Princeton University Press Editorial Review: Product Description: Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Linking prehistoric archaeological remains with the development of language, David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European, and shows how their innovative use of the ox wagon, horseback riding, and the warrior's chariot turned the Eurasian steppes into a thriving transcontinental corridor of communication, commerce, and cultural exchange. He explains how they spread their traditions and gave rise to important advances in copper mining, warfare, and patron-client political institutions, thereby ushering in an era of vibrant social change. Anthony also describes his fascinating discovery of how the wear from bits on ancient horse teeth reveals the origins of horseback riding. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries--the source of the Indo-European languages and English--and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Minutiae overwhelmsThis book came highly recommended in a publication I read on a regular basis. I was really disappointed, because it sounded so interesting. There was too much concentration on the minutiae of linguistics, especially for the average reader. It was so tedious that I gave up reading it. Rating:  - Massive scholarship, generally convincingIn this massively researched book, Anthony brings together hundreds of findings from archaeology and linguistic studies to support his thesis about the origins of Indo-European language and culture. The book is not easy reading for the non-expert; many chapters are dense with information, particularly about archaeological finds associated with particular cultures or horizons. Yet the interdisciplinary approach makes the argument more persuasive. Anthony occasionally comes up with an ... Read More Rating: - Excellent Work!Anthony makes a compelling case for the location of the Indo-European homeland, tracks the probable course of Proto-Indo European (PIE) and its daughter languages' expansion, and convincingly argues that PIE speakers domesticated the horse and invented the spoke-wheeled chariot. Anthony asserts he powerful cultural complex that they developed around their herding lifestyle helped expand the range of PIE and its daughter languages -- at one point likening the lifestyle changes engendered by herding ... Read More Rating: - The Horse, the Wheel, and LanguageWell, I do have a doctorate in linguistics and do have a background in reconstructing Proto-In do-European, the mother language to most European languages as well as Farsi, spoken in Iran, and several languages in India and Pakistan. The author of this book is an archaeologist who is competent as well in historical linguistics. I found the book fascinating, thoughtful, terrifically well researched and well-written, although it rather went on and on about burial sites, and the names for the motley ... Read More Rating: - Well worth reading, but not worth reading ALLThis book is sort of rare for me, who generally reads items cover to cover. Some chapters of it were a complete treat, such as the summary of the methods of comparative linguistics. Other chapters gave you a wonderful feel for the methods scientists use to explore our past, but were far too detailed to be read in full unless you are actually a graduate student in the field. Loved it - but didn't read it all. |
