File talk:IE5500BP.png

six images showing a rough sketch of how the w:Indo-European languages spread from 3500 BC until 1500 AD (the images are spaced at one millennium each, spanning 5000 years).

the first three images of this series are largely prehistorical, and what is labelled are cultures rather than languages (but the coloration speculates at early dialectal variants)

5500 BP: see w:Kurgan, w:Yamna

4500 BP: see w:Andronovo culture, w:battle-axe people, w:beaker people

3500 BP: see w:Hittites, w:BMAC, w:Mycenae, w:Urnfield culture, w:Pre-Roman Iron Age

the latter three images are largely dealing with historical languages, and what is labelled are actual languages:

500 BC see w:Classical Antiquity, w:Persian Empire

500 AD see w:Hellenism, w:Byzantine Empire, w:Migration period, w:Dark Ages

1500 AD see w:Holy Roman Empire, w:Ottoman Empire, w:History of Islam

Dbachmann 14:11, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The map does not do justice to either the Andronovo culture or to the Corded Ware culture. The Andronovo is east of the Caspian and up into the Ural valley. Corded Ware swallows the whole of the North European plain, from the Netherlands and Rhine well into Russia. Here it is put into Romania: it is mislabelled. It does do justice to the Yamna culture, however. The Beaker culture is far more widespread, albeit spottily, than indicated. --67.1.120.86 00:39, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

first of all, the maps are very rough, of course, with a resolution of a millennium, there is considerable room for interpretation. I agree that the corded ware label should be further north. likewise, the beaker people appear only as an 'adjacent non IE-culture' label, its extent is not indicated at all. the Andronovo culture peaks around the mid-2nd millennium, and I agree it should still be labelled in the 3500BP image, but in the 4500BP image, it is supposed to pinpoint proto-Indo-Iranians, and the idea is to show the surmised modest beginnings as it emerges out of the Kurgan culture.Dbachmann 06:40, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

There has never been a considerable Germanic population on the East coast of Baltic Sea, in the territory of contemporary Latvia. True is following - there has been a Germanic minority to some extent (up to 10% of population) all over the territory of contemporary Latvia and Estonia from 13th century through 1939 (when Hitler urged them to return to Germany). This was especially true in towns (often forming a majority) since locals were often kept back from moving away from country farms. You could rather mark a spot at about the place of Riga, but not over the coastline. Or, if the map is really very rough, Germans should not be marked there at all. -- Avellano