The Indo-Europeans
The approximate geographic locations of the major Indo-European Branches about 400 BCE, per Anthony, Figure 1.2
COURSE INFORMATION
SGL Name: Ollie Curme
Course Meeting Times/Dates: Mondays, 11:10am to 12:35pm, September 9 through November 18, except not October 14
Contact information of SGL: ocurme@gmail.com
ZOOM Link for Course Meetings: https://brandeis.zoom.us/j/7817604971?pwd=ajhVaW5xSFdZQjhUY0FFWU5hMDJyUT09
Meeting ID: 781 760 4971
Password: bolli
Welcome!
Old English wilcuma "welcome!" exclamation of kindly greeting, from earlier wilcuma (n.) "welcome guest," literally "one whose coming suits another's will or wish," from willa "pleasure, desire, choice" (see will (n.)) + cuma "guest," related to cuman "to come," from PIE root *gwa- "to go, come."
Since you've found this page, it's likely that you're considering taking this course in this fall. To get a sense of what we'll be covering, Click HERE to review the reading for the September 9 where we'll outline our challenges and objectives in the course. The first class focuses a lot on linguistics. Subsequent classes focus more on archeology and DNA studies. Later in the course, we'll transition from pre-history to history, and look at the early historical emergence of cultures speaking German, Italo-Celtic, Sanskrit and Iranian, and perhaps Greek. The objectives will be to try to understand as best we can who the Indo-Europeans were, what their lives were like, how their society, ecoomies and cultures were organized, and why they were so extraordinarily successful. I welcome you to come on a journey with us back in time. Don't hesitate to contact me at the email address above if you have any questions.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A long, long time ago, buried in the mists of prehistory, there arose a tribe of people who became very successful. At some point, for reasons unknown they traveled east and west and eventually came to conquer almost the entire landmass of Europe and Asia. Linguists first discovered clues to these people 250 years ago when they realized that nearly all languages in Europe, Asia, and India were descended from a common source, which we call proto-Indo-European. Archeologists have searched for the homeland of the proto-Indo-Europeans over the past 150 years, with mixed results. Finally, in just the past decade, the broad outlines of these prehistoric conquests has been solved, using analysis of ancient DNA. In this course, we’ll try to unravel the mysteries of who the Indo-Europeans were, why they became so successful and how they came to conquer so much of the world. We’ll infer much of this through archeology, and try to match up our cultural and linguistic inferences to evidence from the beginnings of written history, 3,000 years ago. We’ll look at the cultures and myths of the people behind some of the major language groups: Anatolian, Germanic, Italic/Celtic, and Indo-Iranian, and we’ll try to decipher some continuing mysteries, such as the origins of the Basques and Greeks. Come travel back in time as we meet the Indo-Europeans, see their art, their culture, their religion and their myths, and learn how they impact our culture to this day.
Class Expectations
Please let me know if you will have to miss class
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Class Presentations
For a few of you who might be motivated to do some independent research and present a 10 minute report to the class, I offer the following topics for consideration:
The Origin of the Mycenaean Greeks
The Origin of the Tarim Mummies
The Origin of the Ashkenazi Jews
The Origin of the Basque
The Great English Vowel Shift
If you are so motivated, contact me and I can offer up some research papers to get you started.