Aryan origins

Now I'm back to blogging, and have filled in five of the ten days that were, let's get caught up:

Eurogenes today is looking at Aryan origins. As you may have gather'd I am fine extending "Aryan" all over the R1a family (again: I am not Aryan); but I can certainly understand why some aren't so blasé, especially in India. Davidski here concentrates on the classic Indo-Iranian subset - which, perhaps, we might call the split of the first Aryans from the R1a family.

Davidski looks at Fatyanovo-Balanovo (early sample I0432) and Unetice (sole sample S11953). The two sites shared almost the same material culture - meaning, the same language. Genetically they are both R1a. But S11953 in Slovakia is Balto-Slavic. I0432 is Iranian with a lot of European hunter-gatherer. I0432 likely had moved northeastward. Given the location I'd mark them as a Scythian offshoot like the Ossetes.

The F-B culture, starting 2500 BC, would coalesce northeast into the old Caspian headwaters, called the "Abashevo". I take it that the old Hungarians and Bulgars pushed them out.

Both, to me, look like outliers. S11953's descendents likely spoke some "South West Prussian" language long lost to us. Likewise, I doubt whatever Abashevo and even I0432 were speaking left any real issue. What these do give us, is a snapshot of peoples who started out closer together. Somewhere in the western Ukraine, later swamped by their Slavic cousins.