How a culture you never heard of influenced the Indo Aryan Migrations and the entirety of history

The Maps used in this video are from https://indo-european.eu/. You can also find a lot of reliable and well sourced evidence about the Indo-Europeans genetic and linguistic wise from this site.


When we talk about the Indo Iranians and the Indo Aryan migration into India, we often think of it as a single migration event, but we forget some very important details about it, like how a lost central Asian civilization influenced and shaped their culture. Let’s rewind back. Around 4000 BCE, the Indo Europeans emerged in the Pontic-Caspian steppes. These people were ancestral to every Indo European group today, and their culture heavily revolved around horses. They spoke a Language called Proto-Indo-European. Words for mother, father, brother, sister, horse, and fire, in every other Indo European language, were descended from the Proto-Indo-European term for those words. Around 3000 BCE or so, a branch of the Proto Indo Europeans migrated west and formed the Corded ware culture over many centuries, the ancestral group of most of Europe today. One of these sub groups, was the Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture. Over the next thousand years, they migrated farther south, changing and mutating their language on the way. By 2100 BCE, they established and formed the Sintashta culture. The language of the Sintashta was a daughter language of Proto Indo European; Proto Indo Iranian. The linguistic change occurred over many millenia. The language went through a change called the Ruki change. This rule states that the S sound becomes the Sh sound, and the K sound becomes the S sound after the consonants R, U/W, K, and I/Y. Take the work for a hundred in Proto Indo European for example: Kmtom. In Proto Indo Iranian, this became Catam, or Satam.
The Proto Indo European word for Horse, *Ekwos became *Hacwah in Proto Indo Iranian.
Similarly, *Gonu became *Jaanu, *Ghwormos became *Gharmas, *Oktow became *Hashta, and *Hngnwis became *Hagni. By the time the Sintashta culture was established, these changes had taken place. The Sintashta were none other than the Proto Indo Iranians. They were the first people to invent and use the Chariot, called *Hrathas in Proto Indo Iranian. This was a major advantage to them travel and warfare wise. Not too many centuries later, the Sintashta was followed by the Andronovo culture in Central Asia. From there, they went two paths. One to the Iranian plateau, and one to the Indian Subcontinent. But wait, there’s something we are missing here. In this area, near the Syr and Amu Darya rivers, the Indo Iranians seem to have adopted many things from local cultures such as the very culturally important Soma drink, various loanwords, and even deities. This area was a missing link in our story. This area was the home of the Oxus Civilization. You’ve probably never heard of it, and I don’t blame you. This civilization had built great fortified cities like the one at Gonur Tepe, And were a highly advanced civilization comparable to the Harappans and Mesopotamians. Yet, we don’t hear about it much today. But, this ancient culture had a huge impact on Indo-Iranian culture.