This book examines the impact of ancient DNA research and scientific evidence on our understanding of the emergence of Indo-European languages in prehistory. Offering cutting-edge contributions from an international team of scholars, it considers the driving forces behind the Indo-European migrations during the 3rd and 2nd millenia BC. The volume explores the rise of the world's first pastoral nomads the Yamnaya Culture in the Russian Pontic steppe including their social organization, expansions, and the transition from nomadism to semi-sedentism when entering Europe. It also traces the chariot conquest in the late Bronze Age and its impact on the expansion of the Indo-Iranian languages into Central Asia. In the final section, the volumes consider the development of hierarchical societies and the origins of slavery. A landmark synthesis of recent, exciting discoveries, the book also includes an extensive theoretical discussion regarding the integration of linguistics, genetics, and archaeology, and the importance of interdisciplinary research in the study of ancient migration.

'By enlisting the expertise of scholars from the three different fields, with 22 contributions from more than 40 scholars from more than 10 different countries, this book is … a seminal work …' Rasmus G. Bjørn, Antiquity

Kristian Kristiansen is Professor of Archaeology at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg, and Affiliated Professor at Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen. He specializes in the Bronze Age of western Eurasia, archaeological theory and cultural heritage studies. Guus Kroonen is Professor With Special Responsibilities within Linguistic Prehistory at the Copenhagen University section of Indo-European Linguistics. Eske Willerslev is Lundbeck Foundation Professor at Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen and Prince Phillip Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge. He is an evolutionary geneticist, recognized for his studies on human evolution and environmental DNA.