I just finished reading The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.

This book was written by David W. Anthony and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, not just because these subjects (prehistory, horses and languages) are my three favorites.The author also did a really fantastic job and described his detailed and very interesting investigation into the origins of Indo-European languages, the location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland and so much more.

This book was very well written and well-illustrated, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in knowing more about the Indo-European language family, the domestication of horses, the invention and use of wheeled vehicles, and also about Russian and Ukrainian archaeological studies.

Some interesting quotes from the book:

“It is oddly ironic that capitalist archaeologists made the mode of production central to their definition of the Neolithic, and Marxist archaeologists ignored it.”

“…you cannot understand the Indo-European problem if you ignore migration or pretend it was unimportant in the past.”

“Horse domestication might have depended on a lucky coincidence: the appearance of a relatively manageable and docile male in a place where humans could use him as the breeder of a domesticated bloodline. From the horse’s perspective, humans were the only way he could get a girl. From the human perspective, he was the only sire they wanted.”

“The absence of bit wear means nothing, since other forms of control (nosebands, hackamores) might leave no evidence. But its presence is an unmistakable sign of riding or driving.”

― David W. Anthony, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.

Started Reading – 19 March 2021
Finished Reading – 15 April 2021
My Rating: 5 Stars ★★★★★