Aubrey Laudano

Marija Gimbutas was born in Vilnius Lithuania on January 3 rd 1921 During World War 11 she fled when Soviet Russia annexed Lithuania She got her PhD in 1946 at Tupingen University in Germany, she had thorough education in linguistics, ethnology and the history of religion she moved to US and employed by Harvard to conduct research and write texts on European pre-history She could translate her reports from eastern Europe which opened new American ideas in archaeology She introduced her Kurgan hypothesis at an international conference in Philadelphia In 1963 she started teaching at the University of LA California and retired in 1983 She died in February 1994

The Kurgan Language theory was devised to create an approximate origin of language, or the origin of the pro- Indo European language and the spread of it to the languages that still exist today and even some extinct languages as well. Gimbutas’s theory states that the people of the “Kurgan Culture” were most likely the speakers of the pro-indo European languages- it was first formulated in the 50’s and used the Kurgan term to group various cultures of the Pontic steppe.

The Kurgan culture has four successive time periods- Gimbutas theorized that they were nomadic, hunter and gatherers. The model of the Kurgan culture treats the cultures of the copper age to early bronze age to justify the identification as 1 archeological culture. The Kurgan culture originates on the pontic steppe and tries to find the origin of language through these Indo- Europeans The languages include Romance languages and some other extinct languages today Gimbutas named the Kurgans after the “Kurgan” burial mounds that they built where southern Russia and Ukraine are today.

The theory states that the Kurgans nomadically expanded from their homeland to Europe, central Asia, India and later the Balkans and Anatolia ( Present day Asia minor and Asian Turkey) They took their language with them. By 5000 years ago, most of the existing languages were extinct and independent Indo- European language groups were developing The theory says that the Anatolian migration would have taken place either across the Caucasus or the Balkans

Found on page 150 in the language section States that archaeologists and historians are still debating on the origin of language- the most widely accepted is the Kurgan hypothesis. Another popular opposing theory is Colin Renfrew's on Proto- Europeans years before the Kurgans There is actually no archeological evidence that there was a European invasion at the time that Gimbutas indicates there was, however, Linguists pretty much accept Marijas theory as fact.

" The Kurgan Hypothesis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 25 Sept "The Evolution of Language." The Human Journey: The Indo-Europeans. Web. 25 Sept "Paleoglot: The Kurgan Hypothesis Is... Hypothetical." Paleoglot: The Kurgan Hypothesis Is... Hypothetical. Web. 25 Sept "Marija Gimbutas." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 25 Sept "Marija Gimbutas." Marija Gimbutas. Web. 25 Sept. 2015