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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
The question concerning the location of the original home of the Indo-Europeans—by which name is designated, not a certain race or people of which no traces have so far been found, but the peoples or tribes who did at one time speak the no longer existing Indo-European language—has at times aroused great interest and vivid discussion amongst scholars. While at one time the consensus omnium seemed to vote for an Asiatic origin of the Indo-Europeans, and even, owing to a misunderstanding of the linguistic affinities of Sanskrit, looked for their old home within the borders of India, general opinion seems, since the time of Latham, to have decided for Europe as the cradle of Indo-European-speaking peoples. But as to where in Europe the starting-point of the migrations of these tribes should be looked for no uniform opinion is so far on record. The idea, certainly impossible, that the “Urheimat” should be looked for in Germany and then probably on the southern shores of the Baltic, has long been in favour with German scholars who saw in the ideal old Teutons described by Tacitus a real counterpart of the “Indo-Germanic” ancestors; and Scandinavian archaeologists and philologists have been strongly inclined to adopt this rather fanciful theory and to look for the “Urheimat” not only in Germany but also on the Danish islands and in the southernmost province of Sweden. Other scholars looked for a centre of spread in Hungary, and this theory has quite lately been advocated in an able way by Dr. Giles. The late lamented Professor Schrader, in his sound and thoroughly critical way, tried to establish that South Russia, the rich corn-land to the north of the Black Sea, was the original home of the Indo-Europeans; but he was not quite averse to the idea that they might at one time have extended over areas to the east of that part of Europe. There are other theories as well, but they do not need to be taken into consideration here.
page 147 note 1 Cf. de Morgan, , La Préhisloire Orientate, i, 191.Google Scholar
page 147 note 2 Cf. Cambridge History of India, i, 65 sq.;Google ScholarCambridge Ancient History, ii, 29 sq.Google Scholar
page 148 note 1 Cf. Charpentier in the Zeitschrift der deutsehen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, lxxi, 377 sq.Google Scholar
page 149 note 1 Cf. Cambridge History of India, i, 63 sq.Google Scholar
page 149 note 2 Cf. this Bulletin, II, 679 sq.; III, 159 sq.; IV, 231 sq.Google Scholar
page 151 note 1 I throughout use the term Indo-Iranian and not Aryan; for, while on the continent those two are nowadays generally taken to he identical, Aryan in English generally means the same as Indo-European.
page 151 note 2 Details need not be given here; they can be gathered from e.g. Schrader, , Realkxikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde. 2nd ed., s.v. Buche.Google Scholar
page 152 note 1 According to my opinion the words may originally have been completely identical, as I venture to think that hiranya may be a later development of an older *haranya.
page 152 note 2 Professor Bartholoma?, in Indogermanische Forschungen, xxxi, 35 sq., has tried to prove the existence of an Indo-European name of the Pleiads; but this is apparently a fallacy.Google Scholar
page 153 note 1 There are, however, certain indications that some great animal of the cat-species was perhaps not unknown.
page 153 note 2 Cf. the well-known passage in Herodotus, iv, 105: 
page 153 note 3 This fact is not contradicted by the linguistically valuable discovery by Jacobsohn, , Arier und Ugrofinnen, p. 135 sq., that a word corresponding to Latin porcus, etc., did once exist in the Iranian languages.Google Scholar
page 154 note 1 In the Indogermanische Forschungen, xli, 175 sq., Dr. Ipsen has tried to prove that the name of the cow is originally a loan word from Sumerian. This seems to me a wholly unnecessary suggestion; on the other hand, the name of the bull (Indo-European *(s)teṷro-) is probably a very old loan.Google Scholar
page 155 note 1 This verb occurs in Skt. pis-, Latin pinso, etc.
page 155 note 2 As for cucumbers, it is very tempting indeed to connect, as has been done, Latin cucurbita with Sanskrit carbhata “Cucumis utilissimus”; but the Sanskrit word is very late and doubtful. Anyhow, it is a remarkable fact that no species of cucumber is indigenous to Europe.
page 156 note 1 Cf. Herodotus, iv, 53: ἅλες τε ⋯π⋯ τῷ στ⋯ματι αἱτο⋯ (ιsc. το⋯ Βορυσθ⋯νεος) αὐτ⋯ματοι π⋯γνυνται ἄπλετοι.
page 156 note 2 It seems by now to be fairly well established that the names of the wine in Indo-European languages (Greek oīvos, Latin vīnum, Armenian gini, etc.), as well as Semitic *wainu are all derived from a Caucasian source of which traces do perhaps still exist.
page 157 note 1 The liquor denoted in Sanskrit by sur¯, in the Avesta by hur¯ possibly originally meant a beverage prepared from mare's milk. Later on sur¯ certainly means “rice wine” or “rioe-brandy”, cf. Laufer, , Sino-Iraniea, pp. 240, 581.Google Scholar
page 158 note 1 What has been adduced to prove that the Aryans of the Vedic times possessed and worshipped idols (cf. e.g. Konow, , Ind. Ant., xxxviii, 145 sq.) is wholly valueless. We have no mention of idols in Sanskrit literature earlier than Pānini, v, 3, 99.Google Scholar
page 160 note 1 Certain individuals, especially some Jesuit fathers, had, however, possessed more than a smattering of Sanskrit ako during the previous centuries.
page 161 note 1 In this connexion one seems totally to have forgotten the otherwise obvious fact that the description given by Tacitus is very strongly idealized in order to put up the life of the Teutons as a standard to his demoralized countrymen.
page 162 note 1 Sanskrit sankha and its European relations (eg. Greek κ⋯γχος, κ⋯γχη, etc.), apparently do not mean the eatable shell-fish, but the cockle-shell as being used for various purposes.
page 163 note 1 Cf. the very important book by Rostovtzeff, , Iranians and Greeks in South Russia, p. 61 sq.Google Scholar
page 164 note 1 Cf. Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akad. der Wissenschaften, 116 (1888), p. 715 sq.Google Scholar
page 166 note 1 Cf. Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften, 1921.Google Scholar
page 167 note 1 The exorbitant theories of Professor Jacobi and the late Lokamānya B. G. Tilak concerning the age of the Rigveda can no longer be upheld. As for the recent hypothesis of Professor Hertel, according to which the bulk of the hymns should date from about 500 B.C. or even later, it cannot, of course, be taken into serious consideration.
page 167 note 2 As for this theory cf., however, the recent article by Professor Meyer, E. in the Sitzungsberichte of the Berlin Academy, 1925, p. 244 sq.Google Scholar
page 169 note 1 Cf. Germania, ch. 45.
page 169 note 2 Cf. Mladenov, M. St. in the Revue des Etudes Slaves, iv, 190 sq.Google Scholar
page 170 note 1 Loc. cit., p. 184.Google Scholar
