Dear Mark,
Let me not state here what I think about the problem: PIE and the steppe. My point of view is presented in the Scheme of
Indo-European Migrations:
http://siem.newmail.ru
I'd like now just to give some comments on particular questions. I'm a Petersburger and live rather far from the steppe zone but
have a notion of it.
<<The second big question is exactly what the word 'steppe' means, especially to a Russian.>>
An article from the Russian Concise Encyclopaedia:
STEPPE, a kind of biom, spread in intracontinental regions of Northern and Southern hemispheres. It occupies a vast space in
Eurasia, North America (prairie), South America (pampas) and New Zealand (tussoka [? spelling can be wrong]). Steppes have a
close herbage with the predominance of Stipa (feather-grass), Bromus ("kostyor" in Russian ), Agropyron ("zhitnyak"), Koeleria
("tonkonog") and some other grasses species. Rodents, gregarious ungulate animals and predators prevail in the steppe fauna.
Some additional information from the Biological Encyclopaedia:
The steppe biom has formed under conditions of long hot summers and more or less cold winters with the precipitation rate 200 to
550 mm per year. The soils are chernozem (black earth) and dark-chestnut-colored. Steppe grasses are resistant to frosts and
droughts. Here and there bushes can be found.
Data on the Ukrainian steppe zone from the Ukrainian Encyclopaedia:
square 240 000 squ. km
average temperature of January -2 to -9 C
average temperature of July +20 to +24 C
vegetation period 210 to 245 days per year
precipitation rate 300 to 450 mm per year
evaporation rate 700 to 1000 mm
<<At the same time, however, you encounter the term 'forest-steppe', which seems contradictory, even oxymoronic: exactly what
does 'forest-steppe' mean to you?>>
Data from the Ukrainian Encyclopaedia:
Forest-steppes are characterized by alternation of forest and meadow-steppe vegetation. The forest-steppe stripe in Eurasia
stretches from the Carpatians to Altai. The combination of steppes (various cereals) with bushes and sparse growing trees is
typical.
Data on the Ukrainian forest-steppe zone:
square 202 000 squ. km
average temperature of January -4 to -8 C
average temperature of July +18 to +21 C
vegetation period 200 to 210 days per year
precipitation rate 450 to 650 mm per year
evaporation rate 550 to 750 mm
trees massifs - oak, oak+hornbeam, oak+maple+linden
percentage of forests (at present time) 12.5%
<<How difficult is the 'coastal route' along the Eastern shore of the Black Sea? Is it wide and flat, with lots of fresh water,
or is it steep and rocky, difficult to move along, particularly if you have a herd of cattle with you, without being harassed by
natives up in the hills?>>
Do you mean the Caucasian shore of the Black Sea? At present there is a rather narrow (a few km or somewhere even less) plain
strip between the Caucasus fringes and the sea along the whole shore + the swampy Kolchida lowland on the territory of Georgia.
A lot of fresh water sources. It seems to me that such a country (shore strip) is easily and quickly passable by primitive
agrarian communities. But we should keep in mind that before and especially just after the Flood of 5600 BC the picture could be
quite different.
<<There are other questions too. I have only the vaguest idea of how easily one enters the Russian river valleys as you cross
from east to west. In the US Great Plains, you can encounter some pretty steep, cliff-lined valleys, but on the whole, it's a
gentle rise from the level of the river to the highest ground -- undulating, low hills, easily traversed by livestock.>>
You have made a very good picture of the Russian plain : "it's a gentle rise from the level of the river to the highest
ground -- undulating, low hills, easily traversed by livestock". However there is a very important difference between it and the
Great Plains: 5000 ago the zone to the north from the line Kiev - Samara was covered by virgin forests.
Alexander Stolbov