My most recent reading on the subject is from the extensive article by
V. Dergachev in the Fall/Winter 2000 JIES: "The Migration Theory of
Marija Gimbutas". He says, yes she was right, and yes, it is fair to
characterize them as military.
1st wave: 4400-4300 BCE. South from Volga-Caspian steppe to North
Caucasus and west to lower Dnieper.
2nd wave: 3500-3300 BCE. Mainly centered in Caucasian area.
3rd wave: 3100-2900 BCE. Carpathian-Danubian and Balkans, impacting
formation of TRB/Funnel Beaker and Globular Amphora.
I'm unaware of the research Piotr is citing, tho' I'm very interested.
My point in the quoted material is only that the 'kurgan waves' are
quite real, and really did have a major impact. A very consistent
motif of European history is that of intermittant pressures from the
steppe.
For the 3rd wave, my present speculations suggest instrusion by a
steppe confederacy into Globular Amphora, but that this confederacy
collapsed a la the Hunnic confederacy, and that certain PIE speakers
(a la the Slavs after the collapse of the Huns) were sucked out onto
the steppe by the resultant power vacuum. This is probably also the
time the technological tool kit for Steppe pastoral nomadism was
perfected (excellent wheeled vehicles, horseback riding etc).
--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote:
>
> > The three 'Kurgan waves' cannot be disputed, of
> > course, nor the military nature of these waves; we are only
> > questioning what the 'Kurganish' language was.
>
> Why "of course", Mark? As a matter of fact, they HAVE been disputed
> by archaeologists in recent years, with a good deal of success. The
> more we learn about the Globular Amphora and Corded Ware cultures
> (and the final stages of the Funnel Beaker culture), the less
> evidence there is of any massive movements, let alone "waves", from
> the Steppe into NC Europe. New research has demonstrated, for
> example, that the Globular Amphora culture (one of the original
> waves) expanded eastwards from the lowlands of Central Europe. New
> series of dates obtained for the Steppe cultures (e.g. under the
> Polish-Ukrainian research programme: Klochko, Kosko and Szmyt 1999)
> show a corrected chronology that is much too shallow to be
compatible
> with the Pontic homeland hypothesis.
>
> Piotr