Customer Reviews
Incredibly detailed and concise - By: Seán, 16 Jun 2008 
This is an excellent book. It complements Mallory's book on the Indo-Europeans & takes a similar no-nonsense line. It is particularly goodin its refutation of the woolly notions of certain archaeologists like Renfrew, Cunliffe & Pryor who would have us believe that the Indo-Europeans spread throughout Europe with farming. While it is quite technicalin places, any intelligent general reader will be able to follow his arguments without difficulty. I can't recommend it highly enough.
The origins of proto-Indo-European in some detail. - By: Andrew T. B. Mitchell, 21 Apr 2008 A very detailed & convincing book that almost certainly explains the origins of proto-Indo-European people & languagesin the Pontic Ukraine. All links to surrounding cultures & languages & their links to PIE are discussedin minute detail. This is a very thick book which needs to be read twice to really understand fully. The only critisism is that Anthony does not summarise or give enough maps to help the quick reader, but there are enough maps & illustrations to provide detail to the dedicated reader with an interestin PIE.
Essentially the Northern Black Sea was the source of a steppe people who had first mastery of horses wagons & later chariots & copper smelting all of which gave them advantages over neighbouring peoples. PIE slowly spread over time through a combination of assimilation domination & conquests, using PIE as a type of networking language. The steppes initially provided a fast means to transmit that culture with the aid of the horse, & the Steppes had a unique advantage of having access to the 4 origins of civilisationin the Balkans the Middle East, Eurasia & China. More detail is given to the Eastern PIE peoples like the Tocharians & Indo-Iranians, than to the origins of European languages.
A FASCINATING JUMP INTO THE PAST - By: Silvio Ferraresi, 22 Jan 2008 I just read few pages of this wonderful book. I've always been fascinated about the origins & the changes of our languages, & I, being neither an archeologist nor an historical linguist, find astonishing how those scientist can reconstruct phonological & lexical shifts during the eras, & so can reconstruct our history too. I am reading this book as a novel. It includes the top scientific research but it is also easy readable. Every concept & tool is explainedin detail. I am an italian translator & think this book deserves quickly an italian translation.
Silvio Ferraresi
