The Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) was an ancient exchange route ranging from the Altai Mountains in Siberia to the Hindu Kush (present-day Afghanistan and northern Pakistan), which took shape in the 3rd millennium BCE.[1][2][3][4][5] The expansion of the Indo-European Andronovo culture towards the Bactria-Margiana Culture in the second millennium BCE took place along the IAMC, giving way to the Indo-Aryan migration into South Asia.[6]
Mountain Corridor
editThe IAMC contributed to the development of mobile pastoralism in the 4th millennium BCE.[1][2][7] Bronze Age mobile pastoralists acted as agents between Central Asian cultures and South Asian cultures via the IAMC, spreading domesticated wheats from South and East Asia to Inner Asia.[8][4] Bronze Age pastoralists also transmitted horse riding and bronze technology between Europe and China, but also into South Asia.[7]
Indo-European migrations
editIn the fourth millennium BCE a mobile pastoralist culture emerged at the Eurasian steppes.[4] From the Pontic–Caspian steppe (present-day Ukraine and Russia), the Indo-European Yamna culture spread westwards toward the Great Hungarian Plain; and north-west it developed into the Corded Ware culture.[6] Expanding eastward, Corded Ware eventually developed into the Sintashta culture, which further developed into the Andronovo culture. According to Narasimhan et al. (2018), the Andronovo-culture extended southwards via the IAMC, reaching into the Bactria-Margiana Culture, from where Indo-European language and culture reached South Asia.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b Frachetti, Michael D. (2008). Pastoralist landscapes and social interaction in bronze age Eurasia. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520256897. OCLC 752326743.
- ^ a b Frachetti, Michael D. (2012). "Multiregional Emergence of Mobile Pastoralism and Nonuniform Institutional Complexity across Eurasia". Current Anthropology. 53 (1): 2–38. doi:10.1086/663692. hdl:1808/21123. ISSN 0011-3204. JSTOR 10.1086/663692. S2CID 34267065.
- ^ Frachetti & Rouse 2012.
- ^ a b c Spengler et al. 2014.
- ^ Frachetti 2016.
- ^ a b c Narasimhan et al. 2018.
- ^ a b Frachetti 2016, p. 281.
- ^ Frachetti, Michael D.; Spengler, Robert N.; Fritz, Gayle J.; Mar'yashev, Alexei N. (2010-12-01). "Earliest direct evidence for broomcorn millet and wheat in the central Eurasian steppe region". Antiquity. 84 (326): 993–1010. doi:10.1017/S0003598X0006703X. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 163132760.
Sources
edit- Frachetti, Michael D.; Rouse, Lynne M. (2012), "Central Asia, the steppe, and the near east, 2500–1500 BC" (PDF), in Potts, D.T. (ed.), A Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (first ed.), Blackwell Publishing[permanent dead link]
- Frachetti, Michael (2016), "Bronze Age Pastoralism and Differentiated Landscapes along the Inner Asia Mountain Corridor", in Abraham, Shinu Anna; Gullapalli, Praveena; Raczek, Teresa P.; Rizvi, Uzma Z. (eds.), Connections and Complexity: New Approaches to the Archaeology of South Asia, Routledge
- Narasimhan, Vagheesh M.; Anthony, David; Mallory, James; Reich, David (2018), "The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia", bioRxiv 10.1101/292581
- Spengler, Robert; Rouse, Lynne M.; Bullion, Elissa; Dupuy, Paula Doumani; Cerasetti, Barbara; Frachetti, Michael D. (2014), "Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia", Proceedings of the Royal Society, 281 (1783): 20133382, doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.3382, PMC 3996608, PMID 24695428