The  BALTIC  In  VEDIC
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An updated excerpt of  text from
Virdainas © Jos. Pashka
Fatyanovo / Mundigak, & the LW*b / LW*07 antigen allele in the Hindu Kush Region ! ! !
FATYANOVO / MUNDIGAK

 " Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy,
'cause Kansas is going bye-bye! "


Early Baltic cultural contacts bridge Proto-Celtic Unetice culture to Proto-Vedic Sintashta.
Twin spiraled solar pendant artifacts culturally link Celtic "Roth", Baltic "Ratas", & Vedic "Ratha".

" With 2024 updated CO2 levels of >>> 426.21 <<< parts per million [ at Mauna Loa Observatory ]  & rising,
Human Extinction within two or three decades appears inevitable. Not Cool "
 

" People lie. The evidence doesn't lie " - Grissom.

The IE Satem poly-ethnic Middle Dnieper Culture ( R1a1a1, Z645, Z283, Z93, - Z282 w/ multiple variants ) started about five thousand years ago in forested regions by the Middle & Upper Dnieper river and it's tributaries - also including a wide area extending East towards the Don, along with an early ( 2900 BCE- re:  Lougas et al 2007 ) Northeastern variant (w/ LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele, R1a1a1, Z93, Z283, Z282, & Z280 Northern variants  ) which developed of related East Baltic speaking forest-zone Fatyanovo & Balanovo cultures that spread North and East, up to the Ural Mountains, together are seen as Northern extensions of the poly-ethnic Corded Ware ( R1a1a- M417, Z645, Z93, Z283, Z282 ) culture horizon (re: mtDNA N1a1). [ Note - the (DNA) citations are only partial / general indicators.] There were altogether really quite a few ( R1a1a1, Z280 Northern variants ) Baltic Satem speaking cultures - the early West Baltic ( Rzucewo / Pamariai / Bay Coast ) Barrow culture in the West - the growing Middle Dnieper in the middle / with a Dnieper-Desna variant - and the geographically immense East Baltic speaking Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures, settled among (and eventually merging with, among others) neighboring Uralics ( Q1a & R1b ) and Narva ( w/ I2a1 ) substratum on territory in the North & East - up to the Ural mountains and Kama-Volga rivers. A later phase of the Catacomb ( MVK - Mnogovalikovo ) & Pit-grave ( Poltavka < Repin Khutor  ) influence on the bordering CWC Fatyanovo-Balanovo was the poly-ethnic Corded Ware Abashevo culture. The Samara Volga bend Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture, with it's twin spiral solar pendants ( like Fatyanovo ) & CWC stone hammer-axes, clearly exhibited cultural origins from the Middle Dnieper culture.

Artifacts of the Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture have been found by a distant swamp of Tenteksor, Kazakhstan of the trans-Caspian region ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 354 ) - and may well account for the feminine ( gender < WHG ? ) name "Saule" ( Sunny ) in Central Asian languages & other Baltic words in Indo-Iranian. U5a1b1 in Samogitia, but also Kyrgyzstan? The rare LW7 allele ( aka LWb+ antigen ), more commonly found among Latvians, Lithuanians, & Samogitians ( Sistonen et al., 1999 ), was also detected in a Turkmen from the Jawzjan province in the North Hindu Kush region of Central Asia ( Mazieres, et al., 2013 ). Online YouTube Dna tests of Turkmen individuals show a range of 3% Baltic (MyAncestry) to 5.8% Baltic (MyHeritage) & three Kazakh dna-tests had 6.5%, 9.4%, and 18.4% Baltic. An Afghan Pashtun was 4.1% Baltic, while a Pakistani was 5.1% Baltic. (all 5 results from MyHeritage *see PPT below). Online FTDNA Family Finder test results for a Rajput sample found <2% Baltic, with 4% HG. Isn't THAT a daisy! 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐌻𐍃! Single digit aDna percentages aren't headline material, but where there is smoke, there is usually some explanation forthcoming ( the "reflux from Eastern Europe" of David Reich ). European "TRB" type N1a1a1a2, like Ivanovo Russia CWC Fatyanovo TIM002, is found today near Kashgar Tajikistan. "Extinct" NW Russia EHG mtdna C1f in a Pamiri Tajik & a Marathi in India? HAN004 Fatyanovo H6a1a is not only found in Samogitia, but also in Srubnaya. U5a1b1 in India? Fatyanovo K2a5 & "WHG like HERC2 baby blues" in Jammu Kashmir - India? Kas žinoj? U4a was found in India, Mesolithic Latvia, & later Fatyanovo culture. RISE493 had a lot (28%) of Baltic adna, like RISE505, who was 38% Baltic, as was Sintashta RISE395 (w/ Eurogenes K13). U4d was found in Mesolithic Latvia & Andronovo culture. A GEDmatch type spreadsheet of autosomal dna origins with European HG percentages indicated Tajiks have about the same level of European Hunter & Gatherer aDNA as central European Albanians, and distant Mordovians, or Chuvash, rank higher in European Hunter & Gatherer aDNA than the Irish or a southern German. Tian Shan Hun's DA101 mtdna U5a1b1e, matching Raithlin #1's mtdna ( 7K kms apart ! ), may find a plausible link in earlier Fatyanovo HAN002, NIK002, NIK007 & prior Latvian HG's mtdna U5a1b. Fatyanovo R1a "cheeseheads"  had multiple ancestries besides Y-dna Z93. Poltavka had an oddball R1a outlier. The evidence doesn't lie - Grissom.

Fatyanovo CWC stone hammer-axe


To the South of the above bordered early complexes that became
Sosnica ( R1a Z92 ? ), that later became the Baltic-type Milograd & Bondarikha ( > Jukhnovo ) cultures. Beyond that region to the East were the non-Baltic, yet culturally closely related, Indo-European Satem Pit Grave Āryan ( w/ R1a  Z93+, R1b Z2103+ )
 Yamna and autonomous Satem Corded Ware Proto-Slavic Komarov culture horizons to the East. Nearby Globular Amphora types and others to the West had coalesced with Lengyel / TRB ( I1 ) people into Corded Ware ( R1a,  CTS4385+, Z283, M458, Z282, M284, Z280 ) variants, including pre-proto-Germanic, although Centum Globular Amphora ( w/ I2a2a1b ) also significantly influenced Middle Dnieper and the Fatyanovo culturally, ( Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962; Česnys et al., 1990, Saag et al 2020  ) as well as by contributing ( & assimilating ) mixed substratum populations. People of the Globular Amphora culture were found to harbor ca. 25% WHG ancestry. Proto-Slavic ( mtDNA U4a2 ) evolved from Southwestern early Satem speaking poly-ethnic steppe variants of the lower Middle Dnieper culture horizon, neighboring a distinct SW Monteoru culture of a Satem related, yet distinct Proto-Dacian variant. Corded Ware R1a1a1 Z283 - an ancestral mutation for Z280 and Z284, genetically illuminates the close familial bond of Vikings, Slavs, and Balts - a bond rekindled much later with the unified Játvįgai / Яцьвягі / Yotvingians.

The Balts and the Finns in historical perspective: a multidisciplinary approach.
by Gintautas
Česnys & Vaidutis Kučinskas 2004, presents a scientific overview. (^ PDF link )

The Genetic History of Northern Europe
( Mittnik et al, 2017 - ^ PDF link )

"The presence of ancestry from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe among Baltic CWC individuals
without the genetic component from north-western Anatolian Neolithic farmers
 must be due to a direct migration of steppe pastoralists
that did not pick up this ancestry in Central Europe".
A. Mittnick, et al 2018 )

"...a near-total genetic turnover is seen in the Eastern Baltic
with the advent of large-scale agro-pastoralism.
While they did not mix genetically with Central European or Scandinavian farmers,
beginning around 2,900 BCE the individuals in the Eastern Baltic
derive large parts of their ancestry from nomadic pastoralists of the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

“Interestingly, we find an increase of local Eastern Baltic hunter-gatherer ancestry
 in this population at the onset of the Bronze Age,” states Alissa Mittnik
of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, lead author of the study.

“The local population was not completely replaced but coexisted and eventually mixed with the newcomers.”

( To understand to evolution of the Baltic languages, one needs to understand who spoke it, & when. -jp )

Balto-Slavic is a convenient linguistic generalization of the complex multi-regional poly-ethnic Middle Dnieper cultural horizon ( R1a1a1, Z283 multiple variants, Z93 ), and generic at best. Regional semi-autonomous variant subgroups ( forest vs. steppe ) within the geography of the poly-ethnic Middle Dnieper culture area explains most irreducible incongruities between Baltic and Slavic ( eg. Slavic participle in -L ). Neither offshoot can be any "older" than the other ( R1a1a1, Z280 multiple variants ), although East Baltic ( w/ LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele / R1a1a1-, Z280 Northern variants like CTS1211, Y35, Z92 etc, or N1c1 ) remains extraordinarily archaic to this day. Luckily, the specific East Baltic speaker's cultural-tribal blood marker of the LWb+ antigen - LW*07 allele transcends often misinterpreted R1a1a & N1c1 DNA identifications. ( The LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele mutation [ A308G - on chromosome 19p13.3 ] resulted from a singular event, and is genetically inherited. ) Excavations between the rivers Orell and Samara have uncovered burials of a syncretic nature that attest contacts between the spheres of the Corded Ware ( R1a1a ) and early Yamna cultures. The Yamnaya culture itself evolved over time & probaby developed from the Eneolithic Repin ( w/ R1a M417 ) and Khvalynsk ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ & R1a-M459+ ) steppe cultures  - as a series of regionally variant cultures. Perhaps overly simplified, R1a is from the northern  EHG component of PIE Yamnaya. [ Eastern Hunter Gatherers (EHG) derive 3/4 of their ancestry from the ANE (Lazaridis et al 2016.) ] Along the Volga, the Repin traditions survive into the Early Bronze Age. An East-West ( Z93 vs. Z283 ) division of R1a may have a relation to the Northern Corded Ware cultures inheriting a GAC-Yamnaya-C2 Trypillian amalgam. The early Catacomb culture people on the Don shared physical affinities with the Repin like Afanasievo ( w/ R1a M417 ), as also did some Globular Amphora people, whereas later Yamna ( R1b-Z2103+ ) shared physical characteristics of regions like the Northern Caucasus and the northwestern Caspian. Both Z283 and Z93 share the R1a Z645 mutation. Recently, a few early East Baltic Corded Ware DNA results confirm the presence of R1a Z645 & Z283 in Baltic Corded Ware from excavations, and R1a Z93 & Z283 in Corded Ware Fatyanovo ( Saag et al 2020 ). CWC Fatyanovo Z93 is a paradigm shift of epic magnitude. It is worth noting that the Khanevo ( HAN002 ) Fatyanovo Z93 was found very near to where the Baltic Golyad' ( ГОЛЯДЬ ) lived. Z93 ( & later Z282 > R-Y17491 ) may indicate early contacts between poly-ethnic Pre-Proto-Indo-Iranians ( R1a1a-, Z93+, Poltavka outlier I0432-SVP42, w/ Kunda like WHG & Mtdna U5a1c ! ) and the ancestors of many East Balts ( R1a1a-, Z93, Z283, & Z92 ), which had culturally evolved as somewhat related neighboring "Satem" cultures ( Lith. "sviestas " churned milk, Avestan "xšvid- " milk, Lith. "žastas ", Sanskrit "hastas " arm from elbow, Lith. "kada, tada, kataras, antaras " when, then, which, other, Sanskrit "kadā, tadā, kataras, antaras " id,  /  Vėjus - Vāyus wind / Ašvieniai - Ashvins Divine Twins myth), and much later, as integrated metallurgic co-workers by Sintashta-Arkaim ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2, re: ceramic « checked » ornaments ), they would fish šapalas- śapharas together, share ominously " wild-eyed " aršus - ǝrǝšiš ( see below ) sojourns, then sing astonishing supra-lyrical Daina - Dhēnā praise to the warm dawning Ūšas - Uṣas light.  MtDNA N1a1a1 - 294. A specific E. Baltic Fatyanovo « checked » double diamond rhombus pottery design verifies Sintashta-Arkaim era contacts, and is later found on Alakul, Fedorovo, Tannabergen  Kazakhstan ( Novy Kumak horizon ) & Kandahar valley Mundigak Period VI ceramics in Afghanistan. Swat I2a2 ?  Lith. piešalas, Sanskrit peśalas. Cool !

Embrace The Chaos
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The ethnogenesis of the polyethnic Middle Dnieper Culture ( around 2900 BCE ) grew from conservative peripheral IE Satem dialects closely adjoined to Yamna Pit-grave & Repin Khutor, as well as early Catacomb culture neighbors ( R1a M417, & later R1b-Z2103+ ), with additional diverse admixture of Dnieper Repins ( R1a M417+ ) and other originally non-IE peoples ( I2a2, E-V13 & T ) from Dnieper-Donets and Tripolye ("Temematian") C2 - which were by now also of mixed origin and probably bi-lingual, along with admixture of TRB ( I1 ), Lengyels, BBC, Centum Globular Amphora ( 3250 BCE ) from the Carpathian area ( including some late Baden ), and western Corded Ware folk ( R1a CTS4385, Z283, Z284 ). The Dnieper Dereivka culture preserved the Balkan Carpathian tradition of placing small pots in graves as well as the Kvityana ( Post-Mariupol, or Sredny Stog ) culture tradition of creating special ceramics for funeral feasts by graves ( with stone hammer heads ).  From this multi-ethnic convergence and chaotic fusion spawned the unique ethnogenesis of the mainly Satem Middle Dnieper culture, in contrast with other ethnic cultures that were expanding outward. Although Fatyanovo & Balanovo, as an early ( 2900 BCE ) variant of upper Middle Dnieper, did quickly expand ( LWb+ allele, R1a1a1, Z283 - Z280 ) into the forest zone to the Northeast. Hence the elusive "retro" centralist appearance of languages descended from the Middle Dnieper culture and it's linguistic neighbors. This explains why one finds unique Celtic-Baltic isogloss terms, or separate Greek-Baltic isoglosses, or Indo-Iranian-East Baltic isoglosses ( see below ). Baltic is ( like IE ), the linguistic flagship of multiculturalism. Structured theories are a poor match to interpret the initial formative chaos of this multicultural foundation for the Middle Dnieper culture horizon. Embrace the chaos !

Globular Amphora Substratum
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This poly-ethnic Middle Dnieper Culture was a large, regionally diverse mosaic, a synthesis or fusion of local variant groups - a "vortex" of converging multi-ethnic cultural influences. Frequent interaction between the central European Dniester Tripolye C2 refugees, which may also have spoken variants of a pidgin Centum, as well as their native "Temematian" language, and the northern Middle Dnieper Tripolye C2 & TRB bi-lingual populace  ( I2a, E-V13 & T ), perhaps account as sources and range of non-IE  " tauras "- like  archaisms and innovations in polyethnic Middle Dnieper / Fatyanovo, as well as traditions of central European copper metallurgy. The Middle Dnieper region became a proverbial melting pot, with input from all directions and many cultures. To the West, C-14 dates reflect an amalgamation of Globular Amphora ( w/ I2a2a1b ) with Tripolye, and later TRB, or Funnel Beaker culture, Lengyels and pre-BBC ( G2a, R1b ), for near a millennium in Poland & Germany ( R1a, CTS4385 & M458, I2a ), then along with other NW Corded Ware groups ( R1a, Z283, Z284 & L664 ) influenced the earlier TRB assimilated Ertebølle-Ellerbek ( which replaced Kongemose culture ) natives even into Scandinavia, as some GAC ( Y-DNA I2a2a1b ) did earlier with Nemunas-Narva folk ( w/ I2a1, Mtdna U5b2 ) while expanding the amber trade with the Narva of the Baltic region, and their Uralic neighbors / contacts. Some outlier GAC Centum speakers ( eg. Smolensk area ) were assimilated by the pioneering Satem East Balts. The Middle Dnieper Steppe Repin ( R1a M417+, mtDNA K & H  ) cultural contribution to poly-ethnic Globular Amphora ( w/ it's Janislawice culture substratum )  is reflected by Tocharian / Germanic proclivities, and the Centum Globular Amphora ( ( Y-DNA I2a2a1b ) ) substratum ( "GAS " ) contribution to the Baltic languages ( klau- / šlav- or akmuo- / ašmuo- ) and their lexicons ( pku, kaimas ). Illich-Svitych prudently referred to it as "some Centum" ( Illich-Svitych 1963 ). But "hybrid" semantically oversteps this impact on Baltic - perhaps rather a "quasi-creole" of the amalgamating poly-ethnics of four distinct ethnicities ( re: New PCA data ). Since this amalgamation occurred at the earliest periods ( around 2960 BCE ) of contact, and was integrated with varied poly-ethnic Globular Amphora Centum ( ( Y-DNA I2a2a1b ) ) speakers, the Euro-Repin Centum traces in Baltic ( also w/ MDC Z280, CTS1211, etc  ) blended in smoothly. Enigmatic linguistic "Centum reflexes" may merely reflect common poly-ethnic bilingual contacts & integration. The new Satem immigrants may have encountered possibly three different other languages besides theirs. We know from DNA that there was gradual assimilation. The study of Baltic languages thus provides a unique perspective for Tocharian / Proto-Germanic Repin Centum investigations ( R1a M417+, mtDNA K & H  ), or Latin / Germanic ERC affinities from Usatovo & GAC origins. Square flint axes found in the Suvalkija / Vilkaviškis regions of Lithuania indicate GAC settlements there ( Brazaitis 2005 fig 5, Girininkas 2009, Fig. 150 ). Pẽkus in Sūduva is a residual substratum word, not an import like pešti, pešùs, or pẽšis. Kailas! ( re: Sudovian "Kayles", Gothic "Hails" ). The Euro-Repin Centum ( " ERC " ) features of East & especially West Baltic are like a window into one component of an archaic pre-creolized Germanic Parent Language ( GPL ), or Proto-Germanic ( also see BBC below ), just as Uralic languages ( & the indigenous Baltic HG substratum populations ) have frozen Baltic words in time.  Apples don't fall far from the apple tree.

Euro-Repin Centum
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The Centum Globular Amphora poly-ethnic culture ( plural dative "m" , development of verbal postfixes, GAC, or WHG > CWC Baltic-Slavic-Germanic isoglosses ), with it's Funnel Beaker ( Bronocice pot wagons & Novosvobodna Mtdna V7 connection ), TRB ( I1 ) & Lengyel substrate, pre-BBC influences ( Q > P ), and Euro-Repin component, culturally contributed significantly to the Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo ( Berezanskaja 1971; Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962 ) ethno-genesis via substratum and contact.  Many irreducible Centum / Satem incongruities in East Baltic Satemization & Ruki were influenced by GAS <  Globular Amphora Substratum < ERC < Euro-Repin-Centum. The Finnish word "laiha " thin, from Fatyanovo residual pioneers, implies East Baltic Ruki was perhaps compromised over time by a substratum influence, yielding later Lith. "liesa " instead of *lieša. The archaeological record clearly shows that substratum was Globular Amphora oriented, and that it had extensive trade networks ( the flint / amber trade ) with other central Europe cultures such as Baden ( R1a M420, M198, CTS4385, & R1b ). For the Centum GAs ( mtDNA K, & R1a M417,  & Z283, & CTS4385, also w/ MDC Z280  ) * ratʔas relationship of Old Irish " roth ", Lithuanian " ratas ", and Sanskrit " ratha "- see below, as well as the interpretation of Sintashta "checked " < ܀ > ceramic ornamentation by Oleg Mochalov ( 2008 - Samara State Pedagogical University ) & Nitra-Unetice like twin spiral ("spectacle") type solar  pendants. Both tartan and striped ( see EB sg.ntr. *darža below ) textile folk designs co-exist to this day in Latvia and Lithuania, perhaps from Euro-Repin & NE Tripolye origins. Middle Dnieper Centum Repin is the link between the similiar weave pattern of Turim Basin Tocharians and ancient Hallstatt ( GAC ? ) textiles of Euro-Repins. Baltic Perkūnas reflects a GAS assimilated CWC "alpine" velar plosive. Slavic Satem Ruki & velarless Perun would support this assertion, as does the archaeological record around 3,000 BCE. Fatyanovo East Baltic influenced Globular Amphora as well. Finnish stem "tuhante "- 1,000, implies Centum Globular Amphora substratum quickly adopted unique innovative Fatyanovo like Satem terms ( one-leftover = 11, - w/ later GAC-BBC p < q ), and took them elsewhere - just as Fatyanovo used new GAS- ERC terms far and wide. Such mutual integration & influence is the basis, or foundation, for vague linguistic terms like " Northern Indo-European " supported by " Germanic-Baltic " isoglosses ( aldija vs. perga ). WHG integration is same the fact found in many current "Family Finder" DNA tests. The "mysterious" Satem influence on Germanic, or Centum influence on Baltic, is really not that "mysterious" at all. GAC / MDC Z280 distribution illustrates why, as do modern autosomal WHG ancestry tests. Decades old circular linguistic polemics ( re: b-o-r-i-n-g ) now can utilize such terms as " GAS ", or "ERC " regarding Baltic, Slavic, or Germanic for that matter. Pedal to the metal.  Eime.

Poly-Ethnic Reductionism 101
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The Middle Dnieper burial customs of males laid on their right side - females on their left, was already practiced by some forest-steppe Satems. Maykop burial traditions of orienting the male head to the Southwest, and the female to the Northeast was followed by the Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo Northern ( R1a1a1, Z645, Z283, & Z280 ) offshoot of Middle Dnieper, as did other regional sub-groups of it, as opposed to other Corded Ware variants. Most burial remains exhibit dolichocranial features. The "vortex" of this Middle Dnieper Culture multi-ethnic fusion was, in part, propelled by a devastating climatic change, known as the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase, that took place prior to the Middle Dnieper culture's synthesis, coupled with the mobility of the wheel. A perfect storm. Regional variant steppe dialects from the southern part of this multi-ethnic Middle Dnieper culture would contribute to the ethno-genesis of the Slavs neighboring an earlier outlier Satem Proto-Dacian dialect near Baden ( w/ R1a-, M420, M198 ). As with the neighboring related early Catacomb ( R1a-, M417+, w/ R1b-Z2103+ & I2a ) or Centum-Globular Amphora ( Y-DNA I2a2a1b ) polyethnic cultures, the Satem Middle Dnieper culture had quite a few (< link / R1a1a1, Z283, Z280, etc ) regionally diverse variant subgroups that spawned later peripheral cultures.

The mythical "Balto-Slavic" (SVO) is none other than a Middle Dnieper cultural horizon of various unique regional, yet distinctly polyethnic "Europeanized " conservative core IE Satem dialects neighboring related Pit-grave Yamna Āryan Satem (SOV) to their East as well as the nearby early Catacomb culture (SOV), and "Europeanized " Centum Globular Amphora type languages (SVO) to their West. Contact with Dnieper-Don Repins (SOV) is implied by unique Slavic / Baltic / Tocharian isoglosses. Hollow based flint arrowheads of the Middle Dnieper culture bear a undeniable resemblance with Pit-grave Yamna ( w/ Mtdna H6a1b ) and early Catacomb culture counterparts ( pre-Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian, ( R1a-, M417+, w/ R1b-Z2103+ ), as does some pottery. River, lake, and marsh food, including mollusks ( Latv. sence ), were important food sources. Pontic steppe Catacomb & East Baltic bored stone hammer-axes are almost interchangeable, and of course, some aspects of their languages (re: Grk. Poimenes / Lith. Piemenes / and the merger of Genitive & Ablative). Armenian, Baltic, Slavic, and Indo-Iranian share innovations of the 1st person plural pronoun. East Balt and Andronovo four, five, or seven-bulbed stone bored maces ( Lith. vėzdras, Skt. vajrah ) are nearly identical, as are their archaic Ashvins / Ašvieniai Divine Twins mythology as well. It is no surprise that the Indo-Iranian and Baltic future tense echo each other, as do many cultural terms and words. This reflective Greek / Sanskrit / Lithuanian relationship is more than just a bridge between East and West ( like Ket & Navajo languages, or Q1a2a1c & Q1a3a1 ), it is a timeless Harmony letting even a blind man to view all Humanity as Family.

These Satem core components of varied pre-Baltic, pre-Slavic cultures migrated from the northern Sredny Stog culture (4500-3350 BCE, w/ R1a-, M417+ ), which with the Khvalynsk culture ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ & R1a-M459+ ) evolved from the Samara PIE homeland culture (5500-5000 BCE, w/ R1b-Z2103+, Mtdna W6a ) on the Volga River.* Artifacts connect Samara with the earlier ( 7th millenium B.C.E.) polyethnic Indo-Uralic Seroglazovo culture by the Ural river, probably validating the Indo-Uralic theory of V. Thomsen from 1869. (re: " miti " languages). The evidence of shared Proto-Indo-European (Anatolian & Tocharian) and Proto-Uralic "k- / m-" interrogatives ( Michael Peyrot 2019 ) presents a credible implication of earlier Proto-Indo-Uralic related Eurasian dialects of Eastern Hunter & Gatherers (EHG).

Funnel Beaker Bronocice pot wagons & Novosvobodna Mtdna V7 connection > Globular Amphora Culture
Funnel Beaker > Globular Amphora

Pots Don't Talk - They Speak - Volumes
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Most migrations were often due to prolonged climatic changes such as the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase (4200 BCE colder, 3500 BCE drier), population pressure on natural resources, and / or favorable new frontiers to colonize. The migrations by each group resulted in different ethnic assimilations (Dnieper Repins, Dnieper-Donets, Tripolye C2, & Globular Amphora ) during the migrations, and even more so at the eventual settlement regions (eg. Comb & Pitted Ware Cultures and polyethnic Globular Amphora with non-Uralic WHG-EHG Nemunas & Narva Substratum / ( w/ I2a1, U4, U5b2 ). The Fatyanovo custom of adding chamotte-grog, or crushed shell to pottery reflects cultures like Narva ( Dumpe et al. 2011, & later Globular Amphora-Narva poly-ethnic - Česnys et al., 2006 ) populations of the East Baltic, and also older pottery by the Dnieper Rapids (Surskii island - circa 6,000 BCE), and later Don-steppe cord impressed ceramics associated with Dnieper-Donets steppe cultures. Twin horse heads ( Ašvieniai sky motif ) and boar tusks also culturally link Satem Balts to S'yezzhe by Samara. From the Samara culture ( R1a & R1b-Z2103+, Mtdna W6a ) to the present, speakers of the archaic roots of Baltic type ( also w/ Mtdna W6a  ) languages have been indisputably polyethnic in various degrees in their long mosaic evolution. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. Europe today is like an unmarked ancient sack of mixed genetic seeds.

The far reaching nautical mobility of ancient Hunters & Gatherers is commonly overlooked, or completely ignored. It was as pivotal as the later wheel.

The
Sudovians ( Dainavians, Yotvingians ), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians together formed a closely related Baltic language group known as the Western Balts ( West Baltic Barrow cultures ), to
which one should also include the ancient Curonians. The languages of both the Western and Eastern Balts ( Lithuanian, Samogitian, and Latvian / R1a1a1b1a2b3 etc ) evolved from the varied poly-ethnic Pre-Baltic Satem languages that migrated ( each differently ) from the late Sredny Stog horizon and subsequent Middle Dnieper culture regional variant subcultures. These early Baltic language settlement areas of which ( the lower reaches of the Vistula, Daugava, the Nemunas basin, the upper reaches of the Dnieper & even to the Urals ) - is known to have developed into the (1) Early East Baltic Area of Northern & NE dialects ( w/ LWb ) and (2) Early West Baltic Area of Western & Coastal dialects ( Rzucewo culture ). The Sudovians, Prussians, and Curonians can be regarded as links in a chain of this latter group, while the Lithuanians, Žemaitians ( Samogitians ), and Latvians ( R1a1a1, Z280, like CTS1211, L235, L784.) are considered to be the remnants ( R1a1a1, Z280, CTS1211, Y35, Z92 ) of a more Northern Early East-Baltic ( LWb allele ) area migration. The differences between East and West Baltic cultures are reflected by Y-DNA data currently processed by the U. of AZ ( re: Sintashta C14 dates ) in Tucson. The gradual assimilation of substrate WHG-EHG ancestry from Narva & Neman natives into East and West Baltic cultures is noted by high percentages ( 50-58%+ ) in modern DNA PCA test results, as well as with loanwords from those substrates ( kasula, rugys, kiaulė, etc.). The influence of fixed stress in Baltic languages, reflected as well as in Scandinavian and Germanic languages, may possibly be a relic from assimilated native WHG-EHG substrate rather than ( or as well ) from later Finnic influence. That HG substrate populations influenced the accentuation ( & the retraction of laryngeals, metatony, etc. ) of the various evolving Baltic languages is a given - considering autosomal HG dna proportions of well over 50% in those modern Baltic populations. And then there is
"Rozwadowski's change" to consider. The celebrated archaic conservatism of Baltic languages, and unique accentuation, is likely due to a prolonged gradual assimilation of native Hunter & Gatherer ancestry rather than merely geographic isolation. Is it a particle, or a wave? Who assimilated who? The Baltic Hunter & Gatherer ancestry also contributed to surviving Baltic Folk Culture. ᛗᛖᛊ  ᛈᚨᛚᛁᚲᛊᛁᛗ.

"Intriguingly, modern Eastern Baltic populations carry the highest proportion of WHG ancestry of all Europeans,
supporting the theory that the hunter-gatherer population of this region left a lasting genetic impact on subsequent populations".

( Mittnik et al, 2018 )

The Eastern most dialects of the Early East-Baltic area ( Fatyanovo-Balanovo ) did not survive intact to be documented beyond numerous hydronyms and many archaic loanwords in various Finnic languages ( gyenta / gyentar ) and Indic ( dhēnā, śapharas, rathas ), as well as contributing later to Russian dialects (re: ГОЛЯДЬ / Terje Mathiassen & "Sprachbund" notion ). There are loanwords in Sámi from Volga-East-Baltic that show no indications of Finnic sound changes ( ie, Sámi "luossa"< Volga-Baltic "lašiša" vs. Finnish "lohi", salmon ), which help to approximately date a common source language for Finnic and Saami - and trade with Volga-Balts. It is quite possible that bi-lingual Hunter & Gatherers ( WHG w/ EHG ) of the Baltic region ( Narva / Kunda ), who had become somewhat bi-lingual from prolonged contact with early CWC Baltic speakers, were assimilated into Finnic speaking populations along with their bi-lingual vocabulary. Such lexical borrowings need not have been direct. An assumed route of borrowing ( Baltic > Saami > Finnish ) has been mentioned in 2009 by Ante Aikio. Adding another element does not interfere much ( Baltic > HG > Saami > Finnish ), and may possibly be more precise. The loanwords were decidedly not prestigious items of an arrogant elite, ie Sámi "duovli ", Latvian "dagla " tinder, Skolt Sámi "suomm " melody, Lith. "suoma " song,  or for example, North Sámi "suoidni " hay, Finnish "heinä " id, Lith. "šienas " id,  Finnish "ranta " shore, Lith. "krantas " id. It would be constructive to associate a "Bell Curve" to Baltic-Uralic loanwords ( & vice versa ), starting with CWC Fatyanovo-Balanovo contacts, and later reflecting the gradually increasing migrant populations to a peak period of interaction, then tapering off. Such a rational approach would avoid needless academic debates. These were not static populations. A few nomadic pastoralists occasionally encountering highly mobile hunters & gatherers in vast northern forests. The loanwords followed the population migrations - like a "rathas" term in India, to a North Sámi "ráhtis " in Norway, or DNA. X-matches from my Lithuanian mother's side, mtdna U5ab1, U2e1, h14a1, H6a1a, and H13a1a - are also found in India.

From reconstructions of the many cultural "loanwords" in Finno-Uralic by linguists, & those found in Vedic, one might gather that the languages of the Fatyanovo & Balanovo Volga-Balts resembled a very archaic ( circa 2,800 BCE ) East Baltic Samo-Lettic (w/ their Solar cult & Sun songs), surviving ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z283, Z280, & Northern variants there of ) and evolving for the most part into Modern East-Baltic Lithuanian, Žemaitian, and Latvian, and being culturally preserved in their dainos / dainās, especially those with a solar theme. Many East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo artifacts exhibit designs reflecting such solar themes. CWC Abashevo rosettes mirror Latvian sun sign folk designs. Fatyanovo artifacts have clear cultural CWC links to the Nemunas basin.

Lexical Provenance
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Some regard the central Latvian system of three intonations ( also in Samogitian-Žemaitian ) as an archaism of the Baltic group, while others (Stang 1966; 142 ) view the 3 tones as a reflection of accent retraction due to contact with another language ( a new broken tone from where stress was retracted to a syllable which originally had acute tone ). These related Northern Boat Axe tribes include the "D " Balts of the late great Balticist V. Mažiulis. Given the earlier political assassination of Lithuanian linguist Jonas Kazlauskas by the KGB (Déjà Vu - again? - re: Mari's Prof Yuri Anduganov ), it perhaps was a safer label than a more accurate "Ural Balts " ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z280, & Northern variants there of ), or more inflammatory, yet factual "Volga-Kama Balts ". Neutralizing scholars is so passé. The settlement of East Balts in Russia three thousand years before the arrival of East Slavs was not politically expedient information, nor particularly welcome. It still isn't welcomed to this day, like the Turim Basin ( VRC ) Tocharians in China. Seven males tested from the Xinjiang Xiaohe cemetery in the Tarim basin were Y-DNA R1a1a M417+, Z93 neg ( Chunxiang Li et al 2010, & reference by co-author Hui Zhou ), and dated to around 2,000 BCE ( re: " Yuezhi " < + > Old Nord. " Gautar ").  Science. Note "loanwords" into Finno-Ugric below (Gordeev 1967 180-203, Redei 1986 25-26) - of a specifically archaic East Baltic lexical "Fatyanovo" provenance, ie žalga, dagla, darža, vežys, (v)āžys, gentar, kela, ratas, tilta, kār'as, deivas, not some amorphous "Proto Balto-Slavic" of the incompetent. Finnish Perkele & Votiak  Perkịno reflect a CWC Fatyanovo Baltic "alpine" velar that is altogether absent in Slavic Perun velarless variants. ( re: Lith. kerkoti & GAC ) Slavic cognates for the East Baltic "ratas" ( wheel ) term are also absent. Details, details, details.

Fatyanovo *darža - checkered pottery motif

Baltic & Uralic in Vedic?
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The old names of the various groups were derived from nearby hydronyms, such as the historic Lamai by the Lama river, or the Eastern Galindai ( ГОЛЯДЬ ). Some of these Eastern { w/ LWb+ / LW*07 } Balts ( Fatyanovo-Balanovo / Volsk-Lbishche ) by the Ural mountains evidently merged culturally with, or extended to the nearby cosmopolitan poly-ethnic Abashevo culture ( Corded Ware Culture ! ), which became a major component of the Sintashta / Arkaim culture ( Kuz'mina 2000; Pryakhin et al. 2001 ), later becoming one of many conservative Alakul' dialects to Pre-BMAC Proto-Indo-Aryan ( Proto-Vedic ). Some Abashevo pottery looks quite similar to, and even blends specific *darža designs from Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ), which indicates East Baltic ( w/ LWb+ / LW*07 ) Corded Ware culture (Kuz'mina O.V. 2000) integration in the Abashevo ethnogenesis, as well as in later Sintashta-Arkaim. One of the uniquely  Fatyanovo-Balanovo trademark CWC Baltic ceramic designs ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 ) was a pecular *darža checkered double row diamond rhombus ( languotas raštas, rūtains ) pattern, which found it's way into Andronovo Alakul  ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 622, fig. 13, I-rim #1, III-shoulder #1 ), Kozhumberby ( same as prior Alakul' references ) & Timber Grave ( Srubna Pozdnyakovo ) ceramics and culture ( *©jp ).

Fatyanovo Baltic motif (top), w/ BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below) - Sintashta pottery
Fatyanovo Baltic CWC motif (on top),
w/ BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below it)

It is also indisputably evident in Andronovo Fedorovo artifacts ( re:  Koryakova & Epimakhov 2007, p 135, fig 3.10, Urefty kurgan 21 pottery LL, p 143, fig 3.31, grave 2 pottery #8; Also Kuz'mina 2007, p. 653, fig. 41, Urefty pottery, # 3 & 4; p. 628 fig. 19, #5 Smolino pottery; Also fig 101, # 14, Mundigak Period VI, Kandahar valley  ), as well as on pottery from Tannabergen  Kazakhstan (Kuz'mina 2007, p. 676, fig. 63, # 2, 4, 7, 8, 10 & 13 ) - [ Novy Kumak horizon ]. Pottery was the cultural artwork of women. Mtdna U5b2, as from Lithuania ( Kretuonas 1- 5350 BP, & Kretuonas 3 - 5580 BP, Bramanti et al 2009 ), is also found in Central Asia, Siberia, and even Gujarat, India. Recently, frequencies of the exceedingly rare LW*07 antigen / LWb+ allele have been documented in the Northern Hindu Kush region of Central Asia. European "TRB" type N1a1a1a2, like CWC Fatyanovo TIM002, is found today near Kashgar Tajikistan. Lith. piešalas, Sanskrit peśalas. Epicly Cool !

 

LW*07 ( LWb+ ) in the North Hindu Kush Region
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Fatyanovo-Balanovo trademark Baltic designs on Mundigak VI pottery. Deal with it !
Fatyanovo / Mundigak VI

" Buckle your seatbelt Dorothy, '
cause Kansas is going bye-bye! "

If unique designs of jewelry ( Nitra-Unetice type twin spiral pendants ), weapons, & specific pottery ornamentation were assimilated, unique words were probably assimilated as well. A baritone masc. sg. "ratas" isn't some amorphous "proto-balto-slavic" word. Ratas is specifically GAS East Baltic, just like it's unique trademark *darža checkered ceramics ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ) of Fatyanovo barley & hemp farmers. LWb+ in the Hindu Kush region, Baltic in Vedic, & CWC Fatyanovo R1a Z93. Now ain't that a daisy ! A Uralic component ( Erzya Pəŕgəńä, Votiak  Perkịno ) of poly-ethnic Balanovo culture ( Goldin 1999; 130 ) may also account for old Uralic words in Andronovo culture, and adding chamotte-grog in ceramics. East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo  ( w/ LWb+ / LW*07 ) is the link, the " pantas ", spanning between the two disparate cultures of Poltavka and Volosovo-Garino. Fatyanovo & Balanovo *darža checkered pottery connects Poltavka & Volosovo, revealing the conduit for cultural exchange. The Southern most peripheral Baltic dialects were from the  Sosnica cultural complex ( > Milograd & Jukhnovo cultures ), which much later on assimilated with migrating Eastern Slavic speakers ( R1a1a-, Z92 ). Yet it should be remembered that neither Satemization ( post R1a - Z645  ) or Ruki match genetic charts very well. Language is primarily an aspect of culture, not genetics. Centum Goths & Norse Yotvingians eventually spoke only Satem Baltic, as did my Scandinavian R-BY164240 paternal ancestors in Sudovia.

 

 

Substrate Paleo-European Hunters & Gathers, Corded Ware, & Dative Plural "M"
Initial origins of the varied polyethnic West and larger East-Baltic Cultures.
Map of the "Europeanized" IE Corded Ware Cultures with Dative Plural "M", & R1a- M417, Z283

The early ancestors of the West Balts ( R1a1a-, Z280 ) were the West Baltic Rzucewo Barrow culture and the Mazovia-Podlasie groups of the Trzciniec culture along the Bug river basin, which bordered the autonomous Komarov ( Proto-Slavic ) culture of the Podolian Uplands further to the South. The Baltic Trzciniec ("Streaked" pottery) culture was related to the autonomous Komarov culture, but different, as ceramics, metalwork, hydronyms, and burial rites indicate. This difference can be seen in the word for man's best friend, "dog ", where West Baltic had suns vs. Old Church Slavic pьsъ, or "rock" - Baltic akmō / ašmō vs. O.C. Slavic kamy, West Baltic p'ausē "pine" vs. Slavic bor or sosna (< *sopsna ), and also with many fundamental lexical and mythological disparities. In contrast, note East Baltic " šuo " with Kalasha " šua " dog, or Lith. "puš-es " pines and Waigali "puċ " pine. (see Haplogroup U4 below). The West-Satem branch relatedness is illustrated by the word for "name" - West Baltic emens, Albanian emen, and Slavic imę, vs. more Central-Satem East Baltic Lithuanian vardas.

The early West Baltic Rzucewo Barrow culture and Trzciniec evolved into the later Pomeranian culture ( R1a1a1, Z280, L365 ) horizon. The West Baltic dialect area flourished with their lively amber trade with the Unitice culture and beyond. Even as late as the Early Iron Age (600 BCE), the southern limit of the large Sudovian culture territory bordered the Slavic/Scythian Chernoles culture. Scytho-Sarmatian (Ossetic) and Slavic isoglosses can be illustrated in Ossetic terminology of agriculture ( yoke, harvest, reaping-hook ) - in somatic terminology ( ear ), and in kinship ( sister, brother, mother, father, mother and father-in-law ). The Slavic and Mid-Iranian RUKI had much in common, as well as Slavic loss of word-final *-s, which may have had a "visarga" stage ( *-s > *-h > * ) resembling, and most probably influenced by Timber Grave Iranian contact. (re: U3)

The Neuri of Herodotus
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According to Herodotus (approx 450 BCE) the Neuri  ( Νέυροι ) were a tribe living North of the Tyres (Dneister river), and the furthest nation beyond the Scythian farmers along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug river). The Bug river meets the Naura ( Baltic name for the Narew ) river. The Naura river leads one to Galinda and Suduva. Since trade increased recognition, the Neuri of Herodotus were possibly related to the Galindians and Sudovians. Herodotus also mentions the wild white horses nearby that grazed by a great lake, which scholars today suggest are the Podlesie marshes by the Bialowieza Forest. Yotvingian Tarpans from the Bialowieza Forest seasonally faded to near white in Winter. In 500 BCE, Eastern Europe climate was much cooler and wetter. There is still a town in Poland named Nur ( Νυρ) { 52° 40' 0" N, 22° 18' 0" E } along the upper Bug River, near the Bialowieza Forest. The Nurzec river runs nearby, and the local district currently bears the river's name. Balts traditionally take ethnonyms from local hydronyms. The Baltic verbal roots *"nur-" to immerse or *"niur-" to get murky may be sources of the local hydronym. Archaeologists have excavated a fortified settlement and an open settlement near Moloczki Poland, by the Nurzec river. There are probably many more yet unexcavated in "Ziemia Nurska", as the area is known as. Udmurt "nur" swamp, might contradict this theory. The "Navari" of Pliny, perhaps near the Oka river by Kaluga, may be a better explanation.


The Balts of Ptolemy
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The Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century A.D. mentioned only two Baltic tribal nations, the Γαλίνδαι and Σουδινοί. Romans coins ( Tiberius / Caligula ) unearthed in Suduva predate Ptolemy's account. Artifacts like spears (Type 15 / Vennolum), spurs, & other Roman coins, etc. reflect Wielbark C1a-C2 era Scandinavian contacts in Sūdovia. Σουδινοί was possibly a typo for Σουδιυοί. (re: 'Ιατυγγιωνες).  It is of interest to note that an early differentiation of dialects also took place in the Central Eastern dialects, evolving early Lithuanian / Žemaitian / Latvian, at a period when the neuter gender was still common in East Baltic ( Fatyanovo neuter > Finnish "kela" reel, spool / Old Prussian "kelan" wheel ).

Γαλίνδαι and Σουδινοί.
"Balts never had direct contact with the Goths, but were separated from them by the Slavs" - Frederik Kortlandt (?)

Ptolemy's mention of the Γαλίνδαι & Σουδινοί in the 2nd century
is reflected in Yfull R-Z284 samples, Mazovian id: YF03538 w/ R-YP4638,
& Sudovian id: YF86015 w/ R-BY164240.

 


The Western Balts
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The Western Baltic dialect that later gave rise to the Sudovian, Dainavian, Galindian,  Pomesanian, and various Prussian languages is one of the dialects of the Early-Western Baltic Area ( R1a1a1, Z280, L366 ). The Coastal West Balts emerged as yet another dialect (Curonian language) of the Peripheral Early-West Baltic Area, near the bordering dialects of the Central Early-East Baltic language area. The Western Balts were a poly-ethnic hybrid mix of Corded Ware Rzucewo Satem peoples on outliers of Funnel Beaker, Globular Amphora with Zedmar -Nemunas - Narva substratum ( GAS ) population. The indigenous West European Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) ancestry of modern Baltic populations are often the highest percentage of any living population. Many modern Baltic region people are 50% ancient hunter-gatherer and around a third early European farmer. Square flint axes found in the Suvalkija / Vilkaviškis regions of Lithuania indicate GAC settlements there ( Brazaitis 2005 fig 5 ). Pẽkus in Sūduva is an old residual substratum word, not an import. 

Thus, the Western Balts should include the Sudovians-Dainavains ( aka Яцьвягіpl. Játvįgai < sg. Játvįgs ), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians, and also the Curonians, the former comprising the Southern group, and the latter, the Coastal Northern group. This explains the close similarity between Sudovian-Dainavian ( aka Yotvingian < "Játvings" ), Galindian Pomesanian, and Prussian. A successful modern revival of the Prussian language is now known as New Prussian. A link to their Prussian language website is provided below.

The Old Prussian Sembian dialect, though, exhibits a prolonged influence ( Pratorius' "corrupt" Prussian ) from the influx of nearby Curonians when compared to the more distant Pomesanian or Sudovian. The Sembian dialect of the Old Prussian Catechisms has "muti, tawas " (mother, father) whereas the Pomesanian of the Elbing Vocabulary has "mothe, towis ". The chronicled Sudovian "Occopirmus" similarly differs from the Catechism Sembian "ucka-". Most West Baltic dialects had centuries of close interaction with the Wielbark Gothic culture ( > the Tiberius coin from Pajevonys, LT ), and exhibit their influence (e.g. - Old Prussian narrowing of short vowel *e into i, like Gothic did ). Farther inland away from coast and Curonians, we do find Prussian "Tlokunpelk" - Bears' Marsh. Galindian did not historically border the Curonians, and was close to Sudovian in many respects. The dialect characteristics of Wulfila's Biblical Gothic, like the Samlandian of the Prussian Catechisms, invites a heuristic approach. Tunnel vision adherence to the attested forms is an unnecessarily flawed foundation to build anything on.

Butan

Certain innovations (i.e., " thousand " participle ) that occurred in the Eastern Baltic ( LWb allele, R1a1a1 Z280 Z92, L235, L784  / N1c1 ) dialects are not reflected in the Peripheral ( R1a1a1, Z280, L366 ) Western Baltic dialects ( with attrition to 4 core declensional cases, re: neighboring Gothic w/ R1a Z283, I1a2, & Z63, T2 ) . Each area also had different mixtures of substratum populations involved in their ethno-genetic formations ( re: LT F-U Hydronyms - Vanagas, 1987 ), and later neighboring influences. The Peripheral West Baltic dialects exhibit an archaic appearing declension which gives one a unique window into both Baltics, and the "Northern" Indo-European GAS influenced dialects, and the influence of diverse substratum on varied evolutions. The currently spoken East Baltic dialects are more evolved, expressive, and elegant. Bi-lingual West / East Baltic speakers adopted East Baltic rather quickly.

"The traditional academic construct of a seven case declensional system for early Proto Indo-European
is as
synthetic as it is theoretically convenient."

Only nominative, genitive, dative and accusative forms have constant intercrossing functions in various Indo-European languages, while forms used for the instrumental or locative cases (traditionally declared to be "Common Indo-European"), have related functions: e.g. the IE */-ois / may occur in the instrumental case in one language and in the locative case in other ones, or */ -ō  / (apophonically) / -ē / occurs as / -āt / in the Indo-Iranian ablative and as /-it / in the Hittite instrumental. Such intercrossing elements were used for semi-paradigmatic adverbial forms, differently paradigmatized in the various Indo-European languages. (V. Toporov, V. J. Mažiulis)

Eastern & Western Baltic
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Some very archaic lexical differences exist between the Western Baltic ( R1a1a1, L366, etc ) dialects and the Eastern Baltic ( LWb+ allele, R1a1a1, Z280, CTS1211, Y35m etc, & Z92, L235 / N1c1 ) dialects. The word for "fire" is just such an example. The Western Balts used the word "panu", whereas the Eastern Balts used the word (Lith.) "ugnis".  Another example is the word for "wheel". The Western Balts used the word "kelan", whereas the Eastern Balts used the word (Lith.) "ratas"These words have cognates in other ancient Indo-European languages. ( For the Centum GAS * ratʔas relationship between Old Irish " roth ", Lithuanian " ratas " and Sanskrit " ratha "- see below ). That such archaic diversity of basic terminology existed within "Proto"-Baltic" illustrates the antiquity of the West / East Baltic vocabulary inherited from the late Sredny Stog horizon (3500-3350 BCE) into the "Europeanized IE " Corded Ware Middle Dnieper culture ( R1a1a- , Z280 ) horizon that influenced the evolution of divergent dialects by cultural contacts. Outliers of Centum Globular Amphora & WHG-EHG Narva populations added poly-ethnic substratum cultural influence ( Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962; Česnys et al. 2004, 1990; Mochalov O.D. 2001-2002 ) to Fatyanovo, contributing a " residual " non-Satem vocabulary of their central European GAS Centum words like "pẽku " - livestock ( vs.Satem Lith. "pešti, pešùs, pẽšis ", OCS "pьsъ " ) and perhaps gradually compromising East Baltic Ruki. Non-IE East Baltic substratum ( Pit / EHG Comb Ware ( CCC Kudrukula R1a5-YP1272 ) & WHG Nemunas-Narva w/ U5b2 { Kretuonas ), or TRB Funnel Beaker ( Mtdna V7 ) bilinguals were perhaps a phonetic impetus behind Dative Plural / -m- / from / -b- /  ( secondary allomorphy  ), for example, Baltic žambas / Estonian hammas, as well as the custom of adding chamotte-grog to ceramics  ( re: LT F-U Hydronyms - Vanagas, 1987 ). The Dative Plural / -m- / from / -b- / secondary allomorphy either reflects early Baltic area GAC trade network contact / dialects with indigenous West European Hunter-Gatherer ( WHG-EHG Narva & Kunda ) cultures, or the assimilation of Funnel Beaker in Globular Amphora. The loss of the neuter gender in East Baltic was due to primarily inherited dynamics of rearrangement. Latvian has already lost neuter adjectives which Lithuanian still retains, yet Latvian accentuation indicates the neuter remained a distinct part of the language - even after the era when dialects became languages. The Balt L1025+ line of the L550 / S431 N1c1a1a1 branch sheds light on another such cultural interaction. The formative influence of poly-ethnic substratum populations on the various early Baltic-type dialects thus becomes easily apparent even for a layman to grasp.

In regard to variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW, or ICAM4) blood group, the frequency of the uncommon  LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele ( aka "Nea red cell antigen" )  in regions of the East Balts ( vs. the West Balts ) provides solid scientific proof of an ancient cultural & genetic distinction ( E. Baltic - W. Baltic < R1a-, Z280 ) between speakers of the two Baltic groups, as do Y-DNA frequencies. Theories of a "Proto-Balto-Slavic" split around 1,000 BCE (eg. Kortlandt 1982: 181) naively contradict the immense volume of linguistic, archaeological and emerging genetic DNA (< link ) Corded Ware evidence. Latvia has eleven C-14 dates of Corded Ware Culture ( Loze 1992; A. Kriiska 2001 ), with the oldest around 3360 cal. BCE (w/ 95.4% probability). A fish diet  ( eg. šapalas / roach ) may lessen those calculations a little bit, but not greatly. A comfort zone of about 2900 BCE suits most folks.

Another key feature of West Baltic languages is the asigmatic nominative singular neuter gender ending in / -n /. This is noted in such words as kelan ( wheel ), azeran ( lake ), and dadan ( milk ). There are also many neuter gender words that end in / -u /, such as panu ( fire ), pku ( livestock ), as well as alu ( mead, re: Latvian "aluot" ), of which the later two may well be from Centum Globular Amphora substratum and amber trade contacts. Note Old Prussian " panno " ( re: panu-staklan ), and Gothic "fōn ", Armenian "hur / hnoc' " ( Hittite "pa-aḫ-ḫu-ur / pa-aḫ-ḫu-e-ni" ). The heteroclitic noun stems of Proto-Indo-European parallel aDNA ( autosomal PCA ) CHG in Yamnaya, implying prehistoric language contact with Northwest Caucasian. Old Prussian "druwis " / Iranian "dhruvi-" indicate the core Satem foundation of West Baltic. Aswinan & dadan certainly do. The neuter gender asigmatic / -n /  exemplifies the archaic nature of the West vs. East divide in the Baltic languages. Lithuanian still has the neuter gender in some adjectives ending in -a, -ia, or -u, as well as in Neuter Participles. For example, "Šalta" - It is cold, "Čia jo būta" - He was here, or " Kokia  žalia  kanapė! " - What green hemp!. [ re: neuter "vaška" beeswax > Finnish "vaha", Ossetian "myd-aʒ" beeswax, w/ -aʒ < *waʒ - Abaev 1972:II.135 ]. The Lithuanian neuter is often used in impersonal constructions. There is not the slightest trace of the West Baltic neuter asigmatic / -n / in East Baltic Fatyanovo loanwords or modern East Baltic ( Prussian "median " vs Samogitian "medė " forest ), once again dating a the West vs. East Baltic language relationship to a pre-Fatyanovo ( R1a1a- Z280 ) pre-GAS era. The East Baltic singular neuter ( Illich-Svitych 1963: 42-44 / see below ) seems to have had a parallel type of development as Lydian. The developements of the Slavic neuter are being still debated. This isogloss could provide insight about the Novosvobodna / Maykop type steppe burial orientation tradition of Fatyanovo males to SW, females to NE, as well as Novosvobodna ( Mtdna V7 ) / Maykop type metallurgic ( gelžis )  tradition in Fatyanovo. [ re: Samogitian "medė " forest / Finnish "metsä "- forest, Estonian "mets ", Votic "meccä ", Karelian "mečču " id, Lule Sámi "miehttjēn " far away, Sámi "meahcci " forest, fringe,  Hungarian ( ! ) "messze " far, distant / East Baltic " tilta " bridge - Fatyanovo neuter! > Finnish "silta" bridge, Estonian "sild ", Volgaic Erzya " śid́-al  ", "se͔d́ "  id  < ? Skt. " sētu-" band, bridge / Latvian  " sēta " fence" ]. Excavated Semigallian ( ᛋᛁᛘᚴᛅᛚᛅ ) burials near Šiauliai LT reveal men and women were laid in opposite directions ( this local custom continued from ancient times up to the middle ages ).

A very unique feature preserved in the West Baltic languages is the Genitive singular declensional ending in / -as' / for words that end in / -as / or / -an / in the Nominative case. Hittite ( w/ R1a- M198+ ) also shared this feature / - < -os / eg. Hittite ewan, gen. ewaš, as well as perhaps neighboring Gothic ( nom./gen.sg. harjis, & nom./gen.sg. is ) nearby in the West.  This West Baltic  genitive, if not a I.E. declensional relic, then reflects the very close cultural interaction of the West Baltic speakers with neighboring Goths - or perhaps both ! The Sūdovians even started to adopt a Wielbark Gothic like weaponless burial observance. A Tiberius coin from Pajevonys, LT would suggest the interaction lasted for centuries. Inter-marriage probably was not uncommon. Ancient Wielbark culture  Mtdna H5a1 would seems to support such mixing with Balts. The higher than expected frequency of the LWb+ antigen - LW*07 allelle ( aka Nea red cell antigen ) in Hungary ( 0.4% ) may well be related to the Goths, since southern Sweden had a similar ( 0.3% ) frequency. Note - Gotland eclipsed both with a much higher ( 1% ) frequency of the LWb+ antigen. Frequencies of the rare  LWb+ antigen - LW*07 allelle have recently been documented in the Hindu Kush region of Central Asia as well

The Gothic nominative final / -s / was already becoming lost by the sixth century, as shown from title deeds. The neighboring polyphyletic  Wielbark culture ( Gothic? R1a z283, I1-M253 - Y-DNA ) & Vidivarii (c.AD 200 - 500) interaction with West Baltic tribes, especially the Galindians, appears to have been co-operative and mutually beneficial ( ie: as with the Sambian multi-ethnic Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture ). "Ad litus oceani, ubi tribus faucibus fluenta Vistulae fluminibus ebibuntur, Vidivarii resident ex diversis nationibus aggregati". The porous border between the two ( across the Paslęka River ) may account for certain Gothic ( basically, pre-Migration Period Gutnish ) type loanwords into the West Baltic ( Aestii - Ais(t)marės ) & nearby East Baltic languages. Examples would include Lith. "yla" - awl, Latvian dial. "gatva" - avenue, & "glīsis" - amber. The Kashubian region near Gdansk exhibits much higher frequencies ( 10% ) of I1-M253 - Y-DNA than any of the regions immediately neighboring it. One might also expect increased frequencies of the PI Z alleles and S alleles there if tested  The first century boat-graves from Weklice ( Wielbark culture ) cemeteries & the frequency of boat-graves ( & also the Eastern Scandinavian stone-circle w/ stelae tradition ) on the island of  Bornholm or Gotaland suggest a mainly ( albeit dual ) Scandinavian character for the Gothic Language origins. The replacement of "East Germanic" Gothic & Vandalic by "North Germanic" Norse in Scandinavia left scattered traces of their use, just as West Baltic dialects left relics spoken after East Baltic dialects quickly replaced them.  The phonological features of Vandalic are similar to those of Gothic (e.g. - short vowel *e turned into i ). Finnish and Estonian still use "ja" reflecting a Vandalic "ia" & Gothic "jah". Continental Gothic was  essentially a disconnected outlier from the rapid changes that took place back in Gotaland, which fortunately survived as Ulfilas's  written Gothic of the Codex Argenteus. So, Gothic came from Gotaland. Who knew?

ᚨᚹᛁᚾᛊ ᚨᛊᚨᚾᛊ
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During the Wielbark culture, and the later cultural fusion of the Wielbark-Chernakhov Culture era, a West Baltic "kanapis" agricultural term was probably borrowed as *"hanapis" into some 1st-2nd century Gothic dialects of southern Scandinavia , then evolved through trade into Germanic *"hanapiz", & eventually morphing into English "hemp".

Evidence in support of this new etymology can be gleaned from "New evidence on the introduction, cultivation and processing of hemp ( Cannabis sativa L.) in southern Sweden" ( Larsson & Lageras 2014 ), providing facts for the earliest evidence for hemp cultivation in Scandinavia, specifically the Malmo region of southern Sweden, begining during the 1st-2nd centuries AD. This occurs centuries after extensive Wielbark contacts and later cultural mingling with West Baltic tribes known as the Old Prussians, Pomeranians, Galindians, and Sudovians - all of which are known to have very ancient traditions ( inherited from pre-Corded Ware native Baltic Hunter & Gatherer cultures ) of cultivating Hemp prior to Wielbark contact. A reciprocal farming exchange with West Balts may have been Rye as a cultivated crop. That the Wielbark culture influenced the West Baltic cultures is easily apparent from the archaeological record, so it is both logical and practical to ascribe the introduction of hemp, and a West Baltic word for hemp "kanapis" ( vs. the old collective variant "kanapė" ) as the loanword accompanying the introduction of cannabis cultivation in Scandinavia, and beyond, by trade, with other continental Germanics.

"The usual assumption that the word was borrowed from the South European Greek κάνναβις (Latin cannabis) is untenable".
- An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, H (1891) by Friedrich Kluge, translated by John Francis Davis - "Hanf"

The Old Prussian word for a dead corpse "nowis", reflects my expanded etymology for PIE " *nāu- " hewn log vessel, - via the alternate use of it as a hewn log coffin for the dead. The Corded Ware cultures ( CWC ) transferred the semantics to refer to the dead, from the original hewn log coffin associated with them. Note how the Dardic & Nuristani cognates semantically parallel the Scandinavian cognates of Lithuanian "aldija" hewn log boat.

This Gen. / -as' / declensional ending ( with last syllable accent-amplitude ) is as disconcerting for expedited Balto-Slavic theories as the East Baltic neuter, although it does strengthen and lend support to "the effect of GAs" ( WHG + EEF Centum ). Such a generalized declensional feature is noted in a word like Nominative singular pēdan ( ploughshare ), Genitive singular pēdas', or in the West Baltic Genitive singular Deivas' ( God's ), and in places names ( re: Wilkaskaymen ). Many unique features of West Baltic are relics from the Proto-Indo-European early Sredny Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE,  w/ R1a- M198+, M417+ ), as is the deduced archaic East Baltic ( & R1a1a- Z92 Slavic ) singular neuter with */-d / resembling a Lydian type development - unlike West Baltic.

West Baltic has the same four nominal accent classes as does Lithuanian, but it has retained the original accentual state of Dnieper Baltics ( an acute rising accent and a circumflex falling accent). The first class is the acute barytone paradigm. The second is the circumflex barytone paradigm. Thirdly, the acute mobile paradigm. Lastly, the circumflex mobile paradigm.

klenan

The Archaeological Record
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Reading from the archaeological record, one can associate dates of 2,900 - 2,300 BCE with various material artifacts (toy wheeled wagon) and increased plant ( hemp and wheat ) pollens that appear to indicate the arrival of "Baltic " speaking peoples in the Baltic region who appear gradually and slowly settled in well among native populations ( recently arrived EHG Ceramic Comb Cultures ( aka "Sidelkino" HG group ) w/ mtDna U2 & U4, mixed with an older Nemunas & Narva Substratum w/ WHG ( aka "Oberkassel" HG group ) & U5b2, & Centum Globular Amphora outliers ). Recent archaeological finds of Triticum and Cannabis pollen circa 5600 BCE from the Akali Neolithic Narva-Kunda settlement in East Estonia ( A. Poska, L. Saarse et al., 2006 ) places Cannabis cultivation in the Baltic region much further back into antiquity than even the Corded or Pitted Ware eras. (The Baltic ritual tradition of Kanapinis may well have it's origin in the native Hunter & Gatherer Narva-Kunda culture. ) Also, the East Balts ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z280 w/ CTS1211, & Z92 ) had more close contact with "Uralic " (e.g. Kiukainen culture ) and nearby Pit-grave "Yamna Āryan" speaking cultures than the West Balts ( Sanskrit "hastas " & Lith. "žastas " ). After 2,750 BCE, the agricultural record intensifies ( Rimantienė et al., 1999 ), as well as beginning East Baltic copper ( varis ) & bronze ( gelžis ) metallurgy ( w/ Balkan-Carpathian traditions ) near the Ural Mountains. The East Balt Fatyanovo-Balanovo-Abashevo era metallurgy proceeded the Seima-Turbino culture horizon. ( vaška = Old East Baltic neuter from R-Z645 era ).

A forest-zone polyethnic ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » Volga-Ural ornament ) Abashevo culture ( Z93, Z282 > R-Y17491? ) by the Urals emerged with late MVK Catacomb ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ ) influenced early Eastern Balts, Volga Finns, and Pit-grave Pre-Indo-Aryans from the steppe-zone using the same process. Migrations often follow climate changes ( re: the Blytt-Sernander Sub-Boreal phase ) around the 3rd millennium BCE, the last quarter of the 2nd millennium BCE & the 12th century BCE. Each migration would encounter different native ethnic groups, and influence the dominant language during assimilation of those ethnic natives. Indo-European peoples & languages have ALWAYS been multi-ethnic. The new "molecular DNA archaeology" proves it beyond question. We are all related - literally.

The high incidence of Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c1 suggest long term relations and admixture with the Uralic speaking population of the Baltic, Volga, and Ural region, which may have had a conservative influence on the East Baltic Satem dialects and speakers, as did the gradual assimilation of substrate Baltic WHG-EHG locals. "Modern Eastern Baltic populations carry the highest proportion of WHG ancestry of all Europeans" ( Mittnik et al, 2018 ). The gradual hybridization between Baltic Corded Ware cultures and native Baltic Hunter & Gatherer cultures probably lasted for more than a thousand years, insulated in forested regions, with settled lifestyles, and without major cultural disruptions. It was a slow simmering "melting pot", evolving the Baltic languages into what they became. The Uralics from the East later trickled in during the late Bronze Age, and had already had their neighboring influences. Note Kurdish "varg" vs. Komi Zyryan "vörkas" wolf. N1c appears to emanate East & West from the Ural region, probably with it's origin in Khakassia.

WTF happened to Gothic ?
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An objective stratigraphy of Indo-European loanwords in Finnic languages should correlate with new DNA evidence of the genetics of that region. Haplotype N does not appear in Bronze age East Baltic DNA results. Finnish and Estonian still use "ja" reflecting a Gothic "jah" & Vandalic "ia".  A higher than expected frequency of the LWb+ antigen - LW*07 allelle ( aka Nea red cell antigen ) in Hungary ( 0.4% ) may well be related to the Goths, since southern Sweden had a similar ( 0.3% ) frequency, and Gotland has even more ( 1.0 % ). Norse also lost the final -t  for 3rd person singular present indicative forms of 'to be'. Duh. The 3rd-5th century "conversion" of "East Germanic" Gothic & Vandalic to "North Germanic" left scattered traces of it's earlier use, just as West Baltic dialects left relics spoken after East Baltic dialects quickly replaced them. A comparison of Gothic "saiso" with Old Norse "seri" provides evidence for reduplication hidden by rhotacism. The phonological features of Vandalic are similar to those of Gothic (e.g. - short vowel *e turned into i ). Continental Gothic was  essentially a socially disconnected outlier from the W. to E. sweeping changes ( with umlauts & rhotacism ) that took place back in Scandinavia, which fortunately survived intact as Wulfila's  written Gothic of the Codex Argenteus. The dialect characteristics of Wulfila's Biblical Gothic, like the Samlandian of the Prussian Catechisms, invites a heuristic approach. The runic scholar, Henrik Williams, has noted that there is a boundary in dialect discernible in runic inscriptions between the south-west and north-east (Williams, 1996: 439). Tunnel vision adherence to the attested dialect forms is an unnecessarily flawed foundation to build anything on. Wielbark & Samlandian contacts were close, perhaps daily, and lasted for centuries.
The vowel narrowing of *e > *i in Scandinavia influenced West Baltic trade contacts ( Curonian & Samlandian "ni", Gothic "ni" id ), although loanwords that predated the Scandinavian vowel narrowing (  *e > *i  ) survived ( for example, "Kelmis" ) intact in various Baltic dialects. So Goths came from Götaland, like
Sūdovians came from Sūduva. Who knew? Ptolemy. Nobody "Vanished". The substrate languages of Palaeo-European hunters and gatherers have also been lost, but traces of them offer perspectives for assessing the role of bilingualism during prolonged assimilation. Honesty is the best policy. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages.

  
uras
 
܀
Fatyanovo-Balanovo
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The early Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture ( 2800 BCE charcoal dating / or 3300 - 1800 BCE, Loze 1992, Tab.1 ) was an Northeastern extension of the East Baltic Corded Ware culture (w/ mtDNA N1a1a1, R1a1a1, Z645, Z93, Z283, Z282, & Z280 Northern variants like CTS1211, Z92, LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele ) following various rivers in the North, like the Oka to the upper Volga and Kama confluence in what is now Russia. Fatyanovo developed from an early Northern poly-ethnic variant (w/ HG substrate) of the Middle Dnieper culture horizon. It is here that pottery displays a unique Fatyanovo Baltic style of mixed Corded Ware and Globular Amphora ( Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962 ) features & exhibits a trademark " checked " hatched diamond rhombus motif design ornamentation not found with the steppe cultures ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ), thus allowing their contacts with those cultures to be tracked - even into Sintashta & beyond. The hatched "parallel lines" rhombus motif may represent a *darža, or a tilled garden plot ( re: Finnish tarha < Fatyanovo ), perhaps from R1a Z280 Dnieper Satems & GAS ( *©jp ). Compare the *darža rhombus motif to the Bronocice farmer's pot with wagons and farm plots ( as well as  the same tree motif of Bronocice / Fatyanovo ). Fatyanovo hemp provided a water resistant fishing line for hooks and nets ( & " herbal medication " ), and barley provided bread ( Latv." miezē " ). Fatyanovo migrations also correspond to regions with hydronyms of an East Baltic language dialect mapped by linguists as far as the Oka river and the upper Volga, as well as regions with elevated frequencies of the rare LWb allele. Spreading eastward down the Volga and beyond, they discovered & exploited the copper ores of the the western Ural foothills, and started long term settlements in the lower Kama river region. The East Balt "Paimenes" herdsmen brought their "ešva " - tarpan horse, "šėmas gōvs " - gray cow, "avis " - sheep, "parša " - pig (neut.), "ratas " - wheel, "ašis " - axle, "tilta " - bridge, "žalga " - long fishing pole for "šapalas" red finned roach /  dace in the "jaura "- marsh, a "pada "- clay "pōdas "- pot of "kār'as / medu " - honeycomb / honey, apiculture & " daržai "- tilled crop plots  - including "javas" - cereal grain, "maižis " - barley, "šaras " - seed, "sālis " - salt, along with "varia " - copper metallurgy, "gentaras" - amber, and a "tūšanti "- thousand ( Z282 era - see below ) of their "dainās "- Holy Songs of their "šventa "- spiritual beliefs about "dermė "- harmony , and the celestial -"deivas".

Trademark "checked" ceramic, with the *darža -"tilled plot", motif of Fatyanovo-Balanovo pottery. *©jp
Trademark Fatyanovo-Balanovo
" checked " ceramic  /  "
*darža " motif
jp

Fatyanovo cemeteries would sometimes have graves of not only people, but also bear  and other animals which are buried with ritual close by in individual graves. Solar designs ( Solar cult / clan, re: Saulės Rẽtis ) commonly adorn East Baltic Fatyanovo ceramics, as do TRB inspired trademark "checkered " motifs ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » Volga-Ural ornament ). Livestock includes cattle ( Y-DNA H10 ), horses, sheep, pigs, and dogs ( North Saami "šūvon" trained dog ) and apiculture. Balanovo livestock initially had more swine and sheep than other livestock. Excavations indicate hunting and fishing ( žalga, šapalas ) was often practiced ( Lougas 1999 ), including mollusks ( Latv. sence ), as well as swidden agriculture ( Krasnov 1971 ). They gathered hazel nuts. Excavations indicate Fatyanovo cultivated barley ( Д.А.Крайнов, 1972; Jaanits 1992, 49 ). Bone wrist guards imply they were accomplished archers. Perforated ceramics suggest they were also "cheeseheads". Two-wheeled wagons (Goldina 1999) are also typical finds ( re: Latvian rats, cart ), as are toy wheels. Cast copper shaft hole axes have a more close resemblance with Catacomb culture axes than with Poltavka examples. There are also forged metal spearheads that imply a highly skilled metal artisan, as does the twin spiraled solar jewelry.  Awls were not beveled. The cooper itself is rather pure, & a chemical match with local Ural region copper laden sandstone, which implies it's mining. There are a profusion of Fatyanovo sites in the northern Baltic countries & Russia, including the Kazan, Russia (Volga-Kama) region. The more metallurgically exploited Ural region of the Fatyanovo culture was designated as the Balanovo culture (2800-2100 BCE), from a cemetery found near the town. Balanovo cemeteries had both kurgan ( Lith. " kapas " ) and flat type burials (* like Abashevo [ Kuz'mina 2007, p221 ] , & Scanian CWC flat cemeteries ). The funeral chambers were wooden constructions in rectangular ( like earler Kvityana ) pits, with the deceased wrapped in birch bark or hides.

Fatyanovo Corded Ware artifacts

SW & NE
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Fatyanovo-Balanovo copper metallurgy has it's roots in central European cultural traditions which were ethnic contributors in the multi-ethnic "vortex" of the Middle Dnieper Cultural area. Fatyanovo-Balanovo jewelry duplicates specific designs of a Central European ( Nitra-Unetice ) provenance, perhaps derived from trade, & the Centum Globular Amphora substratum assimilated into the Middle Dnieper - Fatyanovo cultures. Fatyanovo jewelry, especially the twin spiral solar pendants (  re: Borno & Caven stones, Samogitian Baitai grave 18 ) and engraved armband bracelets ( Bader1966 ), have Central European parallels in the Nitra-Unetice culture region. East Baltic lexicon also has unique isoglosses with Central European Celto-Italic Baden dialects w/ ERC GAC bilinguals, which also shared the BBC & TRB substrate found in the Centum Globular Amphora horizon ( semti, ratas, peku ).  Newly published data (Pupac et al, 2021) may provide another isogloss perspective - Únětice genetic outlier VLI051, w/ Y-haplogroup R1a-Z645. Emulating the earlier poly-ethnic Globular Amphora ERC culture, Fatyanovo-Balanovo pioneers adorned their ceramics with specific solar or unique designs ( re: Globular Amphora & Narva substratum w/ U5b2  < Česnys et al., 1990 ), valued pork ( parša ) high among livestock, and practiced copper metallurgy.  But quite unlike the Globular Amphora culture ( < Funnel Beaker substratum w/ Mtdna V7 like Novosvobodna  ) stone cist burials with heads oriented to the East, Satem Fatyanovo-Balanovo orientated male burials to the Southwest ( Д.А.Крайнов, 1964, 1972, re: 188-192 ), to the "deivas" - sky > heaven - per steppe / Maykop custom - as did the nearby related Satem Pit Grave culture, and the much later early phase Sarmatian burials of Pokrovka. Even a distant Afanasievo migration burial east of the Ural river, with it's Repin traits, orientated the male to the southwest. WHG burials ( AMS c-14 dated to 5980*75 BP ) by Suwalki, Poland, also oriented their burials on a N-S axis, with heads facing South ( J. Brzozowski & J. Siemaszko 1999 ). By 2,600 BCE, the Fatyanovo / Balanovo culture and it's copper metallurgy was firmly established in the Volga-Kama Ural region. A Fatyanovo burial has even been noted from Birsk, Bashkortostan ( north of Ufa ). East Baltic Fatyanovo - Balanovo Ural metallurgy was the nexus for a revolution that would sweep across the steppes and beyond.

Latvian "Ruota"
Fatyanovo Double Spiral Jewelry ( Latvian "Ruota" ! )  - copied by Abashevo & found at Sintashta
 Fatyanovo Twin Spiral  ( Nitra-Unetice type ) Jewelry
 ( copied in Abashevo, also found at Sintashta & Samogitian Baitai grave 18 )

Fatyanovo Corded Ware Axe Metallurgy - kirvis
Fatyanovo Kirvis / Metallurgy

 

Cis-Ural Metallurgy
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 Seima Turbino knife with Fatyanovo *darža " checkered motif on handle

Seima-Turbino knife with Fatyanovo  *darža - checkered motif handle

The villages were composed of above ground wooden houses built from logs, with saddled roofs, and had fenced enclosures ( Udmurt "kar "- town site, Komi "kar "- site of ancient town, Mordvinian  Erzya "kardas "- enclosure, courtyard, w/ "-as " ending,  < East-Baltic "gardas "- enclosure, vs. Ossetian "kært "- id. ). East Baltic Balanovo and Uralic Volosovo peoples apparently mixed well ( LWb allele & Q1-L54 ) without too much conflict, as they did with steppe peoples with whom they they had contact via trade with the Caucacus metalworkers. The East Balt association with amber is quite old ( Д.А.Крайнов, 1972, 1973; Loze 1979, 1993 ). Chuvash " jandar " and Hungarian ( w/ LWb ) " gyentar " - amber, " gyenta " - resin, reflect the legacy of an archaic adjectival "-tar" neuter suffixed Balanovo ( Grishakov V, Stavitsky V, 2003 ) East Baltic " gentaras " < " *gentar " - amber < " *genta " - resin, gum < nasal PIE *gʷet - resin.  Skt " jatu " - resin,  jātarūpa - golden ! ( < ? *jęta-rūpa < *jenta-rūpa?, Lith. gentaro-rupis, re: Skt.  -ta- / Lith. gen-tis ), Avestan toponym " jatara-" ! resinous < *jantara-? Corded Ware Balanovo & Abashevo metallurgy would provide significant impetus to Seima-Turbino metallurgy ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2, re: "checked" celt-axes < ܀ > ). Komi "ram"- calm peace, and "erd"- field, reflect peaceful interaction with the Volga-Balts ( Lith. erdvas / ardvas, Sámi árvas ). Note Komi "rit " - evening, and Lettic "riets"- sunset. The "pirtis" - log shed (sauna), of the pioneering Volga-Balts was evidently noticed and emulated by the locals ( Mari "pört ", Sámi "barta"). Finnish "Orja", - slave, Estonian [gen.] "Orja", Udmurt "Var ", Komi "Ver ", Mokša "Uŕä ", Erzya "Uŕe" - slave, indicates some later conflicts with the Āryans - as do some archaeological sites ( note - all the various late Finnic "Āryan" terms lack archaic nominative "s" - like later Timber-Grave Iranian ). In contrast, Sámi "Oar'je" ( Abaev 1981: 85 ) just designates a direction. Variations (re: mtDNA Z1a, V ) among Sámi mtDNA now show an earlier link to the Volga-Ural region ( Tambets et al. 2004, M. Ingman et al. 2006, -7, Lamnidis et al, 2018, Oversti et al, 2019 ), and later contacts may account for the mtDNA Z in Iceland. Mtdna Z1 has also been found in the Ket ,and in Botai. The Levänluhta outlier JK2065, ( w/ mtDNA K1a4a1b ) doesn't simplify matters any. Neither the LT Aukštaičiai, nor the Sámi, have any common European mtDNA H1 ( ! ). The Sámi may well have an old folk saying similar to " Oh well, there goes the neighborhood ... ", but it has eluded my research into it.

Residual Stratum
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Scholars are still perplexed by the imbalance or lopsided ratio of "loanwords" between East Baltic and the Uralic languages. This is because the bulk of Baltic "loanwords" into Uralic aren't loanwords per se, but rather "residuals" of a scattered ( LWb allele, R1a ) stratum language reflecting the widespread and prolonged assimilation of bilingual archaic East Baltic speaking Fatyanovo-Balanovo "Battle Axe" settlers and their poly-ethnic ( LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele, R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants / later N1c1 ) descendants ( Finnish "heimo", "sisar ", Sámi "gáibmi " ) with the emerging Uralic speaking tribes. The merging of Comb and Corded Ware ceramics ( w/ chamotte or grog ), and other associated artifacts, reflect this hybrid cultural horizon ( Lith šeškas, Mari šāškə, Veps hāhk, re: Sanskrit śaśakas ). The Kiukainen culture is one example. Multi-room houses also appear. Some isolated pockets of poly-ethnic Baltic speakers, such as the ГОЛЯДЬ, survived intact even up to historic times. North Russian ( LWb allele, R1a1a Z280 w/ Northern variants, CTS1211, & Z92 / N1c1) with tl / dl consonant cluster changes > kl / gl - like East Baltic, implies multiple pockets of poly-ethnic ( LWb+ / LW*07 allele, R1a1a Z280 w/ Northern variants  / N1c1 ) East Baltic speakers there. Yet the rate of assimilation eventually outpaced the passage of substratum language inheritance. Hence the additional impact of not uncommon Baltic-Uralic bilingualism ( e.g. Kiukainen culture ) on the structure of Finnic languages, along with a myriad of archaic common everyday ( EB neuters - "heinä " hay, "tarha " garden plot, "silta " bridge ) terminology. Uralic impacted Baltic as well. The absence of weaponry or conflict terms is notable - and in hindsight, altogether wise. The initial contacts, though, did leave archaeological traces of lethal conflicts. Fatyanovo-Balanovo East Baltic ( w/ GAS ) had became an established regional poly-ethnic ( R1a1a & N1c1 ) substratum language ( "paimen" herder, &  "vuohi" goat ) throughout it's range ( re: LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele ). Microscopic analyses from a Perttulanmäki grave in western Finland provide the oldest evidence for domestic goat ( E. Baltic ‘*(v)āž'as’ , cf. Lith. ožys ) in Neolithic Finland ( Ahola et al., 2018 ). Although numerically overwhelmed, it's innovative broad-based ( apiculoture, agriculture, building & metallurgy ) cultural impact proved enduring - as expressed in the Kiukainen culture. Scholars are not fond of such dramatic re-assessments, even when molecular DNA & traditional archaeology clearly illuminates the mounting dateable evidence. The challenging complexity of Finno-Ugrian origins and evolution has only grown with recent studies, yet traditional archaeology acknowledges that Fatyanovo-Uralic contact ( LWb+ antigen / LW*07 allele, R1a1a1 Z645, Z283, Z280 w/ Northern variants ) zones precede Āryan-Uralic contact ( Krajnov 1972, 251-252, Gurina 1963, 133, 139, Khalikov 1969, 205, Tret’jakov 1966, 135 ). A recent study, Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup N: A Non-trivial Time-Resolved Phylogeography that Cuts across Language Families, notes the striking spread of the N3a3’6-CTS6967 lineages among three geographically distant populations  - Chukchi, Buryats, and Lithuanians, and proposes Seima-Turbino metalsmith-traders as the probable primary carriers of hg N3a3’6 lineages. Fatyanovo ( VOR005 ) like mtDNA K2a5b is found in modern Siberians, and in Iran.

In spite of storerooms of indisputable archaeological evidence to the contrary, Finnish academic S. Junttila (2012: 261 ff.) proclaimed " The Volga-Kama Basin lies still too far east to be included in a list of possible contact locations" (between Baltic & Uralic speakers ). Seriously? OMG! CWC Balanovo & Volosovo artifacts ( re: the empirical evidence ) are even found in the same room! Fatyanovo used chamotte admixture in ceramics like their neighbors ( Laitinen et al. 2002 ). Some Aryan loanwords in Uralic may reflect a poly-ethnic Alakul' forest re-intrusion, and were diffused by a subsequent F-U speakers migration, as implied by DNA genetics. And the earliest Corded Ware words found in Uralic are an identifiable archaic East Baltic ( re: Meadow Mari " tüžem " 1,000 ), as exemplified by a shared vocabulary ( Mari karas, šāškə, Lith šeškas, Sanskrit śaśakas ) & the singular neuter, and not some amorphous "pre-Baltic" or "proto-Balto-Slavic" that vanished without a trace. There is now a published theory of a Fatyanovo ( Indo-European ! ) writing system used on ceramics, with a text of 31 characters from the Fatyanovo alphabet. Whether this Fatyanovo script corresponds somehow to the older Vinca / Danube script of central Europe is an uncertainty at the present. Fatyanovo NIK006 mtDNA W1c shows a possible connection to the Vinca / Danube region and script..

Fatyanovo writing system
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Fatyanovo Alphabet ?

 

Kela vs. Ratas
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Overlapping the Southern edge of the Fatyanovo & Balanovo region, by where the rivers flow South, another group of the East Baltic-type Satem Corded Ware pottery tradition ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2, re: checked ceramics < ܀ > ) later developed that is called the Abashevo culture ( 2400 - 1800 BCE ), after a nearby village East of Kazan, Russia. The Abashevo culture exhibited strong influences from both Pit-grave and MVK Catacomb ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ ) cultures on it's Baltic-type Corded Ware ( R1a1a ) traditions with Carpathian inspired metallurgy. Abashevo metallurgy was proportionally less weapon-oriented than that of their Pit-grave Āryan neighbors, exhibiting more utilitarian or artistic ornamental products. That being said, Abashevo weapon metallurgy was innovative, and the designs were adopted by Andronovo cultures. Unlike the Pit-grave Āryans ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ ) of the bordering steppe, the forest dwelling Abashevo, like the Balanovo, mixed some with the local Volosovo ( Q1-L54 ) hunters & foragers, influencing their culture in many ways. The Abashevo relations with Seima - Turbino were also apparently fruitful for each other. (East Baltic Fatyanovo kela, Finnish kela - reel, spindle [ vs. Finnish kehra - spindle < PII ), Fatyanovo & Lith. ratas, Finnish & Estonian ratas - wheel, North Saami ráhtis - id, Fatyanovo & Lith kepti, Saami giksa-, kopša- to cook). The archaic East Baltic kela vs. ratas usage invites scholarly investigation of the neuter in East Baltic, as well as assessing Globular Amphora poly-ethnic Substratum influence, & Unetice culture contacts. Finnish " taivas " , Estonian " taevas " &  Sámi " daivas " - heaven, reflect an archaic East Baltic influence still heard in " Saule noiet dievā ", or " Saule iet dievu " of the old Latvian Dainās ( re: H. Biezais, 1961, Gimbutas 1958: 46 ). Lithuanian still has dievop, dieviep declensions. Perhaps Sámi " taiw ", Hungarian " táj ", and Khanty " tai " - locus, are also related, if heaven is a place - somewhere.

Like Balanovo sites, many Abashevo settlements were also by the copper laden southwestern foothills of the Urals, and as the Volga-Kama area Balanovo East-Balts did, left ample kurgan burials, and flat graves as part of their Abashevo burial rite. Late Abashevo artifacts were found in Sintashta ( Pre-Vedic ) culture graves. Sintashta also had not only one, but two flat grave cemeteries, along with the expected more prestigious kurgans. Sintashta ceramics display the influence of early Abashevo & Fatyanovo-Balanovo pottery styles ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2, re: checked ceramics < ܀ > ), just as many Sintashta Europoid remains exhibit the dolichocephaly of Abashevans ( Schwidetzky 1978; Menck 1980; Gimbutas 1997: 322 ) & Fatyanovans ( Denisova 1980; Rimantiene & Cesnys 1996: 50; Loze 1996: 68 ). Estonian CWC ( re: RISE00 ) ceramics with chamotte exhibit a projecting rim, as does later Abashevo ( re: mtDNA N1a1a1 294 ). The artifacts suggest a unique cultural exchange between poly-ethnic ( w / Uralic & GAS admixture) Abashevo and Fatyanovo-Balanovo people into the Sintashta culture of Pre-Vedic peoples ( RISE395, О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002, Vasil’ev 1995, Malyutina1995 / Vedic "vahana-" racetrack, Lith. "vėžė" track, path ). The nearby Volga Finnic Erzya-Moksha Mordvin language group has preserved loanwords from early Āryan, Volga-East-Baltic, and possibly a Pre-Tocharian Repin ( R1a M417+ ) type language, which would seem to confirm the probability of such cultural exchanges. Residual Ural-Volga Repins may well have become contributing ( R1a M417+ ) substratum in the ethno-genesis of the Corded Ware Abashevo, considering their geographical locations ( re: Ekimov, Pryachin, Sinyuk ). The Volga-Sok river Ural region by Samara has yielded Repin-influenced pottery, reflecting the Repin influenced pottery of the earliest Afanasievo kurgans. The Afanasievo shared physical characteristics with the early Catacomb people of the Ukraine, near the Don. Early Uralic exchanges with IE Centum speakers probably correlate with this regional Volga-Repin horizon by the Urals. Re: haplogroup U5, Tokharian A " wäs ", Tokharian B " yasa " - gold ( PT *w'esā ), Uralic Mari " waž ", Kamassian " waza ",  Votyak " az-veś ", Hungarian " vas ", Mansi " atvės ", Forest Nenets  " wyesya ", whereas Sámi " vieške ", Moksha " uśkä ", Estonian " vask " reflect  Tokharian A wsā-yok < *w'esā-yāku - gold colored. Repin pottery often had cord-impressed decoration with decorated rims on a round-based pot. The N.E. orientation of male burials, characteristic of Don Repins, is also noted later with some ( not all ) Timber-Grave burials, vs. the early Afanasievo migration burials with Repin traits, which orientated males to the southwest, like Poltavka, Fatyanovo, and the early phases of Sarmatian burials. Early Sarmatian burials at Pokrovka are also orientated S, SW and WSW, as are burials at Pazyryk. The early Afanasievo apparently exited the Repin cultural region circa the time wagons were introduced, but before Maikop SW oriented burial traditions were emulated. Tocharian was evidently an acquired language from cultural contact with Dzungarian descendants of Afanasievo ( Zhang et al 2021 ) - similar to how Baltic region HGs acquired a related Yamnaya dialect. ( Lith. "talka / telkti", East Tocharian A. "talke", Latv. "veļu", Tocharian A "walu" ). The earliest native HGs of the Xiaohe horizon belonged to an ancient autochthonous ANE-related gene pool. Neither the Afanasievo nor the Chemurchek left enduring genetic traces into the subsequent MLBA ( Jeong et al 2020 ). The Yamnaya-Afanasyevo admixture present in Okunev culture can be estimated at ~16 %. Okunevs had a Western Eurasian component 61.8 %, and a Siberian component 32.6 % (Kozintsev 2020). A Siberian Uralic influence on languages that became Tocharian is plausable. Ust'-Ishim man (dated to 45,000 years ago) was found on the banks of the Irtysh River, which source lies in Dzungaria.

Indo-Āryan "Soma" ( "contents" < "source" ) preserved the native Uralic term for a hewn wooden mortar-bowl that was used ( RV 1.28 ) as the dried žalas ( RV 7.98.1, RV 8.29.1 ) Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) was pressed with stones in water to produce a "batch" of the Soma beverage ( re: Khanty "Sŏma" hewn mortar-bowl, Estonian "Soim " hewn manger ), or passed around and shared. The misnomer well have been a cross-cultural semantic mistranslation from early Balanovo-Volosovo contacts. Finger pointing can be misconstrued, as Elbing Vocabulary # 141 comically demonstrates. Some other tribes may have noticed East Baltic Balanovo neuters were one consonant shy of a combo plate, and later added one. Amanita muscaria reflects the Sun-Moon symbolism well, especially as they rise & set smoky chestnut red ( žalas ). An pioneer ethno-mycologist, R. Gordon Wasson, identified Vedic Soma as Amanita muscaria in his 1967 book, although it's legendary use was clearly Pre-Vedic. Note that Balanovo and Volosovo-Garino ( Uralic ) culture pottery are sometimes discovered in sites side by side ( Goldin 1999;130 ), inferring very close contacts (re: mtdna haplogroup U4 [ Pliss et al. 2005, 16134–16356–16362 @ Bermisheva et al. 2002, 16189–16311–16356 @ Derbeneva et al.2002b ]). Ethnic customs were shared. The Volosovo ( Q1-L54 ) use of talc or chamotte to temper pottery is significant, since the custom of talc admixture is shared in Abashevo ceramics, and later found in Sintashta culture ceramics. Two pots, unearthed far away near Sarazm, betray their poly-ethnic Abashevo Ural area ( N1c1) origination by their unusual talc admixture.

One side effect of the Ural region metallurgic bonanza was the need to defend key mining claims and production. An escalation in production of weapons is noted. The Pepkino burial kurgan suggests Abashevo northern territorial encroachment into Balanovo mining districts was strictly non-negotiable. Later Sintashta - Arkaim type fortifications anticipated security concerns regarding metallurgic production centers.

Sounds of Thunder
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Songs of the Erzya Mordvinic thunder spirit " Pur’gine / Pəŕgəńä " parallel both traditions of Baltic "Perkūnas-Perkaunis-Perkons" and Rig Vedic " Parjanyah " closely. ( Rig Veda Book 5, Hymn 83 ). The ancient Permic Komi myth of "Pera the Giant & the Oak grove", like Parjanya and Erzya Pəŕgəńä, may also reflect cultural integration or assimilation ( LWb, R1a1a1, Z280 Northern variants like CTS1211, Z92, Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22, in other words, FAMILY ) of residual Volga-Kama Fatyanovo-Balanovo & Abashevo ( CWC Z93 & Z283 ) East Balts by the Urals ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002  re: ceramic <܀> checkered ornament of Volga-Urals ). A shared CWC "alpine" velar unite the disparate variants, implying contact. The East Balt type R1a1a-, Z92 variant found among the Erzya suggests such ( R1a1a-, Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22 ). Mordvinic frequencies of R1a-M558 ( CTS1211 ) spiked ( 32.2% ! ) when compared to neighboring Volga-Ural groups ( Trofimova 2015 ). Unlike Pera the giant & the Oak grove of the Komi, Aryanized Parjanyas ( Rig Veda, 5.83, 7.101 & 7.102 ) has been "de-oaked ". Another Volga-Kama area Permic variation was noted by Y. Wickman ( Teitoja Votjaakkien Mytologiiasta, 1893, p. 33 ) as the Votiak wrathful " Perkịno ", who was offered bread, gruel, and ( ! ) butter. The Chuvash still say " ascha schapat " about lightning. Missionaries demonized the hewn idol ( Lith. stabas ) as "the devil of hell", replacing them with a foreign "stern" storm-god tradition - and new, improved idols. There is even a Perkino, Russia - somewhat near Tula.

Legends of the North
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Recent discoveries have eclipsed traditional mindsets. Aerial surveys revealed Sintashta & Arkaim. Archaeological analysis from excavations have revealed four thousand year old cultural intermingling ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ). In 2002, Fragments of Lappish Mythology by Lars Levi Laestadius was finally published in English. It had been long forgotten since the 1840s. The Sámi version of the Storm-giant bears a close conformity to Pera the giant and Parjanya ( RV 5.63 ). The evil troll hiding in the hollow ( Lith. dumbas, Slavic dub - oak ) gets zapped in the Sámi version, reflecting Rig Veda 5.63. After ridding the world of evil, the only reward Pera the giant wants is a net. How odd. A net? Whatz wit that? A net? A more multi-cultural analysis would provide insight. Perhaps one can discern a unity of traditions considering that a Baltic net of knots, Sietynas or Sietas, is also Pleiades ( Sámi siejdi > ON seið ? ). Pashto Perūne is the knotty Pleiades six-star cluster. Northern legends of the six bogatyr sons, the Sun maiden. Pera marries the Sun's daughter. Saulė and the bear. Saulės ratelis, the sun maiden's ring, sauryās rathas. The golden horned elk, Zarni Anj, Shundy Mumy solar mother, the crescent moon ( Sámi mánnu / máno ). Sámi has pirjanne - borjja-dat storms. There are many Sámi - Permic conformities ( Charnolusski 1965: 101-130 ). The Perm culture of the Vychegda river region practiced both inhumation & cremation. In their region, 34% of inhumations were oriented to the SW. Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( Vychegda region ) burial orientations were also to the SW. The northern people's SW " buried with head towards sunset " orientation ( Taylor 1989: 280, Mansin 1984: 64, Karlalainen 1996: 46 ) is explained as the South representing the Sky > Heaven ( Lith dievas, Estonian taevas - sky / heaven, Sámi " taiw ", Hungarian " táj ", and Khanty " tai ). Early phase Sarmatian burials are similar. There are many northern shared traditions ( sarvas - hirvas - sirvas ) and legends,  with some well over four thousand years old ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ). They are not well received today, nor have been in the past ( Willumsen, L.H. 1997 ). Nobody " magically " disappears, ... not even in Las Vegas.

Perga - Pargai
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The interpretation of the phonetics of Parjanyah should consider three factors. Sanskrit " J " followed by a front vowel, as in Parjanya, matches a Baltic " G " ( Lith augu, Skt ojah < *H2eug- ). Secondly, classical Sanskrit " parkaṭī " - tall fig tree, has a holly oak ( Quercus ilex ) dialect homonym in a western Punjabi dialect, with " parg-ai " instead of " park-aṭī  ".  A tall oak, when felled, becomes long - like a Lith. pergas. ( note related  Skt. k-g-j-  bhakti / bhaga- / bhajati  ). In other words, the Punjab region Vedic Parjanyah may be phonetically interpreted as * Pərgənyah from the Iranian-like " R-only " Rig Vedic dialect < possibly reflecting a phonetic alternate * Pərkənyas from another ( Alakul' ? ) immigration of " R & L " Madhyadeśa dialects of "mixed" lineage populace - say, perhaps, marginalized poly-ethnic metalworkers, artisans, a post-Sintashta " śāpharikas"  fisherman ( re: śapharas faux dace ), farmers and herders, perhaps even Yadavas ( re: the tadbhava layer ). The 800 years from Sintashta to the Vedas significantly impacted creoled Indo-Iranian itself, much less a few "odd" loanwords. A phonetic Iranian-like Punjab pre-Vedic * Pərgənyah & Pəŕgəńä of the Volga-Ural Erzya look suspiciously similar, almost identical. Whatz up with that ? Was there once an earlier cultural contact in common, with a similarly positioned CWC "alpine" imported velar? The archaeological evidence  ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 ) indicates that common contact were the Volga-Ural Fatyanovo-Balanovo Balts, and their descendants - those mushroom munching forest folk with their rolling ratas, golden gentaras, and stinky šapalas roach breath. Thirdly, Parjanya ( Divas putrāya ), like Vāyu and his obscure "dhēnā" < *dainā, have already been marginalized in the Punjab Rig-Veda of indigenous Āryan language speakers - with only a few old token hymns. Times change, people change, languages change. Even Gods change. All we are is dust in the wind.

 More Bull
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In East Baltic Mythology, Perkūnas-Perkaunis-Perkons is closely associated with the Bull. In Nuristani Mythology, Pärun is a war god ( kariaunas ). In Pashto, Perūne is the knotty Pleiades star cluster ( re: Old Prus. Perōni - group, Lith. Peruotas - brood cluster, Peras - brood-larvae-sprout cluster  ). The reason Perkūnas-Perkaunis is associated with the Bull is due to the ancient correlation of the Taurus constellation's importance to the agricultural CWC ( Dnieper Satem Tripolye ) R1a1a- Z280 substratum of East Balts. The Taurus constellation ( Latv. Vērsis ) signaled the start of the growing year, and the arrival of Perkaunis' loud Thunder storms. The Pashto Pleiades Perūne star cluster is in ( you guessed it ! ) - the Taurus constellation ( Casino "ding-ding-ding" sounds ). The stars brought the rain of the Bull representing the magic of fertility to the Z280 Satem farmers. When the Satem East Balts assimilated the poly-ethnic Globular Amphora-post-Narva substatum with their pre-Fairguni, a Centum CWC "alpine" velar was added to Peraunas by his "highland" wife Perkūnija, hence the E+W poly-ethnic Perkūnas-Perkaunis-Perkons. Uralic "loanwords" attest to this antiquity of the East Baltic CWC "alpine" velar ( plosive ) variant. Perkūnas was very important to farmers, unlocking the start of a new growing year by his loud return. There is the 16th century report of a Sudovian "Vorskaitas" ( "elder seer" ) with a black goat. In Lithuania, the first ritual plowing of the Spring  was done by two sacred black ( kirsna- ) bulls. His two stones ( not red ) release fire. The goatish echoes of flying snipes before a storm warn of his arrival. Stricken lightning locations are šventas. The *darža "checkered" ceramics ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » Volga-Ural ornament ) in Sintashta and Alakul' pottery track contacts with Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( R1a Z93 ) farmers. Parjanya later appears in the Rig Veda as an peripheral, obscure deity, even though he is a son of Heaven ( Divas putrāya ). He is associated with Soma, Vāyu ( Lith. dialect Vėjus ), and has Bull symbolism. He gladdens the Earth. He has a trace of a misplaced CWC "alpine" velar unlike the Pashto Perūne ( Pleiades - in Vērsis ! ) star cluster, Pärun or Perunŭ cloud cluster. Parjanya has lost his militaristic affinities & exploits. Early pre-Mitanni mining contacts may culturally connect Ashur / Marduk to the Asuras / Maruts. There were no copyrights back then. Inara & Perunaš. The "evil serpent " import and various keraunophobic belief systems have remained quite popular to this day. It is the hero Indra who now frees the cattle from the "Vala" cave, slays the Vritra "ahi-" serpent,  and throws the "wheel" of the "kerauninkas" Kāvya Uśanas ( Latv. milna < *mildna, O. Prus. E-52 mealde, Balto-Slavic *meld- / *mald- / *mild-, Tocharian kärweñe ).

Perunaš / Peraunas
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Lithuanian "angis" reflects connection to the Hittite ( Maykop or Lydian? ) diffused Myth of Illuy-ankas (eel-snake, Latin "anguilla" ), and a storm deity named Tarunna. Hittite Perunaš, a  knotty boulder-cliff deity joins in ( Myth of Ullikummi, Ivanov 1958; 108-9 ). The peaks of Greek Κέρκυρα island, Baden ( w/ R1a M420, M198, M417+, & R1b ) "alpine" Hercynia , and GAC pre-Fairguni, or later Norse Fjörgyn mountain, all have a "peaked alpine" velar, whereas Middle Dnieper Tripolye Satem reflects a Hittite ( R1a- M198+ ) common gender "knotty" Perunaš as the Middle Dnieper culture's velar-less  Peraunas cumulonimbus cloud cluster we all know and love ( Czech Peraun, Slavic Perunŭ, Polabian Peräune- ). Sanskrit velar-less Paru / Parv-ata "mountain" ( Hittite Peru, Perunant-, Avestan Paruuatā, ) was also used for a cloud, especially a massive knotty cumulonimbus cloud cluster, the kind which usually precedes violent Spring thunderstorms ( Rig Veda 1.064.11 ). Spring Thunderstorms were associated with the Taurus constellation ( Latv. Vērsis ), and it's Pleiades ( Pashto Perūne ) star cluster. An affiliation of Peraunas with cumulonimbus thunderclouds, geologic uplifts, lightning-bolts and magic "ceraunium" stones ( Tocharian kärweñe, pāreṃ ) is still noted. Neighboring Catacomb Culture provides a later Greek Keraunos - thunderbolt ( Grk. Poimenes / Lith. Piemenes, Kerauninkas ). Circular triple crossed ceraunic hexagrams were popular Baltic woodcarving motifs  Lithuanian kerauti translates as "to make magic, sorcery". Globular Amphora & Northern Dnieper Satems assimilate, uniquely blending the Satem Peraunas cloud cluster & Centum alpine Perkūnija by "tying the knot" with the sky & earth ( re: post-GAC O.N. Fjörgynn & Fjörgyn ). Perkaunas-Perkūnija unite the poly-ethnic Baltic GAS Centum & Satem barley farmers, which also head East with his still new ERC alpine velar wedding attire, as Uralic words record - Pikne, Peko, Perkele. Neither the Polabian Peräune, nor Pashto Perūne star cluster ( re: Old Prus. Perōni - group, Lith. Peras - brood-larvae-sprout cluster ) have the ERC "alpine" velar, whereas the Erzya Pəŕgəńä, Votiak Perkịno neighbors of Fatyanovo-Balanovo do.

Sunny side up, scrambled, or over easy?
Pashto Perūne cluster

Perkaunas adopts the mycological magic orphans of the forest folk along the way to the Urals with Fatyanovo-Balanovo metallurgic pioneers. Sintashta was still just an empty meadow. His reception was cordial, but the forest is his home, with his oak and his ever popular sacred orphans. The Baltic etymology of the revered oak  is perhaps a "secret" taboo double entendre ( ang-is / anž-uolas ), but a simple "knotty" fits just fine ( Finnish ank-erias - eel < Fatyanovo ). Scholars often use the "taboo" card when "clueless". Perkūnas' clash with a hiding Velinas ( Latv. jods - black ), the serpent-demon in the oak ( Middle Welsh derwen ), over theft ( cattle-fertility ) is an old theme. Thus the traditional black hued choice of sacrifices, especially during times of drought. Fire in the oak? Quercitron. The Storms of Spring battle Winter's dark deceit for the release and restoration of Life. Like the wheel itself, this "core" IE myth is probably just another export of southern agricultural civilizations, which the evolving shepherd-nomads of the open sky ( deivas ) steppes found compelling. The characters themselves, and even their props, appear plagiarized. Old habits are hard to break. The blissful Elysian fields of Val-halla, Latv. veļu, velena, Tocharian A walu, reflect an archaic steppe culture, and nomadic shepherd vintage. Perkūnas was to wed the laume water spirit Indraja, but it was not to be. Parjanya isn't as popular in the Avesta. Nuristani Pärun is a war god, no bull. Parjanya has already been de-oaked by the time of the Vedas, and his ancient heroic legends have been assigned to Indra. Parjanya's name is still spoken by farmers. The Komi have Pera the giant & his Oak grove. As for his northern šventas orphans ( V. N. Toporov 1979, RV 9.82.3 ), word gets around. For the paru / peru " jointed, knotty " I.E. etymology, see Karl Hoffman 1974. In addition, I note Sanskrit Paru - knotty, having joints ( esp. of reed, or cane ) and Lith. Peras - jointed plant shoot ( e.g. of reed ) cluster, as well as white "knotty" or "jointed" larvae cluster, or brood cluster, bear close etymological affinities ( for -as vs.-us, note Lith. Vėjas vs. dialect Vėjus ). This "cluster" could be of stones, clouds, rock, eggs, sprouts, larvae, chicks, church goers, reeds or stars. From the eggs & seeds of Nostratic > PIE * per- to bear, begets the "cluster".  That cluster becomes a cloud ( Czech Peraun, Latv. Per(k)aunis ), or if stone ( Hittite Perunaš ), later becomes a mountain ( Perunant-, Paruuatā ). Many things are native to the vast steppes of Russia - with the notable exception of alpine peaks. The visual connection of a puffy cloud cluster with a tight cluster of cute fluffy chicks or squirming larvae ( Lith. Peras - brood-larvae-sprout cluster  ) may be easily comprehended by a native Oaxacan, but most scholars to date just don't get it. They may well never. Distant snowcapped mountains resembled the towering clouds of the earlier endless steppes. Perūne, Perōni, Peräune, Peraun, Perunŭ, Perunaš are all related "cluster" cognates. GAS influenced Perkons & Parjanya are also related, and especially to each other - due specifically to Volga-Ural inter-ethnic contact.  ( ©Virdainas )

"Oaks are "strikingly" knotty, as are firs, fingers posts, backbones, cliffs and clouds. Oaks are also, like mountains ( re: Fairguni ), "strikingly" tall, or as they say in Hittite, Parku-, or Tocharian Pärk-, and "long" when felled ( Tocharian Pärkär- again ) - as when one makes a 26 ft. dugout canoe - or perga - pergas ( Finnish haapio < Fatyanovo aspen canoe ). ( Greek Πέργ- implies a European substratum "p" inclination for expected "b". ) Khotanese bulysa also prefers the horizontal orientation. A Proto-Kartvelian dialect root for acorn, dialect for oak, reflects *ḳrḳo-, which bares a striking similarity to Italic "Kerkus " cork oak ( with many branches ), Venetian "Querquerni ", Thucydides' mountain " Kirkine ", Celtic alpine "Hercynia " > Gothic  mountain "Fairguni" > O.N. "Fjörgyn", Greek island "Κέρκυρα ", Lith. "Kerkū "- hill, mountain summit, Lith " Kerkulė " many branched stump ( trunk ), Lith " Kerkutys " branching trunk, Lith. "Keras" bush ( with many branches ), Welsh "Perth " bush ( with many branches ), Old Norse  "Fjörr " tree, etc, etc, etc. Lith. kerkoti - to " stick " out - like the GAC "alpine" velar in Perkons or Parjanya, *darža « checked » Alakul' or Kandahar Mundigak-VI Afghan pottery, or R1a1a1 Z280 like R1a Z92 by Samara.  Initial, or medial Q > P is early Lengyel or pre-BBC, influencing GAC, TRB traders, & Baden outliers. Follow the Money > amber ( Biehl & Rassamakin 2008, Harrison 1980, Mazurowski 1983; Czebreszuk / Makarowicz 1993 ). Lengyel / Bell Beaker culture influence is easily percieved in various numerals, such as Breton: pemp, Swedish: fem, Old High German: fimf, Oscan: pompe - 5, or Welsh: pedwar, Old English: fēower vs. Lithuanian: keturi, Sanskrit: chatur- 4.  This euro  K > P is considered "trivial" by some, but was real. Perhaps also GAC 11 & 12, w/  -p- < -k-. ( FYI - Some Western Chicago dialects pronounce knotty & naughty the same way ). The 2,800 BCE Corded Ware / GAC connection of O.N. "alpine" "Fjörgyn" &  E. Baltic elevated "Perkūnija" is fairly obvious, given current archaeological & DNA evidence. Ancient offerings of an axe in water from southern Scandinavia mirror similar ritual offerings in Lithuania. Perūne, Perōni, Peräune, Peraun, Perunŭ, Perunaš are all related "cluster" cognates ( Lith. Peras brood-larvae-sprout cluster ). GAS influenced Perkaunis & Parjanyas are also related, and especially to each other - due specifically to Sintashta-Arkaim era, Volga-Ural region inter-ethnic contact. The arboreal *Perkus & Unicorns are just myths. Roth, ratas, rathas. Embrace the Chaos. ( ©Virdainas )

Alakul' pottery with Baltic "checked" *darža motif of Fatyanovo

Velars & Vowels
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Given what has been revealed from the archaeology of the Sintashta era and later ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, « checked » ornament of the Volga-Urals ), the northwestern "Punjab" Rig Vedic creole dialect of Parjanyah may reflect an earlier Ural region polyethnic * Perkaunyas, or * Pərgənyas, which would resemble the Erzya Pəŕgəńä, Votiak Perkịno or Baltic *Perkaunias very, very closely. Why are the nearest cognates of Parjanya with an "alpine" velar ( plosive ) only in Balto-Finnic, Volgaic, Permic, Baltic, and otherwise noticeably absent in surrounding Satem Iranian-Dardic-Nuristani? European Celtic alpine Hercynia, Gothic Fairguni attest to Western, perhaps GAC, "alpine" velar plosive affinities ( re: roth / ratas / rathas below ). As linguists struggle with the etymology of the Punjab Rig Vedic Parjanya, Volgaic Pəŕgəńä, or even Baltic Perkūnas for that matter, did they even consider the heresy of a poly-ethnic origin ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ), or a GAC origin of the integrated "alpine" velar plosive? ( re: Eulau GAC DNA & Shughnans ). Slavic Satem Ruki & velarless Perun' would support it. Perhaps *Perkaunias > *Perkonias > *Pərganyas. Short e / o get leveled to a as Indo-Iranian evolves. The altered phonetics may reflect the cross-cultural wear & tear of sharing from Fatyanovo-Balanovo to Abashevo, Abashevo to Sintashta-Arkaim, Sintashta-Arkaim to Fedorovo, Fedorovo & Alakul', and then others later. At least a half a millennium passes between Sintashta and the Vedas, if not more, with variant cultures in between, and additional amalgamation and integration with new language groups. Velar plosive [-G-] before a front vowel becomes [-J-]. In other words, we are discussing a shared cultural tradition ( Casino "ding-ding-ding" sounds ) spanning over four thousand years ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, The « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ). Beyond the similar name itself, the very verses of each culture's related hymns ( dainās ) exactly parallel each other in a truly uncanny way, as if they were shared. They are, and they were. In 1859, Dr. G. Buhler already noted this in the Transactions of the Philological Society - over a century before the archaeological evidence of Fatyanovo, Abashevo & Sintashta contact was discovered.  The inclusive Perkaunijas appealed to poly-ethnic farmers, herders and smiths, not to a xenophobic wealthy ruling elite. The increased frequency of dental cavities in Arkaim remains may reflect polyethnic Abashevo - Fatyanovo - Balanovo populace. Given the Fatyanovo link with Sintashta ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ), Alakul', Fedorovo & Kandahar ceramics ( re:  Kuz'mina 2007, fig 101, « checked » # 14 ), and Corded Ware Abashevo origins of chariot cheek-pieces in the Urals, such speculation is well within reasonable parameters, even for diehard skeptics ( DNA data pending ). The Sintashta metal workers were busy, real busy - cooking ( varia ) copper, which is noisy hot foundry type work ( Armenian "darbin" smith,  Lith. "darbas" toil ). A rare day off meant quietly fishing by the cool water with some herbal "headache" medicine, chilling out, singing & fishing. And it is still the common farmers who welcome Parjanya, Pəŕgəńä, or Perkons ( & Thor ) . Perhaps the priests forgot ( RV 10.85.3 ), Parjanyas is still the father of Soma ( RV 9.82.3  ). Bon Appetit !

The astonishing similarity of the archaic Central East Baltic (Latvian dial. example "Perkaunis" / "Perkūne", and "Lietas") Dainās tradition mirrors the Eastern Fatyanovo / Balanovo Baltic culture mythology as seen with the Votiak " Perkịno " and Volgaic (Erzya "Pur’gine / Lit-ava") songs. The initial "L" vs. "R" of Lit-ava would presume early-Baltic contact, since Vedic "vṛkah" ( vs. archaic Baltic "vilkas") is associated with the loanword "vərgas" in Uralic Moksha , or Komi Zyryan "vörkas" - wolf terms which were probably acquired from an Alakul' intrusion into the forest-steppe. Yet Ossetic does have "Lymæn" friend reflecting Mordvin "Loman" man, whereas Sanskrit has "Ramana" - man {married}. (re: Latvian "Loma"- role / Lithuanian "Luomas"- marital status, class of men). Erzya has "Paz", reflecting Saka "Bagas" - a legacy of Timber Grave cultural contact ( Slavic "Bogъ"). Discovering East Balt R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants, & Z92 among the Erzya ( Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22 &c.) may pale to other previously unidentified R1a lineages from ancient cultural contact. The Pur’gine Paz - Lit-ava hymns are thus part of a poly-ethnic shared tradition.

Syllabic Resonants *R
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The East Baltic R1a1a1 Z283 & Z280 " šapalas " roach, and Indic R1a Z93 " śapharas " ( the Faux Roach / Dace ) / "śāpharikas" ( fisherman ) isogloss is indeed very interesting - given the absence of other fish cognate isoglosses ( Ossetian " kæf  ", Old Japanese: kwop(j)i > koi ). Sanskrit scholars have determined at least two early Vedic dialects, ( the IE *L > "R" only, vs. the "R" and *L - Madhyadeśa region ), and possibly a third ( the *L only ) existed. The Rig Veda we know today is in the "R" only dialect ( Indo-Iranian coalescence of L > R ). Note Sanskrit śroṇis vs. Lith. šlaunis. Thus, only occasional token words remain from 2 of the 3 Vedic era dialects. Baltic had retained IE *L. The Greek / Indo-Iranian dialect area exhibited issues with syllabic resonants ( *l, *r, *m, *n ) - as when *m and *n became a, or Greek al/la & ar/ra, or Indo-Iranian's syllabic liquids, where *l usually became *r. There remained an Indic instability with *r (ṛH), where Iranian  had "ar" vs. Indic "ir, ur" - with E-W dialect variants. Examples of this are  Skt. śiras vs. Av. sarah-, Grk. karā-, or Skt giri- vs. Av gairi- ( Lith girė vs Slavic gora ). The conservative Satem speaking communities of IE dialects which begat the Baltics usually evolved reflexes of semi-vowels *l, *r, *m, *n into *il, *ir, *im, *in, yet also rendered them as *ul, *ur, *um, *un after original labiovelar plosives, and later rearranged after more changes. The two different reflexes cluster in contrast - inflectional morphemes have the "i*-" reflex, whereas the "u*-" reflex is not uncommon in the expressive lexicon.

There was certainly early Pit Grave Āryan, as well as early Catacomb culture ( merger of Genitive & Ablative) influence - interaction with the respective emerging Baltic dialects ( as Middle Dnieper artifacts actually reflect, & also "javas"- grain isogloss [ vs. Hittite ewan, gen. ewaš / Tocharian yap ], or Skt "paścāt " / Lith "paskuj " later ) and with Proto-Slavic while each neighbored near the larger proto "Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian" isogloss area of dialects. (eg. Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian past tense prefix augment isogloss). Reflecting this archaic Don-Volga Repin regional relationship is the specific spiritual tradition of Dawn ( Uṣas /  Ūšas ) as the "Daughter of Heaven", isolated together in the Indic, Greek and Baltic cultures. The semantic "perceive vs. awake" contrast of Greek "peuthomai ", Avestan "baodaiti ", and Indic "bodha-h " vs. Balto-Slavic Lith. "budėti " invites some curiosity. Is there some specific Balto-Indic link for the divergent "wake-awaken" semantics? ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » Volga-Ural ornament ). The Armeno-Aryan remodeling of the Ablative suffix helps to date influences on Middle Dnieper dialects. Another relic of this same late Sredny Stog era influence/dialogue interaction maybe the proposed loss of a laryngeal (*H ) after the introduction of a long vowel (Korlandt 1975 - re: Latv. guovs, Skt. gauh ), and of course, RUKI. The Middle Dnieper R1a Z280 Baltics & Slavics were thus distinct early autonomous N.W. Satem IE dialects (Upper /  Middle Dnieper-Don region ), and even more so upon becoming " Europeanized " R1a1a1- poly-ethnics. Hydronyms by Tula, Russia ( re: CWC R1a-Z280 ) appear quite Baltic. Early Satem contacts ( mtDNA T ) and exchange may have also occurred with Don-Volga Repins before an exodus / flight of a group far to the East, which evolved into the Afanasievo ( w/ R1a, Z93 neg ) culture ( Russ. "toloka ", Lith. "talka / telkti ", Tocharian "talke " VRC ). Repin A1 type pottery arrived at Mikkhailovka on the Dnieper around 3500 BCE from a people that had a connection to the Volga-Don Region Repins. There were Repin settlements ( Repin Khutor ) in Middle Don, where it dispersed to Volga and Dnieper areas ( Sinuk 1981 ). Tocharian may be thus related to both the early Middle-Lower Dnieper Repins  ( re: Middle Dnieper Repins > ERC > pre-proto-Germanics - w/ R1a M417+ ? ), and the northern Ural-Volga Repins, some of whom migrated to the Trans-Ural region East ( Latv. "veļu ", Tocharian A "walu " ). Seven males tested from the Xiaohe cemetery in the Tarim basin were Y-DNA R1a1a M417+, Z93 neg ( Chunxiang Li et al 2010 ), and dated to about 2,000 BCE ( re: " Yuezhi " < + > Old Nord. " Gautar ").  In fact, R1a  M417 settlement locations stretch all the way from Norway to China.( Casino "ding-ding-ding" sounds ) The incorporation of some Middle Dnieper Repins into the multi-ethnic Middle Dnieper culture is supported by isoglosses between Slavic, Baltic, Norse Germanic and Tocharian ( " Arśi ", w/ R1a M417+ Z93 neg ) may perhaps trace it's origin to  ( post Afanasievo exodus ) resident Don Volga Repins.

The cultural convergence of these various Āryan, Baltic and Uralic peoples by the Urals in the second millennium BCE is reflected in name of the annual autumn Finnish "Kekri " celebration ( Southern Sámi " geavri ", wooden ring drum ), which exemplfies the state of developement of the Indo-Iranian at that time - as compared with later Rig Vedic Sanskrit sg./ pl. "čakras / čakrā-", PIE * kʷekʷlos. ( Finnish " yh-deksän " 9, "or 1 from 10" < IIr - vs. Finnish " tuhante " 1,000 < E. Baltic Fatyanovo ). It appears from above loanwords that at mid-third millennium B.C.E., the Fatyanovo East Baltic Satem [ š ] preceded a slower developing Indo-Āryan [ ś ]. Note Nuristani parallel sonsonant. It ( Finnish " tuhante " ) also shows uncompromised original East Baltic pre-GAS Ruki. Did each Satem tribe perhaps influence ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ) the other? ( Mari "indeś" 9, Ossetic "dæs" 10). An East Baltic  ( Fatyanovo CWC ) "žemė" lowland, was adopted as a toponym "šäme", and is now known as the "häme" region of Tavastia Finland ( w/ Fatyanovo CWC artifacts ). Note Oversti et al 2019, Supplementary Fig. S4, for Sámi  contact chronology with various Baltic &  Āryan peoples. Before the Finnic change of "š " to "h", the toponym provided an ethnonym - "Sámi " aka, the Lapplanders. (Koivulehto 1993, Oversti et al, 2019). The antiquity of this East Baltic "Satem" loanword, in close association with nearby Fatyanovo CWC artifacts, provides a wondrous perspective of just how well the East Baltic lexicon has endured to this day.

Uralic Honey
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It is common to read that the Finno-Ugric loanwords for "honey" - Hungarian "mez", Mordvinic "med' ", Estonian / Finnish "mesi " were not borrowed from "Battle Axe" Baltic "medu" - honey, or a Ural-Volga Pre-Tocharian Repin dialect ( Latv. sāls, Toch. A sāle, Zyryan sol - salt ), but rather from a later Āryan "madhu" - sweet drink! Even though the same Finno-Ugrics have loanwords - Mordvinic Mokša "ḱäŕas ", Mari "karas ", Udmurt "karas ", for honeycomb / wax - reflecting East Baltic "kār'as " honeycomb ( Lith. korys, Latv. kāres ), and in spite of the archaeological chronology of centuries of "Battle Axe" Balt / Finno-Ugric ( e.g. pre-Kiukainen culture w/, LWb ) contact or earlier Pre-Tocharian Repin / Finno-Ugric interaction ( e.g. Sámi " vieške ", Tokharian A wsā-yok  ) long before Pit Grave Āryan culture arrival. No " mekši "-fly cognate is found in Ob-Ugric. It is noteworthy that current Bashkir preserves "kärä-", along with Altaic Kazan Tatar "käräs " in that Ural region, and even distant Chuvash has "karas " - honeycomb. ( A Fatyanovo burial was discovered near Birsk, Bashkortostan - north of Ufa ). Note Mordvinic Erzya "kšta " beeswax, Lith. "šekštė " thick, coarse. Single markers of mtDNA N1a also group Bashkirs with Lithuania and the Komi Permyaks. East Balt type Y-DNA R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants like CTS1211, Y35,  etc, & Z92 among the Erzya ( Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22 &c.) adds additional linguistic perspective to the "kār'as " range, as does Fatyanovo mtDNA N1a1a1a2. East Baltic "bitis" bee has an interesting cognate with Egyptian "bi-t ". Baltic amber has been found in the pyramids. Ural karas honeycomb is clearly a legacy of Fatyanovo-Balanovo regional assimilation ( Grishakov V, Stavitsky V, 2003 ). Surprisingly, neither Slavic ( w/ solitary exception of Polish skarzyk < GAS ? ), nor Indo-Iranian possess a cognate ( ? करण - honeycomb ), although Greek does ( κηρός ). Fatyanovo-Balanovo was not some amorphous "Balto-Slavic" - it was evidently an identifiable archaic East Baltic - that preceded Kiukainen type hybrid cultures.

Archaeological Chronology of Cultures
( Cal. 14C vs. the " time-travel " of Linguists )

5,600 BCE Akali Narva-Kunda settlement in Estonia, w/ Cannabis & Triticum pollen
3,700 BCE - Volga Repins by the Urals / Volosovo expanded from Urals
3,200 BCE - Fatyanovo " Battle Axe " arrival - Volosovo culture interaction
2,800 BCE - Fatyanovo-Balanovo CWC ceramic 
« checked » double row diamond *darža ornament, re: Bronocice pot

Fatyanovo Corded Ware Pottery

2,700 BCE Kiukainen hybrid type cultures / Balanovo Metallurgy in Ural forests
2,300 BCE Abashevo - Pepkino Kurgan ( MVK, Poltavka, Fatyanovo Hybrids )
2,100 BCE Abashevo & Seima-Turbino Metallurgic developement & interaction
2,100 BCE - Sintashta ( w/ R1a, Z93, Z2124 ) - Abashevo -  Fatyanovo-Balanovo 
« checked » Volga-Ural ornament

Sintashta Pottery
Sintashta Pottery - with both Fatyanovo motif (on top) & BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below it)
- with both Fatyanovo Baltic motif (on top)
&
BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below it)

2,026 BCE Sintashta - Arkaim (  Poltavka w/ some MVK (
w/ R1b-Z2103+ ) & Abashevo becomes Andronovo ) - U. of AZ 14C
1,790 BCE Tannabergen Kazakhstan - Novy Kumak Horizon -
« checked » double row diamond *darža ornaments
1,780-1,660
BCE  Alakul' cemeteries' pine timbers of Lisakovsk, Kostany oblast by Tobol river - U. of AZ 14C
1,700
BCE Timber Grave and Alakul' culture intrusions into Ural forest zone cultures
1,600 BCE - Timber Grave / Alakul' / Fedorovo
« checked » double row diamond Volga-Ural ornaments
1,000 BCE - Mundigak Period VI ceramics of Afghanistan
with same « checked » double row diamond *darža ornaments

Pottery with "checked" *darža diamond motif of Fatyanovo
( Note: Kuz'mina 2007, p. 622, fig. 13, I-rim #1, III-shoulder #1 )


"People lie. The evidence doesn't lie " - Grissom.

Pakistan prosecutes Sharbat Gula, but "couldn't find" Bin-Laden. Pathetic.
From Kaunas to Kazan 
to Kandahar -
We Are Family.

वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्
 

The " time-travel " of linguists is supported by serious academic references of proto " Indo-Aryans " loaning "proto" Finnish " vasa "- calf - prior to the Fatyanovo-Balanovo CWC arrival, thereby neutralizing any possibility of a " ratas / rathas " debate whatsoever, and uncountable cans of worms of a probable Centum connection ( GAS! ). The debate was only postponed. Pots don't talk, they speak - volumes. Note that Ossetian ( w/ R1b Z-2103 ) " wæs ", Yaghnob " wasa "- calf - would suggest a 1st millennium BCE Gorodets era contact loanword. The artifacts do. Note the SCU (Scythians from Moldova and Ukraine) of Oversti et al 2019, Supplementary Fig. S4, for Sámi contact chronology with various Baltic & Āryan peoples. Another archaic Baltic loanword into Finno-Ugric exemplifying the range of influence the Fatyanovo-Balanovo CWC had is the East Baltic Lithuanian žalga "fishing pole" or "long pole, stick" ( Arm. "jałk" rod, branch ), which has traces in Saami čuolggu "pole for pushing a fishing net under the ice", Finnish salko "long pole", Mordvin  śalgo "stick", Komi źal "lath-stick", Hungarian (! ) szál "spear, cane". Even Khanty & Mansi also have cognates.

Bison in the Forest
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zumbrs

Gradual climatic warming of the vast pine-birch forests of Russia also afforded a home to the woodland bison (Bison bonasus bonasus), known in Lithuanian as stumbras, or in Old Latvian as sumbrs - which bears a odd & curious resemblance to the Sanskrit śambaras. A similar semantic drift is seen with the Russian " izubr' " - stag ( Slavic *jьzǭbrь [ jь< vь ], OPr. wissambrs ). Evolution of the " tusked " Satem žambras / žumbras > zumbras > sumbrs noun for the dangerous forest dwelling wisent / bison is far from being etymologically settled, although "sumbrs" is unique to East Baltic. Note  žambasžambras derivation, as well as later GAC  wisent <  OPr. wissambrs > Slavic *jьzǭbrь ( jь< vь ). The wisent is the largest herbivore in Europe. Excavated sites in the Baltic countries indicate wisents constituted 20% of the hunted wild ungulates. In Lithuania, there are still meadow ( Lith. " lanka ", Khanty " lŏk " ) names such as Zumbriškės by Aukštadvaris, and Žumbrickiai by Ramygala in the central Panevėžys district, whereas Stumbriškis place-names appear less archaic. Wisents often frequent lush meadows for grazing. Archaic Satem cognates for the Carpathian bison in central Europe extend beyond Slavic examples. Niketas Choniates recorded the " ζουμπρος " (< zumbros ) of 12th century Cumanians hundreds of years after the advent of Old Church Slavonic liturgical texts. The apparently Thracian ( w/ final "-os" ) ζόμβρος (< zumbros ) cognate dates to the same century as the beginning of formalized Old Church Slavonic literature. Other cognates also display this close relationship, such as Thracian " midne " - homestead, reflecting Latvian " mītne " - dwelling, very nicely.

Dombay / Zambrai

Given the existing evidence of Žumbr- type place-names in Lithuania like Žumbrickiai, East Baltic (re: upė vs. apė ) obviously had a dialect variant  Žumbras. Finno-Ugric pronounciation of the "ž-" or "z-" consonant perhaps yielded a multi-cultural Balt-Finnic term * sumbras (re: Old Latv. " Sumbrs ") in the distant past (eg: multi-ethnic Dyakovo culture ) for the forest wisent. An East Baltic remodeled variant stumbras ( with "t" epenthesis, ie: stirna ) arose. In many outlying regions after the animal disappeared, so did it's old name. Scandinavian and Slavic traders later brought in new substitute wisent names. Over thousands of years of multi-cultural interaction, the common term sumbrs overtook the older zumbrs variant in the Latvian region - probably due to the Estonian-Finnic phonetic influence. Modern Lithuanian still has the " tusked " žambras /  žambris, although the semantics are now limited to a wooden plow ( Lith. žambuotas, Skt. jambhate). Regional polyethnic changes of "ž-" to "s-", as in žalga > salko, do not necessitate a  "taboo" in place of multi-millennial Finnic influenced cross-culture contact. For example, the related Baltic " taurė "- herder's blow horn, is not at all uncommon in Uralic languages. The neighboring Finnic influence of "ž-" or "z-" to "s-" with zumbrs > sumbrs needs no extravagant linguistic explanation. An ancient lexical relation to the Caucasian mountain wisent "Dombay", perhaps as -*dʰǵʰomb- is somewhat speculative, but nonetheless very intriguing.

stumti

The East Baltic Neuter
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The singular neuter gender exemplifies the archaic nature of the West vs. East divide in the Baltic languages, with West Baltic documented using singular neuter gender asigmatic /-n /, as in " kelan "- wheel. Lithuanian still has the neuter gender in some adjectives ending in -a, -ia, or -u, as well as in Neuter Participles. For example, "Šalta" - It is cold, "Čia jo būta" - He was here, or " Kokia  žalia  kanapė! " - What green hemp!. The Lithuanian neuter is often used in impersonal constructions. There is not the slightest trace of the West Baltic neuter asigmatic /-n / in East Baltic Fatyanovo loanwords from Uralic such as " kela "- reel, or in modern East Baltic ( Žemaitian "medė " forest, or coastal dialect "lizda ", vs. Prussian "median "), once again dating the commonality of a West vs. East Baltic language relationship to a pre-Fatyanovo ( R1a1a1- Z280 Northern variants ), pre-GAs era. The East Baltic singular neuter ( Illich-Svitych 1963: 42-44 ) seems to have had a parallel type of development as the singular neuter in Lydian, with the generalized singular neuter ending in */-d /. The Slavic neuter origin may reflect an old R1a1a1- Z280 & Z92 Sosnica Eastern orientation. The anaphoric pronoun /-ad / < ( ntr sg. ) */-od /, reflects the Hititte /-at / used for collectives or neuter plurals, suggesting an early ( Mysian ) Lydian / Hittite split . East Baltic Fatyanovo loanwords in Uralic imply the loss of the final consonant occurred prior to a Northern expansion. The evolution of the neuter gender in East Baltic can be deduced from the surviving languages and dialects. Latvian has already lost neuter adjectives which Lithuanian still retains.  The Lithuanian neuter is still used in impersonal constructions. Latvian accentuation indicates the neuter remained a distinct part of that language - even after the era when dialects became different languages. As the R1a1a1b1a2b3, etc,. or the  LWb allele genetically indicate, Fatyanovo Baltic was as identifiable East Baltic - as Latvian, Lithuanian, and Žemaitian are to this today. Apples don't fall far from the apple tree.

Loanwords in Uralic
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Academia also attributes Finnish "porsas" pig as a loanword from an Iranian ( *pārsas ) source . Note that archaic East Baltic "parša" pig ( neut.! ), was the signature livestock of East Baltic Fatyanovo & Balanovo culture archaeological excavations ( like " *keulia" in the WHG Neman & Narva cultures !  ) - and is also noted ( Varov & Kosintsev 1996: 54 ) as a significant feature of Corded Ware Abashevo livestock (Koryakova-Epimakhov 2007:65), in the very same Volga-Kama region as the later Khudyakovo group of the Pyanobor ( Udmurt " parś " boar ) culture region. Some post-Balanovo Finnic Ananyino culture excavation sites (eg. Svinogorskoye) also favor the pig above other livestock. The Mordvin cognate may reflect "Sauromatian" (Prokhorovo) influence. Note:. Khotanese "pā'sa-" < *pālsa- < *pārsa- < *parsa- < *parša-. One of the most conspicuous traits of the Indo-Iranian Andronovo culture is the complete absence of pigs, as opposed to the related western poly-ethnic Timber grave culture - which evolved with discernible Corded Ware Abashevo culture assimilation. Andronovo Indo-Iranians weren't keen about mushrooms either ( Yasna XLVIII.10 ). Given the distribution of uniquely Fatyanovo & Balanovo "checkered " motifs ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornament of Urals ), one may speculate if their "parša " term followed ( Grishakov V, Stavitsky V, 2003 ) their motifs.  (re: the Sanskrit cognate of neuter E. Baltic * parša, > Estonian " parh " < *parha < *parša ).

East Balt stone mace - * vẽźras > vėzdras  ( Skt. vajra )
*u̯eg' > * vẽźras  > * vẽžras > vėzdras

The Finnish loanword "vasara" hammer, appears to be from a late Āryan *vazarah ( vajrah < *vaźras ) without the final "s", most likely from the 16th-13th century BCE Timber-Grave northern forest intrusion ( re: Erzya "azuru" man of rank; Udmurt "uzər " < Timber-Grave Iranian "asurah" ), as opposed to an Alakul' forest-steppe re-intrusion ( re: Moksha "vərgas" w/ "-s " nom. sg. ending ). Other Uralic terms include Karelian " vazara ", Erzya " uzjere ", and all lack a final "s" ( re: Redei 1986, 25-26, 28-30 ). The East Baltic cognates range from Lithuanian " vėzdras / vėzdas " mace, club, Latvian " vẽza " stick, club, " vẽzêt " to swing in the air, wave, "wag" < *u̯eg'. Note the vežys of crayfish waving their pinchers. Latvian " veseris " maul-hammer, appears to be a loanword from Livonian, since the phonetics are closer to the Finnic versions than Lith. " vėzdras " mace, club. The "-d / da-" contamination of " vėz-das / vėzdras " may be from the closely related stone-less synonym " laz-da " - club, and may well have altered " * ź-da > zda " as in Lith. lazda < * laźda (Albanian lajthi, ledhi - id ). Also, for *-zdr- < *-zr-, see Mažiulis, Vytautas, 1988, Prūsų Kalbos Etimologijos Žodynas 1, p. 85, re: anxdris.

Lithuanian "vėzdras / vėzdas" mace, club, Latvian "vẽza" stick, club, - Sanskrit "vajra" & Avestan "vazra"
*u̯eg' > * vẽźras  > * vẽžras > vėzdras

Tibetan "Dorje" ( <
rdo "stone" + rje )

Bored stone maces with a peculiar solar "rosette" design - ubiquitous in the CWC Abashevo culture, have been unearthed in the Mariampolė district of Lithuania. East Balt four, five, six, or even seven-bulbed stone bored maces are almost identical to Andronovo maces. Perkūnas' thunderbolt ( Latv. milna, O. Prus. E-52 mealde, Balto-Slavic *meld- / *mald- / *mild- ) was also a round stone. The evolution from * vẽźras > * vẽžras > vėzdras / vėzdas  appears rather old, but provides fresh new perspective to the etymology of Sanskrit " vajra " and Avestan " vazra " ( club ),as does Latvian " vẽza " club, " vẽzêt ". The practical forest dwelling East Balt woodsmen apparently favored the utilitarian "kirvis"- axe-hammer ( Indic "kṛvi-" ), or Maykop like " vedega "- axe-adze more, and evidently shared them with the Uralic locals. Hazel nuts were a Fatyanovo staple, as they were for nearby WHG.

East Balt Stone Bored Boat Axe

The early polyethnic East Balt / Uralic / Pre-Indo-Iranian group would play a role in the settlement ( U. of AZ - radio carbon date average - 2026 BCE) of Sintashta / Arkaim, and later also influence the regional speakers in Iran / India, who become bilingual. Like the Magyars in Central Europe, or the Goths-Galindi-Alani in Spain, Āryan languages are now marginally reflected in the gene pool of India. ( re: Uralic variant of mtDNA N1a )

The Ethnogenesis of Abashevo / Sintashta / Arkaim
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Abashevo pottery resembles and blends Fatyanovo and Balanovo East Baltic Corded Ware styles О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ). Like poly-ethnic Balanovo East Balts ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z280 Northern variants, or N1c1 ), the forest-zone Abashevo culture left both kurgans, and flat graves, although some burials may also reflect nearby Poltavka culture customs of the steppe-zone. This indicates a transitional group of Corded Ware populace of mixed affinities with an emerging Āryan elite. Mokša "azor ", Erzya "azuru" man of rank; Udmurt "uzər ", Komi "ozir " rich - were probably influenced from a 16-13th century BCE Timber-Grave Iranian "asurah" - perhaps pre-Ananyino era, and do not indicate any hypothetical "Āryan" type Abashevo language for that Corded Ware group. Latvian folk solar design signs & multi-ethnic Dyakovo culture rosettes exactly match the "enigmatic" Abashevo ubiquitous rosettes. Poltavka & Abashevo complexes of the Novokumak horizon coexisted by the Volga. The Abashevo southeastern expansion towards territory that was prior a Catacomb border region suggests cultural assimilation of that populace as well, which was later followed by a Timber Grave assimilation once again.

This widespread polyethnic (kulturnaya obshchnost’ ) Abashevo mixed populace invites varied interpretations by differing viewpoints of different stages and regions - resembling the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Abashevo defies oversimplification for convenience' sake. An expert on the Abashevo culture, A. Pryakhin ( Pryakhin & Khalikov 1987 ), deduced that it evolved from contacts between Fatyanovo / Balanovo (Balts) and MVK Catacomb (Mnogovalikovo) / Poltavka (Pit-grave Āryan) peoples in the Ural forest-steppe. Most Corded Ware Abashevans were, like Fatyanovo / Balanovo, narrow faced and dolichocephalous - contrasting somewhat from the  MVK ( R1b-Z2103+ ) Catacomb / Pit-grave / Poltavka cranial & physical type ( Yablonsky & Khokhlov 1994: 189 ). "None of the Andronov groups displays distinct ( Craniometric ) similarities with the Abashevo people, archaeological evidence notwithstanding". (Kozintsev A.G. 2009). But the Abashevo were, on the whole, poly-ethnic ( R1a1a Z93 ) and multicultural. Regional variant sub-groups include a Ural, Volga, Don-Volga, and Kama-Vetluga expressions. The share of pig bones in the South Ural was twice as much as in the Don region. ( P.A.Kosintsev 2003 )  Sometimes the Balanbash label is used for the eastern variant.

Were the varied poly-ethnic cosmopolitan Abashevo people MVK Catacomb, Poltavka Āryan,
CWC East Balts w/ WHG, residual upper Don-Volga Repins, or partly Finno-Ugric? ... Yes.
Abashevo was multi-cultural, and poly-ethnic. E Pluribus Unum.

One is inclined then to consider the singular masc. baritone ratas > rathas term
as a highly probable Corded Ware Abashevo poly-ethnic lexical legacy.
( Latvian"
rats" - wheel, carriage )

Sintashta ( w/ R1a, Z93, Z2124 ) intensifies the regional forest-zone copper metallurgy of the Corded Ware Abashevo and the earlier pioneering Balanovo East Balt metalworkers. Balanovo copper ( varis ) metallurgy in the Urals had become an attractive alternative to the then destabilized Carpathian sources, drawing the attention of southerly (Saami "Oar'je") Volga Pit-grave Āryans who had endured cyclic periods of drought. The Urals quickly became a major metallurgic center. Sintashta stock-breeding reflects the earlier Abashevo Corded Ware culture (note East Baltic "šėmas gōvs" gray cow, or "papijusi " - cow with milk, and related Sanskrit "pipyūṣī " id.), as does some of it's metallurgic products, and flat graves ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 221 ). A recent genetic study of the genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle ( J Kantanen et all., 2009 ) add additional perspective. The Sintashta slightly concave knife-sickles are connected to the Abashevo polyfunctional ones (Skt. " kṛpā- ", Latvian "cirpe", Lith " kirpe-" ). Many Sintashta remains were dolichocephalous europoids ( re: Kirsna man ), like the forest-steppe Corded Ware Abashevans, and earlier Fatyanovans ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z283, Z280 Northern variants ), while others resemble late Pit-grave / Poltavka types. In fact, kurgans only accounted for about one third of the burials at Sintashta (Epimakhov 2002). E. Kuz'mina (The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, Volume 3, p 222 ) suggests Sintashta was not purely Āryan in composition, and quite possibly quasi-bilingual. Over a period time, the cultures consolidated by the need for mutual co-operation.

The later stage of the polyethnic populace fusion of Abashevo & Sintashta cultures may give an insight to the language of Proto-Indo-Iranian ( Pre-Vedic/Avestan Sintashta ). Remains of the Pokrovskij type continue dolochocephaly and narrow faces, with additional admixture of Uralic types detected in that group. The Arkaim / Sintashta area sites correspond to the Avestan Vara of the arriianəm vaējō. Reflecting it's polyethnic populace is Finno-Ugric Hungarian var "fortress", Saami var "village" and East Baltic Lithuanian varas "tall timber palisade, stockade" ( Skt vartra ). Arkaim and Sintashta are also shaped like Central European "Rondels". The circular or oval settlement designs are very reminiscent of earlier Tripolye / Dnieper sites, or later East Baltic fortresses (eg. Tushemlya ). The dolichocephalous, narrow faced Volga-Balts originated from the Northern Fatyanovo variants of the earlier Middle Dnieper culture, which had assimilated some Tripolye C2 substrata. Here is perhaps an example of a East Baltic term "varas" ( timber stockade ) borrowed in Finno-Ugric, Vedic, and Avestan. In stark contrast, the later Āryan Petrovka phase preferred a rectangular settlement shape over the circular or oval forts of the Urals, yet still exhibit influence from western Abashevo. Abashevan socketed spear designs eventually end up in western China via Andronovo influence. The the range of the unique Fatyanovo-Balanovo "checkered" double row striped diamond motif even extended to the Cherkaskul culture and regions of Siberia ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ), as well as Kandahar valley's Mundigak Period VI ceramics in Afghanistan ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 716, fig 101, # 14 / re: Lith. piešalas, Sanskrit peśalas ). About one of five burials at Turbino were of an Abashevo type, which provides insight to why a Fatyanovo CWC Baltic design motif is found on Seima-Turbino cast weapons. Latvian "apsa " aspen, closely resembles Altai dialect "apsa-k ", or Tatar Tobolsk dialect "awsak " and Chuvash "ëvës ". Who knew?

Cherkaskul axe with "checked" *darža motif
( note: Kuz'mina 2007, p. 642, fig. 31, # 1, 2,  &3  )

The archaeological evidence ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ) of Baltic / Uralic people in the ethnogenesis of the Abashevo / Sintashta / Arkaim cultures has provided scholars with linguistic opportunities in studies of the early Indo-Iranian dialects and in Finno-Ugric / Baltic etymologies. The Avestan and Vedic combinations of neuter plural nouns, or multiple single and plural nouns, with the verb in singular ( in Greek, as well ) reflects archaic Baltic constructions ( Lith. "beržorai esti "). Just as Lithuanian dialect " panta ", or " pantas " - a spanning crossbeam, provides insight to the origins of Greek "pontos" - sea (linking ports) - Latin "pontis" bridge, Armenian "hown" - a riverbed ( ford ) - a fresh new ( re: Lithuanian-Latvian dialect " panta " - a link, etc ) semantical understanding of Sanskrit "panthās ", Avestan " pantā " - path ( * link ), finally emerges from the mists of antiquity. Khanty-Ostyak - " pănt " path vs. Mokša " pandaz " halter < hobble< link, are related examples of Satem cultural interaction with Finno-Ugrics over time. It is very important to keep in context the limited duration of this cultural horizon. Here is a window, a key that may unlock many doors. It is a very unique horizon (chapter) of Eurasian and Russian prehistory, when early Indo-Iranian traditions blend with Finnic and East Baltic cultures ( re: WHG or DRD2 data). The Satem connection between Tolstoy and Gandhi was not only linguistic.

Nemunas Basin Corded Ware Pottery. ( from near Lida )Fedorovo Andronovo Pottery with Baltic CWC type ornamentation
Nemunas CWC / Fedorovo
 

A Fishy Whale
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There has been noted ( L. Ashikhmina 1997; О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ) a widespread hybrid "checkered " ceramic tradition of Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z280 Northern variants, like CTS1211, Y35, etc & N1c1 ) , Abashevo, and Pozdnyakovo cultures, reflecting intimate polyethnic relations (re: mtDNA haplogroups U4, Narva U5b2, and T1 ). The Sintashta Culture was not monolithic, but rather a regional composite of various components as reflected by the variability of the ceramics. If Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo & Abashevo influenced and integrated with the Sintashta area people ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ), did it also influence their Āryan language? (re: Eastern Sanskrit "R" & "L" dialects). Indic-Baltic specific isoglosses ( eg. śāpa- / šapas, miśra- / mišras ) may need updated reappraisals in light of the unfolding archaeological evidence of Corded Ware Abashevo influence and ethnic presence ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002  re: ceramic <܀> checked ornaments ). Riverine Latvian "sence"- mussel, matches Sanskrit "śaṅkha"- shell, rather well, as does barytone Baltic "antis ", Skt " ātih "- both waterfowl. Sanskrit "nārās " and Lith "nara " both flow. The Sanskrit suffix - "inga-" (Skt. sphulinga-, spark) looks peculiarly Baltic (ie. Lith. "blezdinga" swallow), as does the -" ikas " suffixed Skt. "śāpharikas " fisherman, Lith. " šventikas" priest. The " šapalas " ( Roach, Dace ) and " śapharas " ( Faux Dace, महाशफर , पूतिशफरी, शफररूप , Skt. "śāpharikas " fisherman ) isogloss is quite unique, and curiously percise. The role of fishing in Northern Fedorovo subsistence is especially noted. Similarities between Rutilus rutilus ( Roach ), Leuciscus cephalus ( Chub ), idus & lehmanni ( Zeravshan Dace ) may have encouraged the term's usage. Puntius sophore, aka  " śapharas " the Faux Roach / Dace, has the identical profile, coloration, and specific reddish hue on it's lower fins as it's above Rutilus  ( or Leuciscus )  " šapalas " ichthyic neighbors to their North. Coincidence left the room with Elvis, folks. Someone remembered exactly what that fish looked like. Indic " śapharas " ( the Faux Roach / Dace ) may well be an identifiable relic-loanword from East Baltic Corded Ware Abashevo-Balanovo-Fatyanovo " šapalas " Roach contact ( re: « checked » *darža ), since it is altogether absent ( like  Parjanya ) in Avestan, or Ossetic (" kæf " big type of fish), or other Petrovka derived Āryan languages. There is no ichthyic cognate of East Baltic Roach " šapalas " in the Catacomb culture ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ ) derived languages, or even Slavic ( ! ), Germanic, or Uralic, for that matter. So it is equally odd to note the complete absence of cognates for the archaic East Baltic "  žuvis " - fish, in all the Indo-Iranian branches, although the Pontic steppe related Greek and Armenian somehow both preserved related ichthyic cognates ( Arm. jukn ). Ossetic has retained an IE " læsæg " brown trout, as well as a loanword " kæsag ", reflecting Hungarian "keszeg ", and Mansi  "kāsəŋ " a bream-dace type fish, reflecting Timber Grave Iranian & Finno-Ugric cultural interactions. The Avestan mythic kara-  may recall the voracious Volga wels ( Chuvash karas - a kind of carp, Old Prussian kalis < *kalas - wels catfish ), which to this day exhibits legendary proportions approaching 10 ft. The archaic " žuvis !, šapalas ! " howled today by an excited Lithuanian fisherman ( Skt. "śāpharikas " ) still echoes the simple joy of his forefathers from long, long ago.

The Perkūnijas, Parjanyah, Pəŕgəńä, Perkịno shared tradition is a delicate issue, since each is venerated to this day in their respective cultures. One may note that all three are very close in certain details. The East Baltic "*laitus" rain (Lith. "lietas, lietus ") tradition with lightning. East Baltic " *Laita " may have been an archaic term for Summer / "rainy" season (re: Slavic "Lēto" year) which followed the return of Pleiades, before the northern migrations of "Battle Axe" Balts. The Erzya "Lit-ava" in their Prayer Hymns remained intact. Modern Pashto has "Perūne" - Pleiades (re: Greek "Keraunos" thunderbolt, Slavic "Perun", all lacking an alpine velar plosive < GAC ? ). Variations of GAC integration may explain the absence of a "alpine" velar plosive in Slavic Perun- vs. Baltic Perkūn-. For the mushroom /  Perkūnas relationship, see V. N. Toporov 1979. Parjanya is the father of Uralic Soma. Perkūnas was to be the groom of the aquatic Laumė Indraja - Lith. hydronyms Indus, Indra, Indura ( Mitanni "Indara ", Skt. "Indu "). The Laumė Indraja is a mushroom guide or teacher. And to uphold respect about these cultures, and to be as accurate as possible, I will only use the term "shared".

 Perkūnas & Indraja 
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In the old Baltic dainos folksongs, Perkūnas was to wed the Laumė Indraja. One role of Indraja is as a mushroom guide spirit. Vedic Parjanya is the father of Soma. The Abashevo used talc in their ceramics, as was common with their Uralic neighbors. The pottery of the two cultures are found in the same room. Note ( N1c1 ) Mari " paŋgə" mushroom, Udmurt " paŋχəl- / paŋχət- " to howl and "carry on" after partaking of Fly Agaric. The Lithuanian version " Ar prisiėdęs musmirių ", refers to the partaking of Fly Agaric mushroom, and exhibiting a skewed, or altered state of reality. It is a quite common, courteous way of calling someone stone crazy. If they ate a little too much dried - žalas ( RV 7.98.1 ) Fly Agaric mushroom, and there upon glare ominously "wild-eyed ", howl ecstatically, see " the Unseen" ( Lith. ovytis ), & "carry on" - that person would be labeled "aršus ". The Avestan term for " an ecstatic, seer " is " ǝrǝšiš ", which is a close cognate to Sanskrit " ṛṣiḥ "- a Seer. Back in the Ural forests, Uralic Khanty still has a word " sŏma " for a hewn wooden mortar-bowl or vessel, as well as one for partaking of Amanita muscaria. This would all be quite coincidental if they had never met - but they did. Archaeology has already provided the where, when, and why. Latvian has an equally courteous and common expression for telling someone to buzz off - get a clue - " ej bekot " or " go pick mushrooms "!  Latvian "beka" mushroom, or dialect " peka", is loaned from Balto-Finnic Livonian "pæ" id < *pę < Uralic *pəηkā. Note that the mixed Balanovo-Volosovo sites were mediums of cross-cultural bilingual interaction for sharing ethnic customs preceding, and contributing to Sintashta, which influenced poly-ethnic Alakul' ( Grigory'ev 2000 ) groups ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2  re: ceramic < ܀> checkered ornaments ). The two ( kzb005, kzb008 ) Srubna-Alakul Dna samples (Krzewinska 2018) with Y-Dna R1a-Z280, & were also MtDna HV0a, exactly like Kivutkalns19 from coastal Latvia ( Mittnik 2018 ). MtDna HV0a < WHG? ( Fu Q 2012 ). The highest percent of HV0a in the Volga-Ural area is found among Uralic Mari, followed by Chuvash, Mordvin & Tatars ( Malyarchuvashuk 2010 ). Its highest concentration is among the Saami people. Sharing the hewn sŏma-bowl  with it's entheogenic contents, like a diplomatic cross-cultural peace pipe, evidently sparked it's legendary admiration. The misnomer was perhaps just a simple case of Balanovo-Volosovo cross-cultural verbal misunderstanding. "m-m-m, Sŏma good "! Uh-oh. East Baltic neuters did not require a final consonant. They still don't. It is also suggested that Uralic "panga", "mushroom, fly agaric, entheogen { žalas - when dried, re: bangus }" is possibly the source for the Sarmatian-Magyar loanword in Slavic Polish "pienka", Russian "Пенька" - "hemp, entheogen" ( < Finno-Ugric "Pəηka ", via Sarmatians & Magyars w/ U2e1 - re: C. Keyser et al., 2009  ). Note Irish "arsan "- a Seer, or German " rasen "- be ecstatic. Let it rain.
 

Latvian " Ruota "
Fatyanovo Double Spiral Jewelry ( Latvian " Ruota " ) - copied by Abashevo & found at Sintashta
 Fatyanovo Twin Spiral ( Nitra-Unetice type ) Jewelry
 ( Note: Kuz'mina 2007, p. 645, fig. 33, # 54, & 78 / p. 650, fig 38 )

 

THE UNTHINKABLE > NOW HIGHLY PROBABLE 
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The everyday awkward pidgin bilingualism, albeit semantically skewed at times, between the East Balt Abashevo-Fatyanovo-Balanovo, MVK Catacombs, and Poltavka Āryans in that culture is highly probable ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals, Vasil’ev 1995, Malyutina1995 ), considering some of their similar ( at times identical ) vocabularies and quasi-related grammar. Basic communication was possible, but given the wide language differences around 2,000 BCE, still rather difficult.

"Ask our guest if he would tell us a story of his people from the forest. It is winter, and the nights are long".

The cultural continuity of metallurgy in the Ural region that started with Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z645, Z93, Z283, Z280 Northern variants or N1c1 ) continued with Abashevo, and was intensified at Sintashta ( w/ R1a, Z93, Z2124 ) and Arkaim. The various artifacts, including specific trademark Fatyanovo-Balanovo *darža "checkered" diamond rhombus ornamentation motifs on pottery ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ) & twin spiral solar pendants ( Nitra-Unetice type ), reflect their co-operation and integration with each other. Note the Bashkortostan PCA of Srubna-Alakul Kazburun 1 kzb008 [ R1a-Z280, & MtDna HV0a ] & Latvia_LN [ Late Neolithic ] (Krzewinska 2018). The chance of trace East Baltic loanwords in old Indo-Iranian ( < Fedorovo & Alakul' ) has shifted from unthinkable, to highly probable. < A Black Swan ? > Two ( kzb005, kzb008 ) Srubna-Alakul Dna samples (Krzewinska 2018) with Y-Dna R1a-Z280, & also yeilded MtDna HV0a, > exactly < like Kivutkalns19 from coastal Latvia ( Mittnik 2018 ). The highest percent of HV0a in the Volga-Ural area is found among Uralic Mari, followed by Chuvash, Mordvin & Tatars ( Malyarchuvashuk 2010 ). Mainstream archaeological academia has reviewed the collective material evidence thoroughly and is quite confident in their evaluations of it. Archaeology, linguistics, and paleogenetics are finally revealing this untold story. The scientific evidence is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss. LWb antigen - LW*07 allele in the Hindu Kush region of Central Asia, & R1a-Z280 & HV0a in ancient Alakul. Ratas is not some amorphous "proto Balto-Slavic" term. Ratas is solely found in East Baltic alone ( Latvian"rats" - wheel, carriage ). MtDna U2e1b1 is found in the eastern Baltic, and in India. Fatyanovo ( SKO001, MOT001 ) had MtDna U2e1b. This ain't rocket science.

 

Alakul' pottery with Baltic "checked" *darža motif of Fatyanovo

Fatyanovo CWC motif on Andronovo Pottery

Suggested essential readings include: ( PDF link > ) The Origin of the Indo-Iranians, Volume 3, by Elena E. Kuz'mina, edited by J. P. Mallory, p 222, Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands 2007 ISBN: 978 90 04 16054 5 , ( PDF link > ) The Horse, The Wheel, and Language, by David W. Anthony, Princeton University Press, ISBN10: 0691058873, and especially   «ШАХМАТНЫЙ» ОРНАМЕНТ КЕРАМИКИ КУЛЬТУР РАЗВИТОГО БРОНЗОВОГО ВЕКА ПОВОЛЖЬЯ И УРАЛА, by О.Д. Мочалов, Stratum plus, №2, 2001-2002. pp 503-514 ( The «chess» ornament on the pottery of the Middle Bronze Age in the Volga and Ural regions, by O.D. Mochalov. Stratum plus, №2, 2001-2002. pp 503-514 ) - available as a PDF from here ( page 116 ), or from Stratum. Note title mistranslation of « chess » for « checked ». The ceramics track the East Balt cultural assimilation into various pre-Indo-Iranian sub-groups prior to later regional creolization. The LWb antigen - LW*07 allele now genetically traces that contact. The WHG data implies "contact".

The LW*07 antigen now traces genetic contact with East Baltic populations
Fatyanovo / Mundigak VI

PIE *dei - > Dainā > Dhēnā > Daēna > Dēn
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Vedic Sanskrit has the somewhat (15 times ) obscure word "Dhēnā", meaning "hymn, song", which reflects East Baltic "Daina", meaning "dance > song". From IE *dei- ("move, spin, whirl") we have Latvian "deinis" dancer, "daiņa" restless person, "dainēt / daināt" to dance, sing, "deja" dance, Lithuanian "dainuoti "to sing" ( vs. somuoti ) clearly illustrating the core Baltic etymology (It is also attested in West Baltic toponyms). But Vedic "Dhēnās" hymn-prayer, lacks any such "dance" etymology. The Avestan "Daēna" ( Middle Persian "Dēn" ) is even more semantically vague - "that which is revealed, revelation" ( Alakul' vs. Fedorovo ). This implies a loanword, and like in the creole Vedic - a word without a clear etymology. The closet indigenous Indo-Iranian cognate is Avestan "Dian", meaning "fast" (re: Grk. " δινεύω " whirl, or " διά-νοια " thought ). Scholars interpret the actual pronunciations of the old Vedic Sanskrit "Dhēnā" and Avestan "Daēna" as "Dainā". Hello!!! By following this thread, the shroud of the past unravels, and finally falls apart.

There is only one ( ! ) Rig Vedic hymn to Vāyu "wind", Skt. nom. "Vāyus" < *Vējus, Lith. dialect "Vėjus", which is otherwise called Vāta. Iranian Ossetic "wad " and Ob-Ugric Mansi loanword "wōt " indicate the primacy of "Vāta" usage in the early Indo-Iranian dialects, where as Alanian "Vayuk" & Ossetian Digor ( w/ R1b Z-2103 )  "Wæiug" giant ( Lith. "Vėjūkas "), appears to be a loanword. (also note Skt. "vāhin" & Latv. "āzinis"). Latvian folksongs have  "Vēja zirgi, Vēja rati". Note that Dhēnā is also used in the rare Vāyu hymn (I, 2, 3-). Vāyu is closely associated with Parjanyah & Soma ( Pashto "ō" ). Ancient Rig Vedic "Uṣas" and today's East Baltic Ūšas / Ūštun - "dawning / to dawn" illustrate the challenges. Vedic, like Baltic or Greek ( w/ R1b Z-2103 ), often made an adjective into a noun by just moving the stress to another syllable, although in this case, Rig Vedic "Uṣas" has the adjectival accent. In other words, Uṣas =  Ūšas, but no one else writes about it.  (re: Skt. uśras / Lith. ūšras / OCS za-ustra ). Nada, Zip.

The Rig Veda uses the word "Dhēnās" for hymns but does not emphasize it, although that connection is later implied as such by Avestan "Daēna". From the new archeaological and  archeaogenetic evidence of the polyethnic ethnogenesis of the Abashevo and Sintashta populace, it is not linguistically unreasonable to deduce that the Dainā "dance > song > hymn" tradition of the assimilated Abashevo Balts was adopted as the term Dhēnās "hymns, songs" by their fellow Āryan metalworkers near the Urals during a period of bilingualism, and was used as such later in the Rig Veda of indigenous speakers of a creole Old Indic. An Abashevo-MVK / Monteoru trade link for cheek-piece diffusion may provide an alternate explanation for a Dacian > Romanian "doină "- lyrical song, although the ancient amber trade explanation remains equally viable. Some Bronze Age Cyprus ceramics have unique *darža hatched rhombus motifs, perhaps of Mycenaean<MVK<Abashevo motif provenance. The endangered ancient Greek Skyrian horse breed was found to cluster with two Lithuanian Zemaitukai horse breeds ( Bomcke et al, 2011, fig 3 ), which also cluster with the Mongolian and the Kyrgyz horse breeds ( Castaneda et al, 2019, fig S1 ).

Object 32-27-3, Cyprus pottery - w/ unique *darža hatched rhombus motifs

From IE *dei- ("move, spin, whirl") developed East Baltic "Dainā" - dance / song / hymn ( Grk. " δινεύω " whirl ), which was borrowed as Vedic "Dhēnā" - hymn / prayer, Avestan "Daēnā" - revelation, Middle Persian "Dēn - religion. The word "dena" - revelation / religion, is still used in Kashmiri. Arabic "Dīn" ( دين faith, religion ) is beyond the scope of this topic.

Little did the stubborn poly-ethnic Balanovo ( LWb+ allele, R1a1a1, Z645 Northern variants ) or Abashevo East Baltic forest-folk singing their Sacred Hymns of Divine Revelation ( Dainās ) near the "Country of Towns" by Sintashta in the Urals of 2,100 B.C.E. know how far their songs would travel, and for how long they would echo - up to this day, by contributing a term for a new Monotheism ( Daēnā ) emulated later to it's West. The Volgaic Erzya "Rav-ava" - mother Volga, Volgaic Mokša "Rava" - river, and East Baltic Lithuanian "Ravas" - stream, or Latvian "Rāva" - marsh water, correlation is rather interesting. (Lith. "Rauti " - to run quickly ).

 

The Baltic & Uralic in Vedic Sanskrit & Avestan -  LW*07 in the Hindu Kush Region
Fatyanovo / Mundigak VI

 

THE BALTIC & URALIC IN VEDIC SANSKRIT / AVESTAN
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The mythical Avestan ten month winters and "Vara / Daēna" legend, Āryan "Soma / Haoma" ( RV 1.28, Khanty "Sŏma" hewn wooden mortar-bowl, Volgaic Erzya, Mokša "Sjuma / Səma" hewn wooden trough, Estonian "Soim" hewn wooden manger ), Sanskrit "Śarabha" ( Mansi "Suorp", Mokša "Sjarda " ), the Avestan water goddess Anāhitā in a Northern forest's beaver furcoat (re: Finno-Ugric "mother-beaver" cult) , Fatyanovo-Balanovo CWC talc or chamotte ceramic admixture & specific *darža "checkered " trademark hatched diamond rhombus ornamentation ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ), and the many Finno-Ugric loanwords (Burrow 1955, pp 24-27 ) from both early Indo-Iranian ( Finnish kekri ) and Volga-East-Baltic ( Finnish ratas ) uphold the latest archaeological findings. Soma is the guardian spirit of the North. And U4 is U4 ( Pliss et al. 2005 - Derbeneva et al.2002 ) . A multi-disciplinary approach combining archaeology, linguistics, and paleogenetics together are yielding scientific results.

Srubna-Alakul pottery with Fatyanovo checkered "garden" motif

Fatyanovo CWC motif on Srubna-Alakul Pottery
 & R1a-
Z280 / MtDna HV0a from Srubna-Alakul DNA
 
(Krzewinska 2018)
 

That there is possibly a Ural-East-Baltic Daina, Ratas, *Perkonias, Gentaras, or Šapalas in Sanskrit or Avestan should not come as a surprise, 
considering Uralic ( re: Sŏma ) is indisputably present. (re: N1c1 Khanty "Sŏma" hewn mortar-bowl, U5a1b1 in India?  )
Two Pazyryk Scythians were
N1c2b, which is also found in the Volga-Urals & in Baltic Vepsians.

thousand bur mace - vajra of Uralic Soma - * vẽźras " > Lith. "vėzdras"

Indo-Iranian "Soma" preserved the native Uralic word ( Sŏma ) for a hewn wooden mortar-bowl, that was used ( RV 1.28 ) as the dried žalas ( RV 7.98.1, RV 8.29.1 ) Fly Agaric ( Amanita muscaria ) was pressed with stones in water ( Skt. "saumya"- soft ). The misnomer was perhaps just a simple case of Balanovo-Volosovo-Garino cross-cultural verbal misunderstanding of what was being pointed at ( re: EV 141 ).  Balts ( LWb+ / LW*07 allele, R1a1a1 Z283 Northern variants & Z92 or N1c1 poly-ethnics ) to this day still partake dried Amanita muscaria with milk & honey, as they have done for well over four thousand years. It is "Senasis Takas"- The Ancient Way ( Skt. Sanas Takas ).

Such drift of semantics can be heard even today in the English phrase "Do you want to do a bowl?"

The Āryan Soma of the Urals eventually became a generic ( Pashto "ō" ) term to label an entheogen.
 

Finding Baltisms ( ntr. pl. [ as w/ Hittite ], or multiple sg. w/ sg. verb ?, the -yu- / -ju- words like Vāyus - Vėjus ) or specific loanwords ( GAS Satem ) will be next to impossible, especially without the displaced Vedic era " *R" & " *L" middle dialects (e.g. ślokas - Madhyadeśa region ) of earlier migrations. The integration of the polyethnic Corded Ware Abashevo into the Sintashta ( w/ R1a, Z93, Z2124 ) cultures may have not had a significant impact beyond contributing their earlier equine cheek-pieces, Ural metallurgy & talc / chamotte pottery admixture, or trademark *darža "checkered" ceramics ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2, re: checked ceramics < ܀ > ), but it is probable they did leave other cultural traces ( w/ words like ratas, daina ) as well. A recent genetic study of the genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle ( J Kantanen et all., 2009 ) adds additional perspective. Why does East Balt ichthyic " šapalas " match Indic faux roach / dace " śapharas " ( महाशफर  ) or "śāpharikas " ( fisherman ) so closely, and as with other word matches, cognates are wholly absent in Avestan, and even Slavic, like the "alpine" velar in Parjanyas? Fedorovo vs. Alakul'? Also, Skt. śāka-, Lith šėkas - green cut grass, or Skt. śakala-, Lith šakalys - splinter - et cetera, etc., etc. Perhaps even a Fatyanovo "š" itself, given the Nuristani counterpart. There are the parallel myth traditions of Dawn ( Uṣas - Ūšas ) as the "Daughter of Heaven", dhēnā of Vāyus - Vėjus, or the Ashvins - Ašvieniai Divine Twins. Yet, the breaking up of Middle Dnieper culture "Balto-Slavic" occurred, especially with distant Fatyanovo-Balanovo, well over a millennium prior to the ethnogenesis of Indo-Iranian by Sintashta. The preponderance of such Baltic / Indo-Iranian isoglosses, and « checked » hatched *darža rhombus ceramics suggests a period of contact, and, just as importantly, the nature of those contacts. Archaeology has indeed already provided the where, when, and why. ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ) Pots & DNA do speak - if we listen.


BALTIC RATAS > VEDIC RATHAS
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That a central European culture ( 3,400 BCE - R1a M198, M417,  Z93, Z283, & R1b L21, I2a2b / Globular Amphora w/ Y-DNA I2a2a1b ) centered new "wheel" term ( Old Irish masc. sg. roth / pl. rothai, Latin neuter sg. rota / pl. rotae, Albanian diminutive w/ th from a * t >  sg. rreth / pl. rrathë ), reflected in Corded Ware ( R1a Z645, Z283, Z280 ) East Baltic baritone masc. sg. ratas / pl. ratai , was loaned into Finnic languages is uncontested  (re: Finnish ratas, North Saami ráhtis ), but where does an Āryan baritone masc. sg. "ráthas" - vehicle figure in the pre-Sintashta ( 2,400 BCE ) Graeco-Armeno-Indo-Iranian shared ( w/ R1b-Z2103+ & R1a Z93+ ) lexicon? It doesn't. It is conspicuously absent, ( absent like autosomal GAC-EEF in Poltavka < Mathieson et al 2015, Extended Data Fig.2 ). Coincidence left the room with Elvis.

3635 - 3370 BCE - wheels on pot, Bronocice, Poland. Note *darža motifs *©jp

Bronocice Poland - Pot pre-3500 BCE - Farmer's Wagons
Note «
checked  » *darža motif similar to GAS-B
ALTIC Fatyanovo motif

And why would Indo-Europeans want to rename the wheel? ( PIE * kʷekʷlo- ). Perhaps they needed to. Celtic Y-DNA  ( w/ R1a M420, M198, & R1b ) appears to be very old, and Old Irish "cul" - vehicle, needed an update. European cognates of a Proto-Celtic *rotos may well merely reflect an innovation from TRB > GAC substrate contact & areal proximity. The verbal root *ret- "run", is found only in Celtic ( w/ Mtdna W6a ). For a wheel, Irish had "droch", & Greek had "trokhos". Farmers in Bronocice had a couple. The Italo-Celtic gen. sg. "- ī " replacement of *-oiso- illustrates such shared innovations from contact. Fatyanovo jewelry ( Latvian "Ruota" ) designs ( twin spiral pendants ) explicitly reveal close trade contacts with the distant emerging Unetice culture, unlike the more distant Pit Grave Culture, and Finnic loanwords ( North Sámi ráhtis ) from Fatyanovo ( w/ Mtdna W6 ) exemplify such contacts. The Funnel Beaker ( Mtdna V7 ) Bronocice pottery wagons are reflected by Novosvobodna ( Mtdna V7 ) connections and artifacts. Globular Amphora culture assimilates some Funnel Beaker. Fatyanovo assimilates some Globular Amphora with Unetice contacts & take their new "ratas" word with them into the northern Ural forests. Poltavka Pit Grave Āryans ( w/ R1b ) are still located out on the Volga steppes. East Baltic Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( 2950 - 1800 BCE ) copper metallurgy in the Urals has it's roots in central European cultural traditions ( re: Globular Amphora, Tripolye ) which were ethnic contributors in the multi-ethnic "vortex" of the Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo Cultural area. The old Carpathian metal trade of central Europe ( Nitra-Unetice ) provided for contacts and cultural exchanges ( re: amber trade ) between language groups like NE pre-Celts ( R1a M420, M198 ? / R1b ), pre-Albanians and Middle Dnieper Balts ( Albanian lopë - cow  / Latvian Luops - id ), as well as Triploye C2, Lengyel & TRB substratum interaction. This interaction between the central European Dniester Tripolye C2 refugees - which may also have spoken their native "Temematian" language - and the northern Middle Dnieper Tripolye C2 bi-lingual populace, may account as a medium of some unusual archaisms ( re: tauras ), and with additional admixture of TRB, Lengyel, BBC, Globular Amphora, spread Corded Ware isoglosses & innovations ( plural dative "m", long root preterite ) in the polyethnic Middle Dnieper / Fatyanovo regions, as well as traditions of central European Carpathian arsenic copper metallurgy. Arkaim and Sintashta fortifications are even shaped like Central European "Rondels". Trade networks between Centum Euro-Repin GAC subgroups were conduits for isoglosses even beyond the other Balts in the West. Comb & Pit Ware amber contacts & WHG substratum may well be the phonetic ( secondary allomorphy  ) impetus of the dative plural "-M-" type linguistic transitions away from a "-B-", or perhaps it was  due to the assimilation of Funnel Beaker in Globular Amphora..

Latvian " Ruota "
Fatyanovo-Balanovo & Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture's twin spiral jewelry ( Latvian " Ruota " ) designs, of a central European provenance
Central European ( Nitra-Unetice type ) Design Twin Spiral Jewelry
of Fatyanovo &
Volsk-Lbishche Baltic cultures

The influence of a Centum Globular Amphora & Narva ( w/ Y-DNA I2a2a1b & U5b2 ) poly-ethnic substratum perhaps contributed to incongruities in Baltic Satemization & partial RUKI ( eg. Finnish "laiha ", GAS Lith. "liesa", ipo  *lieša  ), as well as contributing a " residual " substratum vocabulary of their central European Centum words like "pẽku ". Make no mistake, the impact of this Centum / Satem tango went both ways ( GAS > Germanic 11,12, 1,000, etc.).  Fatyanovo-Balanovo jewelry ( Latvian " Ruota " ) from the Urals also emulates specific twin spiral designs of a central European (  Nitra-Unetice ) provenance from trade contacts, & perhaps also derived from Globular Amphora-Narva poly-ethnics as a substratum of Middle Dnieper and Fatyanovo ( Česnys et al., 1990; Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962 ). The Baltic amber sun disc talisman, or solar halo ( rẽtis ) wheel, Saulės Ratas, is found distributed in central European cultures, particularly the Centum Globular Amphora culture - which contributed substratum to Fatyanovo-Balanovo, which in turn contributed to the Corded Ware Abashevo culture, and eventually poly-ethnic Sintashta / Arkaim  ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ). If the Sun's wheel became the Sun's chariot - Saulės Ratas became Sauryās Rathas. "Saule" ( w/o Aryan - R -, or Slavic - N - ) is also a common traditional Kazakh & Central Asian ( Afghan, Kyrgyz, etc. ) female name ( < Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture ? ). The meaning of the name is translated as sunlight, or Sun, just like the feminine East Baltic "Saulė", which is also used for a female name. Note coincidence (?) of the Fatyanovo like *darža checkered pottery ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 676, fig. 63 ) in Tannabergen Kazahstan ( Novy Kumak horizon ) and ancient Mtdna of N1a1a1 ( RISE 391 ). The Indo-Iranian pantheon was conspicuously masculine. R1a Z282+ in Kurdistan? LW*07 in Afghanistan? U5a1b1 & U4a in India? "Coincidence", ... again?

Saulės Rẽtis ( Amber Solar Halo-Wheel ) = Linear B ideogram 243
Saulės Ratas
-
Sauryās Rathas
-

 

Corded Ware Fatyanovo-Balanovo ( LWb allele, R1a1a1, Z645, Z93, Z283 Northern variants ) Ural copper metallurgy preceded Corded Ware Abashevo and later Sintashta / Arkaim metalworking, predating them by about half a millennium. The terminology of the typical dual wheeled cart ( Lith. dviratis / vežimas / ratai, Finnish rattaat ) of the early GAS East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo (Goldina 1999) farmers & metallurgist-woodsmen and multi-cultural Abashevo successors may have been a source for a unique northern archaic import, " ratH2as > * ratʔas > ratas " wheel ( *- circa 2,400 BCE Baltic) term, providing an Āryan masculine singular " * ratʔas > ráthas ", upgraded intact as a nominative singular word for the new chariot of the Abashevo - Sintashta era metallurgic bonanza. Semantic incongruity is a hallmark of loanwords in traditional linguistics. The Avesta had "ša" (< *varta ) for a vehicle, Sanskrit had "ha", Parthian had "wardyūn" for a chariot, and Buddhist Sogdian used "wartan" for a chariot frame w/ wheels. Ossetic still has "waerdon" for a vehicle. If there were two old Indo-Iranian terms for a chariot, then why, pray tell, is "rathas" in association with Parjanya? Old regional dialects? The Sun's wheel became the Sun's chariot - Saulės Ratas became Sauryās Rathas. One might expect an Āryan neuter form, as the Sanskrit scholar T. Burrow did, or perhaps an Āryan plural form. East Baltic has in fact many old variants, including Latvian " ruota " toy ( also" jewelry " ! ), " ruotât " to hop, turn, roll ( re: Latvian Vernal circle-dance chants ), and Lith. " rẽtis " halo. Coincidence? A speeding Āryan ráthas bounced a lot - it hopped! The wheel spread faster than the flu in central Europe, and prestigious words of new innovations were traded as well as new trends from contact ( re: Baden / Globular Amphora / Nitra-Unetice / Fatyanovo / Abashevo ). In fact, the PIE *roteH2 / *rotH2os / *rotoH2s discussions are currently at a stalemate, an academic impasse. Why would some Yamnaya Indo-Europeans want to rename the wheel anyway? ( PIE: * kʷekʷlos ) How did a Central European proto-Celtic *rotos get delivered straight to Sintashta in the Urals, along with twin spiral ( Central European type ) solar pendant ( aka E. E. Kuz'mina's "spectacle" type ) jewelry, R1a Z93, and the recently acquired WHG autosomal component?. This ain't rocket-science.

An East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo GAS loanword proposal for post-Sintashtan rathas is not only linguistically practical, and etymologically grounded, it is archaeologically probable  ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ). We do know the earlier Corded Ware Abashevo cheek-pieces were copied - but what else?  Given the "boatload" of Corded Ware ( including the Fatyanovo / Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture ) influenced artifacts ( including Nitra-Unetice like twin spiral "ruota" jewelry ) at Sintashta, Arkaim, and later ( E. E. Kuz'mina's Indo-Iranian"spectacle" pendants ), maybe one or two Corded Ware words leaked out. Just maybe. To quote M. Witzel (2003) quoting J.P. Mallory (2002), "there are still degrees of geo-linguistic plausibility". The evidence is so obvious that it's denial becomes comical. Or to quote the Sage of Scotland - Billy Connolly, "They say 'that's crap!  It isn't crap – you just don't get it, and you never will."

 

  Mundigak pottery with Baltic "checked" *darža motif of Fatyanovo
"People lie. The evidence doesn't lie " - Grissom.
 

Sintashta Pottery
Sintashta Pottery - with both Fatyanovo motif (on top) & BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below it)
- with both Fatyanovo Baltic motif (on top)
&
BMAC stepped pyramid motif (below it)


"
Some ornament traits let us to link Sintashta with northwest forest Fatyanovo culture".
( Oleg Mochalov - Samara State Pedagogical University, Institute for History and Archaeology of Volga region, Samara, Russia)
- The origin of Sintashta culture ceramic / Ceramic through the Millennia: methods, approaches, results - 2008 -

Alakul' pottery with Baltic "checked" *darža motif of Fatyanovo
Alakul pottery with Fatyanovo CWC designs

Finnish "ratas" vs. "kekri"

East Balt CWC Fatyanovo-Balanovo pioneers ( LWb allele, R1a, Z93 & Z283 Northern variants / N1c1 ) entered  the North after 3,200 BCE ( C-14 cal dates from Latvia- see Loze 1992 ), and shared their Central European " ratas " wheel term with the local Uralics ( Finnish ratas, North Saami ráhtis ) on the way to the copper deposits by the Urals. About 1,000 years later, Sintashtan Āryans - after spending a couple of centuries with the Corded Ware East Baltic speaking woodsmen, ride off into the dawn of history on their new Āryan twin-wheeled " rathas " (re: Kassite king " Abi-rattaš ", Mitanni king " Tušratta " > circa 1350 BCE) drawn by two horses using the Corded Ware Abashevo & MVK Catacomb inspired cheek-pieces. A bronze four spoked wheel of a Novosvobodnaya-Klady culture kurgan is dated to about 3,100 BC, factually predating the Sintashta spoked wheels by about a thousand years. Academics still dismiss the coincidence (?) of a baritone masculine singular Āryan rathas / rattaš  " spontaneously " produced in the linguistic company of European East Balt Ural metallurgists who had an isolated northern archaic * ratʔas dialect form ( *- circa 2,400 BCE Baltic) of baritone masculine singular " * ratH2as > * ratʔas > ratas " for near a thousand years. Pots do speak - as does DNA (Narasimhan et al. 2018). The silence of Cherchen Man speaks volumes.

The Corded Ware East Baltic Fatyanovo-Balanovo-Abashevo, with their characteristic central European Globular Amphora cultural-substratum influence ( re: GAS < GAC-Narva w/ U5b2 poly-ethnics,  pottery, copper, pigs, flint axes, amber ) and Uralic admixture ( re: Q1-L54 Volosovo talc or chamotte ceramics ), are thus the most logical candidates for the dissemination of the "ratas" term of 2,400 BCE, as heard to this day with East Baltic Lithuanian "ratas " & the related Latvian cognate. Estonian CWC ( re: Fatyanovo ) ceramics use chamotte admixture and exhibit a projecting rim, as does later Corded Ware Abashevo ( re: mtDNA N1a1a1 294 < ? GAS ). Volosovo & Balanovo pottery is found in the same room. Words were spoken. Abashevo & Sintashta adopt specifically Fatyanovo-Balanovo *darža "checkered" type ceramic designs ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ), unique metal spear point designs, as well as twin spiraled (" spectacle ") solar pendants with obvious ties to the early Unetice culture region. Arkaim & Sintashta artifacts - clearly exhibiting Corded Ware Abashevo - Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultural influences, including talc - chamotte pottery admixture & *darža checkered ceramics ( thus, verifiable contacts ) - provide the archaeological support for just such a linguistic loanword exchange, as well as the foreign mycologic sŏma tradition of these quasi-trilingual misfits. Kandahar valley's Mundigak Period VI ceramics in Afghanistan ( Kuz'mina 2007, p. 716, fig 101, # 14 / re: Lith. piešalas, Sanskrit peśalas ) also exhibit the unique Fatyanovo *darža checkered, double row striped diamond motif. The Fatyanovo-Balanovo forest dwelling quasi-trilinguals stubbornly clung to their Euro-farmer identity, and never did quite fit ( ārya- ) in. Fly Agaric is the fruit of the forests (re: Northern Fedorovo ), not the wide open steppes. As noted by Kramer, " the cat is out of the bag ".  Vedic "ashvyam goh " - horses & cows of the Dasyus still echoes today's East Baltic " ashva " & " guovs ". The Babino ( w/ twin spiral pendants of the Abashevo-Fatyanovo-Volsk-Lbishche ) Multi-Roller Ware MVK Catacomb culture  neighbors of the Corded Ware Abashevo would later be reflected in shaft graves with cheek-pieces ( & twin spiraled pendants on diadems - Kuz.mina 2007, p.121 ) in distant places as Mycenae near Athens, by around 17th century BCE. Mtdna U5a1a was found in both Mycenaean & Srubna remains. Mycenaean warriors also wore amber of Baltic origin. The Baltic ( Aestii - Ais(t)marės ) origin of Aegean Bronze Age amber is now widely accepted as a scientific certainty. Cyprus *darža hatched rhombus ceramics? Mycenaean mtDNA had a match in SE Poland. A MVK - Monteoru link ( Cândeşti burials. ), or CWC GAS - again ?

The combination of kurgan and flat graves, reflecting the integration of indigenous Europeans with I.E. steppe ethnicities (re: Dniester Usatovo-Tripolye), is found in the Middle Dnieper culture, Fatyanovo-Balanovo, and Corded Ware Abashevo. Abashevo integration at Sintashta is indicated by various material artifacts. Sintashta kurgans account for about a third of the burials - the rest are, interestingly enough, flat graves ( like Abashevo & CWC Fatyanovo ).  Fedorovo burials were also a combination of flat graves and kurgans, even more so near the Ob river. SW "sky-heaven" orientation was also shared by the above cultures

The Ural Elephant in the Room
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Then there is the intriguing Perkaunijas, Perkino, Pəŕgəńä, Parjanya legacy - the Ural elephant in the room, so to speak. Unlike Pera & the Oak grove of the Komi, Aryanized Parjanyas has been "de-oaked ". Why are Parjanya cognates with an "alpine" velar plosive ( re: kerkoti > Hercynia, Fairguni ) absent in the multitude of other surrounding Iranian-Dardic-Nuristani Satem languages and dialects, - or even related Satem Slavic? (re: Pashto "Perūne", Slavic "Perun"Nuristani "Pärun" vs. Gas Lith. " Perkūnas " ) Slavic Ruki & Perun vs. Gothic Fairguni suggest a Centum GAs-ERC velar plosive was assimilated into Baltic Perkūnas-Perkaunis-Perkōns type cognates. Archaeological support for such a bold linguistic assertion is beyond debate. The zones of such Centum / Satem contacts have been thoroughly dated with C-14. Although Perkino & Pəŕgəńä may only reflect the 1st millennium BCE multi-ethnic Dyakovo era, the Dainos of the forest dwelling East Balts easily pre-date the Sintashta-Arkaim era by a millennium. Both Pəŕgəńä & Parjanya are legacies of the 1st millennium BCE. Variability of Sintashta ceramics with Fatyanovo influence ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ) certainly reflect cultural contact and interaction, and later also reflected in some Fedorovo ceramics. Parjanyas reflects a velar plosive - East Baltic Perkūnas-Perkaunis-Perkōns reflects a GAs-ERC " alpine " velar plosive. Rathas vs. GAS ratas. The lexical legacies of poly-ethnic Sintashta contact have survived intact four thousand years ( re: U of Az, C-14 ). Prakrits of India also preserved related words ( the tadbhava layer ) not found in the creole classical Sanskrit, such as Hindi "kukur- " and Lith. "kukur-", both of mushroom compound words. Was the Sanskrit (ṛH) dialect "ir/ ur" variation ( Skt. śiras vs. Av. sarah-) an innovation, or perhaps a polyethnic relic of the earlier migrations South? It is a rich field awaiting someone to harvest it. Such material was reviewed by W. Tomaschek in 1883 (Ausland p. 862), and discussed later by H. Arntz, S. G. Oliphant, and S. K Chatterji. Buckle up, time to fast-forward.

It was women who made the "checkered " pottery, sang their songs, and mothers who taught the language to their child. Men sometimes forget this. The mtDNA evidence should not be overlooked. Samples of extracted Fatyanovo mtDNA belonged to various subclades of maternal haplogroups U5, U4, U2e, H, T, W, J, K, I and N1a. Similar European N1a was found in India. Mtdna U5b2, as from Lithuania ( Kretuonas 1- 5350 BP, & Kretuonas 3 - 5580 BP, Bramanti et al 2009 ), is also found in Central Asia, Siberia, and even India. MtDna U2e1b1 is found in the eastern Baltic, and in India. As L. Koryakova and A. Epimakhov note in their "The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron ages", Balanovo culture villages consisted of above-ground wooden log houses, and in their cemeteries (flat & kurgan), men were buried on their right side, women on their left side - as also in Baltic Corded Ware tradition. After the Sintashta polyethnic horizon by the Urals, and subsequent first migration South, we find a continuity of this same Baltic Corded Ware ( Abashevo? Alakul' ? w/ checkered pottery ? ) type of burial custom in Tulkhar, by the Andronovo Bishkent culture (1700-1500 BCE), and the later Vakhsh and Swāt ( Vedic "Suvastu" ) cultures, and also at Timargarha. This unusual Andronovo gender dimorphism M/R F/L burial trait was even noted by J. P. Mallory & Douglas Q. Adams in their "Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture". Bishkent skulls were dolichocranial (Khodzhayov 2008), like Fatyanovo-Balanovo (Denisova 1975). One general trait to distinguish Andronovo from Timber Grave burials is how the first has the head oriented to the West or SW, whereas some Timber Grave cultures favored orienting the deceased towards the North ( re: Mahaparinibbana Sutta ) or East. East Baltic Fatyanovo - Balanovo burials oriented male heads to the SW, females to NE - per steppe / Maikop tradition. Later East Baltic Jukhnovo settlements even oriented their "streets" to NE / SW.

Pottery shards found at a tin miners camp on the lower Zeravshan, at Karnab, have an Abashevo style of decoration from an early phase of contact. Two pots, unearthed far away by Sarazm, betray their polyethnic Abashevo / Sintashta Ural area origination by their talc admixture ( N1c1 cultural custom - re: fly agaric & sŏma ), as does pottery of Tugai. Near the tin mining camps, the Tazabagyab variant of Andronovo buried their dead in flat cemeteries, not kurgans. The Saka of the Pamirs were also dolichocranial, and narrow faced ( re: 2005 Vaclav Blažek: Lamb ; 2011 T. Witczak bužys ). A unique cognate for barley-seed invites further speculation ( Lith. "miežis", Latv."miezē",  Khotanese "miṣṣa-, ttumäṣa- re: H. W. Bailey, BSOAS 21, pp 42), as do Fatyanovo *maižis barley ( Д.А.Крайнов, 1972 ), *darža "checkered " motif on Siberian & Cherkaskul axe-celts of Seima Turbino ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ), and Eurasian cattle DNA ( J Kantanen et all., 2009 ). The early metallurgy of the Urals had fostered a far reaching network of contact ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ) we are only now beginning to grasp and map out. Some Corded Ware traditions of the integrated polyethnic Abashevo ( w/ Uralic admixture) appear to have continued beyond Sintashta with the first of many migrations of that Āryan population South, as well as those left behind contributing in the ethnogenesis of the polyethnic Timber Grave Culture of the Don-Volga region, Pokrovskiy and  Potapovka cultures ( runic Alanian "Vayuk " & Ossetian Digor "Wæiug", giant / Lith. "Vėjūkas " / see also О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ).

Timber Grave Culture

Talc admixture in the early pottery of Sarmatians suggests a close interaction with Uralic N1c1 people  ( Mari "in-deš " 9, Ossetic "dæs " 10,  Mari "kene " hemp, Ossetic "gæn(æ) " id). Overall, Potapovka burial remains show a continuity of earlier Catacomb ( Mnogovalikovo ) & Poltavka cranial types reflected in Timber Grave & west Andronovo burials, contrasting with the different Corded Ware Abashevo skull remains ( Yablonsky & Khokhlov 1994: 189 ) and related Pokrovskiy cranial types. Cimmerian & Scythian daggers have proto-types found in the Volga-Kama region. The Timber Grave culture and Andronovo, in turn, both contributed to the formation of the Sauromatians and the Saka. The western Timber-Grave culture that assimilated the Corded Ware Abashevo become quite settled in small scattered log home settlements without fortifications, and even raised pigs like them (vs. eastern Andronovo nomads). The agrarian Corded Ware Abashevo ( poly-ethnic R1a & N1c1 ) character would persist as integrated parts (agricultural Solar cult / clan) of some certain select groups and clans ( Alakul', Srubna ), eventually melting away over generations, assimilating in here & there, leaving only relics in the earth, inherited cranial & DNA evidence only now being uncovered, and scattered traces in later regionalized Āryan creole vocabularies ( Skt. Parjanya-, śapharas - faux roach, Ossetian "bælon " dove  ) & poly-ethnic cultures. 

Ancient Mtdna U5a1d2* (Yfull id:I4437) from Latvia, (age 6000 ybp ), and U5a1d* (Yfull id:I4552) also from Latvia (age 7376 ybp) predate later (age 2300 ybp) Tian Shan Saka Mtdna U5a1d2b (DA50) in Kyrgyzstan (w/ WHG baby blues?). Tian Shan Saka (DA125) Mtdna U2e2a1 (age ybp 1688) from Kazakhstan downstreams from (Birzai0) Mtdna U2e2a1 (age ybp 4410) of Battle Axe culture from Biržai, Lithuania. Not to be overlooked by any means is a genetic study of the genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle ( J Kantanen et all., 2009 ). A relationship between taurine breeds of the Baltic ( Fatyanovo ) region and Sakha ( Andronovo ) cattle suggests cultural connections, or later contact ( re: О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2 ). A later influx from the steppes of the East back to the Ukraine is suggested by traces of zebu mtDNA in cattle there.

The archaeological evidence suggests cultural integration & assimilation. Haplogroup N1a (mtDNA) in the Volga-Kama Komi Permyaks indicates some farmers stayed. Recent studies regarding the DRD2 gene are producing data which show a relationship between Eurasian people near the Volga-Kama Urals area and Brahmins in India. Go figure. Uralic descendants of the Corded Ware Fatyanovo / Balanovo settlers preserved some of their language ( re: karas ), and most likely have Finno-Baltic Balanovo-Abashevo DNA as well ( mtDNA U5b2, HV3, nodal HVS1, N1c1 & R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants ). Some Corded Ware R1a1a1 M417+ remains ( massacred by locals near Eulau around 2,600 BCE ) with X2 mtDNA, closely matched living individuals of Estonia  ( GAS of Fatyanovo ? ) with Syria (Mitanni?) and Iran (post-Andronovo ?), while the male DNA ( < CWC - R1a1a1- M417+, 283 ) closely matched with individuals in Gdansk and Tambov, Russia (S.E. of Tula, & near Perkino ! ) - regions associated with Globular Amphora / Corded Ware cultures ( Berezanskaja 1971; Brjussow 1957; Ozols 1962 ). One of the K1b lineages showed matches to two Shughnans from Tajikistan ( Wolfgang Haak et al, 2008; ). Vaclav Blažek ( 2005 ) specifically ties a Fatyanovo word (SKES VI: 1819-1820 ) for "lamb" found in Vepsian "vodnaz " to the proto-form for the Shughni cognate, among others. ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ) T. Witzcak ( 2011 ) relates Lith. bužys to Ossetic buʒ, Shughni vazič, & Avestan buzya- ( re: CWC Eulau-Shughnan DNA, *darža motifs ). As Grissom said - " follow the evidence ". The Corded Ware settlement ( Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture ) near Tenteksor in Kazakhstan may provides an interesting possible DNA perspective, given the common feminine Kazakhstan name "Saule" ( Sunny ). The mounting DNA evidence implies a Corded Ware component of Andronovo, & the archaeology of Sintashta-Arkaim proves a Corded Ware Abashevo-Fatyanovo component of Andronovo ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ). The probability of a Ural-Baltic " Daina ", " Ratas ", " Parjanyas ", or " Šapalas  " in post Andronovo creolized Vedic Sanskrit or Avestan could therefore be logically expected, given the above DNA & archaeological evidence. If linguists can ignore unique checkered pots, they can ignore DNA. But an out of place velar < plosive just might elicit their curiosity. Understanding the language of whales should get more priority, and really test their mettle.

It appears that the men working & living around Sintashta & Arkaim had time to talk together
- about their vehicles, horse-power, fishing, the rain, shrooms, and songs.
Some things never change. It's a guy thing.

The poly-ethnic ( R1a & N1c1 ) Eastern Balts of today have preserved a Continuum of Cultural Tradition for Indo-European use of the dried "žalas" Fly Agaric in collective celebratory use ( such as peasant weddings & various festivities ) from the very mists of antiquity - before Abraham, the Shasu " YHW ", or even the post-Sintashta, Soma reveling Rig Veda itself. The above daina / dhēnā / daēnā song-hymn-revelation topic has often been muddled with the inclusion of unrelated Vedic "dhēnā" - milk cow, which is cognate with Baltic "daine" - cow (that calves in the 2nd year, re: FU * tajine) and "daini" - pregnant with offspring (Adj. of cow or mare) . Even discussions about the Dainava "dancing waters / singing rapids" region of Lithuania are not immune from such distractions. New archaeological and genetic DNA evidence continues to unveil the unexpected, as will comparative study of the ancient Latvian, Lithuanian, and varied Finno-Uralic languages like Estonian.

The Assimilated East Baltic & Āryan in Finno-Ugric Ethnogenisis
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Fatyanovo and Balanovo settlement sites dwindle after the severe Winters around 2,100 BCE, when the East Baltic speaking poly-ethnic ( including the Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture ) population ( LWb allele, R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants & N1c1 ) for the most part assimilated in with their related Abashevo or nearby Āryan or Finnic ( N1c1) neighbors ( e.g. Sintashta-Arkaim, Chirkovo-Seyma, Pozdniakovo, Timber grave culture & the much later diverse poly-characteristics, especially specific *darža "checkered" rhombus designs ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2, rare « checked » ornament of Volga-Urals ), are noticed on ceramics from Chirkovo-Seyma ( > later Ananyino ) culture sites near the Volga river, Pozdnyakovo settlements ( Grishakov V, Stavitsky V, 2003 ), as well as on Sintashta & Alakul culture "checkered" pottery ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 ). Hexagonal Cis-Ural structures of the Fatyanovo ( L. Ashikhmina 1997 ) may correlate with Baltic cosmological hexagram ( triple crossed keraunos ) " kerai " magic, reflecting an old ceraunic hexagram star design ( ऋतु = 6 )  motif found in many East Baltic distaff ( verpstė ) folk carvings ( re: Gromoviti znaci, Taranis wheels ). The Ugric Sky Elk had six legs. The six ray solar-star hexagram design is later found in Mycenae designs ( re: contacts, О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ). The Ural Forests are unimaginably immense, and the Winters around 2,100 BCE were unusually long and severe ( Vidēvdāt 2,3 ). The demand for skilled metalworkers was growing fast with the Ural metallurgic bonanza. History is messy. The archaeological evidence indicates multi-lingual Fatyanovo-Balanovo people assimilated in with both Timber Grave Pozdnyakovo Iranian speakers and Volga-Kama Uralic speakers. Fatyanovo-Balanovo is the link, or panta, bridging Timber Grave with Uralic. And that multi-lingualism was valued. We do not know when Fatyanovo-Balanovo & Abashevo converted to a Srubna Iranian, but we know that they did, and where  ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ). Twin Spiral Solar pendants like Fatyanovo-Abashevo were found in a 5th century BCE Kul-Oba Royal Scythian burial. Similarly shaped suspension pendants are not uncommon in the territory of Ossetia Domanski, 1984 ).

Kul-Oba 5th century BCE Scythian Burial - Twin Spiral Pendant like Fatyanovo-Abashevo
Kul-Oba 5th century BCE Scythian Burial
Twin Spiral Pendant like Fatyanovo-Abashevo

Regional bilingualism probably persisted for centuries, reflected today in archaic residual "loanwords" ( re: Meadow Mari " tüžem " 1,000, Ossetian "bælon " dove, Ossetian "myd-aʒ" beeswax, w/ -aʒ < *waʒ - Abaev 1972:II.135 ). Many Fatyanovo-Balanovo culture Balts assimilated ( Erzya Pur’gine & Permic Perkino - Pera myth traditions ) and adopted Uralic ( N1c1) languages ( Ananyino horizon ) and cultures, as many had done earlier with the Abashevo culture ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ), and repeating again with the early Pozdnyakovo & Sarmatian ethnogenesis (w/ Gorodets admixture). The first millennium BCE multi-ethnic Dyakovo culture was, again, poly-ethnic, partly East Baltic ( Z280 Northern variants like CTS1211, Y33, or Z92 etc ) during it's middle phase - with polished ceramics ( re: CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation, LWb allele > ), mainly Finno-Ugrian, perhaps part Sarmatian, is known from it's hillforts with palisades (E. Baltic "varas / gardas" > Volgaic "kardaz", Permyak "kar" city, town ). Population size was about a hundred at each site. The building styles of log cabins in the hillforts change from North to South - above ground to semi-subterranean - reflecting Balt & Āryan building traditions. At the Rostyslavl settlement, 70km west of Moscow, charred Cannabis seeds were attributed to the multi-ethnic Dyakovo culture (Lebedeva et al 2005). The fibulae buckle (Mordvin "sjulgam") artifacts appear Baltic, as do many sickles and bronze headdresses ( Krasnov 1968, 4-5, 8 ). The Volsk-Lbishche Baltic culture, known from sites like Shiromasovo in Mordovia & other distant places, exhibited Fatyanovo & Middle Dnieper Corded Ware characteristics including many twin spiral solar pendants. The Kazakh feminine "Saule" ( "Sunny" ) name may well be their legacy, as well as other Baltic words in Indo-Iranian.

Reports of Bigfoot
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The genetic, linguistic, and archaeological record documents a prolonged assimilation by descendants of Volga-Kama Balanovo East Balts, various polyethnic Abashevo "Āryans", and later mixed Timber Grave Sarmatians into the ethnogenisis of regional Finno-Permic peoples ( Goldina 1999 ) of the Chirkovo-Seyma, Ananyino, Pyanobor, Pozdniakovo, and related Djakovo / Gorodets cultures. (eg. Finnish "vuosituhat" ). Volgaic ( " śid́-al / se͔d́ " bridge, Finnish "silta" id ) Words of an East Baltic provenance ( Latvian  sēta, tilts ) attest to ethnic movements ( Mochalov O.D. 2001-2 « checked » ornaments ), as well as the specific East Baltic " balandis " / Ossetian "bælon " dove isogloss, Latvian " lanka " low plain, Ossetian " länk " Khanty " lŏk " ), Lith. "Vėjūkas ", runic Alanian ( w/ Y-DNA G2a ) "Vayuk " & Ossetian Digor "Wæiug", giant. Ossetic " ræmūʒyn " closely matches the semantics of East Baltic cognates rather than the related Indo-Iranian cognates. Sarmatian archaeological periods reflect cultural changes ( ie. burial orientation ) in their population, which probably indicates a diverse variety of regional dialects, of which only the one found in Ossetic survives. A recent study about N1c1 Uralics as origin of the CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation in Caucasian populations ( re: Ossetians ) adds an additional perspective ( F. Libert et al., 1998 ). Recent DNA evidence suggests the CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation is at least 2,900 years old. The broadest area of high frequency is located in northeastern Europe, particularly the Baltic region. ( J. Novembre et al., 2005 ) New dating of the CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation coincides closely with the multi-ethnic Dyakovo horizon, and the distribution of elevated frequencies match the archaeological ethnicities ( initial Volgaic & later East Baltic  ) which converged in the Dyakovo poly-ethnic horizon, especially during it's middle phase of polished ceramics and expanded agriculture. From multi-ethnic Dyakovo settlements, cultural contact with Gorodets sites and nearby Sarmatians might be expected to further spread the CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation. There was also a consolidation of East Balt peoples around that time ( Česnys et al. 2004 ), perhaps reflecting various population migrations.

The ethnogenesis and development of the Ural forest-steppe Sarmatians did not occur in a vacuum. Evidence of Sarmatian -  East Balt ( Plain Pottery > Bondarikha culture ), as well as  Sarmatian -  Finno-Ugric interaction has linguistic support ( also CCR5 Delta 32 & LWb allele frequencies). Note Mokša "azor ", Erzya "azuru" man of rank; Udmurt "uzər ", Komi "ozir " rich < influenced from perhaps a 16-13th century BCE Timber-Grave "asurah" - of a pre-Ananyino era forest intrusion by Timber Grave tribes, or later. Trade contacts were valued -  Udmurt "andan" & Ossetian "ændan"-steel, or Hungarian "ezer " 1,000 & Ossetian "ærzæ"- huge. The Mnogovalikovo, and Abashevo also played a significant cultural part in the ethnogenesis of the Timber-grave culture ( О.Д. Мочалов 2001-2002 ), especially with the Pokrovskiy culture, as well as with Uralic cultures. Single markers 187, 270, 272 of mtDNA N1a1a1a group Bashkirs ( also w/ R1a, Z93, Z2123 ) with Lithuanians and the Komi Permyaks. Elevated R1a1 ( haplogroup R-SRY10831.2, aka SRY1532.2 ) is found not only with the Erzya ( re: R1a1a1, Z280 Northern variants & Z92, Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22 &c.), but also with the Bashkirs (38-48%) of the Urals, who still harvest their ancient "kärä- " honeycomb. A match of Estonian and Indian single marker 294 of mtDNA N1a1a1 has been reported. GAS? Again ? Or was the 294 from the beautiful but endangered Seto people & culture? Fatyanovo K2a5 in Jammu Kashmir - India? Kas žinoj?  The evidence doesn't lie - Grissom. Perhaps some Narva mtDNA U5b2 will surface far from home. Embrace the Chaos.

The region's surviving autonomous Baltic speakers assimilated again in the 5th century A.D. as new Slavic type cultural groups filtered in from the South, although in some areas Baltic speakers remained intact as evident from the historic record. The new Slavic speakers with the Rus' ( Komi " rot ") followed the same path into Russia as the old Fatjanovo-Balanovo era East Baltic speakers did three thousand years before the Slavic immigration. The common R1a ancestry of many East Balts ( Z280, L235, Z92 ) and East Slavs (R1a1a- Z92) invites new scholarly re-examination of East Balt and East Slavic isoglosses. The Old Russian Ipatiy Compilation of Chronicles mentions that in 1147 the Prince of Rostov-Suzdal defeated the Golyad' ( ГОЛЯДЬ ) who lived by the River Porotva. The Golyad' < * Golędь ethnonym was derived from a Baltic hydronym * "galin-" meaning "deep water". The defeated population ( ГОЛЯДЬ ) would be from then on taxed - accordingly. For more info, see Marija Gimbutas here. Today, the family of related descendants of all these mixed forbearers can be seen in the cultures of Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, as well as in Russians, the Erzya / Moksha Mordvins, Mari, Permics, Bashkirs, Ural Tatars, and Indians.

SVEIKAS !!!

Balto-Slavic
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The late Sredny Stog Middle Dnieper Culture grew from conservative peripheral IE dialects related to Yamna Satem, with admixture of different assimilated indigenous peoples from Dnieper Donets and the Tripolye culture of Central Europe, as well as subgroups of Centum Globular Amphora contributors ( w/ TRB, BBC), and a host of others (re: remnant Middle Dnieper Repins, Baden ( w/ R1a M420, M198 & M417 ) traders ). The ethnogenesis of these distinct dialects with assimilated indigenous peoples formed various diverse regional "Balto-Slavic" creole speakers, which were  localized as the poly-ethnic "Europeanized " peripheral Satem creole dialects of Baltic and Slavic closely related to early Pit-grave Āryan, yet distinctly different even then, with diverse degrees of admixture within regional subgroups. The Balto-Slavic type poly-ethnic Middle Dnieper culture was a fusion of diverse ethnic groups - a melting pot - so to speak, with a "retro" core of Satem creole dialects (archaic Balto-Slavic lacks perfect reduplication - agreeing with Albanian. Hamp 1963).

The unique peripheral components of the Middle Dnieper culture, say the early East Baltic Fatyanovo, migrated away before a thorough homogenization of Middle Dnieper creole Satem lingua franca dialects could consolidate among regional subgroups ( eg. E. Baltic kur, kame, W. Baltic kuei, Slavic kъde - Finnish " tuhante ", Mokša " t'ožän " < E. Baltic 1,000 < pre-GAS RUKI - Baltic long root preterite, re: Burrow 1955, p 19 ). Hence the Balto-Slavic debates. The Balto-Slavic "split" was more like "arrested development". Dative plural "m" ( secondary allomorphy  ) , or the " *tūšante / *tūšanti " type Satem participle term ( Latvian " tūska " ) for a thousand were probably disseminated by trade contacts between distant Globular Amphora subgroups ( includingY-DNA I2a2a1b & Mtdna V7  ), various Middle Dnieper subgroups ( R1a1a1b1a2 ) and other groups ( re: Goth. ain-lif < *p < *k < GAC - P-Celtic-BBC ? , Lith. vienuo-lika "eleven", OSw þúsand " thousand " ) from the earlier Centum Globular Amphora migrations ( Globular Amphora-Narva polyethnics w/ U5b2 < Česnys et al., 1990 ) near the expanding networks of Fatyanovo ( R1a1a-, Z280 Northern variants, LWb ) pioneering the North. The Y-STR variation among Slavs* has given the evidence for the Slavic homeland near the middle Dnieper basin, which provides a geographic context for the Slavic linguistic correlation to the early Satem West & East Baltic Upper Middle Dnieper homeland, and the nearby Catacomb / & Pit-grave Āryans to the East. During the period (3,400 BCE) of the oxen pulled wheeled wagon revolution, the Yamnaya culture slowly expanded toward the edge of the Corded Ware horizon of late Sredny Stog culture. Millennia later, in the same eastern area of the contact zone, near the middle Dnieper, a poly-ethnic Slav / Timber Grave Iranian ethno-genesis would develop the Chernoles culture.

A separation of Belarus subpopulations along a North / South line can be demonstrated particularly in distribution of Y chromosomal lineages R1b, I1a and I1b, N3 and G-chromosomes. The uniqueness of the northern Belarusian population is most likely due to the high incidence of multi-ethnic pre-"Яцьвягі" Y chromosomes, with some from the haplogroup N1c1 [old name N3] ( multi-ethnic Baltic pre-"Яцьвягі" substrate with allele DYS19*15 ), which is twice the frequency as in central and southern Belarus. The central and southern Belarusian substratum Baltic Milograd physical traits differ somewhat from Ukrainian substratum Slav / Scytho-Sarmatian traits (re: Z93+ / U3). The assimilation of Belarus may have been mainly linguistic and less physically ethnical ( R1a1a- Z92 ).

The Autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov Culture
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The autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov culture complex of the Podolian Upland bordered the Trzciniec and Sosnitsa (early peripheral Baltic) complexes to it's far North, but appears culturally related to the Montreoru (early Dacian) and later Sabatinovka "Thracian" complex to it's near South in regard to burial rites and pottery. (also see Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs; 1985, by Oleg N. Trubačev). Native Pre-I.E Tripolye culture farming populace ("Temematian") were assimilated also, as they were with Middle Dnieper Baltic. The unique close relation of early Slavic origins to Globular Amphora ( Y-DNA I2a2a1b ), and later Ural-Steppe & Asian Iranian w/ Z93 ( Slavic azъ / Tumshuq Sakan azu ), and nearby Dacian and Thracian ( R1a Z283 ), are often lost to the worn out Balto-Slavic chorus of cliches. After the arrival of the Huns (w/ G, V, mtDNA N1a, U4) in Europe, and a devastating plague in the 6th-7th century A.D., post multi-ethnic ( ie. R1a1a1b1a2b CTS3402+, I1a2, & Z63, T2 ) Cherniakhov culture, Slavic soon became the lingua franca of commerce / trade throughout most of Central Europe and beyond.

A polyethnic ethnogenesis interpretation (Proto-Slav Komarov > Belogrudovka > Chernoles culture) helps to explain why Slavic has partial elements of a Satem Corded Ware dialect of an early autonomous Proto-Slav Komarov culture language, resembling Baltic ( R1a1a1 Z280 Middle Dnieper culture) languages bordering to the North. The archaeology also agrees with regional hydronyms of a decidely Slavic provenance (vs. Trzciniec & Sosnitsa Baltic) as proposed by the renowned Russian philologist Oleg N. Trubačev. Trubačev (1986) had also detected nearby Illyrian and Thracian hydronyms on the  Dniester, Bug, and Middle Dnieper. A poly-ethnic ethnogenesis interpretation also explains some of the Slav / Timber Grave Iranian religious vocabulary ( Slavic "Bogъ", Saka "Baga-" ) as well as other linguistic impacts on Slavic ( see
Eric.Hamp 2011 ) from the Timber Grave & Steppe Iranian culture ( Slavic azъ / Saka azu ), and also detection of common Slav / Timber Grave Iranian mtDNA types ( B. Malyarchuk et al., 2006 ) & R1a Z93.

The southern neighbors of the Proto-Slavic Belogrudovka (from earlier Komarov ) culture ( mtDNA U4a2 ) were the Sabatinovka "Thracian" complex - a mix of Catacomb, Timber Grave & Monteoru ( Sharafutdinova 1986: 115 ) Dacian, of which some yielded to the Belozerka > Chernogorovka "Cimmerian" early Timber Grave ( R1a Z93 ) Iranian speakers, which in turn yielded to steppe Timber Grave Scythians. The rest of the Dacians survived and are heard in today's Albanian. The Timber Grave culture retreated South from the Ural forest steppe around the 12th century BCE due to climatic cooling. Mezhovka culture filled the void they left. Also, the later Sarmatian & Alan presence near the Dnieper by Kiev was enormous (re: mtDNA U3, R1a- Z93 / Slavic azъ / Saka azu / Ossetian æz, & loss of word-final nom. *-s  ). Ukrainian cattle zebu mtDNA reflects this influx from the steppes of the East. Any Slavic emulation of superstrate Steppe Iranian accentuation or vowel structure is open for study. 

In the Ukrainian gene pool, six Y-DNA haplogroups are revealed: E, F (21.3% / including G and I), J, N1c1 (9.6%), P, and R1a1. Northeast European "Sarmatians" ( C. Keyser et al., 2009 ) are not merely romantics, as Saka kurgan (mtDNa N1a1a1) genetics bear out ( C. Keyser et al., 2009, Voevoda et al., 2000; Clisson et al., 2002, Ricaut, Francois-X et al., 2004) - although historical Sarmatians (" Śarmis ") included Asian R1a- Z93 & Uralic admixture (N3 / U4). Note Udmurt "andan" & Ossetian "ændan"-steel. The tripartite division of the Slavic languages may reflect latent regional substratum influence on dialects evolved from the Proto-Slav Komarov culture, which was designated by hydronyms of a Slavic provenance by O. N. Trubačev. East Slavic, like it's neighboring East Baltic ( R1a, Z92+ ) Sosnitsa  ( > Bondarikha > Jukhnovo ) complex to the North, had the near influence of the Catacomb culture, and may reflect some later MVK Catacomb ( Mnogovalikovo ) cultural dialogue ( Russian "jalovec" juniper, Armenian "elewin" id. ) from MVK / Monteoru culture trade exchanges. Monteoru Dacian and Proto Slavic were close to each other, which may explain some Slavic / Albanian isoglosses. West Slavic R1a M458 may well be inherited from ( post Lengyel -TRB ) Corded Ware / Centum Globular Amphora culture area substratum ( re: ERC GAS > Czech " pýř " fire embers / re: ERC Oscan " pūr " ), with a Satem Pomeranian R1a1a L365 conversion ( in NW, Pomeranian / in SW, Dacian ) preceding a later W. Slavic expansion ( Slavic "Bogъ", Saka "Baga-", Sogdian "βaγ-i", Slavic "azъ", Saka "azu " - see Eric.Hamp 2011  ). Language is not genetic, it is acquired. Note N1c1 ( N-M178 ) Baltic speakers in Lithuania & Latvia, or R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variant ( or Z92, LWb ) Uralic speakers in Estonia, or R1a1a L448 speakers of Satem " Yotvingian " in Dainava.

Kelan / Kolo / Ratas
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Does this support the construct of a so-called "Balto-Slavic" region or Middle Dnieper cultural horzon of anciently related initial dialects of subgroups like a Satem "Armeno-Aryan", Catacomb culture " Graeco-Armenian ", poly-ethnic Centum "Celto-Italic", or much earlier  "Indo-Uralic "? Probably. The distance between Slavic & Baltic each to early Satem Indo-Iranian (Pit-grave Āryan Satem) is not as great as such labels would imply. One can also easily group together Satem "Baltic-Slavic-Indo-Iranian" with "RUKI" & declension ( loc.Pl. ending *-su ) considerations. They were all in obviously close contact by horseback or river travel. But if there never was a specifically monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se, how can you ever have a monolithic Proto "Balto-Slavic" amid the chaotic multiculturalism of the Middle Dnieper horizon? The R1a1a- evidence begs to differ. Early Corded Ware East Baltic Fatyanovo sites in Estonia date to 3,000 B.C.E. The different Balts are even physically distinct around that time due to substratum. 

The Baltic and Slavic subgroups were already well differentiated and autonomous (e.g. separate mythologies & Baltic long root preterite, archaic divergent vocabularies ) yet close to one another  with the adoption of the wheel "kelan / kolo / ratas" (3,200 BCE). West Balts used asigmatic nom. sg. ntr. ending / -n /, whereas the East Baltic neuter compliment was derived from asigmatic / -d /, like Lydian. Zaza "ləzga", Ossetian " лæдзæг " branch, Russian dialect " ляэга ", vs. Lith " laz-da " (Albanian ledhi - id ). Note Baltic "o", Slavic "a" - and, but, - reflecting an ablative form of a pronoun (Avestan " āt "- then, and).  Archaeologists have not found the archetypal "Balto-Slavic" settlements per se, probably because each branch group were formed and influenced in different NE. / W. / S. regions ( re: ratas / kelan / kolo ) of the Middle Dnieper culture by a diverse admixture of various peoples and influences, albeit somewhat near each other ( re: R1a Z283 etc ), neighboring a Proto-Dacian, distinctly different Satem variant. Of course they are related. Balto-Slavic is a generic generalization of a brief "Europeanized " Satem linguistic horizon, like "Armeno-Aryan" (remodeled ablative suffix, etc) - but initially more polyethnic. The idealized  "Proto-Balto-Slavic" Satem dialect probably pertains to an earlier pre-Middle Dnieper Culture peripheral area somewhere bordering Catacomb & Pit-Grave groups ( re: Divine Twins myth ), and in contact with northern Repin dialects for awhile. Note Tocharian A "raki" / Tocharian B "reki" word, Lithuanian "rėkti" to talk loud, yell,  or Old Church Slavonic "rekti" to say, & Albanian "rrokje" term..  But Baltic, like Slavic, are in fact, products of multiculturalism throughout their linguistic evolutions. 

Proto-Slavic and the more northern early Baltics were partially composed of assimilated Dnieper-Donets and acculturated later Tripolye peoples emulating the Yamna-like I.E. Satem speakers of peripheral related Sredny Stog dialects, among a multi-ethnic converging cultural vortex of others ( Dnieper Repins, TRB, Globular Amphora & CWC poly-ethnics ), and with more admixture later where they would settle. The eventual influence of Timber Grave Belozerka "Cimmerian" and later steppe Scythian & Sarmatian on Slavic ( B. Malyarchuk et al., 2006 ) was significant ( loss of word-final *-s ). With the mobility of wheels, changes were occurring rapidly - isolation was fading fast. The Slavic participle with / -L / appears to have more in common to distant Lydian, Umbrian, Tocharian, or Armenian, than nearby Baltic. Slavic, along with Armenian & Albanian, preserved the original present-aorist system of late PIE, unlike Baltic, which merged them into a new "preterit".

Like Wild West movies, debates on Balto-Slavic have had a duration longer than the original horizon probably lasted! The close affinity of Satem Slavic & Baltic to Yamna related Indo-Iranian can be no surprise, nor their distinctive 'European" poly-ethnic accents. The fiction of ethnic or racial "purity & superiority" is clinical insanity, and definitively reflects a quantifiable low IQ by conservative adherents ( G. Hodson et al., 2012 ). It seems the growing early pre-IIr. Yamna and Eastern Baltic dialect areas moved Northward as did the early West Balts, as the Thracians ( R1a Z283 ), Dacian Pre-Albanians, and Slavs, who migrated southwestward, assimilating various Central European non-IE native and early Centum-TRB mixed IE people ( GAS R1a, M417, M458 ) into their cultures ( Dacian place name " Clevora ", Lith " Klevas " maple ).  Thereafter, the original Slavic future tense ( which was perhaps similar to the "s" of Baltic, Celtic [Gaulish], Italic, & Indo-Iranian ) was perhaps lost while assimilating Dniester Tripolye C2 populace or other groups - such as the neighboring pre-proto Germanic like Unetice culture, which may not have ever had the later stage PIE future tense suffix with "s", or more probably as late as the Wielbark-Chernakhov Culture era It now appears that Winter's Law also applies to Albanian, which draws Thracian into question. Inconsistancies in Albanian Satemization may reflect a pre-Bilopotok culture substratum to Monteoru Dacian Satem language, which was influenced by Hercynian Celts and later Dalmation substratum.

The early Proto-Slavic dialect reflects an inter-ethnic "dialogue" ( RUKI of Slavic / Mid-Iranian ) of early Timber Grave Iranian (Belozerka - Chernogorovka Cimmerian & later steppe Scythian) assimilation, which occurred upon an earlier polyethnic Balto-Slavic dialects accent region ( due to assimilated non-IE substratum admixture). Slavic loss of word-final *-s may have had a "visarga" stage ( *-s > *-h > * ) resembling, and most probably influenced by early Timber Grave Iranian contact (Belozerka - Chernogorovka Cimmerian & steppe Scythian). Culturally, the influence of the Timber Grave ( w/ Z93+ )  immigration ( Slavic "Bogъ", Saka "Baga-", Vedic "Bhagas" ) was not as imposing on the rustic nearby Dnieper-Desna Baltic steppe-forest dwellers. An earlier hypothetical "Balto-Slavic" dialects "Dnieper Basin Accent" (DBA) of the polyethnic Middle Dnieper Culture ( R1a-, Z282, Z280 ) area would be at least later-Sredny-Stog era, followed by a gradual Pre-Proto-Slavic westward steppe ( plateau vs. the forest ) trajectory, evolving into the Proto-Slavic Komarov > Belogrudovka culture.

Maps indicating the location of the ("Temematian") non-IE Tripolye (Cucuteni-Trypillian) Culture of Dniester farmers compared with maps of the Proto-Slavic language region (based on hydronyms) parallel each other closely, although there is at least two thousand years between each horizon. Herodotus later describes "Scythian farmers" where once were only European Tripolye culture farmers. On either side of the early Slavics were lively trade partners of early Germanics to the Northeast , and early Baltics to the Northwest - both of which were also polyethnic to various degrees with native European peoples. If the Corded Ware "Europeanized " isogloss of Dative Plural - "M "  ( secondary allomorphy  ) occurred as an areal innovation perhaps due to either Uralic or Funnel Beaker substratum phonetic influence, it probably started with contact and assimilation with Globular Amphora peoples now of mixed affinities ( Narva,  Lengyel, TRB  & Centum Globular Amphora w/ I2a2a1b ), and spread at a very early formative stage of E+W Baltic development and pre-proto-Germanic / pre-Slavic. The Sanskrit alphabet long ago anticipated the natural progression of B to M, which enabled a fast transition. Assimilation often accompanies innovation. It is interesting that both regionally related poly-ethnic ( Dniester Tripolye C2, TRB, GAS ) neighboring Centum pre-Germanics and Satem pre-Slavics ( or perhaps as late as the Wielbark-Chernakhov Culture era interaction ) replaced the original future tense construct of "-s-"  (re: relics - Slavic "byšęšteje", Czech "probyšucny "), as opposed to the Italo-Celtics as well as the distant eastern Baltics, who shared borders and the original future tense with "-s" with the early Satem Āryan Yamna cultures. A example of Baltic "s" future may be seen in Lith duos < * dōH3s < * doH3s ( Lith dial. dōs ). The mtDNA reflects such a scenario, but whether it happened like this is anybody's guess.

The influence of Dnieper Donets or the Tripolye substratum in the DBA, or RUKI, has not been given the attention it deserves. The assimilation of regional Baltic speakers also influenced various Slavic languages, such as the Milograd (E. Slavic jas'en' vs. jesen - ash tree), Kolochin, and Yotvingian cultures in Belarusian, the large-scale East ( & West ! ) Baltic substratum in the Old Novgorodian territory, North Russian ( LWb allele, R1a- Z280, Z92+ & N1c1 ) tl / dl consonant clusters > kl / gl - like East Baltic, the Pomeranian presence in West Slavic, Dnieper-Dvina East Balt foundation of the Tušemlja culture (which later included immigrant Sudovians and Slavs in the Long Barrow culture), and the widely scattered East Baltic speaking tribes in Western & Northern Russia ( re: LWb allele at 2.2% for Vologda Russians ). Also noted is the area where Belarusian, Russian, & Polish prepose their genitives. In contrast, specific lineage characterized by 16304C-16311C mutations, which indicate the Slavonic migrations from Central to E. Europe, was not found among Lithuanians. Although historically instructive, it cannot eclipse the common origin in the Middle Dnieper culture that both Slavs and Balts share together, especially the East Balts and East Slavs ( both with R1a1a1, Z280, Z92 ), and always will.

Caveat Emptor
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Theories about dating the earliest Proto-Slavic in relation to the distinct early Baltic branches need to examine the carbon dated chronology of East Baltic CWC Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultural remains ( 2900 - 1800 BCE ), Baltic hydronyms in Russia such as the Oka river, the loss of the original Slavic Future tense, and Baltic loanwords (from assimilated East Balts) in Finno-Volgaic which help date the evidence. Examples of archaic Baltic loanwords into Finno-Ugric are: East Baltic Lithuanian žalga "fishing pole" > North Saami čuolggu "pole", Finnish salko "long pole", Hungarian (! ) szál "spear, cane" or Lithuanian šaras "fodder" > Moksha Mordvinian śora "grain" < ? Saka ṣara "seed". Another Finno-Ugric loanword from East Baltic ( re: Samogitian "medė " forest ) Fatyanovo-Balanovo  "forest-border" is > Finnish "metsä"- forest, Estonian "mets", Karelian "mečču" id, Saami "meahcci " forest, fringe,  Hungarian (w / LWb allele ! ) "messze" far, distant / vs. OCS "mežda" - alley, lane.  Words to the wise about any theoretical "Balto-Slavic" dates - "Caveat emptor", and compare it to all the facts we already know from empirical science. There are Latvia's eleven C-14 cal. dates ( Loze 1992, Tab.1 ) of CWC with the oldest around 3360 cal. BCE ( Purhonen 1986, 11 ). A diet of fish ( šapalas / roach ) may lessen the dates a little, but no time-travel technology has yet been found with those CWC artifacts. C'est la vie. Wisconsin celebrates a " Leif "Leifur" Erikson Day ", but Spain may not. Severe winters in the 12th century undid the new N. A. settlements of centuries. North American walrus ivory fell out of demand, as well. It is ironic that one of Erikson's crew may have been Haplotype "Q", just like the natives they saw in North America.

Fatyanovo East Baltic developed from an earlier Northeastern forest variant subgroup ( LWb allele, R1a1a1 Z283 & Z280 Northern variants, also Z92 ) of the Middle Dnieper culture horizon with assimilated Euro-Repin Centum GAS ( w/ R1a M417 ), while Southwestern Proto-Slavic steppe variants were emerging at the same time elsewhere. Each were regionally distinct (forest / steppe) subgroups, yet related hybrid retro-core Satem cultures of diverse cultural components. Neither group ever identified themselves with a xenophobic "Āryan" terminology ( re: Mansi "tas", stranger, Gypsy "das" non-Gypsy ). The more conservative Northern Satem groups preferred to use the IE inclusive term "Tauta" (people), or "liaudis" (re: Russ "ljudi", Khowar "roi"). Balto-Slavic is a useful generalization of a complex early Middle Dnieper cultural & linguistic horizon, and generic at best. For an example of the archaic nature of the Baltic / Slavic relationship, click here.

Think Green
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There never was a monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se ( Mittnick et al.,2018 ). Note the Eastern Baltic LWb gene analysis below, or the multiple R1a1a1 variations of polyphyletic Middle Dnieper Z280 cultures. There are archaic pre-GAC Satem and post-GAS Euro-Repin Centum ( w/ R1a M417 ) integrated aspects of the Baltic languages. If GAC Euro-Repin-Centum defines what is Baltic, does Steppe TG Iranian define what is Slavic? The various West / East Baltic, Thracian, & Slavic languages (along with the Indo-Iranian branch) represent an archaic continuum of remnant subgroups of former core Satem I.E. dialects, the last Proto Indo-European branches to finally split. The "Proto-Baltics" would be none other than some "Proto Satem Indo-European" dialects together with the closely neighboring Satem pre-Thracian & pre-Dacian, Proto-Slavic, and Proto-Indo-Iranian. It may be more helpful to visualize East Baltic, Slavic & Indo-Iranian as part of the still growing main Satem trunk, rather than as language branches. Kas bus, kas nebus, bet žemaitis nepražus.

 

The LWb+ ( LW*07 ) antigen blood marker / CCR5 Delta 32 mutation / BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype
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In respect to hematological variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW) blood group ( or ICAM-4 ), the frequency of the uncommon LWb+ antigen - LW*07 allele was highest in the Central East Balts, around 7.5% among Lithuanian Samogitians, and very low among the other western Europeans ( 0-0.1% ). LW*05 of ICAM4  ( KF712272 ) is the ancestral allele, which has also been observed in an Altai Neanderthal sample. The LWb+ blood antigen ( aka LW*b / LW*07 allele, or KF725831 / rs77493670 in ICAM4 LOCUS (NCBI 3386) gene.) can be seen as a genetic Tribal Marker of Prehistoric East Baltic Migrations and Admixture, and perhaps not a West-Baltic marker, since inhabitants of the Sūduva region ( Note RISE598 & Unetice affinities) average only a mere 2.7% of LW*07, ... vs. 2.9% for Finns, 2.2% for distant northern Vologda Russians, or 4% for Estonians ! ( Sistonen et al., 1999 ) - even after over 600 years of continuous Lithuanian colonization and admixture in the Sūduva region. * For those who still think all Sudovians " vanished ", please > reread < the prior sentence - s-l-o-w-l-yR-BY62075 didn't vanish, at least not in Sūduva. Lithuanian R1a rates ( R1a1a1 Z280 Northern variants & Z92, L235, w/ LWb+ ) vary widely, with West Aukštaičiai 40.6% vs. South Aukštaičiai R1a1a1 at 61.8%, in a sans MtDNA H1 region ( Kasperavicuite et al., 2004 ). The absence of the 16304C-16311C mutations prevents unneeded misinterpretations. Genetic structure analyses also suggest Poles from Suwalszczyzna (northeastern Poland ) differ from all remaining Polish and Russian samples ( Grzybowski et al., 2007 ). The "Aryan" R1a- Z93+ found in Lithuania is associated with that region's Tatars. China, Japan, and Somalia evidently evaded incursions of LWb laced barbarians far better than either Gotland (1.0%) or Hungary (0.4%), although Gotland's LWb may also involve extensive secondary contacts with Estonians and Finns vs. solely Curonians. Maritime interaction with Vikings of Sweden & Gotland is reflected by increased frequencies of the PI Z alleles and S alleles in the Courland region of Latvia ( Beckman L. et al, 1999 ) ( Krūmina et al 2018 ), whereas Estonian interaction with Gotland is reflected by the TF*DCHI allele ( Beckman L. et al, 1998 ), and LWb allele frequencies in Gotland ( Sistonen et al., 1999 ) - which may date contact to the Baltic Bronze Age ( Margarhan et al 2019, Suppl-info-2, 748 ). Hungary's LWb may reflect the multi-ethnic Dyakovo-Gorodets horizons, and ealier Pozdnyakovo horizon with East Balt participation, or perhaps also Gothic connections to Gotland.  There is nothing in the archaeological record of Hungary to indicate any contacts with the east Baltic area (Bliujienė, Curta 2011, p.56). Also, related LWb allele provenance maybe conquering Magyar I2a-L621, R1a-Z645 ( Neparaczki et al. 2019 ) & MtDNA ( Naparaczki et al 2018 ). The Bashkir resemblance to the Conqueror elite might provide context with Bashkir contrasting levels of LWb vs. that found in Hungary. Eurasian or archaeological DNA test results for the rare LW*b / LW*07 allele mutation or R1a1a1 Z280 are sill pending. Any, even if sporadic, occurrence of the LW*b antigen / LW*07 allele in Eurasia is especially noteworthy ( < ! pp. 8 & 9 ), as will unexpected R1a1a1 z283 / Z280 Northern variants, or N1c1 types. Some DNA evidence of it is already becoming manafest. Another East Baltic tribal migration marker may be a significantly increased frequency of the BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype ( Van Landeghem et al., 1998 ).

Lithuanians present one of the highest proportions of distinct pre-Neolithic HG  (i.e. western ( WHG ), eastern and Scandinavian) and Early to Middle Bronze Age steppe pastoralist ancestry components found across contemporary Europeans. (A. Urnikyte et al 2019)

WHG  Ancestry, Blue Eyes, & Alcoholism

The HERC2 and OCA2 variations for blue eyes are derived from the WHG ancestry lineage, & were also found in the Yamnaya people from contacts. The DNA correlation of WHG ancestry and alcohol dependence (aka alcoholism) is becoming a scientifically credible theory, albeit through the inferred detour of apparent WHG ancestral traits. A study of European Americans with blue eyes found people with these characteristics had up to 83 % higher odds of becoming dependent on alcohol. (A. Sulovari et al 2015) Another study found having blue eyes increases a person's risk of having Type 1 diabetes. Native cannabis was grown by the indigenous European Hunter-Gatherers (WHG +EHG) of the Baltic region ( 5,600 BCE < A. Poska, L. Saarse et al., 2006 ), & is probably a much safer alternative than alcohol for people with elevated WHG & EHG genetic ancestry. It has been suggested that WHGs had dark skin and blue eyes. However, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the eastern Baltic, who were mostly of WHG ancestry, display high frequencies of the derived alleles for SLC45A2 and SLC24A5, which code for light skin.

______________________________

The Y-DNA of polyphyletic Lithuania is roughly about 50/50 for N1c1 & R1a, and varies somewhat by regions. MtDNA H1 frequencies are very, very low among Lithuanians, and virtually non-existent with the Sámi. In Lithuania, MtDNA H1 is mainly confined to only Northern Žemaitians. The Aukštaičiai, like the Sámi, have none ( Kasperavicuite et al., 2004 ). Tests confirm the Narva substratum assimilated by East Balts had mtDNA U5b1, U5b2 & U4 ( Bramanti et al. 2009 ). The indigenous West + East European Hunter-Gatherer (WHG+EHG mix) ancestry of modern Baltic populations are often the highest percentage of any living population. Many modern Baltic region people are > 50% ancient hunter-gatherer ( WHG & EHG mix ) and around a third early European farmer. This cultural inheritance from Kunda & Narva substratum links Lithuanians & Sámi, as well as centuries of cross cultural fly agaric mushroom trade ( per M. Gimbutas ), or the shared ethnocidal & genocidal persecutions from a European Christendom ( Willumsen, L.H. 1997 ) busy shilling tickets to their humanoid heaven. Tickets to heaven, hocus pocus & the gravy train ( re: "nāstika" Brihaspati ). The Prince of Peace deserves better.

Less the above referenced genetical info be misinterpreted as some form of encrypted RWA "cracker-code-speak", I will stress that the fiction of ethnic or racial "purity & superiority" is clinical insanity, and definitively reflects a quantifiable low IQ by conservative adherents ( G. Hodson et al., 2012 ). 65% of our genes are the same as a banana. You are unique - just like everyone else. People are people - some individuals shine, some hide in their cruel fear. Most of our DNA, like R1a, is inherently African. As my friend Robbin said, " It's all good ".

Now that R1a1a Y-DNA testing ( Family Tree DNA link ) has comes of age and is relatively affordable, the long history of Baltic speaking peoples, their diversity, and distant contacts will emerge from the survivor's DNA of various holocausts, starting with the Papal "Christian" Crusades against them - thru Nazi & Soviet Russian genocides with their extermination gulags. Like Native Americans who endure the genocide of white eugenic "Christian" Americans, Balts will endure too - or as my Grandpa liked to say to me, "Kas bus, kas nebus, bet Žemaitis nepražus".

R408W-2.3 is the main haplotype for mutation R408W. The frequency of R408-2.3 suggests a Balto-Slavic origin of this R408W mutation or its association with a pre-Indo-European founder population. ( Krūmina et al 2018 )

The elevated CCR5-Delta 32 allele mutation frequencies distributed in East Balts & Volgaics, and CCR5-Delta 32 DNA chronology ( J. Novembre et al., 2005 ), coincide closely with the ethnicities of the poly-ethnic Dyakovo culture's middle phase, and may further illuminate earlier Ossetian contacts or some unique isoglosses. Whether there is any correlation between the LWb allele and the CCR5-Delta 32 allele mutation besides Baltic region epicenters is just speculation at present. Perhaps the science of a common R1a Z92 inheritance of Russians and Baltic people will usher in a new era of unity and respect. LWb, or R1a1a1 Z280, or Z92, Y-STR DYS 444 =13, DYS 520 =22, in other words, Cousins.

The Western Balts were a hybrid mix of Funnel Beaker, Centum Globular Amphora ( GAS > eg " pku " ), and Corded Ware Satem Middle Dnieper people with Comb & Pit Ware people on Neolithic Nemunas and Narva substratum populations ( w/ Mtdna U5b2 ). In Supraśl, NE of Bialystok, cups and bowls belonging to a Bell Beaker community were recently excavated and dated to roughly 4,000 years ago ( predating nearby RISE598 ). Archaeologist today can distinguish "Europeanized" West Balt culture skulls from those of nearby neighboring Satem East Baltic Fatyanovo types. The distinction ( R1a1a1- L366 vs LWb allele, R1a1a1 w/ Z92, & N1c1 ) was evidently very old and more than just grammatical. Square flint axes found in the Suvalkija / Vilkaviškis regions of Lithuania indicate GAC settlements there ( Brazaitis 2005 fig 5, Girininkas 2009, Fig. 150 ). Pẽkus in Sūduva is a residual substratum  word, not an import like pešti, pešùs, pẽšis. Perhaps even kaimas, ... Kailas ! ( re: Sudovian "Kayles", Gothic "Hails", Vandalic "Eils", Old Norse "Hail" - perhaps all heard together, for centuries, at Wiskiauten Bar-B-Q's )
 

Ρως, Ρωσσία, ᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ,
&
Ӕтьвѧгъ Гунаревъ

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The ULFBERHT type "Y" sword from near Old Grodno. Specific embedded inlay symbols [ C + Ͻ ] in the blade, link it to a sword from Stavne, near Trondheim Norway, and a sword from the Rapola Matomäki cemetery in Finland - and one from Limerick, Ireland ( #1864, 1-27 3 in the British Museum  ), as well as one found by Ust Rybezhno Russia near Staraya Ladoga.
 
| C Ͻ |
YATVEZ' - Ятвезь
 

The myth of Terra Nullius ( deserted wasteland ) was merely historic ethnocidal propaganda, justifying centuries of Papal Conquests, Atrocities & Theft - in both the Old and the New World. It was a lie, and DNA now proves it was only ethnic cleansing fiction. A census by the Orthodox clergy of the Belarus Grodno area in 1860 had as many as 30,929 inhabitants identifying themselves as Yatviags ( Yotvingian-Lithuanians ). [ * Note, herein > j = y ]  The Byzantine Treaty with Kiev prince Igor ( Ingvarr - ᛁᚾᚴᚢᛅᚱ  ) in 944 notes among the Rus' envoys, Ӕтьвѧгъ Гунаревъ, "Játvįg' for Gunnarr"? ᚴᚢᚾᛅᚱ ? The Varangian (< Old Norse: Væringi ) affinities (Grk.-"Ρως") of an original poly-ethnic ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᚢᛋᚠᚢᛚᚴ ( ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ ), or Játvígs Róssfolk ( Lið ), minority may explain the reapplication of East Baltic "Gudai" ( Old Norse Goði - district chieftain, or leader ) to later stereotype that Grodno region's other poly-ethnic inhabitants (  Γυδωνες - Γουται ), perhaps due to earlier visiting Gotlanders from Bogeviken ( Old Gutnish Guti / Vagoth < * Vāk(ia)-goth ? or Vág-Goth ? "Sea-Goths", Old Norse Vágr - sea, wave, bay, cove ) or maybe Scania. Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga derived Lith. vokietis from the old name of the Gotland Vagoths ( re: Icelandic vogur, Shetland voe, Finnic vuojola, Sami vuowjos ).  It is not a stretch to imagine *vāg-aitis > *vog-aitis > vokietis "Gotlander > Germanic speaker", or "foreigner" . Contacts were quite common ( re: LWb+ in Gotland ). The Nydam axe "vagagastiz" may suggest Lith. vokietis reflects an older "wave-traveler", "seafarer" or "foreigner" term using related Scandinavian ( Old Norse Vágr - sea, wave ) terminology. Such a bi-lingual etymology of "vokietis" may well reflect prolonged bi-lingual contacts as expected near Grobina / "Seeburg", or perhaps Kaup, between Gotlanders & Balts ( Gotlandic would adopt Baltic loanwords for "barn" and even "fly" ), and "vokietis" would persist with the evolving semantics of "Germanic seafarer" > "Germanic speaker". Old Gutnish "kleti" "barn / shed" is a loanword from a Baltic "klēte", as well as the modern Gutnish "mausä" "fly insect" from sustained Baltic trade contacts. Artifacts like spears, spurs, Roman coins, etc. reflect Wielbark C1a-C2 era Scandinavian contacts in Sūdovia. Around the 9-10th century ( circa 854 ), the Sūdovian-Dainavian territory witnessed the arrival of more Varangian Viking-Rus' river trade from the Baltic, and a few settlements with distinctly Norse Viking cultural characteristics & artfacts ( see LOKI pendant below ), have been found around the Indura-Grodno-Vawkavysk region - apparently affiliated with Kaup ( aka Gintijar ) / Wiskiauten, Irzekapinis, Linkuhnen, Bogeviken ( ᛁ ᚴᚢᛏᛚᛅᚾᛏᛁ ), also including Franopol & Gorodišče Belarus Vikings, who traded with Pinsk, Turau, & Polotsk. A key Viking trade river route from Bogeviken in the Baltic to Byzantium in the south was in the works. Róss-folk & Róss-menn were truncated by Finnic contacts to " the Róss-", or Rōts ( Greek.-"Ρως" )  from Róssia ( Greek.-"Ρωσσία" ) - aka " Русь " < Finnic "Ruotsi" ( contracted by Finnics from various Old Norse compound terms ). The archaeological material of Staraya Ladoga does not reflect a Slavic presence there prior to the late 9th - 10th century, whereas Karelian & Ves, or Veps presence does.
 

The Vawkavysk area "LOKI BOUND" pendant, with Gotland influence, identical to one labeled K-46, found with other Viking artfacts in the Rivne region of the Ukraine. Loki bound pendants were also found at Birka, and even Hedmark. The LOKI bound pendant is also refered to as "the gripping beast".

Swords like the Petersen "H" type found in Belarus, or the ULFBERHT type "Y" sword from near Grodno, validate dating such Norse settlements to that period. Specific embedded inlay symbols [ C Ͻ ] in the Grodno type "Y ULFBERHT blade link it to an ULFBERHT sword from Stavne ( near Trondheim ) Norway, and another ULFBERHT sword from the Rapola Matomäki cemetery in Finland ( # NM 2767  ) - as well as a sword from Limerick, Ireland ( # 1864, 1-27 3 in the British Museum ), and one from Vepsian territory of Ust Rybezhno, by the Pasha river near Staraya Ladoga Russia. This "lucky Ω Ω symbol ( mirrored inlay omegas with a Cross Potent between >  C Ͻ  ) thus links a Grodno Varangian to his kinfolk in Norway, Finland, & even Ireland. The Cross Potent , as a specific symbol for "magician", was imported from the East ( China ) along with silk. Such fine ostentatious swords were probably acquired on Gotland, perhaps at "The Big Apple" of Bogeviken. The Brilevsky treasure Viking coins of Belarus were minted from 742 to 891. It appears that within a century or two, those Norse ( Norðmenn ) traders which remained either dispersed along the nearby Nemunas river system, and or strategically assimilated ( typically within 3 generations ) with ranking locals ( a common Viking custom ) of the neighboring Dainavian-Sūdovian people, perhaps from trade of iron for horses, marten furs, amber & hemp - for ship rope. Their Yotvingian Y-DNA survives, with closest Y-DNA matches from Norway, Ireland & Scotland ( clan Gotheray ? of the Hebrides ), Sweden ( near old Birka, & R1a-YP704 ), followed by Cumbria ( note the Gosforth Cross, with it's bound LOKI carving ) & some in Finland - a Y-DNA trail of related "Lochlannar Norse clansmen.  Family.

SKEGGJA - VIKING AXE FROM STARAYA LADOGA
᛫ ᛂᛦ ᛬ ᚢᛅᚱᚦ ᛏᚢᚦᚱ ᚢᛂᛋᛏᚱ ᛬ ᛂᚾ ᛫ ᛅᚾᛅᚱ ᛬ ᛅᚢᛋᛏᚱ ᛬

Historic records indicate they opposed surrendering the old beliefs of their forefathers for an imposed foreign southern import. It is also recorded that Yotvingians traded for grain ( they weren't farmers ) and hired out their renown military skills as Varangians often did back then. A new ( re: A.С. Кибинь below ), rational etymology of the Baltic "Jotving- / Jātving-", now rescued from an inert provincialism of kaleidoscopic self-replicating hypotheticals and ethnocentric tunnel vision, can finally be derived from an original Old West Norse Heiti  Játvígr - poetic "lucky spear ", or "lucky-victor " of the Varangian leader's name * ( gen sg = Jātvīgs, > Jātvįgs Rhōs ( Lið / Družīna / Sėbrija ) > Jātvings - as luck would have it ! L448 ? ). The "nasal infixation" of the West Norse original ( -ígs / -īgs > -įgs > -ings ), as well as artifacts, reflects close early contacts with local Dainavians-Sūdovians, for whom the ubiquitous trademark "nasal -ing-" suffix (  -īg- in Latvian ) was indeed highly productive ( re: Aps-ingis, Zietela "Rus-ingis", etc ) and is thus non-problematic with it's "nasal" affectation of the local Balts. Top all this off with the peculiar parallel nominative-genitive masc. singular ( re: Wilkaskaymen ) of West Baltic dialects, and it it easy to see how an original genitive Játvígs from Old West Norse becomes assimilated as a poly-ethnic West Baltic nominative Jātvings. "Jotvings". Voilà! 

Norsk Róssfolk

As convenient as that all sounds, the ubiquitous Lithuanian "Jotvingis" term is itself a recent neologism coined back in the 20's. Opps. This "Jotvingis" Baltic neologism born in the 1920's was derived solely from various Rós affiliated, historical Rus' era Slavic labels of a prior millennium. The original nasal infixation in the Slavic version of the Old Norse  "Játvíg" name in the 944-945 Kiev Treaty was probably an insignificant scribal error, or misinterpretation of source material, now enshrined for perpetuity. To the Baltic Dainavians and Sudovians repelling the aggressive invading Kiev Rus' of Vladimir and later Crusaders, these poly-ethnic mixed Norse-Balt assimilated descendants near the Nemunas were already "one of us". Relatives & brothers - literally. When Vytautas left Grodno for Grunwald, some local descendants of the Yotvingians most likely accompanied him. A "Dainavianized" nom./gen. sg. nasal  Jātvįgs from an Old West Norse genitive singular Játvígs Liðar -" Jātvīgr's band ( ᚱᚢᛋᚠᚢᛚᚴ -  druzhina ) " effortlessly yeilds Jotvings ( note West Norse tvígr ( with "T" ) vs. related Eadwig [ Ӕтьвѧгъ ] or Eadwy [ Ӕтьвѧ- ] with "D"  ). These poly-ethnic Norse led ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ, or Játvígs  Róssfolk ( Liðsmenn ) along the Nemunas river, would acquire the local Baltic language of Dainavians and Sudovians in time ( typically within 3 generations or less  ), & assimilation - many by inter-marriage like with other Vikings elsewhere. Bilingualism is a key necessity of foreign traders. "Róss-" ( ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ ),  may well reflect an earlier ( circa 7th-8th centuries ) pre-sail era maritime terminology. ( note Norwegian dialect  "Róssfolk" - Norsk Ordbog of Ivar Aasen, 1873, p. 612 )

Blue glass Viking beads - as found in Kaup-Wiskiauten, Paviken Gotland, Birka Sweden, & York England.

Centuries of multi-cultural commingling ( re: Kivutkalns R1a z284 ) between West Balts & Scandinavians - beginning with the Wielbark culture, are also later reflected at other trade settlements like Saeborg-Grobina, Truso, or Kaup / Wiskiauten. PI Z alleles and S alleles in the Courland ( Kurland ) region of Latvia ( Beckman L. et al, 1999 ) mirror poly-cultural blending of Grobina artifacts, as does the  LWb allele in Gotland. In more precise terms, the Varangians were primarily Norse immigrant mercenaries, whereas the Rhōs, or Rus', were later a wider poly-ethnic base - affiliated with the imported Viking culture, which also included " farmenn " - merchants, boatmen, and traders, from Birka & Bogeviken ( ᛁ ᚴᚢᛏᛚᛅᚾᛏᛁ ) to Kiev. Originally, the 9th century  Rus' " Русь " < Finnic "Ruotsi" , of early Staraya Ladoga  ( & it's archaeological evidence, ie - glass "wasp beads" ) were primarily Scandinavians. Early Staraya Ladoga ( circa 753, per tree-ring data ) had only 3 Scandinavian type Longhouses. The earlier nearby Liubsha Hillfort was evidently Finnic, perhaps Karelian or Vepsian, ( based on Jewelry ), and the "temple rings" of early Staraya Ladoga have a Baltic type provenance.

Barða - The axe excavated from Muravelnik - Ваўкавыск, with it's Gotlandic affinities - perhaps brought from Bogeviken. ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ

A Zietela dialect word "pamarkas"-accursed, is probably an assimilated bilingual Viking relic term of the Old Norse "morkinn"-putrid-rotten, like the  Scots English "murkle" reproach. The Turovian's group name likewise reflects ( PVL 36 ) an Old West Norse Rus' leader's name ( Þórir - ᚦᚬᚱᛁᚱ ) aligned with a Ragnvaldr - ᚱᛅᚴᚾᚢᛅᛚᛏᚱ in Polotsk, along with Garðariki / Holmgarðr - ᚼᚢᛚᛘᚴᛅᚱᚦᚱ / Austrvegr, although the Рогволод - Моря / Ragnvaldr - Møre similarities invite an honest critique of PVL, aka  Povest' Vremennykh Let, historical credulity. Relations between Polotsk and Kiev became rather strained in 945. One of Vladimir's many campaigns  to collect more tribute-taxes ( poliude ), and gain strategic Nemunas river trade access to Bogeviken in the Baltic Sea, is the first written ( albeit somewhat quasi-historical ) account of plural Yotvingians, dated to 983. Fifty five years later in 1038, Yaroslav battles the Yotvingians and later the Lithuanians, who were together allied with rebellious pagan Masovians ( & prior Galindians ) - although the esteemed scholar Mykhailo Hrushevskyi was very skeptical about this information, citing records from other chronicles that indicate the 1038 campaign took place in the winter - and had no success. Another source reports a quite different scenario of a 1038 Yotvingian conflict - by Volkavysk ! Viking "turf" wars were not altogether unknown. There is still a Yatvyagi town in the Ukraine, located in Lviv oblast & Mostyskyi raion. GPS coordinates for the town are N 49.65700 E 23.21733. Two other places in the Lviv area shared the same Yatvyagi name ( 49°43'0" N 23°29'0" E ).  ( A. Kaminski, Jaćwieź -1953, p.74 ) No traces of any hypothetical Baltic hydronym *Jāt-vā  have ever been found to this day in the "Terra Jatwezenorum" region. None. Nada. Zip.

A Rus trident Pendant of Scandinavian elite rulers. Jaćwież - Jatvez' -  Ятвезь > "Anchor"< Játvígs Róssmenn ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ

A Belarusian Vawkavysk dialect Ятвезь [ Yatvez', or Jatvez' ] "Anchor" term obtusely connects the Norse Thor's hammer of Vikings & other Scandinavian relics from Gotland & Kaup to the original Yotvingians of that "Black Russian" region - who initially spoke the Old Norse ( Greek "Ρωσιστί" ) & Old Gutnish of Varangians. Nobody "vanished ". R-YP704* Lietuvoje. Get real ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᚱ ? 

 

"When in doubt, tell the truth " - Mark Twain.


The LOKI pendant of Gnezdovo - note the resemblance to the Snaptun Stone LOKI -jp
The Loki pendants * of Gnezdovo ( above )
& Härad Sweden ( below )
* note the striking resemblance
to the Snaptun Stone Loki - jp

Loki Pendant from grave find near Härad, Sweden

Jatvez' = Thor's hammer ( anchor type ) = Játvígs Róss-menn ᛁᛅᛏᚢᛁᚴᛋ ᚱᚢᛋᛗᛖᚾᚾ

  * For more about a Norse Rus' Yatviag / Yotvingian etymology, see:
  ( English summary included )
   
Кибинь A.С. Ятвяги в X-XI вв.:
 
« балтское племя » или « береговое братство »?
 
// Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2008. № 2(4). С.117-132
.

The Loki bound pendant labeled K46 found in the Rivne region of the Ukraine, a twin of the Volkavysk Loki pendent. Петро КРАЛЮК also comes from the Rivne region.

For more about  Rus' Yatviag / Yotvingian 10th-14th Century history, see:
( In Ukrainian - Google Chrome Browser can translate )

Article online by Петро КРАЛЮК, д-р філос.
« Ятвяги та боротьба Галицько-Волинського
князівства за Полісся
»
( In Ukrainian - Google Chrome Browser can translate )
 


Distributive suffix  -ār

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The spread of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1a- & R1b Z2103+, as well as the B blood type, is associated with the spread of the Indo-European languages, too. Many Latvian tartan weaving patterns are nearly identical to ancient Tocharian  tartans found recently with Tocharian mummies (w/ U4 / two-rooted lower canines / VRC ) recovered in Western China. (see "Secrets of the Silk Road"). Seven males tested from the Xiaohe cemetery in the Tarim basin were Y-DNA R1a1a M417+, Z93- ( Chunxiang Li et al 2010 ), and dated to about 2,000 BCE. Recent studies indicate an earlier Tarim population of isolated people preserving high percentages of Ancient North Eurasian (ANE). Tocharians were evidently also dedicated hemp farmers, like the Balts and historical "kapnobatai" Thracians ( R1a Z283 ? ).  East Baltic Lithuanian place-names "Beržorai" ( "birches" ), or "Lieporai" ( "lindens" - near Šiauliai ) reflect the Tocharian B. distributive suffix  -ār. West Baltic had "Saitoran" - the knotty Pleiades ( EV #6 ). Slavic also has such a parallel arboreal related suffix. It would be worthy to note that some Dnieper culture horizons exhibit a degree of intrusive Repin style pottery from Middle Dnieper Repins. Repin pottery often had cord-impressed decoration. The "Proto-Tocharian" Afanasievo also shared physical characteristics with the early Catacomb people of the Ukraine ( as opposed to later Yamna Catacomb ( R1b-Z2103+, & w/ I2a2a1b1b2 ! ) types that shared physical characteristics of regions like the Northern Caucasus ).

A high frequency of the CCR5-Delta 32 allele in Lithuanian populations, at levels of about 16% has been documented. This allele mutation confers resistance to HIV (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Recent DNA evidence suggests the CCR5 Delta 32 allele mutation is at least 2,900 years old ( J. Novembre et al., 2005 ). Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews have also interested geneticists, since they display a number of unique genetic characteristics including Y-DNA haplogroup Q. A mtDNA haplogroup X connection in Lithuania that FTDNA attributed to Druze ethnicity is more likely X2e from Roma migration thru Armenia (w/ X2e1b), the Caucasus, & Poland. The mtDNA haplogroup X connection between the Caucasus & Navajo presents a perspective for understanding Na-Dene migrations.

Poškos Baublys

SONGS  OF  THE  FOREST
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Traditional ancient Baltic songs ( Lith. Dainos, Latv. Dainās, re: Vedic "Dhėnās" ) are a vast resource of the Baltic languages. The Dainos are the Rig Veda of the East Baltic people. These Hymns were first brought into the Baltic forests before 3,000 BCE, and preserved within innumerable homesteads, person to person, winter after long winter, from 2,600 BCE to this day. Their antiquity is only eclipsed by their numbers and variations. They are usually Hymns of stanzas, many of which are divine revelations from the ancient Native Religion and Mythology, but in contrast to most other similar forms, they often lack earthly heroes. Many Latvian dainās are not long, typically in quatrains, and often trochaic (metrically of one long syllable followed by one short one), and more rarely dactylic. These ancient Hymns are superb relics of the pre-Christian East Baltic Native Religion and the life of the people, especially its' three important events - birth, weddings and death/burial, but also life's infinite experiences.

Dod, Dieviņi, ko dodamis,
Dod man labas div’ lietiņas:
Ceļā labū kumeliņu,
Mūžāi labu līgaviņu.

There are literally millions of verses of these truly ancient Dainos / Dainās now in written form. The forest is also home to Seto Leelo, the Seto polyphonic singing tradition, Sámi joiks ( or yoiks ), and others. All are irreplaceable treasures. So intertwined with the archaic languages and their enormous vocabularies, it is virtually impossible to try to separate the two. These Hymns are still sung to this day - person to person.
Somewhere in Lietuva this evening, a farmer will beckon - "ašva ", "ašva ".
Tomorrow , someone will greet the dawn, ... perhaps with a song.
It is
" Senasis Takas ".

The magic of language is a gift,
from mother to child,
living as a memorial to all Women,
who gave it to us
.

 

____________________________________________________

BE HERE NOW
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More than half of the planet's 7,000 or so languages
are facing extinction within this century.

 
We are losing around two languages a month
- or about one every two weeks.

 
Learn an endangered language, or at least help conserve one
- as if it was your own. They are.





 

The Sudovian greeting " Kailas " re-affirms that we are all One,
-
with each other, and with the Earth we share.


Dermė


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The above text is an excerpt from Virdainas © Joseph Pashka
All Rights Reserved.

Made In The USA.

No parts of this document may be republished in any form
without prior permission by the copyright holder.

For the Lithuanian 3rd person dual " jiedu ", instead of the expected verb " yra " or " esti ",
my Sūdovian Grandmother Johanna Paškevičienė used  " esą ". Deal with it.

* PPT - Dna ethnicity %'s are estimates at best, and differ between testing companies.
Add to that mess the typical occurrences of "dna washout" & "dna wash in" distorting the ancestral picture.
After 5 generations, one can go wode trying to make sense of it all. Ethnicities are clues, but not facts.
One needs to get more granular than what DNA testing companies project. Reality is an interpretation.
( Pashka's Paradox Theory )



Legal Disclaimer - The above text in no way suggests anyone should use illegal drugs
or experiment with Amanita mushrooms.

Joseph Pashka is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago.
The Baltic in Vedic < "
esmi "Columbia".

 

- In Memoriam -

Antanas  Paškevičius - Poška
Antanas Poška's Lithuanian translation of the Rig-Veda is
at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania


 

 

With the now irreversible Climate Change accelerating
and the inevitable extinction of all Humanity well before 2100,
please try to keep the occasional typo in perspective.

 

 


ᚾᛟᛁᚨᚷᛁᚨᛚ ᛗᚢᛃᛁᛋ ᛊᛁᛖᚹ
ᚨᚱᚨᛊᚾᚢ ᚦᛁᛞᛁᛖᛒ

 


 

Shi nūsun būsna ast praeivingiska
kaigi asanes vupjai

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Budeis !