The Origin of the Indo-Iranians

The middle of the second millennium BC witnessed the first mention of Indo-Iranian people and of names in its language. Kuz'mina (archaeology, Russian Institute for Cultural Research, Moscow) explores how the group split from other Indo-European speakers to become a distinct people, later itself split into several sub-groups. She draws on written evidence, linguistic data, and archaeological sources concerning the material culture of the group and its parts. She also considers anthropological sources. This study is a complete revision of her Where Do Indo-Aryans Come From?, published in 1994 in Russian. She warns that no arrangement of evidence points reliably to an original homeland. Annotation 穢2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)