Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Where was the Pontic-Caspian steppe homeland of Proto-Indo-European located?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Indo-European languages
Approximate locations of Indo-European languages in contemporary Eurasia.
The Pontic-Caspian steppe homeland of Proto-Indo-European is located in the region north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea.1
This area encompasses parts of present-day Ukraine, southern Russia, and extends into Kazakhstan. Scholars often associate this homeland with the Kurgan culture, a group of related steppe cultures that inhabited the region during the Bronze Age. While other theories, such as a Neolithic Anatolian origin, have been proposed, the Pontic-Caspian steppe hypothesis remains the most widely accepted view among scholars in the 21st century.12