Anatolia hypothesis

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The Anatolia hypothesis postulates cultural transfer, especially for languages, agriculture and livestock farming, to Europe through migration from Anatolia.
In the narrower sense, this refers to the spread of an original Indo-European language from Anatolia to Europe in connection with the Neolithic Revolution. It was formulated in the late 1980s by British archaeologist Colin Renfrew. The Anatolia hypothesis locates the origins of the Indo-European languages in the Middle East.

In a broader sense, it postulates the spread of population groups to Central Europe, as a result of which agriculture and livestock breeding became established, with membership of a special language family remaining open.

Archaeological background

Different hypotheses exist about the spread of Indo-European languages. The Anatolia hypothesis was preceded in the 1950s by the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, which is criticized by Renfrew.

In contrast to Gimbutas, Renfrew emphasizes that in the course of the colonization of Europe, new arrivals (immigrants) must have brought with them skills and abilities that made them superior to the existing indigenous population. There was only one event in prehistory and early history that brought about a fundamental change in living conditions: the development of agriculture, more precisely of agriculture and livestock breeding.
Cultivation of einkorn, emmer and barley as well as the domestication of sheep and goat can be proven with the beginning of the pre-ceramic Neolithic first in the Middle East, especially in the southeast of Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia.

In his presentation of 2003, Renfrew assumes a gradual immigration of the Indo-European languages, also called the Indo-Hethite model. The modified hypothesis mainly incorporates the latest knowledge on the genetics of European populations (distribution of haplogroups);
Since 6,500 BC, the Neolithic expansion from Anatolia via the Balkan Peninsula (Starčevo culture, Körös-Cris culture) to the Central European band ceramics has taken place;
Around 5000 BC, with the spread of copper age cultures, a threefold division of Indo-European languages took place in the Balkans, with division into a northwestern European branch (Danube region), a Balkan branch and an eastern steppe branch (ancestry of the Tocharians).
It was only after 3000 BC that the division of the language families from the Urdo-European (Greek, Armenian, Albanian, Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic) took place.

Arguments for the Anatolia Hypothesis

The following arguments support Renfrew's hypothesis:
The carriers of the Neolithic Revolution who emigrated from Anatolia probably brought their own language. In the Anatolia hypothesis, the original Indo-European language is considered for this.

Support for the hypothesis on the emigration of population groups from Anatolia to the Western Mediterranean