" 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.

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 ( pẽku, 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 > 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.

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 ).

"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 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 Яцьвягі < pl. 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.

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.

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 ), pẽku ( 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 / -aš < -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.

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.

  

  ܀
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 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.

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 Twin Spiral  ( Nitra-Unetice type ) Jewelry
 ( copied in Abashevo, also found at Sintashta & Samogitian Baitai grave 18 )

Fatyanovo Kirvis / Metallurgy

Cis-Ural Metallurgy
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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.  jā-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..

^

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.

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 Tarḫunna. 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.

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. "Kerkūrė "- 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 )

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.

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.

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

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

- 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

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.

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  žambas /  žambras 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.

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.

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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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.

*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.

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.