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Great Barrows
The graves of chieftains of the Edain and of Dúnedain of Cardolan located on the Barrow-downs.
The GreatBarrows were taken over by the Barrow-wights in the middle of the ThirdAge.
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The first people who buried their death in barrows, artificial burial mounds, are called now Kurgan (the Russian name for barrow) by the historians. They spread probably from the area north of the Black Sea from about 4500BCE and the Kurgans expanded from there in several waves to the west, east and south. According to some recent theories the Kurgans are identical with the Proto-Indoeuropeans. -- ChW
- Hmmmmm.... With all my respect, but isn't , kurgan a word far from any Slavonic language, if I am not mistaken? ... This is a word that came into use among the Slavs, especially the Russian Slavs, together with the very existance of the barrows built by the invaders from the Far East that "flooded" the vast territories of today's Russia. Even till present there are places called with this word and these places always have to do with burials.
- Now, the Kurgan being a people - this is surprising! I didn't know! Any more info, please?
- Also, there is another fact to be taken into consideration when speaking about people building tombs and barrows for the deceased. A brief info (and even a small picture!
 ) I have provided in the Mythology section of TW in FolderSlavonicMythology? - read about the Thracians. They lived in the Balkan Peninsula and also on quite a large territory of nowadays Eastern and Southern Europe long before the Easterlings came. And the Thracians were masters in building barrows for their dead! -- LR
Those people as well as their culture are of course named only "posthumously" so [1] by the historians because of the barrows they built. According to those recent theories mentioned above, they are one of the candidates for representing most closely of all known early cultures the "Proto-Indoeuropeans". The origin of the name is probably Turkic where it meant "fortress".
The Jonians (and a few generations later the Arcadians and Aeolians) are said to represent one of those Kurgan emigration waves arriving in the later Thracian territory (and hence probably representing Proto-Thracians rather than Proto-Greek) at about 1950BCE. This overview here is - mostly - taken from R. Schmoekel Die Indoeuropäer (2nd revised edition 2002;  ISBN 3404641620 ( BN A.uk)). -- Walter
- Will a life be enough to learn all one wishes to? I doubt it!
 Here is an interesting reference: [2] -- LR
Only if one learns to delimit ones wishes, and as for your link: I had come across that page a while ago (while "googling" on the Kurgans) and found it rather sketchy and at least in part incongruent with other sources...
- So ... you consider it unreliable? In what points? I at least learned that the Kurgan were a people! Honestly I did not know that!And based on this ignorance of mine, I cannot find the incongruousness (what a word! ) ... But, yes, you're right! One has to delimit his wishes... in this present life --LR
No, I consider it sketchy and at least in part incongruent with other sources.... Sketchy because the page covers only a very small part of all the proto-indo-european branches and in part incongruent with other sources because it is just that. But I don't think we could or should cover a survey on the development of the Proto-Indoeuropean cultures here, for an overview of current theories (including their incongruences) maybe you would like to check out the book I mentioned or have a look at the works of Marija Gimbutas[3], Colin Renfrew[4] and Thomas Gamkrelidse & Wjatscheslaw Iwanow[5].
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