Figure 4.6 The spread of Indo-European language. This map depicts the so-called Kurgan hypothesis, named after the burial mounds (kurgan) characteristic of the warrior pastoralists who inhabited the area north of the Black and Caspian seas. Around 6000 B.C.E., they began to spread outward, conquering and imposing their language across Europe, Central Asia, India, the Balkans, and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).