Okunev Culture and the Dene-Caucasian Macrofamily

Abstract

The article discusses the linguistic affi liation of the Okunev people. Arguments are cited favoring the idea that they spoke a Dene-Caucasian language belonging to the Yeniseian branch. This is indirectly evidenced by genetic and cultural ties between Okunev ancestors and Native Americans, by parallels to Okunev art in prehistoric China and on the northwestern coast of North America, and by Okunev type petroglyphs in northern Kashmir, where, in addition, a linguistic isolate is preserved—Burushaski, a language related to Yeniseian. Being a relict population, which remained in the place from where the Dene-Caucasian speaking tribes had migrated in various directions, Okunevans may have been ancestors of Yeniseians (another contender is the Karasuk population, whose ties with Okunevans remain to be established), as well as collateral relatives of Na-Dene, Sino-Tibetans, and other Dene- Caucasians. Alternative proposals, such as a Uralic, specifi cally Samoyed affi liation of the Okunev language, are less probable for several reasons. The idea that this language was Indo-Iranian, which almost necessarily follows from the hypothesis that the key role in Okunev origins was played by Yamnaya-Catacomb tribes, is quite unlikely. This idea is much more plausible with regard to Chaa-Khol people of Tuva, who display marked cranial affi nities with a number of Yamnaya and Catacomb groups and with Scythians of the Pontic steppes. Okunevans proper show no such affi nities.