THE ARYAN PROBLEM AND THE HORSE 5 TRAITS OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN CULTURE The picture of the Aryan culture around 2000 BC may be reconstructed on the basis of the common elements shared by the two most ancient texts, the Rg Veda and the Avesta. Formerly a long interval was postulated between the composition of the first and that of the second. But now T. Burrow holds that the time of the ancient Iranian text is nearer to that of the Rg Veda and that it was composed around 1200 BC.4 The data gleaned from these sources can be supplemented by Homer and the evidence from the reconstructed proto-Indo European language. Through this method we may isolate some important traits of culture of the Indo-Europeans. These are namely (i) language, (ii) animal husbandry and agriculture, (iii) male dominance, (iv) animal sacrifice including horse sacrifice, (v) Soma cult, (vi) fire cult, (vii) cremation and (viii) the use of the horse and chariot. The cults of fire and Soma are not found in the culture of the western branch of the Indo-Europeans but are typical of the eastern branch. By the third millennium BC there appear two types of culture, Proto-Indo-European culture and Proto-Indo-Iranian or Aryan culture. The first obtained in Europe and the second in Central Asia. The eight traits listed above constitute a kind of cluster. The cults of fire and Soma are connected with several other traits. In the Vedic context every sacrifice is preceded by the setting up of the fire altar, and fire ritual has a place in cremation. The eastern branch of the Indo-European language seems to have been recorded as early as 2300 BC when we find its traces on an inscribed tablet in lower Mesopotamia in modern Iraq.5 The next stage is found in the inscriptions of the Kassites in the 17th century BC. They mention several gods such as Surya, Marut and Bhaga who also appear in Vedic texts. The third stage is noticed in the inscriptions of the Mitannis around 1400 BC. They speak of Mitra, Varuna and Nasatya which also appear in the Rg Veda. About this time we also get a text on horse training written by a Mittanni. This text contains many numerals which are found both in Vedic language and in other Indo-European languages. But its language seems closer to the eastern branch of the Indo-Europeans. Later from the 6th century BC onwards Iranian inscriptions use the ancient Iranian language. Thus inscriptions show the presence of the speakers of the eastern branch of the language of the Indo-Europeans in Mesopotamia from about 2300 BC onwards, and 400 years later they attest the presence of the speakers of the western branch in Anatolia. While the language of the Indo-Europeans is attested by inscriptions from the end of the third millennium onwards, the other traits of their culture are attested archaeologically over a long period from 4500 BC onwards. This is true of cultivation and stockbreading which appears in a wide area extending from Europe through Central