This is a wonderful reasessment of the origins of horseback riding, steppe tech, and the diffusion of Proto-Indo-European into languages now used across 75% of the globe. Dr. Anthony has used previously unaccessable Russian research plus his own, especially bitt-wear on horse teeth. We discover great tidbits, like the high incidence of fish in a steppe person's diet. Overall, the book is perhaps the finest contribution on early steppe cultures since the observations of J.P. Mallory and Marija Gimbutas.

The illustrations are clear and follow the text (more or less); and although we get the mandatory pottery for relativity, I would have enjoyed viewing a few more Bronze Age steppe weapons (but that's just my personal quirk). This is not a book for the casual reader-- thorough, long, explicit-- but it's not overly academic and flows nicely. I agree with Bryn-- this is a five-star piece of work:0

AJ, I have a quirk for steppe weapons too. Sorry, that was an uncalled-for comment of no intellectual value.

I found Chapter Six, on frontier theory and how frontiers work, very very useful. I even followed it - he writes clearly; too much social-theory jargon baffles me. I saw I hadn't understood frontiers before, and this told me the latest, sensibly. I enjoyed the whole and learnt a heap - learnt too much for one go; it's on my list to read again.

Bryn, it's a lot of book. I digest it slowly with pasta and a glass of Valpolicella. I follow Anthony's cronology, from Sintashta (the IE wellspring) to the Altai and across to the Takla Makan and Gansu Corridor, and then the Margiana-Bactria complex. This sets the stage for the iron age and the people recorded as the Saka, the Wusun, and Yueqi. Over all, he did a fine job, just a little more than anyone needs at 10 sittings. This is a contrast to buying a book that never quite feeds you what you're actually looking for. And there a bunch of those out there.