Early Metal Age in Middle Volga and the diversification of Uralic languages

The Middle Volga area is considered to be the spread area of both early Indo-European and Uralic speaking communities as well as the contact zone of cultural and linguistic influence from Indo-European varieties to diverging Proto-Uralic. Instead of constituting the oldest identifiable geographical core area of Proto-Uralic, recent studies maintain that the spread of Uralic languages from east to west began in western Siberia, took place during the Early Metal Age and covered parts of the Middle Volga. The spread of early Indo-European began somewhat earlier during the Late Neolithic and was evoked by the Fatyanovo, Abashevo and Pozdnyakovo cultures, predominantly from (south)west towards (north)east. This intercultural transitional zone got its present-day multiethnic shape after the medieval Turkic spread followed by the widening of Slavic. This paper discusses the contact zone between early Uralic and Indo-European varieties in terms of language contacts and cultural spread. Our main hypothesis is that the longterm presence and recurrent prehistorical influx of Indo-European varieties and networks contributed to the geographical and linguistic diversification of Uralic languages in the Middle Volga and southern Siberia.Peer reviewe