Introductioninterpretations. What is perhaps original in this essay is the
general synthesis. That synthesis is admittedly precarious,
based as it is on a constellation of tentative positions, and at
best it will serve as a rough point of departure for future
syntheses. In the meanwhile, it seems to make each of its parts
slightly more intelligible and therefore seems worth present-
ing.
One set of questions has to do with the supposed Indo-Eu-
ropean migrations. Where did the PIE speakers come from? Or
might the "homeland" of the PIE speakers be as naive a con-
struct as the Garden of Eden? If a dispersal of PIE speakers ever
did take place, when did it happen? What was the nature of
these movements, and what provoked them? To these large
questions many and various answers have been given, and will
continue to find adherents, since we are unlikely ever to find a
conclusive answer to any one of the questions. But some of the
answers are considerably more persuasive than others, espe-
cially when the evidence from Greece is seen in a clear light.
About the Bronze Age Greeks in particular, the same ques-
tions can be more sharply focused. Was "the coming of the
Greeks" a historical event, or is it a modern fiction? If such an
event occurred, when did it occur, and how are we to picture
it? The controversy over "the coming of the Greeks" has in the
past been of interest mostly to Aegean archaeologists, linguists
and prehistorians. Indo-Europeanists and orientalists will, I
think, find it worth their while to see what the controversy is
about, for a great deal of Eurasian history hinges on the conclu-
sion that one comes to on these questions.
Finally, there are a number of questions about the Near East
that cannot be separated from those dealing with the Bronze
Age Greeks and the dispersal of the PIE speakers. The most
important questions here concern the Hittites: who were they,
when and whence did they come to central Anatolia, and what
sort of state was the Hittite Old Kingdom? Other questions
revolve around people who played a lesser role in ancient Near
Eastern history. How are the Aryan princes of Mitanni and the
xiv