would allow.[4] According to Kortlandt, Indo-Uralic is the common
ancestor of the Indo-European and Uralic language
families.[48] Kortlandt argues that "Indo-European is a branch of Indo-
Uralic which was radically transformed under the influence of a North
Caucasian substratum when its speakers moved from the area north of
the Caspian Sea to the area north of the Black Sea."[48][note 9][note
7] Anthony notes that the validity of such deep relationships cannot be
reliably demonstrated due to the time-depth involved, and also notes
that the similarities may be explained by borrowings from PIE into
proto-Uralic.[4] Yet, Anthony also notes that the North Caucasian
communities "were southern participants in the steppe world".[2]
Kloekhorst argues that the Anatolian languages have preserved
archaisms which are also found in proto-Uralic, providing strong
evidence for a steppe-origin of PIE.[49]
Human genetics
See also: Origins of the Yamnaya culture and Yamnaya component in
European genes
The subclade R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) is the R1a subclade most
commonly associated with Indo-European speakers. In 2000, Ornella
Semino et al. proposed a postglacial (Holocene) spread of the R1a1a
haplogroup from north of the Black Sea during the time of the Late
Glacial Maximum, which was subsequently magnified by the expansion
of the Kurgan culture into Europe and eastward.[50][ obsolete^ source ]
In 2015, a large-scale ancient DNA study by Haak et al. published
in Nature found evidence of a "massive migration" from the Pontic-
Caspian steppe to Central Europe that took place about 4,500 years
ago.[5] It found that individuals from the Central European Corded Ware
culture (3rd millennium BCE) were genetically closely related to