Conclusionvelopment of the "chariot," which is to say a light, spoked-
wheel cart. It is certain that the inhabitants of the forested
areas of Armenia very early became accomplished woodwork-
ers, and it now appears that in the second millennium they
produced spoked-wheel vehicles that served as models as far
away as China. And we have long known that from the second
millennium onward, Armenia was important for the breeding
of horses. It is thus not surprising to find that what clues we
have suggest that chariot warfare was pioneered in eastern An-
atolia.
Finally, our picture of what the PIE speakers did, and when,
owes much to the recently proposed hypothesis that the home-
land of the PIE speakers was Armenia. Although this identifi-
cation is problematic, there is much to be said for it. The pres-
ent essay departs rather widely from the chronological and
historical assumptions within which Gamkrelidze and Ivanov
constructed their hypothesis, but I believe that in so doing, it
provides a more reasonable picture of how, when, and why the
PIE speakers made their entry inro history.
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