So you can see the pastoralism actually up from the spread of farming culture into the steppes. So southwest asian (Levant) farmers spread into the Caucus (between Black sea and Caspian sea) around 5th millennium BCE. First sheep domestication herding occurred in that area and after better fodder developed - cattle. By 3rd millennium BCE the horse was domesticated for across the steppes - into Eastern Europe and Western China... This was also the origin of the IndoEuropean languages but also the Black Plague first spread by the 3rd millennium.
They started in the mid-5th millennium BC, when a Neolithic population with southwest Asian (Anatolian) genetic ancestry migrated across the Caucasus, and encountered different hunter-gatherer groups inhabiting the piedmonts and the neighbouring steppes. They were coined as Caucasus respectively Steppe ancestry. Interestingly, this genetic demarcation remained largely intact during the rapid spread of technical, social and economic innovations in the 4th millennium BC, which revolutionized lifeways in Western Eurasia.
“This is a peak time of knowledge and technology transfer in the North Caucasus region, when we see very similar cultural elements in genetically different groups, but also many signs of mixing and mingling”, explains Sabine Reinhold, co-lead author of the study.
The archaeological record attest to critical innovations for instance in herd management and dairying practices, but likewise in mobility: “Durable foodstuffs such as the early forms of cheese, together with innovations in transportation, first enabled the large grasslands of the Eurasian steppe to be permanently populated. It helped to establish continent-wide networks of communication that still today connect the Atlantic and the Pacific.” adds Svend Hansen, director of the Eurasia Department, PI of the ERC Advanced Grant ARCHCAUCASUS and co-senior author of the study. This combination of paved the way for a fully nomadic pastoralist life-style at the turn the 3rd millennium BC, practiced for instance by groups associated the Yamnaya cultural complex and Steppe ancestry, which soon after expanded across the entire western steppe zone – as far as Mongolia in the east, and the Carpathian Basin in the west.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08113-5?fromPaywallRec=false
Whole Playlist of this fascinating conference!! 2024
5th millennium BCE - Anatolian Farmers mixed with Caucasian hunter-gatherers....
This led to development of wheels, wagons, domestication of horses.... development of Cheese led to expansion of steppe culture - since you can store the cheese.
late 4th Millennium Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar symbols found in the Caucasus
Later (2500 BCE) on the Caucasian hunters then spread back down south into the Anatolian populations - speaking anatolian farmer languages...
-Kalehöyük, a multi-period archaeological site in Anatolia,
dating to c. 1800 BCE revealed that some of these fragments were composed of carbon steel; these currently form the world's earliest known evidence for steel manufacture.[5][6] This was further confirmed in a 2023 study, which also found that the carbon content in these iron and steel artifacts was rather variable.
first steel!
According to the authors, this indicates the continuing experimentation by these early metallurgists, and illustrates "the range in early efforts to smelt iron".[7]
Fascinatingly the Yamnaya spread very fast into Europe by 3500 as the Corded Ware culture but it was the Farming Europeans - who took on the Females of the Yamnaya.
So this proves the Plow-based farm wheat cultures of Europe were patriarchal.
"sex exploitation of [steppe] females by Corded Ware males"
https://elixirfield.blogspot.com/2025/02/david-reichs-ancient-dna-research-group.html
In this theology, all gods transmit their virtue by sexual reproduction.
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that sexual intercourse and giving birth rep-
licate the divine nature. Hence, the woman embodies the “secrets” of divinity and
Inanna is a natural development of this cosmic vision of life and religion.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=papers
. It is of particular interest for this article to mention a terracotta statuette from Çatal
Hüyük (Anatolia) dated by archaeologists about 6500 B.C.E. (Bahrani 2001: 46)
in Anatolia. This figurine could be a clear example of the “reign of the goddess”
within a matriarchal society (Bahrani 2001: 46-47). She is depicted on a throne
with two cat-like animals in the act of giving birth. Apparently, its association
with womanhood, throne, and birth strengthens the idea of a matriarchal society,
a time when the female figure was dominant.
Inanna's descent to the netherworld was supposedly an invitation by Ereshkigal to be pres-
ent at the funeral of Gugalanna, the great bull of heaven; (5) she is admitted and
passes by the seven gates, naked; (6) once in front of Ereshkigal, she is judged by
the Anunnaki, the seven judges of the netherworld; (7) by their decree, she is put
to death; (8) after three days and three nights, Ninshubur pleads to Enlil, Nanna,
and Enki, being listened to only by Enki; (9) Enki sends sexless creatures, kur-
garru and galaturru, entrusting them with the “food of life” and “water of life;”
and (10) Inanna is revived and re-ascends to the earth, accompanied by the dead.
The identification of Asherah with pillar figurines is based on the assumption
that the column or post represented a tree trunk that is frequently associated with
Asherah’s “sacred tree” (Press 2012: 17).
8000 BCE Turkey - before Inanna!
Deuteronomy 16:21 states that YHWH (rendered as "the LORD") hated Asherim whether rendered as poles: "Do not set up any [wooden] Asherah [pole][7] beside the altar you build to the LORD your God" or as living trees: "You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God which you shall make".[8] That Asherahs were not always living trees is shown in 1 Kings 14:23: "their asherim, beside every luxuriant tree".[9] However, the record indicates that the Jewish people often departed from this ideal. For example, King Manasseh placed an Asherah pole in the Holy Temple (2 Kings 21:7). King Josiah's reforms in the late 7th century BC included the destruction of many Asherah poles (2 Kings 23:14).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah_pole
Since Palestine was under Egyptian control during most of the
Middle Bronze Age, one would expect some association between Hathor and the
local versions of Ishtar. For example, a tree growing out of the navel of a god-
dess, possibly Hathor, is shown on a gold pendant at Tell el-Ajjul (Hillers 1970:
606; Sugimoto 2014: 13). Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie identified a sim-
ilar piece as Asherah. Both have three dots under the face and share a common
Egyptian Hathor style (Pritchard, and White 2003: 69).
Asherah - the wife/Goddess of Yahweh - https://elixirfield.blogspot.com/2025/03/neolithic-west-asian-farming-migration.html ties back to mother goddess worship from 8,000 BCE in the Levant (Turkey) - and the origins of farming. Intriguingly the early Sumerian "eden" myth ties the Goddess (born from the Moon) to a necessary spiritual trip to the "underworld" for three days - via the male Bull energy. This is very similar to the San Bushmen Eland Bull training called "Re/Entry into First Creation" from very ancient origins of humans - the first menstruation female spiritual training.
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