Between six and seven thousand years ago, signs of disruption began to appear throughout the ancient civilization of the Near East. For nearly a thousand years the cultures of that region underwent a change; a period of regression. As chaos and dissatisfaction grew, problems intensified and the ancient societies of the Near East slipped deeper into despair. Then about 6,000 years ago, the inevitable happened–civilization fell apart.
What caused the breakup of civilization six thousand years ago? Some historians had speculated that a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or some similar event took place, but they were unable to find any evidence to support their claims. Besides, all of the clues pointed in the direction of an event quite different from that of an earthquake – a condition that grew over an extended period of time. The picture is on of communities in turmoil, of societies collapsing and falling apart from within; of chaos, dissatisfaction and unrest. The most accurate summation would be to say that the people just began fighting and killing one another – this is the best way to describe what was happening in the Near East 6,000 years ago.
Soon after the unsettling of civilization, another interesting change began to take place. This change occurred in the area of the Caucasus Mountains. There, in West Asia, a previously unknown group of people suddenly appeared as if from out nowhere. Collectively they are known as the Indo-Europeans, Caucasians or white people. The facts show that they first entered the area around 6,000 years ago. 2,000 years later their invasions would bring them into contact with the civilized nations to the south. Because they had no fixed homes and wandered about from place to place, historians usually describe their way of life as ‘nomadic’.
Since they were so backward, it is very difficult to use archaeological evidence to help pin down the original home of the Indo-European tongues .With the arrival of the Caucasians into that cold and sparsely populated area of the world, the few older communities, which earlier had been established there in Europe were either abandoned or destroyed. The evidence clearly suggests that the original inhabitants of those settlements either fled or were killed off by the newly arriving whites. After the whites showed up, drastic changes started to occur in the region north of the Caucasus.
A time period around 3500 B.C. forms a caesura between Old Europe and Indo- European Europe. It is a time when life in the large villages and townships either stops or is markedly changed. The degenerative changes in the settlements of the Old European Civilization may be assumed to indicate the beginning of the Indo-European presence….