ABSTRACT
The fundamental role of subsistence economies in the Indo-European traditions has structured historic developments from the first migration from the Pontic steppe – the area north of the Black and the Caspian Seas – 5000–6000 years ago. Whether settled agriculture, transhumance or nomadic pastoralism, throughout the millennia the winter season has defined large parts of wealth and well-being. Access to food and fodder was critical during large parts of the year, and fire was the ultimate life-giver during the long, cold and snowy winters. Two pastoral cultures that may give clues to these historic developments are the early Iranians as well as the later Scythians, in parts of Central Asia. The Scythians were masters in metallurgy and the ancient Iranians developed particular concepts and religious practices around the purity of fire, which received their final form in Zoroastrianism. Given that the ancient Iranians share structural and cultural patterns with the Vedic civilisation, it creates a historic continuity between these Indo-European belief systems, but also to the much larger part of the Indo-European family.
