I: Language and archaeology -- The promise and politics of the mother tongue -- How to reconstruct a dead language -- Language and time 1: The last speakers of Proto-Indo-European -- Language and time 2: Wool, wheels, and Proto-Indo-European -- Language and place: The location of the Proto-Indo-European homeland -- The archaeology of language -- II: The opening of the Eurasian Steppes -- How to reconstruct a dead culture -- First farmers and herders: The Pontic-Caspian Neolithic -- Cows, copper, and chiefs -- The domestication of the horse and the origins of riding: The tale of the teeth -- The end of old Europe and the rise of the Steppe -- Seeds of change on the Steppe borders: Maikop chiefs and Tripolye towns -- Wagon dwellers of the Steppe: the speakers of Proto-Indo-European -- The Western Indo-European languages -- Chariot warriors of the Northern Steppes -- The opening of the Eurasian Steppes -- Words and deeds.