The "Proto"-Baltic Middle Dnieper & Fatyanovo-Balanovo cultures, 3200 -2400 BCE, were an Northern extension of the Corded Ware culture. It was really four cultures, the Littoral Piemare culture in the West, the Middle Dnieper in the middle, the Fatyanovo-Balanovo in the East. To the South of these bordered the Milograd culture, and beyond Milograd, the Indo-European Yamna and Proto-Slavic Komarov culture horizons. Excavations between the rivers Orel' and Samara have uncovered burials of a syncretic nature that attest contacts between the spheres of the Corded Ware and Yamna cultures. It may indicate early contacts between Proto-Indo-Iranians and the ancestors of the Balts. These cultures migrated from the Strednij Stog culture (4500-3350), which in turn evolved from the Khvalynsk and nearby Samara PIE epoch homeland culture (6000-5000 BCE) on the Volga River.

Most migrations were often due to prolonged climatic changes, or population pressure on natural resources. The migrations by each group resulted in different ethnic assimilations during the migrations, and even more so at the eventual settlement regions. From the Samara culture to the present, the languages were multi-ethnic in various degrees. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages. Europe today is like an unmarked ancient sack of mixed genetic seeds.

The Sūdovians (Yotvingians), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians together formed a closely related Baltic language group known as the Western Balts (Littoral Piemare culture), to which one should also include the ancient Curonians. The languages of both the Western and Eastern Balts (Lithuanian and Latvian) evolved from the Early-Baltic languages that migrated (each differently) from the Strednij Stog culture horizon. These early Baltic language settlement areas of which (the lower reaches of the Vistula, Daugava, the Nemunas basin, the upper reaches of the Dnieper & even to the Urals) - is known to have developed into the (1) Early Baltic Area of Central dialects and (2) Early Baltic Area of Peripheral dialects. The Sūdovians and Prussians can be regarded as links in a chain of this latter group, while the Lithuanians and Latvians are considered to be the remnants of a more Central Early-Baltic Area. The Eastern most dialects of the Eastern Early-Baltic area (Fatyanovo-Balanovo) did not survive to be documented, and some may have later merged with the nearby Abashevo culture, which linguistically is associated with Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Vedic). Some Abashevo pottery looks similar to Fatyanovo/Balanovo, which may indicate assimilation of some Balts there. The Southern most peripheral Baltic dialects were the Milograd Culture.

Linguistically speaking, the ancestors of the West Balts were the Baltic Mazovia-Podlasie / Lublin groups of the Trzciniec culture along the Bug river basin, which bordered the Komarov (Proto-Slavic) culture further to the South. The Trzciniec ("Streaked" pottery) culture was related to the Komarov culture, but different, as ceramics, metalwork, hydronyms, and burial rites indicate. This mirrors Balto-Slavic linguistic studies nicely.

The Trzciniec culture gave way to the later Pomeranian culture horizon. The West Baltic dialect flowed North with migrations and trade to Coastal Balts. Even as late as the Early Iron Age (600 BCE), the southern limit of the large Sūdovian culture territory bordered the Slavic/Scythian Chernoles culture.

According to Herodotus (approx 450 BCE) the Neuri  ( Νέυροι ) were a tribe living North of the Tyres (Dneister river), and the furthest nation beyond the Scythian farmers along the course of the river Hypanis (Bug river). The Bug river flows into the Naura (Baltic name for the Narew) river. The Naura river leads one to Galinda and Sūduva. Since trade increased recognition, the Neuri of Herodotus were possibly the Galindians and Sūdovians. Herodotus also mentions the wild white horses nearby that grazed by a great lake, which scholars today suggest are the Podlesie marshes by the Bialowieza Forest. Yotvingian Tarpans from the Bialowieza Forest seasonally faded to near white in Winter. In 500 BCE, Eastern Europe climate was much cooler and wetter. There is still a town in Poland named Nur ( 52° 40' 0" N, 22° 18' 0" E ) along the Bug River, near the Bialowieza Forest.

Thus, the Western Balts should include the Sūdovians ( Яцьвягі ), Galindians, Pomesanians, and various Prussians, and also the Curonians, the former comprising the Southern group, and the latter,  the Northern group. This explains the close similarity between Sūdovian ( Yatvingian ), Galindian,  Pomesanian, and Prussian.

The four cases of West-Baltic (Prussian, Sūdovian, & Galindian) declension are not an innovation but an archaic feature, uniting West Baltic with Germanic and Greek. Only nominative, genitive, dative and accusative forms have constant intercrossing functions in various Indo-European languages, while forms used for the instrumental or locative cases (traditionally declared to be "Common Indo-European"), have related functions: e.g. the IE *"-ois" may occur in the instrumental case in one language and in the locative case in other ones, or *"-ō" / (apophonically) "-ē " occurs as "-āt" in the Indo-Iranian ablative and as "-it" in the Hittite instrumental. Such intercrossing elements were used for semi-paradigmatic adverbial forms, differently paradigmatized in the various Indo-European languages. (V. Toporov, V. J. Mažiulis)

Some very archaic lexical differences exist between the Western Baltic dialects and the Central Baltic dialects. The word for "fire" is just such an example. The Western Balts used the word "panu", whereas the Central Balts used the word (Lith.) "ugnis".  Another example is the word for "wheel". The Western Balts used the word "kelan", whereas the Central Balts used the word (Lith.) "ratas".  These words have cognates in other ancient Indo-European languages. That such archaic diversity of basic terminology existed within "Proto"-Baltic" illustrates the antiquity of the West / East Baltic dialect areas inherited from the late Strednij Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE) into the Corded Ware horizon.

Another key feature of West Baltic is the nominative singular neuter gender ending in [ -n ]. This is noted in such words as kelan (wheel), azeran (lake), and dadan (milk). There are also many neuter gender words that end in [ -u ], such as panu (fire) and peku (livestock), as well as alu (mead).

Another feature of West Baltic is the Genitive singular declensional ending in [ -as' ] for words that end in [ -as ] or [ -an ] in the Nominative case. This declensional ending also changes the stress of the accent to the end syllable, as in many cognate Vedic words.  This generalized declensional feature is noted in a word like Nominative singular pedan (ploughshare), Genitive singular pedas, or in the West Baltic Genitive singular Deivas' (God's). The above unique features of West Baltic are relics from the Proto-Indo-European Strednij Stog horizon (4500-3350 BCE).

West Baltic has the same four nominal accent classes as does Lithuanian, but it has retained the original accentual state of Baltic ( an acute rising accent and a circumflex falling accent). The first class is the acute barytone paradigm. The second is the circumflex barytone paradigm. Thirdly, the acute mobile paradigm. Lastly, the circumflex mobile paradigm.

The high incidence of Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c suggest long term relations and admixture with Finnic neighbors, which may have had a conservative influence on the Baltic dialects and speakers. The divergence of language is usually happening while there is also a convergence of languages.

A separation of Belarus subpopulations along a North/South line can be demonstrated particularly in distribution of Y chromosomal lineages R1b, I1a and I1b, N3 and G-chromosomes. The uniqueness of the northern Belarusian population is most likely due to the high incidence of Яцьвягі Y chromosomes from the haplogroup N1c [old name N3] (homogeneous Baltic Яцьвягі substrate with allele DYS19*15 ), which is twice the frequency as in central and southern Belarus. The central and southern Belarusian substratum Baltic Milograd physical traits differ somewhat from Ukrainian substratum Slav/Cimmerian/Scythian traits. The assimilation of Belarus may have been mainly linguistic and not physically ethnical.

The Y-STR variation among Slavs* has given the evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin, which provides a geographic correlation for the Slavic linguistic relation to Baltic.  During the period (3,400 BCE) of the oxen pulled wheeled wagon revolution, the Yamna culture slowly expanded toward the edge of the Corded Ware horizon of late Strednij Stog culture. The eastern area of the contact zone, near the middle Dnieper, a genetically integrated Slav / Iranian hybrid border culture developed (Komarov > Chernoles culture).

A genetically integrated hybrid culture interpretation (Komarov > Chernoles culture) helps to explain why Slavic has partial elements of a dialect of a Corded Ware Komarov language, and yet distinct from the West Baltic (Trzciniec culture) languages bordering to the North, and it also explains the Slav/Iranian religious vocabulary as well as the higher frequency of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 in many Slavs from the Yamna culture genetics and detection of common Slav / Iranian mtDNA types. Does this support the construct of a so-called "Balto-Slavic" group? Maybe. But if there never was a "Proto-Baltic", how can you ever have a Proto "Balto-Slavic"? 

There never was a monolithic "Proto-Baltic" per se. The West & Central Baltic & Slavic languages represent an archaic continuum of remnants of former Early I.E. dialects, the last Proto Indo-European branches to finally split. A "Proto-Baltic" would be none other than a "Proto Satem Indo-European" central dialect. It is more helpful to visualize Baltic as a trunk rather than a language branch.

For a detailed analysis of the archaeological record of Balto-Slavic relations, click here.

In respect to hematological variations in the frequencies of the Landsteiner-Wiener (LW) blood group, the frequency of the uncommon LWb gene was highest in the Eastern Balts, around 7.5% among Lithuanian Samogitians, and very low among the other western Europeans (0-0.1%). # The LWb Blood Group can be seen as a genetic Tribal Marker of Prehistoric Central Baltic Migrations and Admixture, and perhaps not a West-Baltic marker  Another Baltic migration marker may be a significantly increased frequency of the BanI 2-Hin6I 1 haplotype.

The spread of Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1a1 is associated with the spread of the Indo-European languages, too. Many Latvian plaid weavings are nearly identical to ancient Tocharian plaids / tartans found recently  with Tocharian mummies recovered in Western China. Tocharians were evidently also dedicated hemp farmers, like the Balts and documented Thracians.

A high frequency of the CCR5-D32 allele in Lithuanian populations, at levels of about 16% has been documented. This allele confers resistance to HIV (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).
Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jews have also interested geneticists, since they display a number of unique genetic characteristics.

Traditional ancient Baltic songs ( Lith. Dainos, Latv. Dainas ) are a vast resource of the Baltic languages. The Dainos are the Rig Veda of the Baltic people. They are usually stanzas about the Native Religion and Mythology, but in contrast to most other similar forms, they often lack earthly heroes. These ancient hymns are superb relics of the pre-Christian Native Religion and the life of the people, especially its' three important events - birth, weddings and death/burial, but also life's infinite experiences.
There are literally millions of verses of these ancient Dainos / Dainas now in written form. So intertwined with the languages and their enormous vocabularies, it is virtually impossible to try to separate the two.

The Sūdovian greeting "Kails" re-affirms that we are all One,
- with each other, and with the Earth we share.

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