section_path: Asia/Central Asia/Seima-Turbino phenomenon
section_name: Seima-Turbino phenomenon
paragraph_text: Seima-Turbino phenomenon
  
  The Altai Mountains in what is now southern Russia and central Mongolia have been identified as the point of origin of a cultural enigma termed the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon. It is conjectured that changes in climate in this region around 2000 BC and the ensuing ecological, economic, and political changes triggered a rapid and massive migration westward into northeast Europe, eastward into China, and southward into Vietnam and Thailand across a frontier of some 4,000 mi (6,000 km). This migration took place in just five to six generations and led to peoples from Finland in the west to Thailand in the east employing the same metalworking technology and, in some areas, horse breeding and riding. However, recent genetic testings of sites in south Siberia and Kazakhstan (Andronovo horizon) would rather support spreading of the bronze technology via Indo-European migrations eastwards, as this technology had been well known for quite a while in western regions.
  
  It is further conjectured that the same migrations spread the Uralic group of languages across Europe and Asia: some 39 languages of this group still exist, including Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian.