BALKANS AND ILLYRIAN-THRACIAN GROUPS

BALKANS AND PONTIC AREA

ILLYRIAN GROUPS

Septentrioanl Balkanic would include Dacian, Thracian, Illyrian, Messapian, and Venet, and would have some similar isoglosses with Baltic and Slav.

Thraco-Illyro-Phrygians, settled on Balkan peninsula. It took place in the XXIIIth or the XXIIth century BC. Scientists believe it was the time of linguistic unity of all Balkan peoples. Later they divided into two groups: Thraco-Illyrian and Thraco-Phrygian, the first spread to all Balkan mountains, Illyria, Pannonia, Dacia and parts of Italy, the second existed in South-East Balkans and partly in Asia Minor. Modern Albanian means everything that left after the first group, whether it is the direct successor of Illyrian language or just related to it.

Isolated Illyrian tribes deep into hinterland shared with the Thracian tribes the custom of tattooing their bodies and of offering human sacrifices.

-2000/-1200 Proto-Illyrians in former Yugoslavia. This is the group ancestral to Istri, Dalmatians, Pannonians and other Illyrian language family tribes, listed starting in -1200.

MAP: Click here to open a new window displaying a map of the linguistic communities in the Balkans in the Bronze Age.

Vucedol est formée par la fusion de Baden-Kostolac avec des sépultures à catacombes venus du nord-est. Ces peuples de cavaliers portaient des haches de combat de section polygonales et des couteaux losangiques en cuivre. Ils utilisaient des poteries noires polies (parfois avec des anses) décorées de signes solaires (cercles concentriques) incisés, pointillés et sillonnés. Leurs descendants étaient connus dans l'antiquité sous le nom de "Vénètes" en Italie du nord-est et en Slovénie. Plusieurs tribus issues de la culture de Vucedol partiront envahir l'Italie. Ces hommes, appelés "italiotes" ou "italiques", seront les ancètres directs des latins (Romains et Falisques) et des osco-ombriens.

Vucedol culture: in Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, Austria, Czech Rep., Slovenia, Slovakia, and Germany, where men and womed were buried toguether along offers. From there surely came the Apenine Culture of Italy.

In Vucedol the tumular burials were replaced slowly by simple inhumations and cremations.

Since -1400 Illyrians in the Balkans.

-1500 Pannonians in north Croatia.

About -1300 the Illyrians settled on the northern and eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea. Included among its members were various tribes of Dalmatians and the Pannonians. Those of Illyrians who crossed the Adriatic and settled in Italy spoke the Messapic language.

IDEA: The Wends in Germany, the Venets in Brittany then could be linked with the dispersal of Illyrian peoples with the Urnfield.

In Croatia -1200/-700 Urnfield Culture with cremation and weapons inside urns.

IDEA: Such culture might have carried Illyrian there ?

The Illyrians were Indo-European tribesmen who appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula about -1000, a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. They inhabited much of the area for at least the next millennium. Archaeologists associate the Illyrians with the Hallstatt culture, an Iron Age people noted for production of iron and bronze swords with winged-shaped handles and for domestication of horses. All the western part of the Balkan Peninsula was considered, until recently, inhabited by the Illyrians. Basing on the latest researches, some scientists distinguish Dalmatians and Pannonians from Illyrians, although their languages were close or just Illyrian dialects. They also make the difference between Istrians and Liburnians who are close to the Venetians, having lived in present Northern Italy.

In about -1300 Illyrian and Venetic groups (or one group which was later divided into two) started migrating to the south, from Pannonia (modern Hungary) to Dalmatia (modern Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia).

Urnfield (-1300), with cremation, spreads to Poland as the Lausitz culture; related to Illyrians and Venets. Secondary expansion to Greece, Asia Minor, Lacio, SE France, Catalonia, Netherland, and Dover area.

IDEA: That would point to an Illyrian occupation of Dalmatia around such epoch.

After having many children, Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes in order to defend the Encheleans, a people living in southern Illyria, which is the region north of Epirus, and there defeated the Illyrian intruders.

IDEA: So by the time of Cadmus (some two centuries before the Trojan Wars), there is attested the presence of Illyrians north of Greece, at least in legends.

ILYRIANS: Utilisation de tumuli comme lieux de sépulture jusqu’au début de l’ère chrétienne est caractéristique de ces populations. Objets déposés là sont bijoux, armes et monnaies. La grande difficulté pour la connaissance de l’histoire des Illyriens tient à l’absence de texte écrit en langue illyrienne.

Sufficient is not known either of the language or customs of the Illyrians, by which their race may be ascertained. The most accurate among the ancient writers have always distinguished them as a separate nation, or group of nations, from both the Thracians and Epirots. In the practice of tattooing their bodies, and offering human sacrifices, the Illyrians resembled the Thracians.

IDEA: as the Illyrians do not appear in history before the PeloponnesianWar, it seems that the classics before that might have taken Illyrians as Thracians... Otherwise similar customs could have in fact a substrate origin.

After Illyrians began their movement to the south from the Danube valley, Phrygian tribes which probably came to the Balkans together with some branches of the Hellenic group were forced to leave their settlements and start the migration which was to play an important role in Anatolia. At first they lived in the northern Balkans, contacting with Thracians, Illyrians and Doric Greeks, and now had to cross the Bosporus and to settle in West Asia Minor, among non-Indo-European tribes who lived in Troy and other towns here.

DALMATIANS = PANNONIANS = ILLYRIANS

-1500/-1200 Liburni in Istria

Appian, The Foreign Wars: "The Liburni, another Illyrian tribe, were next to the Ardiæi as a nautical people". In another text: "At the time when Cæsar held the command in Gaul these same Dalmatians and other Illyrians, who were then in a very prosperous condition, took the city of Promona from the Liburni, another Illyrian tribe." And also: "They were supplanted by the Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe, who were displaced in their turn by the Liburnians, another Illyrian tribe, who were in the habit of making piratical expeditions against their neighbors, with very swift ships."

LIBURNIANS = ILLYRIANS

Corcyra [Korfu], before the Greeks took possession of it, was peopled by them. (Strab. vi. p. 269.) So was Issa and the neighbouring islands. (Schol. ad Apollon. iv. 564.). They were also considerably extended to the N., for Noricum, it is evident, had been previously inhabited by Liburnian tribes; for the Vindelicians were Liburnians (Serv. ad Viry. Aen. i. 243), and Strabo (iv. p. 206) makes a distinction between them and the Breuni and Genauni, whom he calls Illyrians. The words of Virgil, too, seem distinctly to term the Veneti Liburnians, for the innermost realm of the Liburnians must have been the goal at which Antenor is said to have arrived.

LIBURNIANS were not [pure] ILLYRIANS

IDEA: By such accounts the Liburnians together with Veneti expelled from North Italy (or subjugated) the native tribes, the Euganei.

At Ancona begins the coast of that part of Gaul known as Gallia Togata [North Italy, Po Bassin]. The Siculi [Epiro-Macedonians, also Pelasgians] and the Liburni possessed the greater part of this district [since -1200, as the presence of Illyrians and Epirotes is posterior to the Trojan War], and more particularly the territories of Palma, of Praetutia, and of Adria. These were expelled by the Umbri [Italics, as Urnfield invader, -1000], these again by the Etrurians [around -600, the colonists will be known as Raethians], and these in their turn by the Gauls [by -400, Celtics that will be the dominant ethnic element in the Po Basin at the arrival of the Romans]. (Pliny).

Ptolomey in the II Century: Illyrian tribe in Albania named "Albanians".

Après les invasions gothiques, puis l’arrivée des Slaves du Sud, se développe, en Albanie septentrionale notamment, la civilisation dite de Koman. Celle-ci est surtout remarquable par les bijoux, fibules, agrafes, qui témoignent de la permanence d’une technique du métal et d’un art de la décoration apparentés aux productions illyriennes antérieures

IDEA: So Illyrian as say many scholars have the unique descendant left in Albanian.

Many Illyrian names have been preserved in Albanian language: Didi=Dede, Lalus=Lala, Dassios=Dash, Bardhyllis=Bardhan, Bardhosh, etc. Even such names could be explained by Albanian etymology: Bardhyllis=bardhë+yllis=white star, or Bardibalus=bardi+balus=white forehead.

The Illyrian origins of Albanian can now be proven only with the use of lexical similarities of modern Albanian words with what was found of the Illyrian glossary, some Illyrian - Albanian correspondences: buris / burrë "man"; datan / datë "place"; drenis / dreni "deer"; pupa / pupë "hill"; rera / lera "stones".

Modern Albanians still use the vigesimal numeric system of ancient Illyrians.

Arutiunov: the only remnant of Illyrian is Albanian.

Strabo, Geography: The [Thracian] Bessi live in huts and lead a wretched life; and their country borders on Mount Rhodope, on the country of the Paeonians, and on that of two Illyrian peoples-the Autariatae, and the Dardanians.

DARDANIANS (around modern Kosovo) = ILLYRIANS

According to HOLLIS, the Illyrian languages include the Messapian and Venetic language.

Strabo: "And further, the Iapodes (we now come to this mixed tribe of Illyrii and Celti) dwell round about these regions [west Slovenia]; and Mount Ocra is near these people. The Iapodes, then, although formerly they were well supplied with strong men and held as their homeland both sides of the mountain and by their business of piracy held sway over these regions, have been vanquished and completely outdone by Augustus Caesar. Their cities are: Metulum, Arupini, Monetium, and Vendo. After the Iapodes comes Segestica, a city in the plain, past which flows the River Saüs [Sava], which empties into the Ister."

Les Alpes s'étendent jusqu'au pays des Iapodes, nation tout à la fois celtique et illyrienne. [Strabo, Book VII, 31]

Les Iapodes sont établis près de l'Albie, très haute montagne qui se trouve à l'extrémité des Alpes, et vont d'un côté jusqu'aux Pannonies et à Pister, de l'autre jusqu'à l'Adrias. ils sont tatoués tout comme les autres Illyries et les Thraces. [Strabo, Book VII, 33]

IAPODES = ILLYRIAN TRIBE (but Celtized)

Appian, The Foreign Wars: They are called Pæones [Paeones] by the Greeks, but Pannonians by the Romans.

Paeones: They appear neither as Macedonians, or Illyrians, but professed to be descended from the Teucri of Troy.

Next followed the Paeonians, who occupied both banks of the Strymon, from its source down to the lake near its mouth, but were pushed away from the coast towards the interior. (Strabo).

"But who," he [Darius] answered, "are the Paeonians, and where do they dwell, and with what intent have you come to Sardis? [in Lydia]" They told him, that they had come to be his men, that the towns of Paeonia lay on the Strymon, a river not far from the Hellespont, and that they were colonists from the Teucrians of Troy. (Herodotus).

Appian, The Foreign Wars: "Among the many myths prevailing among many peoples this seems to me the most plausible. Illyrius had six sons, Encheleus, Autarieus, Dardanus, Maedus, Taulas, and Perrhaebus, also daughters, Partho, Daortho, Dassaro, and others, from whom sprang the Taulantii, the Perrhaebi, the Enchelees, the Autarienses, the Dardani, the Partheni, the Dassaretii, and the Darsii. Autarieus had a son Pannonius, or Paeon, and the latter had sons, Scordiscus and Triballus, from whom nations bearing similar names were derived. But I will leave these matters to the archaeologists."

ILLYRIANS = DARDANIANS = PAEONES/PANNONIANS

Francisco Villar: The Paeonian was IE; per example in its sonority of aspired sonors (*bh, *dh, etc. /b/, /d/, etc.), and in names as Agrianes, Paeonian tribe (from *agro- ‘field’, as the Latin ager) or in Doberos, Paeonian city (from *dheubh- ‘deep’, as the Greek and Lithuanian dubus).

Appian, The Foreign Wars: "These peoples [Illyrian tribes], and also the Pannonians, the Rhaetians, the Noricans, the Mysians of Europe, and the other neighboring tribes who inhabited the right bank of the Danube, the Romans distinguished from one another just as the various Greek peoples are distinguished from each other, and they call each by its own name, but they consider the whole of Illyria as embraced under a common designation."

IDEA: Such fact can be explained as that once such Great Illyria was ethnically homogeneus: it is attested that the Rhaetians crossed the Alps in classical sources, also we know that the Norics were Celtics that sprang with the Hallstadt culture, and the Mysians could have suffered a process of Thracization.

The earliest writer who has left any account of the peoples inhabiting the Adriatic coast is Scylax; according to whom the Illyrians, properly so called (for the Liburnians and Istrians beyond them are excluded), occupy the sea-coast from Liburnia to the Chaonians of Epirus. The Bulini were the northernmost of these tribes, and the Amantini the southernmost. Herodotus (i. 196) includes under the name, the Heneti or Veneti, who lived at the head of the gulf; in another passage (iv. 49) he places the Illyrians on the tributary streams of the Morava river [Bosnia].

MAP: Click here to open a new window displaying a linguistic map of the Balkans in the Iron Age.

Croatia: Celts there since -400 with La Tène Culture; cremation funerals, and being substrat for the actual Croat language.

NOTE: The possible Illyrian branch of the Venets is taken into consideration in Italy's section. Also the Messapic tribes.

THRACIAN GROUPS

Cernavoda III in North Bulgaria (since -3000) is the first bronze culture in the area; practices inhumation.

-2100 Ochre Grave Culture in South Ukraine and South Russia, till the Caucasus.

Thraco-Illyro-Phrygians, settled on Balkan peninsula. It took place in the XXIIIth or the XXIIth century BC. Scientists believe it was the time of linguistic unity of all Balkan peoples. Later they divided into two groups: Thraco-Illyrian and Thraco-Phrygian, the first spread to all Balkan mountains, Illyria, Pannonia, Dacia and parts of Italy, the second existed in South-East Balkans and partly in Asia Minor. Modern Albanian means everything that left after the first group, whether it is the direct successor of Illyrian language or just related to it. Modern Armenian is NOT the descendant of Phrygian but is really its close relative.

-2000/-1200 Proto-Thracians in east Balkans, including Romania. The origins of the Thracians are ambiguous, but has them coming into Balkans from Hungary and E Galicia. Possible connection with Ochre Grave culture.

-1750/-1650 [Thracian] Mysians in the lower Danube; after they expand their area: north Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, etc.

At the turn of the second millennium BC (around -1900), the Thracian tribes of Indo-European origin settled alongside the population that had already lived in the Carpathian-Balkan region.

Towards the end of the Early Bronze I, the Pit-Grave Culture penetrated in the Balkans from the Northwest Black Sea. It occupied different microregions but Northeast Bulagria was one of the secondary areas of occupation of the PGC. It is characterized by tumulus inhumation graves in which there are traces of initial social stratification. As in the Northern Black Sea, typical were inhumations in crouched position on their back.

By -2200 Stock-breeding cultures in Middle and Lower Danube from Pit Grave culture: Domestic horse is presented, high probability of genetic relations with Pit Grave and Corded Ware cultures.

"Balkan" [linguistic] branch descend from Catacomb Grave culture [which was akin to the Pit Grave Culture].

Ezerovo in Bulgarian coasts, first bronze there and with corded ware.

Cotofeni Culture in NW Bulgaria appears with Middle Bronze Age (since -2000); use of tumuli and of incineration.

Encrusted Pottery Ware in the NW of Bulgaria appears in the Middle Bronze (-2000 to -1600); they used cremation urns.

Ezero Culture in NE Thrace (since -3250), with tumuli. Also, in contrast to the other Southern Balkan cultures, in the Ezero culture there are micro-region of active integration of the Ezero population or of co-existence with the PGC which penetrated from Northeastern Bulgaria to the south. For the time being, the only mode of burial documented is inhumation. The typical position seems to be crouched inhumations to the left or to the right, but inhumations in crouched position on back have also occurred.

In Northeast Bulgaria it was developed the Koslogeni culture, for the first time defined and typologically elaborated on the based of materials from Romania. Flat cemeteries and single graves indicate typical was inhumation in crouched position aside, as in Thrace where some late tumulus grave may belong to Late Bronze Age (since -1600).

"The formation of Thracian ethno-cultural common has been referred by the majority of researchers to the beginning of the early Iron Age. People of the previous period, especially the carriers of the Noa and the Koslogeni cultures, closely connected with tribes of the northern Black Sea land, are considered by Romanian scholars as the including in the Thracian common but they are yet not Thracians. [Proto-Thracians then ?]. Sharp change of cultures in 11 - 12-th centuries B.C. which is observed by researchers in the Karpatian-Danube area is convincing argument for such conclusion, testifying about the occurrence of the new population here. Just this arrival population is considered as the basic nucleus of northern Thracians which assimilated local tribes [with gave rise to the differences betweem Thracians and Getians ?]" (Melyukova).

In the former half of the first millennium BC, in the Carpathian-Danube-Pontic area - which was the northern part of the large surface inhabited by the Thracian tribes - a northern Thracian group became clearly individualized. It consisted of a mosaic of Getae and Dacian tribes.

Il est probable que les porteurs de la Culture Foltesti soient les ancètres des grecs et des phrygiens. Dans les Balkans, les Foltesti se mèleront aux porteurs des tombes à charpentes pour former le groupe des Daces / Gètes de Roumanie, des Illyriens d'Albanie, des Thraces de Bulgarie.

In Upper Thrace the material culture have peculiarities, but the different elements have affinity to the cultures from the Black Sea coast, European Turkey, the Northern Aegean and Southwestern Bulgaria, as well as from the Rhodopes, documented for the time being from Late Bronze Age [-1600].

IDEA: the Thracians ?

The pottery of Cernavoda in the Danube/Dobrogea area, Cotofeni in western Romania, and Ezero in the south, exhibit similarities, suggesting a wide ranging communication network. This may have extended beyond Hungary, via Bulgaria and northern Greece, to the Aegean Sea, judging by stylistic similarities of handled jugs and cups.

IDEA= Thracians ?

Anonyme ou Scymnos de Chios: Tout à côté des Énétes [Venetoi] sont les Thraces appelés Istres Puis, c'est l'Eridan, qui porte l'ambre, cette merveille; ce sont, dit-on, des larmes pétrifiées, gouttes transparentes que distillent des peupliers.

ISTRIANS = THRACIANS

ISTRIANS = LIBURNIANS (not certainity, but occupied the same region)... so:

THRACIANS = ILLYRIANS ?

Strabo, a famous geographer and historian in the age of emperor Augustus, informs that "the Dacians have the same language as the Getae". Basically, it was the same people, the only real difference between the Dacians and the Getae was just the area they inhabited.

Moesians = Thracians = Dacians = Getas

Thracian and Dacian are very close languages, but also they have many differences.

Herodotus (425 BC) would write: "The Thracian people is the most numerous one of the world; the Thracians have several names, according to their specific regions, but their habits are more or less the same."

Now the Thracian race is the most numerous, except the Indians, in all the world: and if it should come to be ruled over by one man, or to agree together in one, it would be irresistible in fight and the strongest by far of all nations, in my opinion. Since however this is impossible for them and cannot ever come to pass among them, they are in fact weak for that reason. They have many names, belonging to their various tribes in different places; but they all follow customs which are nearly the same in all respects, except the Getai and Trausians and those who dwell above the Crestonians. (Herodotus).

IDEA: so determination that Getians were a tribe of the Thracians.

"Now, the Greeks used to suppose that Getae were Thracians [so easy to confuse might have a reason]; and the Getae lived on either side of the Ister, as did also the Mysi (Mysoi), these also being Thracians and identical with the people who are now called Moesi; from these Mysi sprang also the Mysi who now live between the Lydians and the Phrygians and the Trojans" (Strabo III).

GETIANS (in south Romania) = THRACIANS

These are their most remarkable customs; and of the gods they worship only Ares and Dionysos and Artemis. Their kings, however, apart from the rest of the people, worship Hermes more than all gods, and swear by him alone; and they say that they are descended from Hermes. The manner of burial for the rich among them is this: for three days they expose the corpse to view, and they slay all kinds of victims and feast, having first made lamentation. Then they perform the burial rites, either consuming the body with fire or covering it up in the earth without burning; and afterwards when they have heaped up a mound they celebrate games with every kind of contest, in which reasonably the greatest prizes are assigned for single combat. This is the manner of burial among the Thracians. (Herodotus)

IDEA: their rulers would have been previously of an alocton nation, maybe Iranian.

-1100 Thracian peoples arrive to Balkans. At this time (or even earlier) archaeological cultures which are believed to have been connected with Thracians occupy the territory of modern Romania, Bulgaria and reach the Aegean Sea together with Illyrians and Doric Greeks.

During the 12th - 8th centuries B.C., the Basarabi culture, thriving almost throughout the Carpatho - Danubian - Pontic territory, testifies the beginning of the Iron Age.

IDEA: the same area that Strabo pointed out as the original homeland of the Anatolian Mysians that vanquished the Trojans with their strong weapons of iron...

IDEA: To known more about the subdivisions of Thracian tribes, and the colonization of Anatolia, see the Anatolian section.