In The Iliad, Homer provides some mythical genealogical information linking the Trojans to the Illyrians. In Book 20 of Homer’s mighty epic, Prince Aeneas is boasting of his esteemed parentage, saying that he is a descendant of Zeus himself. In his account, Dardanus, the legendary founder of the Dardanian tribe, was a son of Zeus, and it was Dardanus who founded the city of Dardania. Dardanus’ son was named Erichthonius, and he in turn begat a son named Tros, after whom the Trojan people were named, and Tros begat a son named Ilus, who named the capital city of the Trojan people after himself.13 Other authors like Virgil, Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus provide extra details. In their collective accounts, Dardanus was the child of Zeus and Electra, the daughter of Atlas. Virgil says that he originated from Italy, while Apollodorus says that he came from the Greek island of Samothrace, and Dionysius says that he came from Arcadia. Regardless of Dardanus’ exact origins, it is stated in the ancient documents that he came from somewhere in the west and landed in the north-east Anatolian kingdom of Teucria. This kingdom was named after King Teucer, who was the son of the Anatolian river god Scamander. When Dardanus arrived, he was initially welcomed in friendship by King Teucer, who permitted Dardanus to marry his daughter Princess Batia and establish a settlement on Mount Ida, located near the Teucrian capital. This settlement was named Dardanus, after himself. After ruling over his small town for only a short while, Dardanus and his following quickly took control of all of the kingdom of Teucria and renamed it Dardania. Dardanus waged war against his other neighbours and conquered their lands. He had many children, among them a son named Erichthonius. Erichthonius’ son was named Tros, who took over the kingdom of Dardania and named it Troad after himself, also renaming the former Teucrian capital city after himself, calling it ‘Troy’. Tros’ son was named Ilus, whose name inspired Troy’s alternate name, Ilios. So, according to Homer, the ancestors of the Illyrians originally came from Greece, migrated to Anatolia, transformed themselves into the Trojans, and then migrated back to Europe after the fall of Troy.14
Other stories told by the ancient Greek and Roman authors relate how many of the peoples of Anatolia had originally come from Europe. For example, the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC, states that the Phrygians and the Bithynians of northern Anatolia were actually Thracians who had migrated across the sea and settled in a new home.15 The historian Strabo, writing almost five centuries later, reasserts this claim, and there is some evidence to support this. Inscriptions found in the city of Gordium show that the Phrygian language was not one of the native Anatolian languages or even closely related to them.16
Considering that the Romans traced their origins back to the Trojans, it is certainly possible that the ancient Illyrians traced their ancestry back to the Trojans as well. What do the Illyrians themselves say about their origins? Stories telling how a group of people or a nation was created are known as ‘etiological tales’, more commonly called ‘origin myths’ or ‘foundation myths’. Unfortunately, no stories about where the Illyrians came from written by the Illyrians themselves have survived to the present day. Our only historical records about the origins of the Illyrians come from other cultures. Aside from Homer’s rather suspect account linking the Illyrians to the Trojans, we currently know of only two existing stories explaining where the Illyrians came from, and both of them are entrenched with mythological references. The first story comes from the Greek historian Pseudo-Apollodorus, who states in his Library, which is a collection of various Greek myths and legends, that the creation of Illyria as a formal country was due to the great mythic hero Cadmus, a Phoenician prince who lived around the year 2,000 BC. In Pseudo- Apollodorus’ story, the supreme god Zeus kidnapped Cadmus’ sister Europa and Cadmus went in search of her, taking his wife Harmonia. The Greeks state that it was Cadmus who introduced the alphabet to the Greeks (the Greek alphabet is somewhat based upon the Phoenician alphabet), and he also founded the city of Thebes. Cadmus and his wife left Thebes, continuing their search for Cadmus’ sister, and entered the land of a people known as the Encheleans. During this time, the Encheleans were being attacked by the Illyrians (note that in this story the Illyrians already exist), and the war was not progressing well. Then, one of the gods declared via an oracle that the Encheleans would defeat the Illyrians if they made Cadmus and Harmonia their leaders. The Encheleans obeyed the oracle and, sure enough, the Illyrians were defeated. Cadmus was made king over both the Encheleans and the Illyrians, and when Cadmus had a son, he named him Illyrius, presumably to commemorate his victory (the Romans would do the same thing from time to time). However, the tale ends in tragedy, because Zeus turned Harmonia and Illyrius into snakes, and both of them were taken into the Elysian Fields.17
The second origin story concerning the Illyrians is reported by the Roman historian Appianus of Alexandria, commonly referred to in English simply as Appian, who lived in Roman-controlled Egypt from 95 to 165 AD. Unlike the earlier story by Pseudo-Apollodorus, this one does not have the Illyrians already in existence, but has them created from a single founder. According to Appianus, the region was named after Illyrius, who was the son of Polyphemus, the cyclops from The Odyssey. Moreover, he states that Polyphemus and his wife had three sons named Celtus, Galus and Illyrius, and that the Britonic Celts, Gallic Celts and Illyrians are descended from these three sons. Appianus further states that Illyrius had many children, and from these children are descended the various Illyrian tribes. As unbelievable as this story sounds, Appianus comments that among the many stories that he has heard concerning the origin of the Illyrians, this one appears the most plausible.18 This statement indicates that in the past there were many stories pertaining to how the Illyrians appeared, and with the exception of Pseudo-Apollodorus’ and Appianus’ legendary tales, all of them are unfortunately lost to us. Considering Appianus’ comment, one can only speculate as to how wild and outlandish these other tales were!
As stated earlier in Pseudo-Apollodorus’ legend, Zeus turned Illyrius into a snake. Taking this as some kind of cue, modern linguists have tried to connect the word ‘Illyria’ to snakes, and surprisingly, they have come up with some pretty interesting findings. Snakes were rather prominent in the Illyrian religion, and we are fairly certain that the ancient Illyrians’ language was part of the vast Indo-European language family. One German scholar named Otto Gruppe stated that ‘Illyrius’ looks similar to the Greek word illo, which means ‘to turn or wind’ like the slithering movements of a snake. The Slovenian linguist Karel Oštir discovered that the ancient Hittites of Turkey, who spoke a very archaic Indo- European language, called a large mythical snake Ilurjanka. According to the history of the Battle of Kadesh, fought between the Egyptians and the Hittites in 1286 BC, an Illyrian tribe called the Dardanians fought on the Hittites’ side, which adds further weight to the idea that the Illyrians and Hittites of ancient Anatolia might somehow be related. However, not all scholars have convinced themselves that the name ‘Illyrian’ somehow involves snakes. Julius Porkorny stated that the name ‘Illyrian’ comes from the Iller River, which is a tributary of the Danube; the Illyrians were, therefore ‘the people of the Iller’. Another hypothesis comes from the study of the Albanian language, because the Albanians are believed by some to be the Illyrians’ modern descendants. Ciro Truhelka stated that the name might be connected with the Albanian word ilir, which means ‘freeman’; thus Illyria would mean ‘land of the free men’. There are others who believe that the word ‘Illyrian’ has absolutely no connection to any Indo-European language and is a ‘language isolate’, meaning that it is completely unrelated to any other language and any attempts to dissect the word are futile.19
Earlier, I made a comment that there is a large community which believes that the Albanians are the descendants of the Illyrians, or who have at least retained numerous aspects of ancient Illyrian culture. This claim originated during the mid-nineteenth century and it has been furiously defended by a sizeable number of
Albanians. Some might regard this as archaeology/history-based nationalism, where a modern culture tries to tie itself to a culture from the past to which it might not actually be related in order to give itself greater social clout. However, as outlandish as this may appear at first glance, there is actually quite a bit of evidence to support this claim.20
The most important piece of evidence is language. Only a few names and isolated vocabulary words from the ancient Illyrian language have survived to the present day. Some wonder if any trace of this old language can still be found in modern languages, such as Albanian. However, the link between the Illyrian and Albanian languages is sketchy. The Albanian language, as we know it, only appeared in the fifteenth century, and by that time it had already undergone massive changes.21 Albanian is by no means a pure language. There are obviously loan-words from other languages, the most prominent example of which that springs to my mind is the Slavic word slava, ‘glory’ and the Albanian word lavdi, also ‘glory’. Some Albanian personal names might reflect an Illyrian origin. For example, the name Bardyllis, one of the more famous of the Illyrian rulers, has been preserved in the modern Albanian name Bardhyl, which means ‘white star’ in Albanian. Yet is this evidence that Albanian is the true ancestor of Illyrian, or does it mean that the Albanians simply adopted a foreign name into their list of names?22
Another point of conflict is genetics. Critics of the claim that Albanians are modern-day Illyrians state that Albanians are not genetically related to those from whom they claim to be descended. According to the Human Genome Project, an analysis of Y-chromosomes showed that Albanians are not related to the Illyrians. If you were to analyse Albanian DNA, chances are you would not find much in the way of Illyrian genes. After all, the Illyrians lived two thousand years ago, and during the intervening time between then and now, numerous other cultures have moved back and forth into the area: Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, Slavs, Turks, Germans and Russians, to name but a few. No doubt, the purity of a potential 100 per cent Illyrian genepool has been substantially polluted by the presence of so many other people who migrated into the area, settled, and had families within the course of twenty centuries. I am quite sure that if you were to take a DNA sample of your average Albanian, that person would show a mixture of Italian, Greek, Slavic, Turkish and possibly a little Scandinavian thrown in just for some added zest.23
As for myself, I will not even dare to voice an opinion on a subject that is so controversial, although this controversy exists due more to political reasons than any problems with the actual history and archaeology, perse. Genetic evidence has proven impossible, and linguistic evidence is sketchy at best. In short, we just don’t know, and I don’t think that we ever will. So claims by modern cultures about an Illyrian connection are unreliable, and literary evidence in the form of legendary stories provides only tantalizing glimpses of information. Regardless, all available evidence suggests that the Illyrians came from Anatolia and migrated into southern Europe sometime during the early Bronze Age. Our primary evidence for this is both language and archaeology. Words and archaeological finds that are indicative of an Indo-European culture do not appear in the western Balkans until the early Bronze Age, meaning that a pre-Indo- European culture must have existed in the region beforehand.24 Who were these people who had been living in what would become Illyria or Yugoslavia since time immemorial? Unfortunately, we don’t know what they called themselves or the land that they lived in since they left no written records. Our only evidence for a distinct culture that already existed in the western Balkans before the Illyrians’ arrival comes from archaeology.
The Prehistoric Western Balkans
The paleontological and archaeological record of the western Balkans is surprisingly detailed, even though there are of course massive gaps in the record. However, archaeologists have uncovered just enough evidence in terms of human remains and artefacts to construct a probable chronology of what the prehistoric western Balkans were like. The story begins during the Stone Age, when vast glaciers covered much of northern Europe and when beasts like mammoths, mastadons and giant lions and bears roamed the land. The Stone Age is divided into three periods: the Paleolithic (‘Old Stone Age’), Mesolithic (‘Middle Stone Age’) and Neolithic (‘New Stone Age’). South-eastern Europe, including the lands of Illyria, was far enough south that temperatures were warmer, and as such was largely free of ice. Because of this, south-eastern Europe had significantly more food than other areas, and the mountainous landscape possessed a vast warren of protective caves. It was an ideal place for the first people to establish themselves.
It is unclear when hominids (humans and their ancestors) first arrived in the western Balkans, but artefacts and skeletal remains dated to the Paleolithic period have been found in this region. At Sicevo Gorge, Serbia, a piece of a jaw was found, possibly being 250,000 years old and believed to have come from Homo erectus, a primitive human ancestor.25Stone hand axes, believed to be approximately 100,000 to 200,000 years old, have been found in this region. In Montenegro, one cave yielded a massive cache of more than 23,000 stone objects that showed evidence of being manually worked. Based upon the shape of some of the flakes, they were clearly of Neanderthal manufacture.26 At Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria, pieces of two human jawbones were found inside, which were dated to around 43,000 BC. However, it is not clear if these fragmentary jaws belonged to Homo neanderthalensis or Homo sapiens. The first true humans, though in a very archaic form, entered Europe around 45,000 BC, and Neanderthals became extinct in Europe sometime between 40,000 BC to 37,000 BC. In 2002, a skull that was positively identified as belonging to Homo sapiens sapiens, modern humans, was uncovered in Romania, dated to about 40,000 BC. To date, this is the oldest-known modern human skull that has been found in Europe.27
In the centuries following the end of the Ice Age, the geography and climate of the western Balkans began to take on their present form. The Mesolithic, the Middle Stone Age, was a period of renewed prosperity. The warmer temperatures led to a lush landscape full of food. Forests of deciduous trees began to spread, while fields of wild grain sprang up along the Danube River Valley. With warmer temperatures and more available food, populations grew. As the landscape presumably returned to its pre-Ice Age state, the primitive people who inhabited this region maintained their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In some places within Mesolithic Europe, food was so abundant that the people significantly delayed the adoption of agriculture.28
The most well-known Mesolithic site within the western Balkans is Lepenski Vir, Serbia, located on the western bank of the Danube River. Examinations at the site show that it was inhabited for more than a thousand years, beginning in the Mesolithic and ending well into the Neolithic at about 3,000 BC, when habitation abruptly ended. The buildings that are evident at Lepenski Vir and the other nearby villages show that these were not permanent buildings, at least not at first. In its early stages, Lepenski Vir might have been a seasonal campsite that was inhabited year after year. The site itself is rather confining, occupying a small area squeezed between the Danube and steep rising cliffs. The small huts, which were of various sizes (the smallest ones were just barely large enough to accommodate one person, and the largest ones were not that much bigger), were laid out in the shape of bell-shaped trapezoids. The huts themselves were not arranged in any sort of pattern, but all of them had their wide flaring end facing towards the river. Amazingly, each of these huts was built according to extremely precise geometric measurements, long before geometry was thought to have been invented. The architectural proportions of the huts remain the same throughout all of the habitation phases at the site. The differences in size might be due to social status, since the larger huts appear to be concentrated in the centre of the camp.29
Human burials at Lepenski Vir are of several types. In the site’s earliest stage, dubbed ‘Lepenski Vir I’, the dead are buried underneath the hut, usually at the far end away from the entrance; these consist almost entirely of newborns to 5-month-o
lds. In some cases, the bones are of a much wider age bracket, but they seldom consist of whole skeletons. Usually they consist of isolated bones here and there, such as a skull, or a jawbone, or some ribs, or a femur. This shows that the body was not buried whole underneath the hut. Instead, the body was likely left out in the open to decompose or to be picked clean by carrion birds, similar to the custom of many native North American tribes of the Great Plains, and then afterwards some of the physical remains were brought back and buried underneath the house, presumably to strengthen the house through the spiritual power of the ancestors.30 The dead were also buried outside the village in collective cemeteries located either to the north or west of the settlement. These burials date mostly to the occupation phase called ‘Lepenski Vir II’. Almost all of them are buried lying on their backs and orientated parallel to the river, being laid out in a north-south direction.31
The Great Illyrian Revolt Page 3