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02-11-2008, 07:26 AM
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 Hi BBB!, At first thanks for your generous offer, and no i don't have the Hammond's Epirus and Macedonia the latter i think is on a google database on the net,it is called a history of Macedonia, so i might already have it but did not had the time to read it though... Please check your PM box for the fitting parts i need about both books, they consider btw all the points you have mentioned in your post.. And now i would like to ad that most of my ideas are highly speculative, especially those about the Bryges, but also the Peresadyes and Encheleae.. About the actual direction of the via egnatia, i also made assumptions.. The interesting fact is that Hammond indeed mentions as you said that the via egnatia most likely turns north after reaching Lychnidus/Ohrid around the village of Leskoec, following the todays interstate road from Ohrid-Bitola. Last year i drove the actual route from Ohrid to Bitola and i could actually imagine very well that the via egnatia followed the same path, especially the hilly/mountainous part in front of Resen where you drive alongside the very small valley, and where i could imagine the via egnatia following the path at the bottom of the ravine. And indeed many roads of today especially in Fyrom are situated on ancient roads, another example is that most probably the road from todays Bitola to Prilep(i think it is called the I-5 was the same road as the diagonal road linking the via Egnatia and via Axia(connecting with Stybera). But if we really would place the location of Lychnidus in the vicinity of St.Naum monastery(As Pouqueville suggested, where he said that apperantly the ruines of Lychnidus are still apparent,which i really doubt because several plaques mentioning lychnidus have been found in todays Ohrid) since then the via Egnatia followed the shoreline around the lake to it's southern end and crossed the Galicica mountain (at it's indeed highest point) to the Prespa lake , which is the shortest route , but a hard one...but if you look at a certain time frame the shorter but very hard St.Naum -Galicica-Prespa route could be a actual candidate , but again seems the most unlikely, but it does confirms with the milages on the iteneraries.. Quote:
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But there is another pass whom i don't know the name of with a river(maybe the Blato river valley)in the vicinity of the todays town of Brod that also enters the pelagonian plane from the north.This could very well had been a equal important pass coming from the Illyrian area's. since there is a river coming from Kichevo-Uscana following that pass and crossing the town of Brod into the north Pelagonian plain(so you had 2 major passes that led into Illyrian land from the Pelagonain planes..So area north of Alkomenai also was an important buffer zone from the Illyrians. Quote:
But Demir Hisar located at the end of the very important pass coming from Illyria would place the Bryges actually right in front of the Pelagonain Illyrian zone of conflict, and they then had to be mentioned more often as certainly acting as a buffer zone in a seriously contested zone for many centuries, as you know the illyrian incursions were numerous and stretched over a vast amount of years with the Pelagones and Macedons.. This is why i wouldn't exactly place the town of Brygias near Demir Hisar because all forces Pelagonian or Illyrian had to cross the town of Brygias because it is at the very center of that particulair pass..so that town of brygias would had been an important strategic town that would had acted as a a key to entering the Pelagonian plane similiair with Alkomania what was actually at the end of the pass from illyria and the fist major town of the Pelagones.. Quote:
http://my.opera.com/ancientmacedonia...ow.dml/1223320 And the lake area was not as highly crowded as the Pelagonain plain for instance but it was a highly interesting area where certainly some very important and powerfull dynasties settled, like the enchelians and Peresadyes..as well as Bryges in more ancient years..two big and socially important lakes must had a big influence on the neighbouring tribes.. And at last the Atintani you mention are they the same as the Tyntenoi or Ichnai a macedonian-thracian tribe? That's all for now i'm getting a bit tired of this lenghty post of mine  All the best, and i will eagerly await your future contibutions on this or similair topics!      |
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02-16-2008, 08:12 AM
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| Hi Cadmus, Quote:
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Incidentally the pass you mention near today's town of Brod is, according to my 1:260 000 map of the region - the 'Barbara pass' at 864 metres altitude. Brod lay in the old territory of the Penestae. The pass in question led into the northern Pelagonian plain and specifically into the valley of the Blato. It is here that Hammond placed the Bryges, somewhat wedged to the north of the road and thus probably a little 'out of the way' of history's path! Quote:
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Cheers |
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02-21-2008, 08:24 AM
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The Demir Hisar vicinity housed supposedly another ancient town called Bryanion, this is where at least Fyromian/and perhaps other scientists place Bryanion..do you know if it was a Penestean town? So the Blato river valley seems the only possible option as derived from Hammond,(slightly to the north of it) well they the Bryges in the Blato valley must had been surrounded by the 1Dardanians north (Skopje/Scupi)2Penesteans from the west3 Pelagonians from the south 4 Paonians from the east.. A tightly pressed and possible vacumized area where they could had been confronted with all 4 tribes(if there were any alliances, if so the Pelagones would seem as the most likely ally of the Bryges) But i think that Hammond intended to locate the settlements of the surviving remnants of the Bryges such as the town of Brygias,in the Blato valley.. But i'm sure that in far older years the Bryges inhabited vast areas in Albania and FYrom as well as in Greece. As the area was supposedly that big the same cultural evidences of the Bryges must be retraceable in those areas, as not if they shared the same or common characteristics as the Paones or perhaps Pelasgians if the were from the same substratum..but that's a whole other discussion... I know there is a article it was perhaps from Hammond i can't remember it exactly which was called the subsequent migrations of the Balkans in the bronze age (Illyrians) which discussed the Illyrian push southwards in the years prior to 1200B.C.and pushing several cultures south and westwards as the early Illyrians seemed to populate areas in Fyrom and Northern Greece such as Pelagonia the Kumanovo district Veles etc and parts of Epirus.. So that Illyrian push might had caused the migration of the Bryges into Asia and pushing the Thracian tribes out of Macedonia into Thrace itself. Where there were once numerous Thracian-Macedonian tribes such as the Ichnai /Tyntenoi etc.. But this early period of Macedonia and Albania/Epirus is for me sort of like a dark age, where i cant draw any conclusions on about the exact whereabouts of the native tribes.. I mean who were the ancestors of the Dexari/Enchelians/Pelagones mixed Thracians with Bryges or partly Illyrian -Pelasgian? who knows such things??LOL.. I need to further investigate that if possible, any good literature on that particulair time scheme prior to let's say 800/1200 b.c.? |
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02-25-2008, 06:31 AM
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| Greetings Cadmus, Quote:
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(p. 72, Vol I): Funerary reliefs and Greek inscriptions, dated by the Macedonian era to AD 81 and 94, have been found in the northern part of the plain at Kostanci, Crniliste and Sekirci. One records a dedication to Zeus Agoraeus. The prevalence of Greek shows that the population then was neither Illyrian nor Dardanian, but considered itself Macedonian. Quote:
Cheers Cheers |
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02-25-2008, 06:35 AM
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| From Hammond's 'Migrations and Invasions in Greece and Adjacent Areas' (1976; pages: 149-163): The Subsequent Migrations The invasion of the Peloponnese was followed by two generations of turmoil. The Arcadians fought for their independence successfully but were penned up in the centre of the Peloponnese. The Achaeans of the Argolid, led by Tisamenus, son of Orestes, were driven first out of their own land and then out of Laconia, which they tried to defend. Next they found a refuge in Achaea from which they expelled the Ionian population Even there they were not safe; for further waves of Northwest-Greek speakers overpowered them. Some of the leading Messenian families escaped from Messenia and were accepted at Athens. The Ionians who had been expelled from Achaea took refuge at Athens in approximately 1080 B.C.; and other Ionians followed from the Isthmus territory, which was seized by the Dorians of the northeastern Peloponnese c. 1050 B.C., Athens had the courage and the intelligence to accept and enfranchise the refugees, a step which, in Thucydides' words, "made the state still greater through its increased population, so that Attica became insufficient and emigrants were subsequently sent off to Ionia" (1.2.6). This emigration started soon after 1050 B.C. But it was not the first emigration from the Greek mainland in this troubled period.[76] In central Greece Athens held firm against attack by the Boiotoi. Indeed the Boiotoi and other speakers of Northwest-Greek had to recognise the independence of many of the Aeolic-speaking communities in Boeotia, Phocis and Locris The haven for Aeolian refugees, both from central Greece and from southwestern Thessaly, was Iolcus and the northeastern part of the Thessalian plain. The first shocks of the invasion caused this area to become overpopulated, and the first emigrants, led by another son of Orestes, went overseas before the end of the twelfth century. The so-called Aeolian migration went on for several generations and ended in the occupation by Aeolian Greeks of the rich island of Lesbos and points on the adjacent Asiatic coast by the end of the eleventh century. Meanwhile the Ionian migration from Athens was well under way. It too lasted for a century or more. The insecurity and the violence (which attended these two migrations were features of most parts of the eastern Mediterranean. The spirit of the period was epitomised by the words of an Ionian poet: "with overmastering might we settled at beloved Colophon, pioneers of boisterous violence, and from there … by the grace of the gods we captured Aeolian Smyrna." The Ionians also drove the Aeolians out of Euboea and occupied it themselves. In the southern part of the Aegean archipelago the descendants of the Dorian invaders continued their successful invasion, becoming masters of the small southern islands, of Crete and Rhodes and of the mainland adjacent to Rhodes.[77] Thus the Dorian invasion led to migrations eastwards which were of the greatest historical significance. For the Greeks won then the islands which they hold to this day, and a Greek population was planted in Asia Minor which was destined to play an important part in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean until it was expelled in 1923. Within the Peloponnese the number of known settlements declined from fifty-six in L. H. III C to twenty three in the post invasion period and did not rise steadily until after 800 B.C. The decline was due not only to the expulsion and emigration of previously settled peoples but also to the reversion of great areas of coastland and mountain valley to pastoralism of a semi-nomadic nature. Further peoples with this way of life entered Achaea late in the period and drove out the Achaeans (originally of the Argolid), who had themselves expelled an Ionian population. These newcomers spoke Northwest-Greek which became the dialect of Achaea in the Classical period. Coming from Epirus and Aetolo-Acarnania, they were typical of this large and warlike group in that they contributed nothing to the Greek achievement in literature and culture but formed the toughest communities of the Hellenistic period. It is probable that we may see traces of the newcomers in two cemeteries. At Agriapidhies, some twenty kilometres south of Patras, a number of slab-lined cist-graves were found within a circular area, marked by a peribolos of slab-like stones; as the excavator saw, it probably had had a tumulus originally. The graves contained little of interest except four crude hand made jugs and containers, which were probably of a type usual in the north. At Chalandritsa in the same region several tumuli were reported, and the two which were excavated had cist-graves lined with stones and one of these had an apsidal end Tentative dates for the two cemeteries were the tenth century and the eighth century respectively; as they were unique at these dates in the Peloponnese, they probably were connected with the coming of Northwest Greek speakers from a tumulus-using area such as Epirus.[78] Let us now turn to the north. The peoples of northeastern Thessaly became relatively prosperous by creating an orbit of trade to the northeast, as their predecessors had done in the Dimini period; for in the course of the Aeolian migration they established contact with the ports of the Thermaic Gulf, Chalcidice, the Thracian coast and the Troad. They developed their own style of Protogeometric pottery very early,[79] and they exported it to the east side of the inner Thermaic Gulf, from which it reached the interior. Whereas these contacts were made and maintained by sea, there was certainly a movement of people between the middle Haliacmon valley and northern Thessaly, which was based primarily on the transhumance of sheep. The chief sign was the offering of hand-made pottery painted in the 'north-western geometric' style in five tholos-tombs which were in use regularly for a long period - from somewhere in the eleventh century down to 800 B.C. – and occasionally thereafter into the sixth century. The hand-made pottery belonged to the early burials, and a continuing influence from farther north was apparent in certain bronze ornaments. The site of the tholos-tombs is at Marmariani on the foothills of Mt Ossa, looking towards the plain of Larissa. The peculiar qualities of the site and its long use are best explained on the supposition that the leaders of pastoral groups, like the Vlach tshelnikadzi, kept their flocks there during the winter season for generation after generation, and that some who died in the winter were buried in the tholos-tombs. At another site, Kapakli near Volos on the Gulf of Pagasae, similar contact with the Haliacmon valley was indicated by pottery in a tholos-tomb, but the main influences came by sea from the coastal plain of Macedonia.[80] In Macedonia it seems that the Brygi were driven back from Vardarophtsa and Vardina c. 1080 B.C. and their frontier with the Paeonians was drawn at the river Vardar. The important unit of power in Macedonia west of the river was the kingdom of the Brygi, of which the capital was below Mt Bermium,, where the gardens of Midas, son of Gordias, were famous for their sixty-petalled roses. It is probable that the gardens are those of Vodena, the ancient Edessa, which stands on the main route (that of the Via Egnatia) from the western part of the coastal plain to the Monastir gap from which routes lead into the lakeland and to the head of the Vardar valley. [81] As we have seen; the Brygi established themselves also in Pelagonia, in the lakeland area at Barc, and in the vicinity of Epidamnus on the Adriatic coast of central Albania. We can thus discern the outlines of a large system of Phrygian power, which gave some sort of stability to this area tor a period of some 350 years. The end came with the mass emigration of the Phrygians from Europe to northwestern Asia, where they founded a new empire and made their capital at Gordium. The date was approximately c. 800 B.C. During the long period of Phrygian power in Europe the Brygi were the neighbours of the Macedones, a Greek speaking tribe or group of small tribes which occupied the hill country of Pieria as their homeland and engaged mainly in pastoral life.[82] Its coastal plain was the land of Thracian peoples, known as 'Pieres', they were famed for their music, and Orpheus was said to be buried near Dium. A number of cist-graves with unusual features and cacti with a small mound above it, at Koundouriotissa in this area, was a memorial to their presence; for Herodotus recorded such individual burials with a mound as customary for Thracian leaders (5.8). The most remarkable cemetery in Macedonia west of the Vardar is a group of some 300 large tumuli, situated below a terrace-site called Palatitsa which overlooks the plain, and close to the right bank of the Haliacmon,[83] As the cemetery was open and undefended and lay beside the main road which led from Pieria to Edessa and so to the Vardar, it must have been made by a people which was undisputed master of the western plain. As the richest period of the cemetery at ‘Vergina', as it is called, was that of the Phrygian kingdom in Europe, we may be confident that it was the cemetery of the kings and nobles of the Brygi. When they crossed to Asia they made a royal cemetery of eventually some eighty large tumuli at Gordium. Tumulus burial was a feature also of the inland principalities or the Phrygian system of power. A large cemetery at Pateli (Ayios Pandeleemon) near the southern end of Lake Ostrovo was excavated in the l890s by Russian scholars who opened 376 graves but left a confused and meagre record. Of these the 'royal' burials, in the opinion of the excavators, were fourteen cist graves within a circular area which was bounded by a thick circular wall, and the offerings were of gold, bronze and pottery. We may infer that there was originally a tumulus over this circular wall. Farther north at Visoi in Pelagonia there is a cemetery of tumuli, and a model of one which has been excavated is on show in the Museum at Monastir. It too had a circular wall of which the thickness was made up of two or three large, dark stones, and there were nearly forty cist-graves within the enclosed space of the tumulus. At the centre two burials had their own small circular peribolos of single whitish stones.[84] Moving to the west, we have already mentioned the large tumulus at Barc which contained some 112 burials ranging from the twelfth century to c. 800 B.C. It too had a complete ring-wall. The offerings included diadems of fine bronze plaque, as at Vergina and Pateli, hair-coils of gold wire, as at Vergina, and twin-vases and triplet-vases, as at Pateli. In the Mati valley, where thirty-six tumuli ranging from 12 to 30 m in diameter have so far been excavated, more than twenty five belonged to the Early iron Age but it is not stated how many were of the period before 800 B.C. Some tumuli were constructed above circles of stones, and the offerings included diadems and a pair of hair coils of gold, which were found together with "two swords of a Mycenaean type."[85] There were differences in the offerings which were made in these cemeteries of tumuli. The differences indicate that the principalities enjoyed considerable independence and that the ruling class was merged with the native population to some extent in each case. For example, Vergina had an elaborate headdress with a broad diadem for a priestess and examples of a miniature double-axe, which both seem to be related to the claim of the local people, the Bottiaeans, to have been of Cretan origin.[86] Pateli was remarkable for a unique system or arranging the skulls of the dead. Visoi was closer in offerings to Vergina than to Pateli, despite the fact that Pateli lay geographically between them. Barc had more long pins of bronze than Visoi and Pateli and fewer weapons in the burials. Mati had most weapons, including battle-axes of iron which were not found in the ether cemeteries. There were differences also in the pottery as between principality and principality. Thus Mati stood aside from the others, in that striation rather than paint was used for decoration and small vases predominated.[87] During this period there are indications that Illyri|an tribes were migrating from farther north into northern and central Albania. Peculiarities of the tumulus-burials at Mati were shared by numerous tumulus-burials near Kukes (at Cinamak, Keneta and Krume), In both areas pottery-containers were broken as part of a ritual performed during the construction of the upper part of a tumulus, and the burials themselves were usually covered with stones of moderate size; these practices were not found in tumuli farther south. A genealogy of the sons and daughters of lllyrius, the eponymous ancestor of the race in the Greek manner, has come down to us, transmitted probably from the foundation story of Epidamnus, in which the Brygi were followed by "the Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe" (Appian, Bella Civilia 2.39 and lllyrica 2). Among the sons and daughters were Taulas, ancestor of the Taulantii, who lived in classical times inland of Epidamnus; Partho, the eponym of the Parthini who lived then in the middle Shkumbi valley, and Encheleus, ancestor of the Encheleae, who lived then near lake Ochrid. Illyrius himself was the eponymous ancestor of a tribe, called, by Roman writers 'the Illyrians proper' (Illyrioi proprie dicti), and this tribe lived in Classical times to the north of the Taulantii.[88] It seems probable that these Illyrii were the southernmost of the Illyrian speaking tribes at the time when their name became known to Greek-speaking peoples and was applied to other tribes of similar speech and manners. The advance of the Taulantii, Parthini and Encheleae, which left the Illyrii proper behind occurred probably c. 1050-1000 B.C., for 'Illyrian' burial customs made their appearance in Peucetia on the Italian side of the Adriatic c. 1000 B.C. and somewhat later in Picenum, these included burial areas ringed with slabs of large stones, and the slab-lined simple trenches within the circle were covered with a low tumulus of stones, on top of which there may originally have been a higher tumulus of soil. Bari in Peucetia is the counterpart of Epidamnus at the safest crossing of the southern Adriatic, and the Museum of Bari has a number of pots typical of the 'northwestern geometric style' which was in use, for instance, at Pazhok and farther south. This pottery in Peucetia has been dated early in the first millennium B.C.[89] Thus it seems that the overseas expansion of some Illyrian peoples into Italy took place in the same period as the advance of Illyrian peoples into northern Albania. While we may assume that one stream of Illyrians came south by the Zeta valley and Lake Scodra, others seem to have come through Pec in Metohija and entered the Drin valley in the vicinity or Kukes and ascended it to near Lake Ochrid. Hill-fortresses near Kukes and the cemeteries of tumuli have been associated with this advance. The connections of the tumulus-burials at Barc in the southern part of the lakeland were not with the Kukes or Mati tumuli but with those of Vajze and southern Albania; for example, in the long bronze pins, roll-top pins, twin-vessels. handles divided by a cross-bar, and small spectacle-fibulae of an early type. Moreover, the pottery of the 'northwestern geometric style' which was typical of Barc,' was current not in north but in central and south Albania and also in the plain of Ioannina at this time. It is probable that the peoples to the south of the Shkumbi valley and lake Ochrid spoke northwest Greek, being the residue left behind when the migrations carried many of their kindred into the Greek peninsula. The inter-relationships within this large group of Greek tribes led Hecataeus, writing c. 500 B.C., to describe them as "Molossian tribes" or "Chaonian tribes." Thus the Orestae of the upper Haliacmon valley were "Molossian," and the Dexaroi "a tribe of the Chaones, adjacent to the Encheleae. " The latter, under the variant form Dassaretai, occupied the southern part of the lakeland in Classical times. The most northerly of this group of speakers of Northwest-Greek were the Pelagones.[90] The departure of the Brygi c. 800 B.C. may have been hastened by renewed pressure from Illyrian tribes which had already advanced into central Albania and the Lakeland. The period of Illyrian control in the plain of Macedonia lasted from c. 800 to c. 650 B.C. The evidence has survived almost entirely in warrior-graves and women's graves which were much less numerous. There were cremations sometimes in urns, as well as inhumations, large pithoi were used as coffins, e.g. at Vergina; and burials were grouped together, sometimes under a tumulus and sometimes not. New articles were bronze pendants of various kinds, bronze belt-plates, large bronze spectacle-fibulae, armlets of thin bronze wire and armlets of heavy bronze metal with incised decoration, and many bronze beads of various shapes. At Vergina, where the same cemetery was used for Illyrian chieftains, two new forms of bowl were evidently copied from wooden prototypes, such as are made by the Vlachs in modern times. New tumuli constructed for Illyrian chieftains contained many spearheads and spear-butts, sickle-shaped knives and heavy bracelets. The homeland of these new elements was in central Yugoslavia, and the typical site there was Glasinac, where the tumuli were numbered in thousands. Thus the expansion of the Illyrian-speaking tribes went on over a long period, as that of the Albanians was to do. They moved first down the western flank, occupying the country south as the Shkumbi valley and Lake Ochrid c. 1050 - 1000 B.C. and crossing over into Italy c. 1000 B.C. The area between the Shkumbi and the outflow of the Aous may have been in dispute for centuries, but it was acquired by the Illyrians who were there before 600 B.C. when Apollonia was founded probably as a mixed settlement of Greeks and Illyrians. It is likely that the Illyrian tribes who expanded in this way were based on the Zeta valley area and the Metohija and used these areas as their launching grounds for expansion by land and sea, as the Ardiaeans were to do some centuries later. [91] When we compare the Illyrian advance with that of the Albanians, there is the remarkable difference that the Illyrians failed to drive southwards through Epirus. The state of affairs in Epirus is known also from tumulus-burials. This form of burial was originally common to both the Illyrian-speaking and the Greek-speaking branches of the Indo-European peoples, when they entered the southwest Balkans, and it was maintained by the descendants of both on this flank of the peninsula. Tumuli of Middle Bronze Age date at Vajze just south of the lower Aous and at Vodhine in the Kseria valley south were re-used from the last stage of the Bronze Age onwards into the Early Iron Age perhaps by leading families which re-turned to power in these regions. New tumuli were constructed in the Early Iron Age: probably C and D at Vajze, and two at Bodrishte near Vodhine .[92] Altogether new centres developed around the end of the twelfth century and went on into the early Iron Age. At Cepune near Kardhiq in the Kurvelesh a tumulus 22 m in diameter has been excavated recently. Of its 63 burials the earliest were three inhumations and one cremation inside slab-lined cist-graves, the actual cremation having been done outside the cist, and from these came spearheads, javelin heads and long pins of bronze. One fiddle-shaped javelin-head with a facetted socket is like one from Vodhine, and the long pins resemble those at Vajze. This tumulus remained in use into the third century B.C.[93] At Bajkaj near Delvino a tumulus 20 m in diameter had 43 burials which extended from the late twelfth to the ninth century B.C. according to the excavator, Dhimosten Budina. The earliest burial was a cremation. The pottery included a pot of knobbed ware and a jug influenced by Protogeometric style; and a bronze pin, a javelin head and a spearhead were similar to those in other tumulus burials of northern Epirus.[94] With the exception of Cepune, which is in an exceptionally remote part, it seems on present evidence that tumulus-burial was declining from 900 B.C. onwards and may have ended in the course of the ninth century. The tribal groups, of which the warrior-chieftains were buried in tumuli at these four places, were evidently strong enough to keep the Illyrians at bay. In fact they had begun the important task which they were to discharge for some centuries. The groups were combined under the name 'Chaones', when they first figured in literary records, and they ruled over the whole of Epirus at the beginning of the historical period.[95] Their territory extended northeastwards into the lakeland area, where the 'Dexaroi' lived and it was there that the next lllyrian breakthrough occurred. The tumulus at Barc went out of use perhaps by 850 B.C. Another tumulus, 29 m in diameter, was made some eight km away at Kuci Zi; the burials there have been dated by Zhaneta Andrea to the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. Five of them were cremations in urns; the rest were inhumations in a trench either bare or stone-lined. The offerings were indisputably Illyrian: spearheads, arrow-heads, swords, knives and cutlasses; and a variety of bronze pendants and bronze beads. The excavator compared them with those of Illyrian tumulus-burials at Suva Reka and with objects from Pristina, both in Kossovo. It is probable, then, that Illyrian tribes from Kossovo came via Polog, Kitsevo and Ochrid to the plain of Korce. Some pendants were found also at Tren. One of the six sons of Illyrius was Dardanus, the eponym of the Dardanians, and it is possible that the Dardanii and the Encheleae combined at this time, because a tradition has survived of one Bato (later a dynastic name in the Dardanian royal house) having founded a city among the Encheleae. The offerings were richer than they had been at Barc.[96] The advance into the plain of Korce c. 850/800 B.C. put the Illyrians in a strong position to intervene; when the Brygi left Macedonia c 800 B.C. One route of Illyrian invasion was certainly down the Vardar valley, proceeding via Valandovo to avoid the Demir Kapu. Several groups of warrior-graves have been found on both sides of the lower Vardar between Gevgheli and Axioupolis (Bohemica), which is a district of the greatest strategic importance. At Chauchitsa thirty-six burials were made probably in wooden coffins or wood-lined trenches, each burial being covered by a cairn of rough stones and the central one being placed within a larger cairn. The corpses lay on their backs in an extended position, and three bronze bosses all that remained of a perishable shield - were found on the chest of the man in the central burial. The burials were grouped together on a low rock-outcrop and had probably been covered originally by a tumulus of soil. There were other burials in the vicinity made in slab lined cist-graves. Across the river at Axioupolis more than twenty burials in pithoi or in slab-lined cist graves contained many beads of amber. A woman's grave contained a bronze boss, similar to that used on a shield. It had been attached to her belt or apron. Another group of graves was opened near Gevgheli. The men in these groups of graves had been equipped with swords, knives and shields (Chauchitsa) and spears (Axioupolis); and they and their women had an astonishing number of bronze ornaments, hung as pendants from shoulder or belt.[97] In the cemetery at Vergina the period of greatest prosperity, c. 900-800 B.C., was followed by radical changes and a growing impoverishment. In some tumuli the partly cremated remains were placed in urns, and sickle shaped knives with whetstones and spears over two metres in length with iron head and iron butt accompanied some of the warriors. In Upper Macedonia the presence of lllyrian rulers was shown by burials with similar weapons and ornaments at Visoi and Petilep in Pelagoma; at Pateli in Eordaea, and at Vucedol near Skopje and by Titov Veles. Objects typical of them have been found in small numbers at Kozani and at sites in the middle Haliacmon valley. To the east of the Vardar they seem to have driven the Paeonians back towards the Strymon valley, and there are concentrations of Illyrian objects at Kumanovo and at Radanja near Stip. Large numbers of tumuli are reported in this area; some at least were made probably for Illyrian warriors. Other groups of Illyrians established themselves in the middle Strymon valley, where their name in Classical times was the Maedi; in the Kumli valley between Doiran and Serres; and in the vicinity of Amphipolis. There were penetrations also into northwest Bulgaria and even beyond the Danube in Rumania.[98] The expansion of the Illyrian tribes had some effects also on northern and central Greece. At Vitsa in Zagori burials were made in shallow trenches, or in cist-graves roofed with branches on which stones were placed, or under a cairn of stones. The burials were close-packed; set in three layers, and very close to the settlement, and the cemetery was in use from just before 900 B.C. into the fifth century B.C. To judge from the objects buried with the dead this community had contacts with Barc, vergina, Vodhine, the Illyrians, and also southern Greece. The explanation is to be found in the situation of Vitsa, 1000 m above sea level, close to the summer pastures used in modern times by the Sarakatsani; for it was evidently through the practice of transhumant pastoralism that the people of Vitsa ranged from the lakeland to the Gulf of Arta. The site was certainly not inhabitable in the winter. At Dodona and at Vaxia southeast of Dodona Illyrian object's of the eighth and seventh centuries have been found, and they are indicative of peaceful and perhaps sometimes warring penetration by Illyrians. At sea too the Illyrians controlled the outlet of the Adriatic Sea; the Liburni, for instance, gained control of Epidamnus and Corcyra, at some time before 730 B.C., and it is probable that they carried their raids into the Mediterranean. At Halus on the coastal route of southeastern Thessaly a tumulus, some 20 m in diameter, contained sixteen cairns of stones over cremated remains and offerings. The men had swords, spears and knives, and the women had small knives, as later in the medieval Illyrian-Albanian culture. This tumulus was constructed probably in the eighth century, and the warriors came from the north. It is uncertain whether they were Illyrians or Thracians; for some gold hair-rings, found also at Marmariani and Homolion at this period, were of a Thracian type. At Vranesi in Boeotia, close to Lake Copais, one of at least two tumuli was excavated early in this century, and the report is very thin. There was a cairn of stones in the centre; the burials were cremations and inhumations in trenches lined with stones and covered with slabs; and offerings included bronze swords, gold ear-rings and diadems, and pieces of bronze bowls. The tumulus was in use probably from the tenth century to the eighth century B.C. At Anavysos in Attica many tumuli were reported. One was excavated which contained both crudely incised hand-made pottery and Attic Geometric pottery of the eighth century. Burials were apparently of partly cremated remains in urns laid in wooden coffins, and they were at different depths in the fill of the tumulus. In the Kerameikos at Athens, where citizens of foreign descent or resident aliens of distinction were probably buried, there were many signs of contacts with Illyrians and Thracians during this period, as one would expect.[100] The tumulus at Halus was the memorial of an invasion. In other cases we may see examples of peaceful penetration through the practice particularly of transhumant pastoralism. Sites such as Vitsa in Zagori, Marmariani in Thessaly, Vranesi in Boeotia and even Anavysos in Attica were probably used by semi-nomadic peoples of Northwest-Greek origin, who returned to the same summer and winter stations over the centuries in pursuit of their own way of life. Some of their customs, including tumulus-burial were common to the southern Illyrian tribes. Indeed in this period of Illyrian expansion it is probable that the way of life in southern Illyria was based on pastoralism and stock-raising. In one respect there are striking analogies between the warrior-groups of the Illyrians and the leaders or the Vlachs. Both peoples carried their wealth on the persons of themselves and their womenfolk in the form of jewelry, pendants and especially belt-ornaments; for they had no houses and no fortresses. The power of the Illyrians was destroyed during a series of raids and migrations by the Cimmerians, themselves impelled by Scythian migrants from southern Russia, during the decades down to c. 650 B.C. The Cimmerians and the allies they acquired in Thrace have left traces of their raids in Macedonia, for instance at Titov Veles and in Epirus at Dodona; but they did not come to stay. The vacuum of power which they caused was soon filled by the Thracians, the Paeonians and the Macedones. A group of Thracian tribes led by the Edoni, occupied most of the territory between Mt Belasitsa and the sea as far west as the Vardar, including much of the peninsula of Chalcidice, and also the Strumitsa valley north of Mt Belasitsa. Some of the Paeonian tribes recovered possession of their old lands east of the middle Vardar and made their capital near Astibus (Stip). In the lakeland area the Illyrians disappeared from Kuci Zi, and another targe tumulus was made there which received 18 burials. The offerings were different; no weapons except one spearhead, some double pins and beads of different shapes and material and wheel-made pottery showing contact with southern Greece. Two gold mouthpieces with strings for attachment over the mouth of the corpse were typically Thracian and may represent a time of Thracian rule.[101] But it is to be inferred from the fragments of Hecataeus that the southern part of the lakeland was recovered by the Chaonian group of tribes and that they, linked up with the Greek-speaking tribes in Pelagonia in the sixth century B.C. The movement which was destined to have the greatest consequences was that of the Macedones from the hill-country of Pieria to the western edge of the coastal plain by Vergina, which became then capital under the name Aegeae [Note this is Hammond’s deduction before the finds at Vergina in 1977 - BBB]. They drove the Thracian Pieres out of coastal Pieria and the Bottiaei out of the coastal plain as far as the Vardar, and the refugees settled east of the Vardar, the Bottiaei in the centre of Chalcidice and the Pieres near Mt Pangaeum. Next they attacked the Eordi and destroyed most of them; a few survivors settled east of the Vardar near the lakes north of Chalcidice. They expelled also the Almopes from the district of Moglena. By these ruthless methods the Macedones carved out for themselves a large and continuous kingdom up to the Vardar by 550 B.C., and they became adjacent to the speakers of Northwest-Greek who were in possession of the middle and upper Haliacmon valley and of Lyncus-Pelagonia.[102] In this way a shield of backward, even primitive Greek-speaking peoples, in northern Epirus and western Macedonia was formed to resist the constant pressures of Illyrians, Dardanians, Paeonians and Thracians which enabled the civilisation of the city-states in the Greek peninsula to grow to maturity in comparative safety. NOTES 76. For the literary evidence and the calculation of approximate dates see my remarks in CAH3 II, ii (1975), pp. 702 f. 77. See CAH3 II, ii, pp. 703 f. and 773 f. (J. M. Cook). 78. PAE 1930; 85 f-; Op. Ath. 5, 101 and for Chalandritsa, BCH 85, 682. For the dates ser Desborough, The Greek Dark Ages. p. 92 and Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece, p 171; for statistics of settlements (including cemeteries) J. Bouzek, Homerisches Griechenland p. 51 and Op. Ath. 9, 57. 79. Perhaps earlier than Athens, as Verdelis had suggested, see Macedonia, p 400 tor references. 80. BSA 31 (1930-31) 1 f.; AE 1914, 141; Macedonia, pp. 401 f. for further references. 81. A rose in modern Greek is a 'thirty-petaller'; Herodotus 8.138.2-3 82 Herodotus 7.73 My reasons for considering the Macedones to have been Greek-speaking are set out in Macedonia II which is awaiting publication. 83. For this cemetery, see M. Andronikos, Vergina I (Athens, 1969) and articles on other tumuli by Ph. Petsas; I study the work of both in Macedonia pp. 328 f. 84. Described in Macedonia. pp. 316 f. and 337 f.; see I. Mikulcic, Pelagonija (Skopje, 1966) who dates the central burials later than I do. 85. SA 1964, 1, 101 f. 86. See Andronikos, Vergina 1, p. 51 and Macedonia, pp. 393 f. and 335 f. 87. SA 1964, 1, l03 88 On this subject see my article in BSA 61 (1966) 239 f. 89 When I saw this pottery in Bari the relationship was obvious; Zhaneta Andrea drew attention to it in her report on Barc; in SA 1972, 2, 200 t. See Macedonia, pp 381 f. and M. Garasanin in Starinar 19 (1968) 294 for the dating. 90. FGrH 1 (Hecataeus) F 103 and 107; see Epirus, pp. 460 f. 91. For Ardiaean warrior-graves in the Zeta valley see Glasnik zem Muzeja Sarajevu Arh. 24 (1969) 5 f. 92. See Epirus. pp 201 f . 228 f. and 346 f. 93. Short reports in Buletin Arkeologjik 1969, 49 f., SA 1971, 1, 152 and Bulletin d'archeologie sud-est europeenne 2 (1971) 29 f. For Kardhiq see Epirus, p. 215. 94. Buletin Arkeologjik 1971, 57; Iliria 1 (1971) 350. I saw some of the finds at Tirana in 1972. 95. Strabo 323 fin.; cf Epirus, pp. 463 f. 96. Reports in SA 1972, 2, 190 f.; Bulletin d'archeologie sud-est europeenne 2 (1971) 28; and the best illustrations in StH 1972, 4, 81 f. Iliria 1 (1971) 42 and pl 15 for Tren. 97. Macedonia, pp. 348 f. with references to the original publications. 98. Macedonia, pp. 420 f. I saw the material from Gevgheli and the Bulgarian sites in the Museum at Sofia, and the material from Amphipolis in the Museum at Vienna. 99. Macedonia, pp. 372 f,; the final report of Vitsa by Mrs Vokotopoulou will soon be published, and I am grateful to her for discussions and for showing me the site and some of her finds Epirus, pp. 179 f. and 427 f. for Dodona and Vaxia BSA 18 (1911-12) 1 t. and Macedonia, pp 403 f. for Halus; Macedonia, fig. 20, u-v and p. 443 tor the hair rings. 100. PAE 1904, 39 r. and 1907, 109; AM 30/ 132 for Vranesi. PAE 1911, 110 f. for Anavysos near Thoricus (different from the cemetery there of AD 21, 2, 97 f.). Thracian mercenaries may have brought to the Kerameikos the bell shaped clay idols incised with dot centred circles; for these were common in Bulgaria but have not been found in Macedonia west of the Vardar. One may compare the hiring of Albanian mercenaries c. 1400 A.D. (p. 59, above). 101. Macedonia, pp 427 f.; SA 1972, 2, 193 f (Kuci Zi), I saw the mouthpieces in the exhibition at Tirana in 1972. Best illustrations are in StH 1972, 4, 86 f. figs. 12 and 13, 102. For the placing of Aegeae at Vergina-Palatitsa see my arguments in Macedonia, p 156; and for the expansion of the Macedones, Macedonia pp. 430 f., citing especially the account in Thucydides 2.99. RETROSPECT It is not possible to generalise about the relationship between a migrating people which conquers a territory and any substratum of conquered people which may remain. Let us take some extreme cases from the borderline between prehistory and history, where we have literary evidence as well as archaeological evidence. The population of Achaea in the northern Peloponnese seems to have changed entirely twice within a matter of two or three centuries at the most; from the Ionian occupants of Mycenaean times to the 'Achaeans' under Tisamenus; and from them to a Northwest-Greek-speaking population which was there in Classical times. It is unlikely that any substratum of Ionians and Achaeans survived into the period of the Northwest-Greek speakers. At that time migrations led to migrations; Thessaloi displacing Boiotoi who migrated southwards, Dorians displacing 'Achaeans' who migrated northwards, and migration and expansion on the mainland leading to the Aeolian and Ionian migrations eastwards. Some of these cases fall within the picture which Thucydides drew with such perspicacity: It is obvious that the land now called Hellas was not securely settled in ancient Times, and that migrations occurred in the earlier phases and individual peoples left their land easily through the pressure of more numerous peoples. In the absence of Commerce, peaceful interchange by land and sea, capital resources and arboriculture … men obtained only a bare subsistence from the land and so had no difficulty in moving away in the belief that they could get the bare necessities of their daily existence anywhere (1,2.2). What Thucydides had to say on this subject may have been inspired by his knowledge of conditions in the country to the north of Greece, where his family owned property. For it fitted the movements of the Macedones, Pieres, Eordi and Bottiaei in the period c. 650-550 B.C. In their cases their seem to have been no substratum left in loco, and the reason was that the conquered people were not rooted to the spot by capital possessions but were ready to move on to new lands. For this to be so their way of life must have been primarily that of the pastoralist, who takes his herds along with himself and his family in time of war, as he had been accustomed to do during seasonal migrations in time of peace. Wherever, therefore, pastoralists impinged on pastoralists and one migration led to another, we can be fairly confident that no substratum was left in loco. For example, in the Early Bronze Age of Macedonia the impact of the migrating peoples with the anchor-amulet culture and with the Bubanj-Hum culture caused other peoples to migrate from parts of western Macedonia into central Albania and Epirus in pursuit of new pasturelands. And in medieval times Albanians moving with their herds pushed groups of Vlachs into the search for other areas. Just as the Vlachs themselves had pushed the ancestors of the Sarakatsani off the pastures of northern Pindus. The position is less simple when the conquerors are primarily pastoralists but the lands they invade are occupied by settled peoples. This was so in many parts of the Peloponnese at the time of the Dorian invasion; for the decipherment of the Mycenaean tablets has shown the presence of the very activities which Thucydides mentioned as absent in his picture of migratory movements; commerce based on agricultural surpluses, trade in luxury goods as well as basic needs, accumulation of capital in whatever form, and arboriculture which required skilful husbandry and long-term planning. Even where the conquering race preferred to continue in its own pastoral way of life, it could see the advantage of subjugating the settled peasants and keeping them at work for their new masters. The Dorians reduced some of the peasants to a position of serfdom in most or the areas which they conquered, and they did so not as individuals acquiring slaves but as a community obtaining a communal service. Thus the Spartan state owned the Helots, each Dorian city-state in Crete owned its ‘Klarotai' and 'Mnoitai,’ and Argos had its class of 'Gymnetes'; and the state assigned to its citizens a stated amount of the serfs' produce. In the first instance, the peasant families had stayed on their land, because their livelihood depended on being where they were; their means of life was not transferable. Under the Dorian system they remained as peasant families and peasant communities, enjoying only a few aspects of freedom, much like the fellahin of the Egyptian delta, The serf populations in the conquered areas may have left more trace in the archaeological record of the Dark Age than the Dorian masters. For the serfs carried on the Mycenaean traditions in the making of tools, terracotta figurines and pottery. But it would be a mistake to suppose that they had any significant influence on the course of historical development in the Dorian states; for the Dorians were racially exclusive and their ideas were radically different from those of the Mycenaean world. Even when the original type of Dorian society was modified by revolutionary developments and the serfs were absorbed sometimes into the franchised community, it was clear that Dorian elements, for instance at Sicyon, were for long the dominant ones. We know much less about the migrations of the Greek-speaking peoples into the peninsula in Early Helladic III and the Middle Helladic period. Although they came from a background of pastoralism and their Kurgan leaders seem to have resembled Vlachic tshelnikadzi, the conquerors of this period behaved very differently from their successors, the Dorians. The fact that they built citadels, whereas they had not done so in Albania and the lakeland, shows that they were a relatively small minority and that the bulk of the earlier population had not migrated but stayed in their peacetime occupations, which were primarily those of agriculture and arboriculture. We may assert with some confidence that there was a large substratum of pre-Greek-speaking peoples of various origins in Greece at the end of the Middle Helladic period. For instance, the plain of Marathon had been cultivated by local people since the beginning of the Early Helladic period, their settlement being situated then close to the coast, and the arrival of Kurgan rulers with a limited number of followers who were primarily pastoralists may not have caused a major displacement of the local people. It seems rather that the founders of the Mycenaean citadels and the rulers whose presence is known from their tumuli formed, together with their followers, an overlay of authority and control rather as the Normans did in England. Yet by the middle of the late Helladic period it was the overlay and not the substratum which provided the universal language and the power-structure for what we call ‘Mycenaean civilisation'. Once again the material culture of the period was much affected by the substratum which carried on the earlier traditions of art and architecture, but it was the Greek speaking element which determined the future course of history. The migrations of the medieval period were less far-reaching in terms both of geography and ideas. During the long course of the Albanian migrations some oases of Greek civilisation survived either by retaining their independence, as Ioannina did, or on sufferance in mountainous areas, such as Zagori. In the end the migrations of such peoples as the Slavs, Avars Bulgars, Koumani and Albanians did not end in dominations but in co-existence. And with co-existence a phenomenon which was first noted by Isocrates c. 380 B.C. began to affect the overall situation: Our city (Athens) has outstripped the rest of the world in intellectual insight and power of expression to such an extent that her pupils have become the teachers of all others. She has brought it about that the term 'Greek' has connotation of outlook and not of race any longer, and that those who share our culture are called Greeks rather than those who share a common blood (Panegyricus 50). Athens and the land she represents have not always been politically independent but they have never lost their cultural independence since the time of Isocrates. When the migrants settled down to a peaceful existence, the waters of Greek culture flowed back into the ravaged areas and in the course of time they overlaid the original distinctions of race. The qualities which had the miraculous power of yeast in relation to dough were correctly summarised by Isocrates as "intellectual" - above all the capacity for inquiry (historia) - and "power of expression" in a language which has shown unparalleled ability to adapt itself to changing conditions through four millennia. Illyrian has survived for as long as Greek within our area. Geography has played a large part in that survival; for the mountains of Montenegro and northern Albania have supplied the almost impenetrable home base of the Illyrian-speaking peoples. They were probably the first occupants, apart from nomadic hunters, of the Accursed Mountains and their fellow peaks, and they maintained their independence when migrants such as the Slavs occupied the more fertile lowlands and the highland basins. Their language may lack the cultural qualities of Greek, but it has equalled it in its power to survive and it too is adapting itself under the name of Albanian to the conditions of the modern world. |
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02-29-2008, 06:22 AM
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| Cadmus here's part of Hammond's discussion in his "Epirus" relating to the Enchelei (pp 466-468). The extract may seem a little out of context and in truth there are many interesting points in the chapter from which it is taken (and in all the other chapters) which are unfortunately a little too large to scan for you: As the text is disputed at one point, I summarize the argument of Strabo 7. 7. 8 as follows. The Epirotes are the Amphilochians and those inland bordering on the Illyrian mountains. They are enumerated in the groups which we have mentioned - the Molossian group including the Orestae, and the northern group consisting of Lyncestae, Deuriopus, Pelagonia, Tripolitis, Eordi, Elimia, and Eratyra. Some are near the Macedonians, others are near the Ionian Gulf. Illyrian tribes, namely those on the south part of the mountainous country and those inland of the Ionian Gulf, were interspersed among them (αναμεμικται). The first examples he gives are those inland of the Ionian Gulf - Bylliones, Taulantii, Parthini, and Brygi. The next, which should concern the south part of the mountainous country, is in the disputed text. This reads as follows in the manuscript: πλησιον δε που και τα αργυρεια τα εν Δαμαστιω (a sentence which is probably added by Strabo himself, as the mines 'at Damastium' were not known until long after the time of Hecataeus). Περεσαδυες τε συνεστησαντο την δυναστειαν και Εγχελεους και Σεσαρηθιους καλουσι. The Peresadyes are evidently Illyrians; the name is not known elsewhere, but the royal name Berisades in Thrace is very close to it. These Peresadyes 'joined the dynasty’ (συνεστησαντο την δυναστειαν; cf. LSJ συνιστημι, B. III), which should be a Greek or at least a non-lllyrian dynasty, as the Illyrians are intruders. What 'dynasty' is it? The answer comes in the next sentence but one: ταυτα δε προτερον μεν καταδυναστευετο εκαστα, ων εν τοις Εγχελεοις οι Καδμου και Αρμονιας απογονοι ηρχον. The meaning of the text about the Peresadyes is then that they being Illyrian chiefs joined the ruling house of the Enchelei which was Greek. The Peresadyes no doubt brought their followers with them; the Enchelei themselves had a Greek name but were probably Illyricized. If this is the meaning, we should read Περεσαδυες τε συνεστησαντο την δυναστειαν των Εγχελεων or εν τοις Εγχελεοις. On the other hand, if the Peresadyes are an Illyrian tribe which joined with the Enchelei in supporting the dynasty of the descendants of Cadmus, the Enchelei were considered to be non-Illyrian. In this case we may read και Εγχελεοις after την δυναστειαν. Who are called Sesarethii ? The fragments of Hecataeus mention the Encheleae and the Sesarethii, and Σεσαρηθος΄ πολις Ταυλαντιων (F 99, 100, and 103). The Encheleae then cannot be the Sesarethii. The Peresadyes, we conclude, were chiefs of a Taulantian tribe from Sesarethus and were called also Sesarethii. I should then punctuate the text as follows: .... Βρυγοι΄ πλησιον δε που και τα αργυρεια τα εν Δαμαστιω. Περεσαδυες τε συνεστησαντο την δυναστειαν των Εγχελεων (και Σεσαρηθιους καλουσι). 'The Brygi; and somewhere nearby the mines of Damastium. And the Peresadyes joined the dynasty of the Enchelei (the Peresadyes were also called Sesarethii).' The fragments of Hecataeus give some indication of the position of these Illyrian tribes. The Enchelei came next to the Dexari, a Chaonian tribe which lived below Mount Amyron (F 103); if Mount Amyron is Mount Tomor, the Enchelei were probably to the north of Berat. The Sesarethii, one of the Taulantian tribes (F 99, where polis may mean a tribal state rather than an urban centre), lived to the south of the Chelidonii (F 100); and the Abri, a tribe of the Taulantii, lived by the Adriatic next to the Chelidonii (F 101). There is no doubt that Hecataeus had fairly full knowledge of this area. Some of it appears in Strabo's description. The Lyncestae are placed by Strabo 'near' the Peresadyes and Enchelei (Str. 7. 7. 8). As Lyncus included the plain of Bitolj (Monastir) but probably did not extend to Lake Ochrid, the 'eel-men' may have held the area of Lake Ochrid and the district north of Mount Tomor. In that case the Dexari, belonging to the Chaones, came up to Berat; their name seems to have survived in Dassaretis, the later name of this district. Polybius (5. 108. 8), who gave the West Greek ethnic ending to the Enchelei and called them 'Enchelanes', placed them near Lake Ochrid. The coast and the coastal plain were occupied by the Illyrian Bylliones (near Apollonia) und 'Taulantii - a group of constituent tribes evidently (F 100) - who extended to somewhere north of Epidamnus. The Parthini and the Brygi (Str. 7. 7. 8) were further inland, the former inland or north of the Bylliones and the latter inland and north of the Taulantii (App. B.C. 2. 39). The Sesarethii were probably east of the Brygi and adjacent on one hand to the Enchelei and on the other to the Chelidonii, west of whom lay the Abri, a Taulantian tribe on the coast. The lllyrian αναμιξις seems to have followed the same lines of movement as the intrusion since medieval times, that is over the coastal plains and ranges, while the non-lllyrian peoples were pushed back into the mountainous interior. *** As PMs allow only a maximum of 5000 characters I will try and get the relevant bits of Hammond that you have asked for and post them here ... All in due course. Cheers |
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02-29-2008, 07:02 AM
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| And the first pages of his discussion in Macedonia Vol. 1 (pp. 93-94) of the regions of Lychnis and Dassaretis: While the district round Lychnidus had great strategic value, it was also extremely rich in its own right. The pasture, the arable land, and the fisheries supported a very large population, as we see for instance from Procopius Anecd. 18. 42 (ed. Haury) Λυχνιδον τε την εν Ηπειρωταις και Κορινθον, αι δη πολυανθρωποταται εκ παλαιου ησαν. Greek tradition associated the descendants of Cadmus and Hermione with a powerful dynasty of the Encheleae or Enchelei, 'the eel-men', so called perhaps from their control of the northern end of Lake Lychnitis, where the fisheries are finest, and also with the foundation of Lychnidus, which proved to be the strongest city in the area of the lakes. In a corrupt passage of Str. C 326, which I have discussed elsewhere, it appears that an Illyrian or Thracian royal house, called the Peresadyes, joined that of the Encheleae and increased its power; and this gains some support from the tradition that a city Harpyia among the Encheleae had been founded by the charioteer of Amphiaraus, called Bato, a dynastic name in the royal house of the Dardanii. Such a fusion of royal houses and strong tribes as these traditions suggest may account for the astonishing wealth of the royal graves found at Trebenishte and dating to the late sixth century B.C. One feature of these graves was the abundance of silver, and this and other reasons led me to suggest that the silver mines of Damastium, which Strabo mentioned in the previous sentence at C 326, were in fact in the realm of this dynasty and were 'situated probably to the north of Lake Ochrid'. In reading Ziva Antika 3 (1953) 261 I came across a sentence which seems to indicate the whereabouts of at least one of τα αργυρεια τα εν Δαμαστιω: 'in iis enim partibus ad viam quae hodie ab oppido Ohrid ad Resan ducit, prope "Starski dol" et "Raleica" novissimis temporibus officinae antiquissimae, quae ad effodiendum ac elaborandum plumbum cum argento pertinent, inventae sunt.' As the author, P. Lisicar, maintains, the mines of Damastium lay not only to the east but also to the north of Lake Ochrid; for if they had been only by Starski dol, the mines would have been called those of Lychnidus. There is also a mention by T. Tomovski in ZA 12 (1963) 341 of finding tin at an ancient site near Velmej in the Saletska valley north of Ochrid. . . . The Pisantini were probably in western Dassaretis as their town Orgessus is likely to be the Orgyssus of Livy 31. 27. 2. |
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03-01-2008, 07:57 AM
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| Thanks for the wonderfull info BBB! Quote:
Quote:
So are the Encheleans a tribe from the Sesarethi?if im not wrong here! In Albanian the word Oesarethi or Oesarete means something like coastal dweller, which could be used as that they were the inhabitants of the lake area. So the Bryges were also placed near the Damastion mines area(according to this text), which is supposed to be in the area of Lychnidus/Ohrid, this placing of the Bryges does not match with Strabo's earlier mentioning of the Bryges near the Illyrian rivers that feed the Erigon.. Also :After having many children, Cadmus and Harmonia 1 left Thebes in order to defend the Encheleans, a people leaving in southern Illyria, which is the region north of Epirus, and there defeated the Illyrian intruders. During their absence, their son Polydorus 2 became king, but it is also said that Pentheus 1, son of the Sparti Echion 2 and Agave 2, daughter of Cadmus, succeeded him on the throne. Agave 2 herself married King Lycotherses of Illyria, whom she murdered, handing the kingdom over to her father So this king Lycotherses which sounds Thracian to me , could be of the Peresadyes tribe or Sesarethes..?? The deathmasks found in Trebeniste have Thracian features , so far Illyrians did not bury their dead in that fashion, but they used the tumulus style as used in Epirus, also the Thracians used tumuli ...but the graves from the Trebenista were shallow pithoi graves.. Also the Cambridge ancient history seems to connect the Enchelians who they place at Radolishte east of Struga, with the Peresadyes who they think are from the Trebenista dynasty.. Bu |
