Section
3
2000 BC - 335 BC
THE BALKAN BRONZE AGE:
HALLSTATT ILLYRIANS
MIGRATE FROM CENTRAL EUROPE
TO THE WESTERN BALKANS
The
series of crania of the Hallstatt Illyrians are also composed exclusively of
male crania, suggesting that the Hallstatt Illyrian invasion that occurred
before 2000 BC was the same as the Slavic & Roman invasions in this respect
(see: Section 5, 6 & 7) . The fossil record shows that the movement
of Hallstatt Illyrian tribes into the Balkans was a military conquest conducted
by male soldiers. It was not a typical population movement in the sense of a
migration of families. In this respect, the Slavization of the Balkans was
achieved in the same way as the Latinization (see: Section 4) of the
Western Balkans. These invaders assimilated their language & identity on
the people they conquered.
The
term Hallstatt is used to identify the Illyrians before they migrated o
the Western Balkans beause the Bronze Age culture from which the Illyrians
descend was centered around the town of Halstatt in Lower Austria.
Archaeologists currently believe that a
gradual formation of cultures and the ethnic groups they are supposed to
represent took place during the latest phase of the Stone Age (Eneolithic) and
that these were consolidated rather than curtailed by the arrival of newcomers
from the east. It was also suggested, though not uncontested, that these
newcomers were Indo-European speakers.
A symbiosis between these (newcomers) and the
existing communities resulted in the formation of the principal tribal groups
of what are now called the Palaeo-Balkan peoples. On this, it is suggested, there
is a warrant to base the hypothesis of an unbroken continuity in population
from the Early Bronze Age down to the first historical records of Balkan
peoples. In this equation, the principal regional groups...are then
identified thus: the East Balkan Bronze Age represents the Thracians, the
Balkano-Danubian the proto-Daco-Moesians and the West Balkan represents the Illyrians.
John Wilkes
The Illyrians
Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians
Page: 33 - 34
Blackwell Publishers
1992
Wilkes
agrees with mainstream archaeologists who consider the West Balkan early Neolithic
cultures centered around Zadar & Belgrade to be ancestors of the Illyrians.
Although
it is in the interest of this writing to accept Wilkes' hypothesis of an
unbroken continuity in population from the Early Bronze Age down to the first
historical records of Balkan peoples - the point of view taken here is
that the Illyrians migrated from Central Europe where they formed the Hallstatt
Culture, the direct successor of to the Bell-Beaker culture bearers who brought
metal working to Europe.
The
Illyrians migrated to the Western Balkans from Austria and Germany
approximately 2000 BC. Their Hallstatt Culture was a blending of the metallurgical
knowledge derived from the Bell Beakers. The Illyrians of Central Europe were
mixed with "Corded" & Danubian peoples. These two Bronze Age
peoples were proto-Nordics in their morphology, just as the Bell Beakers were
proto-Dinarics. The Hallstatt Illyrians were primarily Nordic with significant
Dinaric admixture.
According
to the process presented here in this text, during that last phase of the
Neolithic, these Hallstatt Illyrians of Central Europe hybridized with the
larger population of the descendants of the Bell-Beakers who had been living in
the Balkans ever since the Mesolithic (see: Section 1) & had evolved into
the Neolithic farmers of the Starcevo, Vinca, Vlasko & Smilcic (see:
Section 2).
Carleton
Coon writes:
The significance of our study of the Illyrian peoples
is as follows: on the plains of south central Germany and Lower Austria,
where the Hallstatt culture arose, the racial type involved was skeletally a
Nordic one. This "Nordic"
type is no special or separate race, but merely a variant of the larger
Mediterranean family, of an intermediate metrical position.
Races of Europe
Carleton Stevens Coon
(Chapter VI, section 2)
The Illyrians
Macmilan Press
1939
We have already seen, however, that this same type
had entered these mountains by the beginning of the Bronze Age, in
connection with the eastward movement of the Bell Beaker peoples. The
round-heads at Glasinac and in Carniola may have been the descendants of these
Bell Beaker refugees.
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter VI, section 2)
The Illyrians
Macmilan Press
1939
The Hallstatt crania from Austria, including those from the type site
itself, form a reasonably homogeneous, entirely long-headed group. 16 (See
Appendix I, col. 32.) This group is the legitimate, local successor to the
Aunjetitz (people), and like the latter it resembles the Danubian Neolithic
series in many respects. In certain characters, however, it leans in a
Corded direction, and these include a heightening of the orbits and a
narrowing and lengthening of the nose. Certain of the individual crania are of definitely Corded type.
Morphologically, as well as metrically, most of these skulls may without
difficulty be designated as "Nordic"; the browridges are
moderate, the foreheads moderately sloping, the occiputs protruding, the
parietals flattened, the malars compressed, the mandibles deep. The stature was
apparently moderately tall.
The significance of this double continuity is great. It
traces the Nordic racial type, in skeletal form, back to the Early Iron Age,
and derives this with little alteration from the preceding Age of Bronze. The
Bronze Age population which was thus the ancestral Nordic one was in turn
derived from a mixture between the local Danubian Neolithic people, who came from the east, and the later Corded
invaders.
When we move to southern Germany, however, which was
equally involved in the development of this culture, we find no such racial
uniformity. Crania from Württemburg, Bavaria, and the Bavarian Palatinate
include, with the usual Austrian Hallstatt type, a large minority of
brachycephals which may be considered as survivals from the Bronze Age.
18 These include both planoccipital crania of the original Bell Beaker type,
and a curvoccipital brachycephalic type which shows a Borreby relationship.
It would appear, then, that in southwestern Germany, Hallstatt Nordics had
invaded the region and had mixed with the Bell Beaker Dinarics and the old
Borreby sub-stratum.
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter VI, section 2)
The Illyrians
Macmillam Press
1939
Let us turn southeastward and follow the Dinaric
Alpine chain in the direction of the Balkans. In the mountainous section of
southern Austria, the Hallstatt Nordic type is in the minority. Out of six
skulls from Carniola, three are round headed and one is mesocephalic. The
brachycephalic types seem without question to be predominantly Dinaric. In
Croatia, however, seven adult skulls are all long healded, of the usual
Hallstatt type, while two infantile skulls show brachycephaly.
In Bosnia, we come to the famous site of Glasinac, 21 where a
comparatively large series of relatively late Illyrian remains contains
again a mixture of types. The majority of the skulls are long headed and
these show the same mixture of Danubian and Corded elements which we
have already seen at Hallstatt itself. A few of the individual crania are very
large, and reproduce the Corded prototype quite accurately. The
brachycephalic skulls, although in the minority, are numerous enough to
permit one to determine their racial affiliation with some accuracy. Almost all
belong to what might be called a modern Dinaric racial type. The skulls
are moderately large with flattened occiputs, straight side walls, rather broad
foreheads, and a very prominent nose, in the one instance in which the nasal
bones were preserved. 22 The jaws are very broad with an excessive bigonial
diameter, but not noted for their depth.
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter VI, section 2)
The Illyrians
Macmillam Press
1939
As the Illyrians spread southwestward along the
Dinaric Alps into Montenegro and Albania, they apparently blended with an
indigenous brachycephalic mountain population which may have been more numerous
than the invaders;
for, with some additions and modifications, it persists as a predominant
element today.
Metrically, these brachycephalic crania resemble the
Bronze Age series from Cyprus, but are, on the whole, a little larger. They
fall, as a matter of fact, into an intermediate position between the Cyprus
series and the Bell Beaker group from the upper Rhineland, but in
morphology are identical with both. There is no doubt that we are dealing in
this instance with a form of Dinaric which anticipates the modern population of
Bosnia.
Carleton Stevens Coon
Races of Europe
(Chapter VI, section 2)
The Illyrians
Macmillam Press
1939
The
Illyrians migrated to the Western Balkans as a predominantlly Nordic population
with a
large minority of Dinarics and there they found the descendants of the
first Bell Beaker invasion from 10 000 years before (see: Section 1). There,
the Illyrians found the land already settled with the Neolithic descendants of
the Mesolithic Bell-Beaker proto-Dinaric culture bearers (see: Section 2).
According to Coon, the living Bosnian Dinarics are found to be the closest
approximation of the Bell Beaker proto-Dinaric type. The Illyrians established
themselves over this majority population.
It
is also important to remember, that since the Hallstatt Illyrians arrived in
the Balkans during the Late Bronze Age, numerous other people of Celtic and
Asiatic origin had settled among the Illyrians. According to Wilkes, we can say
with certainty that the Celtic tribes were the Scordisci & Autoriatae; the
Asiatic tribes were the Dardanians and Galbrians (see: Section 7, I).
How the name Illyrian came to be applied to so many different
peoples, as indicated by Appian and
also in similar accounts in the works of other writers, is still
debated. A widely accepted explanation is that Illyrii was once no more than the
name of a single people known to have occupied a small and well-defined part of
the Adriatic coast...between Albania and Montenegro. (This) reflects the use of
the name as a generic term within a reasonably well defined but much greater area:
the Western Balkans between the Middle Danube & the Adriatic.
The key evidence for Illyrians as the name of
an individual people in the south comes from Pliny...in 100 AD...among the
native communities in Roman Dalmatia. Evidently these were the first people of
this area to become known to the Greeks, causing their name to be applied to
other peoples with similar language and customs...
John Wilkes
The Illyrians
Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians
Page: 92
Blackwell Publishers
1992
The general lack of uniformity in burial practices
has tended to be cited as evidence for the mixed origin of the Illyrians,
including both Indo-European & non-Indo-European elements.
John Wilkes
The Illyrians
Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians
Page: 241
Blackwell Publishers
1992
At
the start of the Roman era, the first century AD, the Illyrians were already
assimilated into Roman society and culture. They had lost their distinctive
identity and language and replaced them with those of the Roman invaders.
Thus, the Illyrians disppeared into the Roman
Empire. When we next hear of them, they are Roman Illyrians ... we may take
a closer look at Illyrians when they were assimilating the richer and
more varied material culture of the Greco-Roman world. The more durable remains
from Roman times tell us much about the way of life among Illyrian and taken
with evidence from the pre-Roman era, provide our clearest view of Illyrians
at a period when they were beginning to lose much of their own identity within
that Universal Rome.
John Wilkes
The Illyrians
Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians
Page: 218
1992
This
process of ethnic & linguistic assimilation would repeat itself again by
600 AD, when Slavs, instead of Romans, would act as the assimilator, with the
Illyrians adopting Slavic language, culture and administration.