ILLYRIAN GROUPS
Septentrioanl Balkanic would include Dacian, Thracian, Illyrian, Messapian, and Venet, and would have some similar isoglosses with Baltic and Slav. Thraco-Illyro-Phrygians, settled on Balkan peninsula. It took place in the XXIIIth or the XXIIth century BC. Scientists believe it was the time of linguistic unity of all Balkan peoples. Later they divided into two groups: Thraco-Illyrian and Thraco-Phrygian, the first spread to all Balkan mountains, Illyria, Pannonia, Dacia and parts of Italy, the second existed in South-East Balkans and partly in Asia Minor. Modern Albanian means everything that left after the first group, whether it is the direct successor of Illyrian language or just related to it. Isolated Illyrian tribes deep into hinterland shared with the Thracian tribes the custom of tattooing their bodies and of offering human sacrifices.

-2000/-1200 Proto-Illyrians in former Yugoslavia. This is the group ancestral to Istri, Dalmatians, Pannonians and other Illyrian language family tribes, listed starting in -1200. MAP: Click here to open a new window displaying a map of the linguistic communities in the Balkans in the Bronze Age. Vucedol est formee par la fusion de Baden-Kostolac avec des sepultures à catacombes venus du nord-est. Ces peuples de cavaliers portaient des haches de combat de section polygonales et des couteaux losangiques en cuivre. Ils utilisaient des poteries noires polies (parfois avec des anses) decorees de signes solaires (cercles concentriques) incises, pointilles et sillonnes. Leurs descendants etaient connus dans l'antiquite sous le nom de "Venètes" en Italie du nord-est et en Slovenie. Plusieurs tribus issues de la culture de Vucedol partiront envahir l'Italie.

Ces hommes, appeles "italiotes" ou "italiques", seront les ancètres directs des latins (Romains et Falisques) et des osco-ombriens. Vucedol culture: in Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, Austria, Czech Rep., Slovenia, Slovakia, and Germany, where men and womed were buried toguether along offers. From there surely came the Apenine Culture of Italy. In Vucedol the tumular burials were replaced slowly by simple inhumations and cremations.

Since -1400 Illyrians in the Balkans. -1500 Pannonians in north Croatia. About -1300 the Illyrians settled on the northern and eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea. Included among its members were various tribes of Dalmatians and the Pannonians. Those of Illyrians who crossed the Adriatic and settled in Italy spoke the Messapic language. IDEA: The Wends in Germany, the Venets in Brittany then could be linked with the dispersal of Illyrian peoples with the Urnfield. In Croatia -1200/-700 Urnfield Culture with cremation and weapons inside urns.

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

In about -1300 Illyrian and Venetic groups (or one group which was later divided into two) started migrating to the south, from Pannonia (modern Hungary) to Dalmatia (modern Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia). Urnfield (-1300), with cremation, spreads to Poland as the Lausitz culture; related to Illyrians and Venets. Secondary expansion to Greece, Asia Minor, Lacio, SE France, Catalonia, Netherland, and Dover area.

IDEA: That would point to an Illyrian occupation of Dalmatia around such epoch. After having many children, Cadmus and Harmonia left Thebes in order to defend the Encheleans, a people living in southern Illyria, which is the region north of Epirus, and there defeated the Illyrian intruders. IDEA: So by the time of Cadmus (some two centuries before the Trojan Wars), there is attested the presence of Illyrians north of Greece, at least in legends. ILYRIANS: Utilisation de tumuli comme lieux de sepulture jusqu"au debut de l"ère chretienne est caracteristique de ces populations. Objets deposes là sont bijoux, armes et monnaies. La grande difficulte pour la connaissance de l"histoire des Illyriens tient à l"absence de texte ecrit en langue illyrienne. Sufficient is not known either of the language or customs of the Illyrians, by which their race may be ascertained. The most accurate among the ancient writers have always distinguished them as a separate nation, or group of nations, from both the Thracians and Epirots. In the practice of tattooing their bodies, and offering human sacrifices, the Illyrians resembled the Thracians.

IDEA: as the Illyrians do not appear in history before the PeloponnesianWar, it seems that the classics before that might have taken Illyrians as Thracians... Otherwise similar customs could have in fact a substrate origin. After Illyrians began their movement to the south from the Danube valley, Phrygian tribes which probably came to the Balkans together with some branches of the Hellenic group were forced to leave their settlements and start the migration which was to play an important role in Anatolia.

At first they lived in the northern Balkans, contacting with Thracians, Illyrians and Doric Greeks, and now had to cross the Bosporus and to settle in West Asia Minor, among non-Indo-European tribes who lived in Troy and other towns here.

DALMATIANS = PANNONIANS = ILLYRIANS
-1500/-1200 Liburni in Istria Appian, The Foreign Wars: "The Liburni, another Illyrian tribe, were next to the Ardiæi as a nautical people". In another text: "At the time when Cæsar held the command in Gaul these same Dalmatians and other Illyrians, who were then in a very prosperous condition, took the city of Promona from the Liburni, another Illyrian tribe." And also: "They were supplanted by the Taulantii, an Illyrian tribe, who were displaced in their turn by the Liburnians, another Illyrian tribe, who were in the habit of making piratical expeditions against their neighbors, with very swift ships."

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

LIBURNIANS were not [pure] ILLYRIANS
IDEA: By such accounts the Liburnians together with Veneti expelled from North Italy (or subjugated) the native tribes, the Euganei. At Ancona begins the coast of that part of Gaul known as Gallia Togata [North Italy, Po Bassin]. The Siculi [Epiro-Macedonians, also Pelasgians] and the Liburni possessed the greater part of this district [since -1200, as the presence of Illyrians and Epirotes is posterior to the Trojan War], and more particularly the territories of Palma, of Praetutia, and of Adria.

These were expelled by the Umbri [Italics, as Urnfield invader, -1000], these again by the Etrurians [around -600, the colonists will be known as Raethians], and these in their turn by the Gauls [by -400, Celtics that will be the dominant ethnic element in the Po Basin at the arrival of the Romans]. (Pliny). Ptolomey in the II Century: Illyrian tribe in Albania named "Albanians". Après les invasions gothiques, puis l"arrivee des Slaves du Sud, se developpe, en Albanie septentrionale notamment, la civilisation dite de Koman. Celle-ci est surtout remarquable par les bijoux, fibules, agrafes, qui temoignent de la permanence d"une technique du metal et d"un art de la decoration apparentes aux productions illyriennes anterieures

IDEA: So Illyrian as say many scholars have the unique descendant left in Albanian. Many Illyrian names have been preserved in Albanian language: Didi=Dede, Lalus=Lala, Dassios=Dash, Bardhyllis=Bardhan, Bardhosh, etc. Even such names could be explained by Albanian etymology: Bardhyllis=bardhë+yllis=white star, or Bardibalus=bardi+balus=white forehead. The Illyrian origins of Albanian can now be proven only with the use of lexical similarities of modern Albanian words with what was found of the Illyrian glossary, some Illyrian - Albanian correspondences: buris / burrë "man"; datan / datë "place"; drenis / dreni "deer"; pupa / pupë "hill"; rera / lera "stones". Modern Albanians still use the vigesimal numeric system of ancient Illyrians. Arutiunov: the only remnant of Illyrian is Albanian. Strabo, Geography: The [Thracian] Bessi live in huts and lead a wretched life; and their country borders on Mount Rhodope, on the country of the Paeonians, and on that of two Illyrian peoples-the Autariatae, and the Dardanians. DARDANIANS (around modern Kosovo) = ILLYRIANS According to HOLLIS, the Illyrian languages include the Messapian and Venetic language. Strabo: "And further, the Iapodes (we now come to this mixed tribe of Illyrii and Celti) dwell round about these regions [west Slovenia]; and Mount Ocra is near these people.

The Iapodes, then, although formerly they were well supplied with strong men and held as their homeland both sides of the mountain and by their business of piracy held sway over these regions, have been vanquished and completely outdone by Augustus Caesar. Their cities are: Metulum, Arupini, Monetium, and Vendo. After the Iapodes comes Segestica, a city in the plain, past which flows the River Saüs [Sava], which empties into the Ister." Les Alpes s'etendent jusqu'au pays des Iapodes, nation tout à la fois celtique et illyrienne. [Strabo, Book VII, 31] Les Iapodes sont etablis près de l'Albie, très haute montagne qui se trouve à l'extremite des Alpes, et vont d'un côte jusqu'aux Pannonies et à Pister, de l'autre jusqu'à l'Adrias. ils sont tatoues tout comme les autres Illyries et les Thraces.

[Strabo, Book VII, 33] IAPODES = ILLYRIAN TRIBE (but Celtized) Appian, The Foreign Wars: They are called Pæones [Paeones] by the Greeks, but Pannonians by the Romans. Paeones: They appear neither as Macedonians, or Illyrians, but professed to be descended from the Teucri of Troy. Next followed the Paeonians, who occupied both banks of the Strymon, from its source down to the lake near its mouth, but were pushed away from the coast towards the interior. (Strabo). But who, he [Darius] answered, are the Paeonians, and where do they dwell, and with what intent have you come to Sardis? [in Lydia]� They told him, that they had come to be his men, that the towns of Paeonia lay on the Strymon, a river not far from the Hellespont, and that they were colonists from the Teucrians of Troy. (Herodotus). Appian, The Foreign Wars: "Among the many myths prevailing among many peoples this seems to me the most plausible. Illyrius had six sons, Encheleus, Autarieus, Dardanus, Maedus, Taulas, and Perrhaebus, also daughters, Partho, Daortho, Dassaro, and others, from whom sprang the Taulantii, the Perrhaebi, the Enchelees, the Autarienses, the Dardani, the Partheni, the Dassaretii, and the Darsii. Autarieus had a son Pannonius, or Paeon, and the latter had sons, Scordiscus and Triballus, from whom nations bearing similar names were derived. But I will leave these matters to the archaeologists."

ILLYRIANS = DARDANIANS = PAEONES/PANNONIANS
Francisco Villar: The Paeonian was IE; per example in its sonority of aspired sonors (*bh, *dh, etc. > /b/, /d/, etc.), and in names as Agrianes, Paeonian tribe (from *agro- "field", as the Latin ager) or in Doberos, Paeonian city (from *dheubh- "deep", as the Greek and Lithuanian dubus). Appian, The Foreign Wars: "These peoples [Illyrian tribes], and also the Pannonians, the Rhaetians, the Noricans, the Mysians of Europe, and the other neighboring tribes who inhabited the right bank of the Danube, the Romans distinguished from one another just as the various Greek peoples are distinguished from each other, and they call each by its own name, but they consider the whole of Illyria as embraced under a common designation."

IDEA: Such fact can be explained as that once such Great Illyria was ethnically homogeneus: it is attested that the Rhaetians crossed the Alps in classical sources, also we know that the Norics were Celtics that sprang with the Hallstadt culture, and the Mysians could have suffered a process of Thracization. The earliest writer who has left any account of the peoples inhabiting the Adriatic coast is Scylax; according to whom the Illyrians, properly so called (for the Liburnians and Istrians beyond them are excluded), occupy the sea-coast from Liburnia to the Chaonians of Epirus.

The Bulini were the northernmost of these tribes, and the Amantini the southernmost. Herodotus (i. 196) includes under the name, the Heneti or Veneti, who lived at the head of the gulf; in another passage (iv. 49) he places the Illyrians on the tributary streams of the Morava river [Bosnia].

MAP: Click here to open a new window displaying a linguistic map of the Balkans in the Iron Age. Croatia: Celts there since -400 with La Tène Culture; cremation funerals, and being substrat for the actual Croat language.

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

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