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Kingdom of Yugoslavia

 

Yugoslavia was the idea for a single state for all South Slavic intelligentsia and emerged in the late 17th and gained prominence in the 19th century Illyrian Movement, that culminated in the realization of the ideal with the 1918 collapse of Habsburg Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, the kingdom was better known, colloquially as well as even on maps, as Yugoslavia; in 1929 it was formally renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia".

 

Breakup of Yugoslavia

 

 

The Serbo-Croatian language is a South Slavic language or diasystem. The term Serbo-Croatian language is and has been used both as an umbrella term for all the dialects spoken in what is nowadays Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and more importantly as a the official standard language of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1991 (partially along with Slovene and Macedonian).

Today, use of the term "Serbo-Croatian" is controversial due to history, politics, and the variable meanings of the word language. An alternative name has emerged abroad – Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS).

 

 

Links to Articles

* The Peopling of Modern Bosnia-Herzegovina: Y-Chromosome Haplogroups in the Three Main Ethnic Groups by D. Marjanovic, et al.

* Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup I Reveals Distinct Domains of Prehistoric Gene Flow in Europe by Siiri Rootsi, et al. 

* Y Chromosomal Heritage of Croatian Population and Its Island Isolates by Lovorka Bara, et al.

* Alu Insertion Polymorphisms and an Assessment of the Genetic Contribution of Central Asia to Anatolia with Respect to the Balkans by C.C. Berkman, et al.

* DNA Analysis of Early Mediaeval Individuals from Zvonimirovo Burial Site in Northern Croatia: Investigation of Kinship Relationships by Using Multiplex System Amplification for Short Tandem Repeat Loci by Jadranka Boljunčić

* From Asia to Europe: Mitochondrial DNA sequence variability in Bulgarians and Turks by F. Calafell, et al.

* Frequencies of mtDNA Haplogroups in Southeastern Europe – Croatians, Bosnians and Herzegovinians, Serbians, Macedonians and Macedonian Romani by Svjetlana Cvjetan, et al.

 

Cravat

The sartorial word "cravat" derives from the French "cravate," a corrupt French pronunciation of "Croat".

 

Dalmatian

The Dalmatian (Croatian: Dalmatinac) is a breed of dog widely associated with Dalmatia, a historical region of Croatia although the exact origins remain unknown.

 

National Museum of Serbia

 

National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Kosovo

 

 

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Countries with dominating Slavic ethnicities
West Slavic
East Slavic
South Slavic

 

The South Slavs are a southern branch of the Slavic peoples that live in the Balkans, mainly throughout the former Yugoslavia (meaning "Land of the South Slavs") and Bulgaria. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the southern Pannonian Plain, the eastern Alps and the Balkan peninsula and they speak South Slavic languages. Numbering close to 35 million, the South Slavs include Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Yugoslavs and Slovenes.

 

Serbia

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Montenegro

 

Croatia

 

 

Vladimir Prelog
The 1975 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

 

Ivo Andrić
The 1961 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

 

The Bridge on the Drina
by Ivo Andrić

 

Nadežda Petrović
Serbian female painter

 

Meša Selimović

Mehmed "Meša" Selimović was a Bosniak writer, one of the greatest 20th century novelists of Bosniak literature / Serbian literature. His most famous works deal with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the culture of the Muslim inhabitants of the Ottoman province of Bosnia

 

Death and the Dervish
by Meša Selimović

 

 

No Man's Land
(video)

 

Grbavica
(video)

 

Welcome to Sarajevo
(video)

 

WESTERN BALKANS

BOSNIAK, SERB, CROAT, MONTENEGRIN

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

 

Bosniak

Husein Gradaščević

The Bosniaks or Bosniacs (Bošnjaci) are a South Slavic people, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Bosnia"; video) and the Sandžak region of Serbia and Montenegro, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in Croatia, Kosovo (province of Serbia) and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region, traditional adherence to Islam, and common culture and language.

Bosniaks belong to the Slavic ethnic group, but nevertheless their 'genetic roots' are a mixture of Slav settlers and descendants of pre-Slavic indigenous Balkan peoples, mainly of Illyrian tribes. For example, anthropologist John J. Wilkes regards Bosniaks (and Bosnians in general) as a possible descendant of the Illyrians and places Bosnia as once the centre of the Illyrian kingdom

There are more than two million Bosniaks living in the Balkans today. Once spread throughout the regions they inhabited, various instances of ethnic cleansing and genocide have had a tremendous effect on the territorial distribution of their population. Partially due to this, a notable Bosniak Diaspora exists in a number of countries, including Austria, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and the United States. Both within the region and the outside world, Bosniaks are often noted for their unique culture, which has been influenced by both eastern and western civilizations and schools of thought over the course of their history.

The highest number of Bosniak immigrants and people descending of Bosniaks are found in Turkey. Today, it is generally accepted that approximately 350,000 Turks descend directly from Bosniaks who immigrated to Turkey mostly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Documents recently found by Turkish historians, however, indicate that Turks having direct and indirect Bosniak ancestry, number as high as 1.5 million.

It is believed that many aspects of Bosniak identity were lost among these people due to Turkish assimilation laws in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Bosniak immigrants to Turkey were required to change their names to Turkish or Turkish sounding ones (under the Law on Family names). As a consequence of this, today some Turks do have somewhat Slavic sounding surnames. However some also have entirely Slavic surnames, the most common one probably being "Kiliç" spelled in Turkish as compared to the Bosnian version which is spelled "Kilić".

In Turkey Bosniaks mostly live in the Marmara Region which is in other words the north-west Turkey. The biggest Bosniak community in Turkey is in Istanbul and also there are notable Bosniak communities in Izmir, Edirne, and Bursa.

 

Serb

Nikola Tesla

Serbs (Serbian: Срби or Srbi) are a South Slavic people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia (video), Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia. They are also a significant minority in two other republics of the Former Yugoslavia- the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Serbs are an officially recognized minority in both Romania and Hungary (mostly in Banat). There is a sizeable Serbian diaspora in Western Europe (predominantly concentrated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), as well in North America: the United States and Canada.

Byzantine sources report that part of the White Serbs, led by the Unknown Archont, migrated southward from their Slavic homeland of White Serbia (Poland) in the late sixth century and eventually overwhelmed the Serbian lands that now make up Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. After settling on the Balkans, Serbs mixed with other Slavic tribes (which settled during the great migration of the Slavs) and with descendants of the indigenous peoples of the Balkans: Greeks, Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians.

Almost one millennium afterwards, overwhelmed by the Ottoman wars in Europe which ravaged their territories, Serbs once again started crossing the rivers Sava and Danube and resettling the previously abandoned regions in Central Europe which are today's Vojvodina, Slavonia, Transylvania and Hungary proper. Apart from the Habsburg Empire, thousands were attracted to Imperial Russia, where they were given territories to settle: Nova Serbia and Slavo-Serbia were named after these refugees. Two Great Serbian Migrations resulted in a relocation of the Serbian core from the Ottoman-dominated South towards the developed (Christian) North, where it has remained ever since.

 

Croats

Andrija Mohorovičić

Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic people mostly living in Croatia (video), Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4.6 million Croats living in the Balkan region, and an estimated 9 million throughout the world. Due to political, social and economic reasons, many Croats have since migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in a number of countries, including The United States, Australia, Germany, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their unique culture, which throughout the ages, has been variously influenced by both the Eastern world and the Western world.

The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian Duke of Dalmatia Tomislav of Trpimir united all Croats. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of Pannonia as well as maintaining close ties with Pagania and Zahumlje.

Since the creation of the personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Croats were at times subjected to forceful Germanization and Magyarization from XVII century. The ensuing Ottoman conquests and Habsburg domination broke the Croatian lands into disunity again—with the majority of Croats living in Croatia proper and Dalmatia. Large numbers of Croats also lived in Slavonia, Istria, Rijeka, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Over the centuries ensued a wave of Croatian emigrants, notably to Molise in Italy, Burgenland in Austria and eventually the United States of America.

The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. According to the most widely accepted Slavic theory of the 7th century, the Croatian tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia.

 

Montenegrin

Helen of Montenegro

Montenegrins (Montenegrin: Црногорци, Crnogorci) are a South Slavic people, associated to Montenegro (video).

In today's Montenegro, ethnic Montenegrins and Serbs are divided largely on the basis of political identification. Serbs were native to the state since the 7th century A.D. and remained a majority people all the way to the 20th century. Since the violent Christmas Uprising (1919), which saw fighting between the pro-Petrovic guerillas and the Karadjordjevic troops, there was a significant opposition to unification with Serbia. Following the end of the World War II the population was shifted overwhelmingly in favour of separate Montenegrin ethnicity (91%). Following the collapse of Communism in Yugoslavia however, more and more Montenegrins began to again self-identify as Serbs (33%), while the greatest proportion of citizens of Montenegro still declare 'Montenegrin' as their ethnicity (43%). This has deepened further since the movement for full Montenegrin independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began to gain ground in 1991, and ultimately narrowly succeeded in the referendum of May 2006 (having been rejected in 1992). The Montenegro Serbs do not consider themselves separate from the Montenegrin nation but instead believe that all genuine Slavic Montenegrins are Serbs by ethnicity, and that Montenegrin nation is one fraction of "Serbdom".

 

 

* The Origins of Lactase Persistence in Europe by Yuval Itan, et al.

Abstract: Lactase persistence (LP) is common among people of European ancestry, but with the exception of some African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian groups, is rare or absent elsewhere in the world. Lactase gene haplotype conservation around a polymorphism strongly associated with LP in Europeans (−13,910 C/T) indicates that the derived allele is recent in origin and has been subject to strong positive selection. Furthermore, ancient DNA work has shown that the −13,910*T (derived) allele was very rare or absent in early Neolithic central Europeans. It is unlikely that LP would provide a selective advantage without a supply of fresh milk, and this has lead to a gene-culture coevolutionary model where lactase persistence is only favoured in cultures practicing dairying, and dairying is more favoured in lactase persistent populations. We have developed a flexible demic computer simulation model to explore the spread of lactase persistence, dairying, other subsistence practices and unlinked genetic markers in Europe and western Asia's geographic space. Using data on −13,910*T allele frequency and farming arrival dates across Europe, and approximate Bayesian computation to estimate parameters of interest, we infer that the −13,910*T allele first underwent selection among dairying farmers around 7,500 years ago in a region between the central Balkans and central Europe, possibly in association with the dissemination of the Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture over Central Europe. Furthermore, our results suggest that natural selection favouring a lactase persistence allele was not higher in northern latitudes through an increased requirement for dietary vitamin D. Our results provide a coherent and spatially explicit picture of the coevolution of lactase persistence and dairying in Europe.

 

 

* High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe (SEE) Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations by Marijana Peričić, et al.

Abstract: The extent and nature of SEE (Southeastern Europe) paternal genetic contribution to European genetic landscape was explored based on a high-resolution Y chromosome analysis involving 681 males from 7 populations in the region. Paternal lineages present in SEE were compared with previously published data from 81 western Eurasian populations and 5,017 Y chromosome samples. The finding that five major haplogroups (E3b1, I1b* (xM26), J2, R1a, R1b) comprise more than 70% of SEE total genetic variation is consistent with the typical European Y chromosome gene pool. However, distribution of major Y chromosomal lineages and estimated expansion signals clarify the specific role of this region in structuring of European, and particularly, Slavic paternal genetic heritage. Contemporary Slavic paternal gene pool, mostly characterized by the predominance of R1a and I1b* (xM26), and scarcity of E3b1 lineages, is a result of two major prehistoric gene flows with opposite directions: the post-LGM R1a expansion from east to west, the YD-Holocene I1b* (xM26) diffusion out of SEE in addition to subsequent R1a and I1b* (xM26) putative gene flows between eastern and southeastern Europe and a rather weak extent of E3b1 diffusion towards regions nowadays occupied by Slavic speaking populations.

 

Y-chromosomal SNP Tree and Haplogroup Frequencies (%) in Seven SEE Populations

(Populations: Croatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Kosovar Albanians, Macedonians, Macedonian Romani)

 

 

South Slavs

Countries with dominating South Slavic ethnicities

South Slavic Peoples: South Slavs are divided along linguistic lines into two groups — eastern and western. Please note that some of the subdivisions of the South Slavic ethnicities remain debatable, particularly for smaller groups and national minorities in former Yugoslavia.

List of the South Slavic peoples and ethnic groups, including population figures:

Eastern group:

Western group:

There are seven countries in which South Slavs form the majority of population:

In addition, there are traditional sizable South Slavic minorities in non-Slavic neighbouring countries such as Italy (Slovenes, Molise Croats), Austria (Slovenes, Burgenland Croats), Hungary (Serbs, Croats, Bunjevci, Šokci, Slovenes), Romania (Krashovani, Banat Bulgarians, Serbs), Moldova (Bessarabian Bulgarians), Greece (Bulgarians, Macedonians), Turkey (Pomaks, Bosniaks) and Albania (Macedonians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Gorani), as well as emigrant communities in various countries around the world.

Origin of the South Slavic Peoples: Little is known about the Slavs before the 5th century AD. Their history prior to this can only be tentatively hypothesized via archeological and linguistic studies. Much of what we know about their history after the 500s is from the works of Byzantine historians.

In his work De Bellis, Procopius portrays the Slavs as unusually tall and strong, with a tan complexion and reddish-blonde hair, living a rugged and primitive life. They lived in huts, often distant from one another and often changed their place of abode. They were not ruled by a single leader, but for a long time lived in a "democracy" (i.e. anarchy). They probably believed in many Gods, but Procopius suggests they believed in one, perhaps supreme god. He has often been identified as Perun, the creator of lightning. The Slavs went into battle on foot, charging straight at their enemy, armed with spears and small shields, but they did not wear armour.

This information is supplanted by Pseudo-Marice's work Strategikon, describing the Slavs as a numerous but disorganised and leaderless people, resistant to hardship and not allowing themselves to be enslaved or conquered. They made their homes in forests, by rivers and wetlands. Jordanes states that the Slavs "have their homelands on the Danube, not far from the northern bank."

Scholars tend to place the Slavic Urheimat in the Pripet marshes of Ukraine. From the 5th century, they supposedly spread outward in all directions. The Balkans was one of the regions which lay in the path of the expanding Slavs.

Regarding the Slavs mentioned by 6th century Byzantine chroniclers, Florin Curta states that their 'homeland' was north of the Danube and not in the Belarusian-Ukrainian borderlands. The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes into two groups: the Sclavenoi and Antes. Apparently the Sclavenes group were based along the middle Danube, whereas the Antes were at the lower Danube, in Scythia Minor. Some, such as Bulgarian scholar Zlatarsky, suggest that the Sclavenes group settled the western Balkans, whilst offshoots of the Antes settled the eastern regions (roughly speaking).

The Avars arrived in Europe in 558. Although their identity would not last, the Avars greatly impacted the events of the Balkans. They settled the Carpathian plain, west of the main Slavic settlements. They crushed the Gepid Kingdom and pushed the Lombards into Italy, essentially opening up the western Balkans. They asserted their authority over many Slavs, who were divided into numerous petty tribes. Many Slavs were relocated to the Avar base in the Carpathian basin and were galvanized into an effective infantry force. Other Slavic tribes continued to raid independently, sometime coordinating attacks as allies of the Avars. Others still split into Imperial lands as they fled from the Avars. Despite being paid stipends, the Avars continued to raid the entire Balkans. The Avars and their Slavic allies tended to focus on the western Balkans, whilst independent Slavic tribes predominated in the east. Following the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 626, the Avars reputation diminished, and the confederacy was troubled by civil wars between the Avars and their Bulgar and Slav clients. Their rule contracted to the region of the Carpathian basin. Archeological evidence show that there was intermixing of Slavic, Avar and even Gepid cultures, suggesting that the later Avars were an amalgamation of different peoples. This contributed to the rise of a Slavic noble class. The Khanate collapsed after ongoing defeats at the hands of Franks, Bulgars and Slavs (c. 810), and the Avars ceased to exist. What remained of the Avars furthermore absorbed by the Slavs and Bulgars.

Serbs and Croats are two tribes mentioned amongst the many Slavic tribes already in the Balkans. We know little about their origins. According to De Administrando Imperio, Emperor Heraclius invited them as foederati to defeat the Avars. They migrated from their homeland in southern Poland between 615 and 640 AD. However, apart from this (often disputed) document, we have no evidence of their migration specifically. Some suggest that they arrived to the Balkans with the rest of the Slavic migrations, only to rise to prominence as some sort of a leading clan amongst neighbouring Slavic tribes.

By 700 AD, Slavs inhabited most of the Balkans, from Austria to the Peloponnese, and from the Adriatic to the Black seas, with the exception of the coastal areas of the Greek peninsula. The archaeological traces of the Slavic penetration into the Balkans is scant, especially in the period prior to the 700s. This has led scholars to cast doubt on the accuracy of the historical sources, which all describe often large scale settlements by the Slavs throughout the Balkans, including southern Greece.

Interaction with the Balkan Population: Prior to the advent of Roman rule, a number of "native" or "autochthonous" populations had lived in the Balkans since ancient times. There were, of course, the Hellenes south of the Jireček line. To the north, there were "Illyrians" in the western portion (Illyricum, which roughly corresponds to what was Yugoslavia), Thracians in Thrace (modern Bulgaria and eastern Macedonia), and Dacians in Moesia (northern Bulgaria and northeastern Serbia) and Dacia (modern Romania). They were mainly tribalistic and generally lacked awareness of any greater ethno-political affiliations. Over the classical ages, they were at times invaded, conquered and influenced by Celts, Greeks and Romans. Roman influence, however, was limited to the cities, which were concentrated along the Dalmatian coast, in Greece, and a few scattered cities inside the Balkan interior particularly along the river Danube (Sirmium, Belgrade, Nis). Roman citizens from throughout the empire settled in these cities and in the adjacent countryside. The vast hinterland was still populated by indigenous peoples who likely retained their own tribalistic character.

In addition to the autochthons, there were remnants of previous invaders such as "Huns" and various Germanic peoples when the Slavs arrived. Sarmatian tribes (such as the Iazyges) are recorded to have still lived in the Banat region of the Danube.

As the Slavs spread south into the Balkans, they interacted with the numerous peoples and cultures. Since their lifestyle revolved around agriculture, they preferentially settled rural lands along the major highway networks which they moved along. Whilst they could not take the larger fortified towns, they looted the countryside and captured many prisoners. In his Strategikon, Pseudo-Maurice noted that it was commonplace for Slavs to accept newly acquired prisoners into their ranks. Despite Byzantine accounts of "pillaging" and "looting", it is possible that many indigenous peoples voluntarily assimilated with the Slavs. The Slavs lacked an organised, centrally ruled organisation which actually hastened the process of willful Slavicisation.

Over time, more and more of the Latin-speaking natives (generally referred to as Vlachs) were assimilated (such that, in the western Balkans, Vlach came be a socio-occupational term rather than ethnic term. The Romance speakers within the fortified Dalmatian cities managed to retain their culture and language for a longer time, Dalmatian was spoken until the high Middle Ages. However, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs. In contrast, the Romano-Dacians in Wallachia managed to maintain their Latin-based language, despite much Slavic influence. After centuries of peaceful co-existence, the groups fused to form the Romanians.

Map of the Adriatic Sea

Genetics: Although referred to as 'Slavs' and speaking a Slavic language, modern South Slavic peoples 'genetic roots' actually stem from a wide variety of genetic backgrounds, attesting the complexity of the ethno-genetic processes in Eastern Europe, namely the symbiosis of ancient, native Balkan populations with that of the 6th century Slavs. A recent genetic study researched several Slavic populations with the aim of localizing the Proto-Slavic homeland. A significant finding of this study is that two genetically distinct groups of Slavic populations exist. The first group encompassed most Slavic populations except most Southern Slavs. According to the authors, most Slavs share a high frequency of Haplogroup R1a. Its origin is purported to trace to the middle Dnieper basin of Ukraine from Ukrainian LGM refuge 15 kya. The second group comprises most southern Slavic populations: Bulgarians, most of the Croats, Bosniaks, Macedonians and Serbs, who have a significantly lower frequency of R1a (~15%). According to the authors, this phenomenon is explained by "...contribution to the Y chromosomes of peoples who settled in the Balkan region before the Slavic expansion to the genetic heritage of Southern Slavs..." On the other hand the Subclade I2a1 of Haplogroup I2 (Y-DNA) is typical of western South Slavs, especially Dalmatian Croats and Herzegovinians (45 - 50%), with high frequency in all South Slavs (>20%). The highest frequency and diversity of Subclade I2a1 among populations of the Western Balkans lends support to the hypothesis that the Adriatic region of modern-day Croatia served as a refuge for populations bearing Haplogroup I2 during the last glacial maximum. The subclade divergence appears to have arisen in the last one thousand to five thousand years. Also the mitochondrial gene pools of the Slavonic ethnic groups proved to preserve features suggesting a common ancestor for these and South European populations (especially those of the Balkan Peninsula). Finally the testing results suggest a common ancestry of all Balkan populations, with a lack of correlation between genetic differentiation and language or ethnicity, stressing that no major migration barriers have existed in the making of the complex Balkan human puzzle. The genetic homogeneity among Balkanian populations suggests either a most recent common ancestor of all southeastern European populations or strong gene flow between them, which eliminated any initial differences. Taking into account that the region has had a relatively high population density since the Neolithic period and that this region represents a crossroads of routes connecting the cultural centers of Middle East with different European areas

 

 

Balkans

Map of the Balkan Peninsula

The Balkans is is a geographic region of southeastern Europe.

Balkan is an old Turkish word meaning "a chain of wooded mountains". The ancient Greek name for the Balkan Peninsula was the "Peninsula of Haemus”. The Balkans are also referred to as Southeastern Europe.

Dinaric Alps

The Dinaric Alps or Dinarides form a mountain chain in southern Europe, spanning areas of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro. Although Dinaric Alps is a geographical and not political phrasing, the term lends itself to the connecting non-mountainous regions which keep the area whole; such as the coastal towns and settlements on plains close to the hills.

The Dinaric Alps comprise the most rugged and extensively mountainous area of Europe outside of the Caucasus Mountains, Alps and Scandinavian Mountains.

Ruins of fortresses dot the mountainous landscape, evidence of centuries of war and the refuge the Dinaric Alps have provided to various military forces. The Dinarides provided shelter to the Illyrians resisting Roman conquest of the Balkans, which began with the conquest of the eastern Adriatic coast in the third century BC. Rome conquered the whole of Illyria in 168 BC. These mountains sheltered Illyrian resistance forces for many years until the area’s complete subjugation by 14 AD.

The area remains underpopulated, and forestry and mining remain the chief economic activities in the Dinaric Alps. The people of the Dinaric Alps are on record as being the tallest in Europe, with a male average height of 185.6 cm (6 feet, 1 inch) and a female average height of 171.0 cm (5 feet 7.2 inches).

The Balkan Peninsula may be defined as an area of southeastern Europe surrounded by water on three sides: the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa rivers.

Countries which are geographically fully located within the Balkan peninsula: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece,  Macedonia, Montenegro.

Countries which are significantly located in the peninsula: Croatia, Serbia.

Countries which are located mostly outside the peninsula: Slovenia, Romania, Turkey.

The Balkan region was the first area of Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia, and spread west and north into Pannonia and Central Europe.

The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel. The region broadly corresponds to present-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Kuwait, Jordan, south-eastern Turkey and west and south-western Iran.

 

Pannonia is an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located over the territory of the present-day western half of Hungary with parts in Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Today the term Pannonia is usually used for what is called Transdanubia (Dunántúl) in Hungary, or simply the whole of Hungary.

Prehistory: The Balkans were the site of major Neolithic cultures, including Vincha, Varna, Karanovo, Hamangia.

The Vinča culture was an early culture of the Balkans (between the 6th and the 3rd millennium BC), stretching around the course of the Danube in Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia, although traces of it can be found all around the Balkans, parts of Central Europe and Asia Minor.

"Kurganization" of the eastern Balkans (and the Cucuteni culture adjacent to the north) during the Eneolithic is associated with a first expansion of Proto-Indo-Europeans.

• Starčevo-Criş culture
• Dudeşti culture
• Cucuteni culture
• Hamangia culture
• Vinča culture
• Varna culture
• Tărtăria tablets
• Indo-Europeans

In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians and other ancient groups. Later the Roman Empire conquered most of the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires.

 

The Illyrians were a group of ancient tribes who inhabited the western Balkans (Illyria, roughly from central Albania to southern Pannonia) during classical antiquity. They were speakers of the Illyrian language (or languages), of which only small fragments are attested enough to classify it as a branch of Indo-European. The name of Illyrians as applied by the ancient Greeks to their northern neighbours may have referred to a broad, ill-defined group of peoples, and it is today unclear to what extent they were linguistically and culturally homogeneous. The term Illyrioi may originally have designated only a single people that came to be widely known to the Greeks due to proximity. Indeed, such a people known as the Illyrioi have occupied a small and well-defined part of the south Adriatic coast, around Skadar Lake astride the modern frontier between Albania and Montenegro. The name may then have expanded and come to be applied to ethnically different peoples such as the Liburni, Delmatae, Iapodes, or the Pannonii. Illyrians were last mentioned in 7th century, during the barbarian incursions in the Balkans. The northern tribes are thought to have been slavicized, while scholars assert that Albanians are the direct descendants of the southern Illyrian tribes.

Roman Rule: After the Roman conquest, the Illyrians were granted civil rights by the Constitutio Antoniniana issued in 212. Moreover, Rome recruited Illyrian soldiers to guard its borders from barbarian tribes. Their squads grew in number to such an extent that the Illyrian military began to play an important part in Roman political life, even ascending the imperial throne at certain points. In the course of over a century, seven Illyrian-born emperors ruled in succession. The province of Illyricum stretched from the Drilon River in modern Albania to Istria (Croatia) in the west and the Sava River (Croatia) in the north. Its capital was located at Salonae near modern Split in Croatia. After a revolt of Pannonians and Dalmatians (i.e. the rebellion of Bato) was crushed in 9, the province of Illyricum was dissolved, and its lands were divided between the new provinces of Pannonia in the north and Dalmatia in the south. In 297 AD, Emperor Diocletian, carried out administrative reforms in the Roman Empire by constituting prefectures, dioceses and provinces. In conformity with this reorganisation, the territory was additionally divided. The southern part of Dalmatia was cut off and became the province of Praevalitana, with Shkodra (Shkodër) as its administrative centre. Other provinces entailed Epirus Nova, with Dyrrachium as its capital, and Epirus Vetus, with its central city at Nikopolis. The latter two were part of the Macedonian diocese. The dioceses Pannonia, Noricum, Moesia Superior and Macedonia with the rest of Greece were constituent parts of the prefecture of Illyricum, which comprised part of the Balkans from 318 to 379 AD. Liburnia was also one of the provincia Dalmatiarum located north from the river Krka including Skradin. However, Liburnia had sometimes possessed a status of being in a separate administrative-territorial unit. Analysis of the archaeological material from antiquity has shown that the process of Romanization was selective. Urban centres, both coastal and inland, were almost totally Romanised. Although the Illyrians were subject to a strong process of aculturisation, they continued to speak their own native language, respect their own gods, preserve their traditions and adhere to their own socio-political tribal organization, which was only in some necessities adapted to Roman administration and political structures.

 

Alan migrations in the 4th–5th centuries. Red: migrations; Orange: military expeditions; Yellow: settlement areas.

The Alans or Alani were a group among the Sarmatian people, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.

Name: The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊 Alanliao) in the 2nd century, 阿蘭 Alan in the 3rd century — and Iron (a self-designation of the Alans' modern Ossetian descendants, indicating early tribal self-designation) are Iranian dialectical forms of Aryan. These and other variants of Aryan (such as Iran), were common self-designations of the Indo-Iranians, the common ancestors of the Indo-Aryans and Iranian peoples to whom the Alans belonged.

The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations Asi, As, and Os (Hungarian Jász, Russian Jasy, Georgian Osi). It is this name that is the root of the modern Ossetian

Alans and Slavs: At the time of Attila the Hun a portion of Alans living in the "Sarmatia of the Cimmerian Bosporus" moved northwest into the land of Venedes (according to M.A. Sabellico, J.A. de Thou and some others historian), possibly merging with Western Balts there to become the precursors of historic Slav nations.

Third-century inscriptions from the Greek colony of Tanais at the mouth of the Don River mention a nearby Alan tribe called the Choroatos or Chorouatos. The historian Ptolemy identifies the Serboi as a Sarmatian tribe who lived north of the Caucasus, and other sources identify the Serboi as an Alan tribe in the Volga-Don steppe in the 3rd century. In the 7th century the Serboi and Choroatos migrated into the western Balkans, supposedly at the invitation of the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius, and settled there among earlier Slavic migrants to become ancestors of the modern Serbs and Croats. Some Serboi settled on the Elbe, and their descendants are the modern Sorbs. Tenth-century Byzantine and Arab accounts describe a people called the Belochrobati (White Croats) living on the upper Vistula, an area later called Chrobatia.

It's believed, that some Alans resettled to the North (Barsils), merging with Volga Bulgars and Burtas, eventually transforming to Volga Tatars.

 

Avar Khaganate, c. 600 AD

The Avars were a highly organized and powerful multi-ethnic tribal confederation, with a Turkic core of aristocratic nomads, governed by a central ruler (khagan). They appeared in Central and Eastern Europe in the 6th century. Avar rule persisted over much of the Pannonian plain up to the early 9th century.

The origin of the European Avars is unclear. According to the research of historian András Róna-Tas, the Avars formed in central Asia through a fusion of several tribal elements, in the classical age. Rona-Tas suggests that Turkic Oghurs migrated to the Kazakh steppe, possibly moving south to inhabit the lands vacated by the Huns. Here they interacted with a body Indo-European-speaking Iranians – forming the Xionites (Hunas). Sometime during the 460s, they were subordinated by the Mongolic Ruanruan. The Ruanruan imposed their own rulers– referred to as Uar -at the head of the confederacy. Being a highly cultured people, the Ughurs rose to prominence within the tribal confederacy. The 6th century historian Menander Protector noted that the language of the Avars was the same (possibly meaning similar) as that of the Huns. If language is an indicator of origin, this supports the theory that they might have been an Oghuric Turkic people. The connection with the Rouran has prompted some scholars to suggest that the European Avars’ ruling core was Mongolic, although this has been disputed by others.

Early in the sixth century, the confederacy was conquered by the Gokturk empire (the Gokturks were previously yet another vassal tribal element under Ruanruan supremacy). In his History of the World, Theophylact Simocatta noted that the (Gok)Turks “enslaved the entire Ohgur tribe, which was one of the most powerful, .. and was accomplished in the art of war”. One body of people, perhaps wishing to evade Gokturk rule, escaped and migrated to the northern Caucasus region c. 555 AD. According to Simocatta, their new neighbours believed them to be the true Avars. They established diplomatic contact with the Byzantines, and the other nomadic tribes of the steppes lavished them with gifts. However, the Gokturks later persuaded the Byzantines that these nomads were not the real Avars, but were instead a group of "fugitive Scythians" who had fled from the Gokturks and stolen the prestigious name of Avar. Hence they have subsequebtly called pseudo-Avars (or Eurasian Avars).

For all the theories, historian Walter Pohl asserted in 1998, instancing the detailed attempts made by H. W. Haussig in 1953 and K. Czeglèdy in 1983 and his own methodological objections: "It is pointless to ask who exactly the forefathers of the European Avars were. We only know that they carried an ancient, very prestigious name (our first hints to it date back to the times of Herodotus); and we may assume that they were a very mixed group of warriors who wanted to escape domination by the Gokturks." If the Avars were ever a distinct ethnic group, that distinction does not seem to have survived their centuries in Europe. Being an 'Avar' seems to have meant being part of the Avar state (in a similar way that being 'Roman' ceased to have any ethnic meaning).What is certain, by the time they arrived in Europe, the Avars were a heterogeneous, polyethnic people. Modern research shows that each of the large confederations of steppe warriors (such as the Scythians, Xiongnu, Huns, Avars, Khazars, Cumans, Mongols, etc.) were not ethnically homogeneous, but rather unions of multiple ethnicities. The skeletons found in European Avar graves show heterogeneity, including some Asiatic features.

The Avars arrived to the vast grasslands of Ukraine circa 555 AD. Here, they subjugated various nomadic tribes- such as the Kutrigur Bulgars, the Sabirs and Onogurs- and included them in the Avar confederacy. By their arrival into the Balkans, they were a heterogeneous group of c.20, 000 horsemen.

By 562 AD, they settled the lower Danube basin. Here they subjugated many Slavic tribes, including the Antean tribal league, who, whilst numerous, were divided into many petty tribes. In 565, they demanded increased tribute from the Byzantines, and when refused, they began to raid imperial territory south of the Danube.

The Avars yearned for the lands of the Carpathian plain, and the natural defenses it afforded (ever fearing Gokturk attacks). In 567, they signed an alliance with the Lombards, who were engaged in conflict with another Germanic tribe- the Gepids. Together, the Avars and Lombards destroyed the Gepids, who had established a powerful "kingdom" over much of Dacia, Danubia and Syrmia after the collapse of Hunnic power in 454 AD. They then turned on the Lombards, forcing them to invade northern Italy, an invasion that marked the last Germanic mass movement in the Migration Period. The Avars thus established a nomadic empire stretching from Austria in the west to the Pontic steppes in the east, ruling over a multitude of peoples.

The Carpathian basin was the centre of the Avar power base. Initially, the Avars and their subjects lived separately, except for Slavic and Germanic women that were married by Avar men. Eventually, the Germanic and Slavic peoples were included in the Avaric social order and culture – which itself was Persian- Byzantine in fashion.

After the fall of the Avar Empire, the name Avar and the self-identified constructed ethnicity it carried disappeared within a single generation. An Avar presence in Pannonia is still certain in 871 but thereafter the name is no longer used by chroniclers: "It simply proved impossible to keep up an Avar identity after Avar institutions and the high claims of their tradition had failed.". The Avars had already been fusing with the more numerous Slavs for generations. In turn, they came under the rule of external polities – that of the Franks, the Bulgar khanate and Great Moravia. Isolated pockets of Avars in Transylvania and eastern Pannonia escaped assimilation, and might have been the “Huns” encountered by the invading Magyars in the 10th Century. Their hypothetical descendants, the Székely (who apparently preserved the Avar Dragon Totem well into the 15th century, were relocated to Transylvania in the 12th century. In the Republic of Hungary there are a number of Avar ruins, mostly burial mounds, which display symbols nearly identical to those of the Caucasian Avars.

 

* DNA Analysis of Early Mediaeval Individuals from Zvonimirovo Burial Site in Northern Croatia: Investigation of Kinship Relationships by Using Multiplex System Amplification for Short Tandem Repeat Loci by Jadranka Boljunčić, et al.

Excerpt: Recent results of the study of the Y chromosomal heritage of the Croatian population on an Adriatic island revealed relatively high frequencies of lineages/mitochondrial haplogroups unusual for European populations. They indicate connections of the Croatian population with central Asian populations, possibly derived from the Avars. This is particularly interesting in terms of the obtained cranial phenotype affiliation of the 2 female crania from the Zvonimirovo neighboring burials 3 and 4, as they differ somewhat from the rest of the Zvonimirovo early series. The earliest study of the Zvonimiro vo cranial series suggested the presence of cranial phenotypes with a mixture of Slavic and Mongoloid, ie Avar, characteristics. However, any further discussion on a “population” level at this point, in reference to the presence of alleles in the Zvonimirovo mediaeval series that are not characteristic of the general Croatian population, requires a more extensive Zvonimirovo genetic database.

 

* Y Chromosomal Heritage of Croatian Population and Its Island Isolates by Barać L, et al.

Abstract: Y chromosome variation in 457 Croatian samples was studied using 16 SNPs/indel and eight STR loci. High frequency of haplogroup I in Croatian populations and the phylogeographic pattern in its background STR diversity over Europe make Adriatic coast one likely source of the recolonization of Europe following the Last Glacial Maximum. The higher frequency of I in the southern island populations is contrasted with higher frequency of group R1a chromosomes in the northern island of Krk and in the mainland. R1a frequency, while low in Greeks and Albanians, is highest in Polish, Ukrainian and Russian populations and could be a sign of the Slavic impact in the Balkan region. Haplogroups J, G and E that can be related to the spread of farming characterize the minor part (12.5%) of the Croatian paternal lineages. In one of the southern island (Hvar) populations, we found a relatively high frequency (14%) of lineages belonging to P*(xM173) cluster, which is unusual for European populations. Interestingly, the same population also harbored mitochondrial haplogroup F that is virtually absent in European populations--indicating a connection with Central Asian populations, possibly the Avars.

 

Ottoman Empire: Possibly the historical event that left the biggest mark on the collective memories of the peoples of the Balkans was the expansion and later fall of the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the 16th century, it had become the controlling force in the region, although it was centered around Anatolia. Many people in the Balkans and Carpathians place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire. As examples, for Croats, Nikola Šubić Zrinski and Petar Kružić; for Serbs, Miloš Obilić and Tzar Lazar; for Albanians, Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev; for Bosniaks, Husein Gradaščević; and for Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev. In the past 550 years, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans, and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans has been the least developed part of Europe.

Turkish: The name "Turk" was first used in the 6th century by the Chinese to designate nomadic peoples in Central Asia. The Oghuz Turks were the main Turkic people that moved into Anatolia (Turkey). Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the Seljuks against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert on August 26, 1071. The victory, led by Alp Arslan, paved the way for Turkish hegemony in Anatolia.

It is difficult to understand the complex cultural and demographic dynamics of the Turkic speaking groups that have shaped the Anatolian landscape for the last millennium. The region of Anatolia represents an extremely important area with respect to the ancient population, migration and expansion. During the Bronze Age the population of Anatolia expanded, reaching an estimated level of 12 million during the late Byzantine Empire period. Such a large pre-existing Anatolian population would have reduced the impact by the subsequent arrival of Turkic speaking groups from Central Asia. The Oghuz Turks were the main Turkic people that moved into Anatolia. Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the Seljuks against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Around 1,000,000 Turkic migrants settled in Anatolia in 12th and 13th centuries.

The question of to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and the role of the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. A factor that makes it difficult to give reliable estimates, is the problem of distinguishing between the effects of different migratory episodes. Research confirms the studies indicating that the Turkic peoples originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with Xiongnu.

Data of the DNA of Turkish people suggests that a human demographic expansion occurred sequentially in the Middle East, through Anatolia, and finally to the rest of Europe. The estimated time of this expansion is roughly 50,000 years ago, which corresponds to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. It is concluded that aboriginal Anatolian groups may have given rise to present-day Turkish population. DNA results suggests the lack of strong genetic relationship between the Mongols and the Turks despite the close relationship of their languages and shared historical neighborhood. Anatolians do not significantly differ from other Mediterraneans, indicating that while the ancient Asian Turks carried out an invasion with cultural significance, it is not genetically detectable. Recent genetic research has also suggested that the local, Anatolian origins of the Turks and that genetic flow between Turks and Asiatic peoples might have been marginal.

According to Spencer Wells the Turkish and Azeri populations are atypical among Altaic speakers. Rather, these two Turkic-speaking groups seem to be closer to populations from the Middle East and Caucasus. This finding is consistent with a model in which the Turkic languages, originating in the Altai-Sayan region of Central Asia and northwestern Mongolia, were imposed on the Caucasian and Anatolian peoples with relatively little genetic admixture, another possible example of elite dominance-language shift. A 2007 study suggests that, genetically Anatolians are more closely related with the Balkan populations than to the Central Asian populations. Central Asian contribution to Anatolia with respect to the Balkans was quantified with an admixture analysis. Furthermore, the association between the Central Asian contribution and the language replacement episode was examined by comparative analysis of the Central Asian contribution to Anatolia, Azerbaijan (another Turkic speaking country) and their neighbors. In this study, the Central Asian contribution to Anatolia was estimated as 13%. This was the lowest value among the populations analyzed. This observation may be explained by Anatolia having the lowest migrant/resident ratio at the time of migrations.

The question to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and what the role is in this of the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. A factor that makes it difficult to give reliable estimates, is the problem of distinguishing between the effects of different migratory episodes. Recent genetics research dated 2003 confirms the studies indicating that the Turkic peoples originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with Xiongnu. A majority (89%) of the Xiongnu sequences can be classified as belonging to an Asian haplogroups and nearly 11% belong to European haplogroups. This finding indicates that the contacts between European and Asian populations were anterior to the Xiongnu culture, and it confirms results reported for two samples from an early 3rd century B.C. Scytho-Siberian population. According to the study, Turkish Anatolian tribes may have some ancestors who originated in an area north of Mongolia at the end of the Xiongnu period (3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD), since modern Anatolian Turks appear to have some common genetic markers with the remains found at the Xiongnu period graves in Mongolia. The researchers found that interbreeding between Europeans and Asians occurred much earlier than previously thought. They also found DNA sequences similar to those in present-day Turks. Moreover, the mtDNA (female linkeage) sequence shared by four of these paternal relatives were also found in a Turkish individuals, suggesting a possible Turkish origin of these ancient specimens. Two other individuals buried in the B sector were characterized by mtDNA sequences found in Turkish people.

 

 

* On the Origin of the Mongoloid Component in the Mitochondrial Gene Pool of Slavs by B. A. Maliarchuk, et al.

Abstract:The data on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction polymorphism in Czech population (n = 279) are presented. It was demonstrated that in terms of their structure, mitochondrial gene pools of Czechs and other Slavic populations (Russians, Poles, Slovenians, and Bosnians) were practically indistinguishable. In Czechs, the frequency of eastern-Eurasian (Mongoloid) mtDNA lineages constituted 1.8%. The spread of eastern-Eurasian mtDNA lineages belonging to different ethnolinguistic groups in the populations of Europe was examined. Frequency variations of these DNA lineages in different Slavic groups was observed, with the range from 1.2 and 1.6% in Southern and Western Slavs, respectively, to 1.3 to 5.2% in Eastern Slavs, the Russian population of Eastern Europe. The highest frequency of Mongoloid component was detected in the mitochondrial gene pools of Russian populations from the Russian North and the Northwestern region of Russia. This finding can be explained in terms of assimilation of northern-European Finno-Ugric populations during the formation of the Russian population of these regions. The origin of Mongoloid component in the gene pools of different groups of Slavs is discussed.

 

Frequency of Eastern-Eurasian mtDNA Lineages in the Gene Pools of Different Ethnolinguistic Groups of Europe

 

 

* The Closeness of the Finnish Ugric, Slav and Germanic Ppopulations According to Anthropological and Genetical Data by F. Nazarova

Abstract: The computation of genetic distances of 55 human populations belonging to four great human races, based on proteic, enzymatic and blood group loci, and the construction of a dendrogram for these populations, distinguished some relationship among German, Slavic and Finnish-Ugric populations. According to the results, Russians cluster together with Poles, Iranians, Komi, Chuvashes, Udmurtians, Nentses and Ossetians; Germans cluster together with Serbs, Moldavians, Hungarians, Croatians and Czechs; and Greecs are in closeness with Slavic populations. Common migrations of these populations from places of first differentiation in Asia were identified. In Europe, German populations migrated differently than ancestors of Russians, which migrated into Europe across the North of Siberia. The ancestors of Germans probably migrated in the same way than Hunnu. Settlements of ancient Caucasoids in Central Asia are currently under investigation. Haplogroups H, W, I, U, X and T1, defined by mitochondrial DNA, of the rural Russian population in the Yaroslavsky region corresponded to that of Russians and Caucasoids. Additionaly, the last decoding of petrogliphs in the Baikal region discovered the presence of ancestors of Caucasoids in Siberia in paleolithic.

 

Dendrogram Based on Genetic Distances (horizontal axis) Among Slavic, Finnish-Ugric and
Germanic Populations

Population identification: 1. Russians; 2. Poles; 3. Iranians; 4. Komi; 5. Chuvashes; 6. Udmurtians; 7. Nentses; 8. Ossetians; 9. Arabs; 10. Italians; 11. Germans; 12. Finns; 13. Altaians; 14. Evenks; 15. Yakuts; 16. Mongols; 17. Indians; 18. Ukrainians; 19. Belorussians; 20. Estonians; 21. Scottish; 22. Serbians; 23. Croatians; 24. Bulgarians; 25. Czechs; 26. Hungarians; 27. Mari; 28. Swedes; 29. Mansi; 30. American Indians; 31. Tatars; 32. Jews of Near East; 33. African Negroes; 34. Greecs; and 35. Saami
(Lapps).

 

The Diagram of Migrations of Prehistoric Human Populations Marked with mtDNA and Y Chromosome Haplogroups

Latin letters in circles indicate mtDNA haplogroups; symbols in rectangles, Y chromosome haplogroups. Letter M with numbers indicates the probable place of the appearance of a one nucleotide polymorphism (snip) in the Y chromosome, the time of its appearance (years ago) is indicated in parentheses. The data on the geographic distributions of mtDNA and Y chromosome haplogroups have been summarize from studies published by different authors.

 

 

Ancient DNA from Yixi (Linzi), Shandong Peninsula

Map of Shandong Peninsula

Qi State: Qi (齊國) was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province.

Qi was founded around 1046 B.C. as one of the many states of the Zhou Dynasty. The first ruler appointed for Qi is Jiang Shang, the most powerful official during that time. The Jiang family (姜) ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family (田) in 384 BC. In 221 BC, Qi was the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the State of Qin, the final obstacle which allowed the Qin Dynasty to consolidate the first centralized and imperial empire over China.

Lord Huan of Qi (齊桓公, died 643 BC) was the best-known ruler of the state of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period. His personal name was Jiāng Xiǎobái (姜小白) . Lord Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong (管仲, given name Yíwú, 夷吾), the famous thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, reform the economic system and develop relations with other states, After scores of years, Qi became the strongest state for its economic and military strength, and was named as the "state with one thousand chariots" and the "head of the five strongest states". The culture and education undertakings were rather developed in Qi. Both poetry and music were of high level. Linzi District remained its capital for as long as 638 years, and was the biggest city in the orient.

The Silk Road, prosperous through the Han (漢朝; 206 BC–220 AD) and Tang Dynasties (唐朝; 618 AD–907 AD) is the famous passageway in China's history for economic and cultural exchange between East and West. As a result of textual research, Shandong area, with Zibo as its center, was the major place of silk supply at that time, and was one of the origins of the "Silk Road".

Shandong is the second most populous province of China, after Henan, with a population of almost 92 million. Over 99% of Shandong's population is Han Chinese. Minority groups include the Hui and the Manchus. Shandong is also known as having highest average height of any Chinese province.

 

 

* Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-year-old Human Population in China-and Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population by H. Oota, et al. (1999)

Abstract: We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site (approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1, 298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan."

 

[The Yixi site is located in Linzi (Zibo), Shandong Province, China. This site has been dated to the period of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) in China, on the basis of the archaeological finds excavated. The ruins of the ancient city were excavated in 1926 by Japanese archaeologists and in 1964 by Chinese archaeologists. The ruins of the city are surrounded by over 100 tumulus, some as far as 10 km away. Many of the tombs around Linzi had been looted in antiquity. Over 600 horses were sacrificed in two rows, found in a tomb pit, near what is considered the tomb of Duke Jing of Qi. The sacrificial horse pit is now the site of a museum, the Museum of the State of Qi.]

 

* Genetic Structure of a 2,500-Year-Old Human Population in China and Its Spatiotemporal Changes by Li Wang, et al. (2000)

Abstract: To examine temporal changes in population genetic structure, we compared the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of three populations that lived in the same location, Linzi, China, in different periods: 2,500 years ago (the Spring–Autumn era), 2,000 years ago (the Han era), and the present day. Two indices were used to compare the genetic differences: the frequency distributions of the radiating haplotype groups and the genetic distances among the populations. The results indicate that the genetic backgrounds of the three populations are distinct from each other. Inconsistent with the geographical distribution, the 2,500-year-old Linzi population showed greater genetic similarity to present-day European populations than to present-day east Asian populations. The 2,000-year-old Linzi population had features that were intermediate between the present-day European/2,500-year-old Linzi populations and the present-day east Asian populations.

Result: The smallest genetic distance for the present-day Linzi population was that from the Mongols, followed by those from mainland Japanese and Koreans. Surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,000-year-old Linzi population were from the present-day central Asian populations: the Kirghiz (Sary-Tash), followed by the Kazakh and the Uighurs. Even more surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,500-year-old Linzi population were from the Turkish, Icelander, and Finnish, rather than from the east Asian populations.

 

* Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of China: A Caveat About Inferences Drawn from Ancient DNA by Yong-Gang Yao, et al. (2003)

ABSTRACT: The decipherment of the meager information provided by short fragments of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is notoriously difficult but is regarded as a most promising way toward reconstructing the past from the genetic perspective. By haplogroup-specific hypervariable segment (HVS) motif search and matching or near-matching with available modern data sets, most of the ancient mtDNAs can be tentatively assigned to haplogroups, which are often subcontinent specific. Further typing for mtDNA haplogroup-diagnostic coding region polymorphisms, however, is indispensable for establishing the geographic/genetic affinities of ancient samples with less ambiguity. In the present study, we sequenced a fragment (982 bp) of the mtDNA control region in 76 Han individuals from Taian, Shandong, China, and we combined these data with previously reported samples from Zibo and Qingdao, Shandong. The reanalysis of two previously published ancient mtDNA population data sets from Linzi (same province) then indicates that the ancient populations had features in common with the modern populations from south China rather than any specific affinity to the European mtDNA pool. Our results highlight that ancient mtDNA data obtained under different sampling schemes and subject to potential contamination can easily create the impression of drastic spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of a regional population during the past few thousand years if inappropriate methods of data analysis are employed.

 

* Reanalysis of Eurasian Population History: Ancient DNA Evidence of Population Affinities by C.C. Bennett, F.A. Kaestle (2006)

Abstract: Mitochondrial hypervariable region I genetic data from ancient populations at two sites in Asia-Linzi in Shandong (northern China) and Egyin Gol in Mongolia-were reanalyzed to detect population affinities. Data from 51 modern populations were used to generate distance measures (F^sub ST^'s) to the two ancient populations. The tests first analyzed relationships at the regional level and then compiled the top regional matches for an overall comparison to the two probe populations. The reanalysis showed that the Egyin Gol and Linzi populations have clear distinctions in genetic affinity. The Egyin Gol population as a whole appears to bear close affinities with modern populations of northern East Asia. The Linzi population seems to have some genetic affinities with the West, as suggested by the original analysis, although the original attribution of "European-like" seems to be misleading. We suggest that the Linzi individuals are potentially related to early Iranians, who are thought to have been widespread in parts of Central Eurasia and the steppe regions in the first millennium B.C., although some significant admixture between a number of populations of varying origin cannot be ruled out. We also examine the effect of sequence length on this type of genetic data analysis and discuss the results of previous studies on the Linzi sample.

Discussion: ... the Linzi individuals, they seem to be most highly related to Near Easterners (Turks, Iranians, and Iraqis), Armenians, and Eastern Europeans (Slavs, Hungarians), although others, such as Catalans and Iraqis, are mixed in. The Icelanders are twelfth on this list. The high placement of the Vietnamese may be an anomaly, error, or some element of ancient genetic history that is not clear ....

 

Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.

The Iranian languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes.

By the 1st millennium BC, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Saka and Scythian tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang.

The division of Proto-Iranian into an "Eastern" and a "Western" group is attested in the form of Avestan and Old Persian, the two oldest known Iranian languages.

 

 

Scythians

Approximate extent of Scythia and the Scythian languages (orange) in the 1st century BC

Scythians: . Oswald Szemerényi devotes a thorough discussion to the etymology of the word Scyth in his work "Four old Iranian ethnic names: Scythian - Skudra - Sogdian - Saka". The related words derive from *skuza, an ancient Indo-European word for archer (cf. English shoot), hence Iranian Ishkuzi = archers.

The Scythians first appeared in the historical record in the 8th century BC. But Herodotus reported this version:

“

There is also another different story, now to be related, in which I am more inclined to put faith than in any other. It is that the wandering Scythians once dwelt in Asia, and there warred with the Massagetae, but with ill success; they therefore quitted their homes, crossed the Araxes, and entered the land of Cimmeria.

 

The name was also used among early scholars studying the Proto Indo-Europeans, and within the framework of the Kurgan hypothesis the Scythians are considered a reasonable analogue for their Proto Indo-European ancestors.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, and likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the Bronze Age, or possibly earlier, during the Neolithic or Paleolithic eras. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the reconstruction of their language, which was the ancestor of the Indo-European languages,

Cavalli-Sforza (2000) states that "It is clear that, genetically speaking, peoples of the Kurgan steppe descended at least in part from people of the Middle Eastern Neolithic who immigrated there from Turkey." Piazza & Cavalli-Sforza (2006) state that:

if the expansions began at 9,500 years ago from Anatolia and at 6,000 years ago from the Yamnaya culture region, then a 3,500-year period elapsed during their migration to the Volga-Don region from Anatolia, probably through the Balkans. There a completely new, mostly pastoral culture developed under the stimulus of an environment unfavourable to standard agriculture, but offering new attractive possibilities. Our hypothesis is, therefore, that Indo-European languages derived from a secondary expansion from the Yamnaya culture region after the Neolithic farmers, possibly coming from Anatolia and settled there, developing pastoral nomadism.

The current interpretation of genetic data suggests a strong genetic continuity in Europe; specifically, studies of mtDNA by Bryan Sykes show that about 80% of the genetic stock of Europeans originated in the Paleolithic, suggesting that languages tend to spread geographically by cultural contact rather than by replacement.

Scythia was the area in Eurasia inhabited by the Scythians, from the 8th century BC to the 2nd century AD. The area known to classical authors as Scythia included:

The Sakas (Indo-Scythians) expanded to Sistan (which was also known as Sakestan) and the Indus valley from the 1st century BC, but these regions are not usually included in the term "Scythia."

The Sakas were a population of Iranian nomadic tribesmen residing in and migrating over the plains of Eurasia from Eastern Europe to Xinjiang Province, China, from the Old Persian Period to the Middle Persian Period when they were displaced by or integrated with Turkic language speakers during the Turkic migration. In the Achaemenid Empire much of their range was made a satrapy, Saka, named after them. They also resided in other provinces of ancient Iran.

The ancient Greeks called the Sakas the Scythians but recognized that in the language of the Persian Empire they were called more nearly Sakai. To them the name Sakai in addition to meaning all the Scyths meant explicitly also the ones of Central Asia and the Far East. These latter lived in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, parts of Iran, the Altay Mountains, Siberia in Russia, and Xinjiang Province of China in the centuries before 300 AD, the start of the Middle Persian period. Hence the Romans recognized both Sacae and Scythae.

Herodotus (IV.64) describes them as Scythians, although they figure under a different name:

“

The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians

The Scythians were recognized in ancient languages at either end of their range. They were known to the Chinese as the Sai (塞). On the west they were among the first Iranians to enter the Middle East. The Assyrians of the time of Esarhaddon record campaigning against a people they called in the Akkadian the Ashkuza or Ishhuza. Hugo Winckler was the first to associate them with the Scyths and the identification remains without serious question. They were closely associated with the Gimirrai, who were the Cimmerians known to the ancient Greeks. These Scythians were mainly interested in settling in the kingdom of Urartu, which later became Armenia.

By the time of the Middle Iranian period, the Scyths had either dissimilated into peoples of other names, such as the Sarmatians, Alans and Roxolani, or had been displaced by or assimilated to the Huns. The Saka speakers were gradually conquered and acculturated by the Turkic expansion to Central Asia beginning in the 4th century.

The most notable Saka burial to date, whose occupant is referred to as the "Golden Man", was found in Kazakhstan. The silver dish found with the "Golden Man" is of a type common to other Germanic finds and is inscribed with a form of runic writing related to that found in Germanic and Scandinavian runic writing. Archeological evidence and histographies shows a worldview of Sakas, similar to that of ancient German and Scandinavian traditions and closely related to that of present-day Kazakhs and Mongols.

The Sakas were also one of several tribes that conquered India from the northwest, where they established the rule of the Indo-Scythians. The Saka Era is used by the Indian national calendar, a few other Hindu calendars, and the Cambodian Buddhist calendar—its year zero begins near the vernal equinox of 78 (See Kushan Empire). There has been no strong genetic link discovered between the Kazakhs and peoples of India; however, the marker R1a1 accounts for more than 50% of Altay, Kyrgyz, Slavic and NW Indian/Pakistani males.

The Scythian languages form a North Eastern branch of the Iranian language family and comprise the distinctive languages spoken by the Scythian (Sarmatian and Saka) tribes of nomadic pastoralists in Scythia (Central Asia, Pontic-Caspian steppe) between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD. Up to the 4th century AD we have only a few words from any of these languages, substantial evidence of Sogdian and Saka dating from a later period.

The Scythian languages may have formed a dialect continuum:

The Scythians migrated from Central Asia toward Eastern Europe, occupying today's Southern Russia and Ukraine and the Carpathian Basin and parts of Moldova and Dobruja. They disappeared from history after the Hunnish invasion of Europe in the 5th century AD, and Turkic (Avar, Batsange, etc.) and Slavic peoples probably assimilated most people speaking Scythian. However, in the Caucasus, a dialect belonging to the Scythian-Sarmatian linguistic continuum remains in use today, namely Ossetic.

Historians normally divide the Scytho-Sarmatian group chronologically rather than geographically:

• Scythian (ca. 800 - 300 BC), mainly evidenced in Classical Greek authors
• Sarmatian (ca. 300 BC - AD 400), mainly evidenced in Hellenistic and Roman inscriptions
• Alanic (ca. AD 400 - 1000), mainly evidenced in Byzantine Greek authors

Some scholars detect a division of Scytho-Sarmatian into two dialects: a western, more conservative dialect, and an eastern, more innovative one. The innovative dialect may correspond to Sarmatian, whereas the conservative dialect may continue the dialect spoken by the old Scythians before the invasion of the Sarmatians.

Divergent views, fueled by ethnic nationalism, have proposed that the Scythian languages may have become a substratum to the Turkic, Ugric or Proto-Slavic languages. A more moderate proposal by Boris Rybakov suggests a Proto-Slavic substrate.

In Late Antiquity the notion of a Scythian ethnicity grew more vague, and outsiders might dub any people inhabiting the Pontic-Caspian steppe as "Scythians", regardless of their language. Thus, Priscus, a Byzantine emissary to Attila, repeatedly referred to the latter's followers as "Scythians". In Attila's regime Edekon was the king of Scythians.

Ruled by small numbers of closely-allied élites, Scythians had a reputation for their archers, and many gained employment as mercenaries. Scythian élites had kurgan tombs.

Sarmatian cataphracts during Dacian Wars as depicted on Trajan Column

A cataphract was a form of heavy cavalry first utilised by nomadic eastern Iranian tribes and Persian dynasties in warfare, and then later by the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Historically the cataphract was very heavily armored horseman, with both the rider and steed draped from head-to-toe in scale armor, while typically wielding a kontos or lance as their weapon. They are in part or wholly believed to have given rise to the Age of Feudalism in Europe and the later European equivalents of Knights and Paladins, via contact with the Byzantine Empire.

The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae (Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer') were a people of Iranic origin. Mentioned by classical authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the boundary between the so-called Centum-Satem isogloss in the Indo-European languages apparently split at the European border of the Sarmatians.

Around the year 100 BC, Sarmatian land ranged from the Barents Sea or Baltic Sea ("Oceanus Sarmaticus") to a tributary of the Vistula River, to the Carpathian Mountains, to the mouth of the Danube, then eastward along the northern coast of the Black Sea, across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea and north along the Volga up to the polar circle.

The Sarmatians flourished from the time of Herodotus and allied partly with the Huns when they arrived in the fourth century AD.

In 1947, the leading Soviet historian Boris Grakov defined a culture apparent in late Kurgan graves, sometimes reusing part of much older Kurgans. It is a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the Black Sea to beyond the Volga, and is especially evident at two of the major sites at Kardaielova and Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe.

The date of the culture (from the seventh century BC to the fourth century AD) and the location are in synchronicity with the written information we have about the Sarmatians.

The numerous Iranian personal names in the Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea Coast indicate that the Sarmatians there spoke a north-eastern Iranian dialect related to Sogdian and Ossetic. Like the Scythians, Sarmatians were of Caucasian appearance; before the arrival of the Huns it is thought that few of the western steppe peoples had Asiatic or Turco-Mongol features.

Ancient DNA of 13 Sarmatian remains from Pokrovka and Meirmagul kurgans was extracted for comparative analysis. Most of the genetic traits determined were of western Eurasian origin, while only a few were of central/east Asian origin.

World-wide spreading of Haplotypes which are identical with Pr11 and Pr6 from DNA Report: Pokrovka Warrior Women Compared to Meiramgul

* Videos: Sarmatian Treasure, The (Scytho) Sarmatians

Genetic research in modern populations reveals that the same paternal Y-chromosome haplogroup (R1a1) represents a genetic lineage currently found in central, western and south Asia, and in Slavic populations of Europe. The distribution of this haplogroup has been posited to represent the spread of peoples from the Ukrainian steppelands which served as an ice-age refuge during the LGM, in the eneolithic succeeded by the Pit Grave ("Kurgan") culture. This latter culture is associated with the spread of Indo-European languages in the "Kurgan hypothesis". The R1a allele thus far predates the Scythians, and its distribution consequently cannot be used simplistically to trace Scythian migrations in particular.

The distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroup (G2) from Pakistan and northwest India and out to Spain rather closely mirrors the spread of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and their offshoot, the Alans. Haplogroup G2 reaches its highest worldwide concentration in the Caucasian Russian Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, and the present-day Ossetians, who speak a Scythian Northeast Iranic language are the last remnant of the ancient Alans. Although this may be indirect evidence of Scythian "genetic legacy", it is likewise of Neolithic origin and cannot be used as a one-to-one identification of Scythian ancestry.

Mitochondrial DNA extracted from skeletal remains obtained from excavated Scythian kurgans have produced a myriad of results and conclusions. Analysis of the HV1 sequence obtained from a male Scytho-Siberian's remains at the Kizil site in the Altai Republic revealed the individual possessed the N1a maternal lineage. The study also noted that haplogroup mtDNA N1a was found at a relatively high frequency in the southern fringes of the Eurasian steppe, Iran (8.3%), and within the Indian Havik group (8.3%), an upper Brahman caste. From this, a possible link to ancient populations presumed to have come from Europe that lived in the neighboring Central Asian parts of India and Iran was suggested.

Additionally, mitochondrial DNA has been extracted from two Scytho-Siberian skeletons found in the Altai Republic (Russia) dating back 2,500 years. Both remains were determined to be of males from a population who had characteristics "of mixed Euro- Mongoloid origin." One of the individuals was found to carry the F2a maternal lineage, and the other the D lineage, both of which are characteristic of East Eurasian populations.

Maternal genetic analysis of Saka period male and female skeletal remains from a double inhumation kurgan located at the Beral site in Kazakhstan determined that the two were most likely not closely related and were possibly husband and wife. The HV1 mitochondrial sequence of the male was similar to the Anderson sequence which is most frequent in European populations. Contrary, the HV1 sequence of the female suggested a greater likelihood of Asian origins. The study's findings were in line with the hypothesis that mixings between Scythians and other populations occurred. This was buttressed by the discovery of several objects with a Chinese inspiration in the grave. No conclusive associations with haplogroups were made though it was suggested that the female may have derived from either mtDNA X or D.

Map of the Sayan-Altay Area

Archaeological remains of the Scythians include kurgan tombs (ranging from simple exemplars to elaborate "Royal kurgans" containing the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild-animal art, gold, silk, and animal sacrifices, in places also with suspected human sacrifices. Mummification techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains. Scythian archaeology also examines the remains of North Pontic Scythian cities and fortifications.

Carbon-14 dating of kurgans has allowed archaeologists to trace their emergence in the Sayan-Altay area from about 3,000 BC, and their westward spread starting about 900 BC.

Some of the first Bronze Age Scythian burials documented by modern archaeologists include the kurgans at Pazyryk in the Ulagan district of the Altay Republic, south of Novosibirsk in the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia. Archaeologists have extrapolated the Pazyryk culture from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko. Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC in the area associated with the Sacae (Saka).

* Videos: The Tomb of the Scythian Prince 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Scythian Society: Scythians lived in confederated tribes, a political form of voluntary association which regulated pastures and organized a common defence against encroaching neighbors for the pastoral tribes of mostly equestrian herdsmen. While the productivity of domesticated animal-breeding greatly exceeded that of the settled agricultural societies, the pastoral economy also needed supplemental agricultural produce, and stable nomadic confederations developed either symbiotic or forced alliances with sedentary peoples — in exchange for animal produce and military protection.

Ruled by small numbers of closely-allied élites, Scythians had a reputation for their archers, and many gained employment as mercenaries. Scythian élites had kurgan tombs: high barrows heaped over chamber-tombs of larch-wood — a deciduous conifer that may have had special significance as a tree of life-renewal, for it stands bare in winter.

Scythian women dressed in much the same fashion as men, and at times fought alongside them in battle. A Pazyryk burial found in the 1990s contained the skeletons of a man and a woman, each with weapons, arrowheads, and an axe. In the 1998 NOVA documentary "Ice Mummies", an archaeologist explains that, "The woman was dressed exactly like a man. This shows that certain women, probably young and unmarried, could be warriors, literally Amazons. It didn't offend the principles of nomadic society."

As far as we know, the Scythians had no writing system. Until recent archaeological developments, most of our information about them came from the Greeks. The Ziwiye hoard, a treasure of gold and silver metalwork and ivory found near the town of Sakiz south of Lake Urmia and dated to between 680 and 625 BC, includes objects with Scythian "animal style" features. One silver dish from this find bears some inscriptions, as yet undeciphered and so possibly representing a form of Scythian writing.

Homer called the Scythians "the mare-milkers". Herodotus described them in detail: their costume consisted of padded and quilted leather trousers tucked into boots, and open tunics. They rode with no stirrups or saddles, just saddle-cloths. Herodotus reports that Scythians used cannabis, both to weave their clothing and to cleanse themselves in its smoke (Hist. 4.73-75); archaeology has confirmed the use of cannabis in funeral rituals. The Scythian philosopher Anacharsis visited Athens in the 6th century BC and became a legendary sage.

Scythians also had a reputation for the use of barbed and poisoned arrows of several types, for a nomadic life centered around horses — "fed from horse-blood" according to Herodotus — and for skill in guerrilla warfare.

Scythian Religion: The religion and mythology of the Scythians is not directly attested except for sparse accounts in Greek ethnography. It is assumed to have been related to earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, and to have influenced later Slavic and Turkic and Ossetian traditions.

The Scythians had some reverence for the stag, which is one of the most common motifs in their artwork, especially at funeral sites. The swift animal was believed to speed the spirits of the dead on their way, which perhaps explains the curious antlered headdresses found on horses buried at Pazyryk

The primary archaeological context of horse sacrifice are burials, notably chariot burials, but graves with horse remains reach from the Eneolithic well into historical times. Herodotus describes the execution of horses at the burial of a Scythian king, and Iron Age kurgan graves known to contain horses number in the hundreds.

Horse Sacrifice: Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a PIE ritual. In most instances, the horses are sacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased. There is evidence from three branches of Indo-European of a major horse sacrifice ritual based on a mythical union of Indo-European kingship and the horse. The clearest picture is afforded by the Indian Aśvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes.

There are also frequent deposition of horses in burials in Iron Age India. The custom is by no means restricted to Indo-European populations, but is continued by Turkic tribes as the cultural successors of the Scythians.

Indo-Scythians: In the 2nd century BC, a group of Scythian tribes, known as the Indo-Scythians, migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana and Arachosia. The migrations in 175-125 BC of the Kushan (Yuezhi) tribes, who originally lived in eastern Tarim Basin before the Huns (Xiongnu) tribes dislodged them, displaced the Indo-Scythians from Central Asia. Led by their king Maues, they ultimately settled in modern-day Punjab and Kashmir from around 85 BC, where they replaced the kingdom of the Indo-Greeks by the time of Azes II (reigned circa 35 - 12 BC). Kushans invaded again in the 1st century, but the Indo-Scythian rule persisted in some areas of Central India until the 5th century.

Migration Period: Although the classical Scythians may have largely disappeared by the 1st century BC, Eastern Romans continued to speak conventionally of "Scythians" to designate Germanic tribes and confederations or mounted Eurasian nomadic barbarians in general: in 448 AD two mounted "Scythians" led the emissary Priscus to Attila's encampment in Pannonia. The Byzantines in this case carefully distinguished the Scythians from the Goths and Huns who also followed Attila.

The Sarmatians (including the Alans and finally the Ossetians) counted as Scythians in the broadest sense of the word — as speakers of Northeast Iranian languages — but nevertheless remain distinct from the Scythians proper.

Byzantine sources also refer to the Rus raiders who attacked Constantinople around 860 AD in contemporary accounts as "Tauroscythians", because of their geographical origin, and despite their lack of any ethnic relation to Scythians. Patriarch Photius may have first applied the term to them during the Siege of Constantinople (860).

Descent-Claims: Some modern ethnic groups have claimed descent from the Scythians as a means to extend back in time their national history, and to provide a prestigious connection with classical antiquity.

The Scythians feature in some post-Medieval national origin-legends of the Celts. British historian Sharon Turner in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, concluded, “The migrating Scythians crossed the Araxes, passed out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C.” Citing many ancient sources, Turner identified the Scythians ("Sakai") as the ancestors of the Anglo Saxons. However, that conclusion remains controversial.

Traditions of the Turkic Kazakhs and Yakuts (whose endoethnonym is "Sakha"); and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan connect these peoples to Scythians. Some legends of the Picts; the Gaels; the Hungarians; Serbs and Croats (among others) also include mention of Scythian origins. In the second paragraph of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath the élite of Scotland claim Scythia as a former homeland of the Scots. Some romantic nationalist writers claim that Scythians figured in the formation of the empire of the Medes and likewise of Caucasian Albania, the precursor in antiquity of the modern-day Azerbaijan Republic.

Various Frankish and Carolingian sources traced royal Merovingian ancestry to the Germanic tribe of the Sicambri. Gregory of Tours documents in his History of the Franks that when Clovis was baptised, he was referred to as a Sicamber with the words "Mitis depone colla, Sicamber, adora quod incendisti, incendi quod adorasti."'. The Chronicle of Fredegar in turn reveals that the Franks believed the Sicambri to be a tribe of Scythian or Cimmerian descent, who had changed their name to Franks in honour of their chieftain Franco in 11 BC.

Ashkenaz is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath, and Togarmah (Gen. 10:3, 1 Chronicles 1:6) and is believed by some to be the ancestor of the Germanic, Scandinavian and Slavic peoples. One reason people believe this is that Ashkenaz's father is Gomer who is associated with the Frank and Germanic tribes due to his name.

Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ("the Jews of Ashkenaz"), are descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland, "Ashkenaz" being the Medieval Hebrew name for Germany. Ashkenaz is also regarded as the father of the Scythians, although there is no evidence to support it he is regarded as the father of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and the Aryans.

Early Modern Usage: Owing to their reputation as established by Greek historians, the Scythians long served as the epitome of savagery and barbarism in the early modern period. Shakespeare, for instance, alluded to the legend that Scythians ate their children in his play King Lear.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, foreigners regarded the Russians as descendants of Scythians. It became conventional to refer to Russians as Scythians in 18th century poetry, and Alexander Blok drew on this tradition sarcastically in his last major poem, The Scythians (1920).

In the nineteenth century, romantic revisionists in the West transformed the "barbarian" Scyths of literature into the wild and free, hardy and democratic ancestors of all blond Indo-Europeans.

 

 

* Phylogeographic Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA in Han Chinese by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

PC Map of the mtDNA Data (with respect to the basal haplogroup profiles) of 13 Regional Han Samples (Taiwan-2 clusters with Xinjiang)

 

* The Origin of Minnan & Hakka, the So-Called "Taiwanese" Inferred by HLA Study by Marie Lin

Discussion: A33-B58-DRB1*03 was found to be the most common and also the best conserved A-B-DR three-locus haplotype among “Taiwanese” (6.3%), was exclusively related to the most common five locus haplotype, A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB1*02 (6.3%). Similar to our results, the haplotype A33-B58-DR17 (DRB1*03) was also proven to be the most common haplotype in Taiwan among Minnan (n = 7137, 5.59%) and Hakka (n = 714, 5.10%) by the Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry as estimated by the maximum likelihood method (7). The three-locus haplotype A33-B58-DRB1*03 has also been found among southeast Asians (Thai-Chinese 7.1%; Singapore Chinese 4.4%) (5) and northern Asians (Han in Urumchi, China 3.5%; Khalha in Mongolia 3.4%; Uygur in Urumchi, China 1.8%; Kazakhs in Urumchi, China 1.8%; Korean 1.2%) (9, 10). The five-locus haplotype has also been found in Thais (Present-day Thais 2.2%; Black Thai 2.8%) (11).

 

Ürümqi or Ürümchi (烏魯木齊), is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country.

Although Ürümqi is situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, it is a relatively young city. During the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign in the Tang Dynasty, AD 648, the Tang government set up the town of Luntai in the ancient town seat of Urabo, 10 kilometers from the southern suburb of present-day Ürümqi. Ancient Luntai Town was a seat of local government, and collected taxes from the caravans along the northern route of the Silk Road.

Little is heard of the region following the Tang Dynasty until the conquest of Dzungaria in 1755 under the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The Dzungars were deliberately exterminated in a brutal campaign of ethnic genocide. One writer, Wei Yuan, described the resulting desolation in what is now northern Xinjiang as: "an empty plain for a thousand li, with no trace of man." After 1759 state farms were established, "especially in the vicinity of Urumchi, where there was fertile, well-watered land and few people." It has been estimated that more than a million people were slaughtered, and it took generations for it to recover.

During the Qing Dynasty (1763) the Qianlong Emperor named the expanded town of Luntai "Dihua" (迪化), meaning "to enlighten." In 1884, the Guangxu Emperor established Xinjiang as a Province, with Dihua as its capital.

 

HLA-DQ2 (DQ2) is a serotype group within HLA-DQ (DQ) serotyping system. The serotype is determined by the antibody recognition of β2 subset of DQ β-chains. The β-chain of DQ is encoded by HLA-DQB1 locus and DQ2 are encoded by the HLA-DQB1*02 allele group. This group currently contains 2 common alleles, DQB1*0201 and DQB1*0202. HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQB1*02 are almost synonymous in meaning. DQ2 β-chains combine with α-chains, encoded by genetically linked HLA-DQA1 alleles, to form the cis-haplotype isoforms. These isoforms, nicknamed DQ2.2 and DQ2.5, are also encoded by the DQA1*0201 and DQA1*0501 genes, respectively.

DQ2 is most common in Western Europe, North and West Africa. Highest frequencies are observed in parts of Spain and Ireland, this distribution correlates with the frequency of two of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases. There is also a increase in DQB1*0201 in Central Asia, peaking in Kazakhstan and declining slowly east to west into China and finally Southeast Asia. DQA1*0501 : DQB1*0201. DQ2.5 is one of the most predisposing factors for autoimmune disease. DQ2.5 is encoded, often, by a haplotype associated with a large number of diseases. This haplotype, HLA A1-B8-DR3-DQ2 is associated with diseases in which HLA-DQ2 has suspect involvement. Direct involvement of DQ2 is certain in coeliac disease.

 

Map of Xinjiang

Xinjiang is an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) of the People's Republic of China. It is a large, sparsely populated area. Xinjiang borders the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south and Qinghai and Gansu provinces to the southeast, Mongolia to the east, Russia to the north, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India to the west. "Xinjiang" or "Ice Jecen" in Manchu, literally means "New Frontier", a name given during the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East Turkestan, or Uyghuristan.

According to JP Mallory, the Chinese describe the existence of "white people with long hair" or the Bai people in the Shan Hai Jing, who lived beyond their northwestern border. The very well preserved Tarim mummies with Caucasoid features, often with reddish or blond hair, today displayed at the Ürümqi Museum and dated to the 2nd millennium BC, have been found in precisely the same area of the Tarim Basin. Various nomadic tribes, such as the Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of Indo-European speakers who were settled in eastern Central Asia (possibly as far as Gansu) at that time. The Ordos culture situated at northern China east of the Yuezhi, is another example.

Xinjiang is home to several distinct ethnic groups of various religious traditions, however, the majority of the region's total population are adherents of Islam. Among ethnic groups who are of the Muslim faith, most notable are Muslim Turkic peoples including the Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Salars and the Kazakhs; there are also Muslim Iranian peoples including Tajiks and the Sarikolis/Wakhis (often conflated as Tajiks); and Muslim Sino-Tibetan peoples such as the Hui. Other PRC ethnic groups in the region include Han Chinese, Mongols, Russians, Xibes, and Manchus.

Traversed by the Northern Silk Road, Western Regions or Xinjiang is the Chinese name for the Tarim and Dzungaria regions of what is now northwest China.

 

Kyrgyz (also spelled Kirgiz, Kirghiz) are a Turkic ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan and the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. Later, in the Early Middle Age, Yenisei Kyrgyzes were under the rule of Göktürk Kaganate and Uigur Kaganate. In 840 a revolt led by Yenisei Kyrgyzes brought down the Uigur Kaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyzes to a dominating position in the former Turkic Kaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Kaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Eastern Turkestan, bringing them immediately to the borders of China and Tibet. By the 16th century the carriers of the ethnonym "Kirgiz" lived in South Siberia, Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), Tian Shan, Pamir Alay, Middle Asia, Urals (among Bashkorts), in Kazakhstan. Majority of modern researchers came to a conclusion that the ancestors of the southern Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas and Usuns, Dinlins and Huns.

The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed by recent genetic studies. Remarkably, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men share Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) with Tajiks (64%), Ukrainians (54%), Poles and Hungarians (~60%), and even Icelanders (25%). Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) is variously believed to be a marker of the Proto-Indo-European language and Turkic speakers.

Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD describe the Kyrgyz as red-haired with fair complexion and green (blue) eyes. Since the Turks were being described as people of small stature in the Tangshu. The description of the Kirghiz as tall, blue-eyed blonds early excited the interest of scholars, who assumed that they could not have originally been Turkic in language. We find even Ligeti cited the opinions of various scholars who had proposed to see them as Germanic, Slav, Yenisei Ostiaks, while he himself, following Castrén and Schott, favoured a Samoyed origin.

 

The Kazakhs (also spelled Kazaks, Qazaqs) are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia (largely Kazakhstan, but also found in parts of Uzbekistan, China, Russia, and Mongolia).

Kazakhs are descendants of Turkic tribes (Kipchaks or Cumans), Mongol groups (Kereis, Naimans, etc.) and Indo-Iranian tribes (Wusun, Sarmatians, Scythians, etc.) which populated the territory between Siberia and the Black Sea and remained in Central Asia when the Turkic and Mongolic groups started to invade and conquer the area between the fifth and thirteenth centuries AD.

Due to their complex history, Kazakhs display phenotypical diversity, though they tend to exhibit predominantly Mongoloid features. Fair to light-brown skin tends to be the norm. Among physical traits are aquiline noses, epicanthic fold and high cheekbones. Hair colour among Kazakhs varies from prevalent jet black to red and sandy brown. Hazel, green and blue eyes are not uncommon.

Kazakhs in China: Kazakhs, called Hāsàkè Zú in Chinese (哈萨克族) are among 56 minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In China there is one Kazakh autonomous prefecture, the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang, three Kazakh autonomous counties, Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in Gansu, Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County and Mori Kazakh Autonomous County in the Xinjiang.

 

The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur; Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر;; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾) are a Turkic people of Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known by its controversial name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan) in the People's Republic of China.

The ancestors of the Uyghur include the Huns.Uyghur emerged as the leaders of a new coalition force called the "Toquz Oghuz". In 744 the Uyghur, together with other related subject tribes (the Basmyl and Qarluq), defeated the Göktürk Khanate and founded the Uyghur Empire at Mount Ötüken, which lasted for about 100 years (744-840).

Properly called the On-Uyghur (ten Uyghurs) and Toquz-Oghuz (nine tribes) Orkhon Khanate, the Uyghur Empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria and lasted from 744 to 840 AD. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu Baliq. Uyghur Empire considered conquering the Tang Empire, but chose instead to use an exploitive trade policy to drain off the wealth of China without actually destroying it. In 840, following a famine and a civil war, the Uyghur Empire was overrun by the Kyrgyz.

Following the collapse of the Uyghur Empire, the Uyghur established states in three areas: present day Gansu, Xinjiang, and the Chu River the West of Tian Shan (Tengri-Tag) Mountains.

Today one can still see Uyghurs with light-colored skin and hair. The genetic studies show that the Uyghur (UIG) population, presenting a typical admixture of Eastern and Western anthropometric traits, results showed that UIG was formed by two-way admixture, with 60% European ancestry and 40% East Asian (Turkic-Hun) ancestry. Overall linkage disequilibrium (LD) in UIG was similar to that in its parental populations represented in East Asia and Europe with regard to common alleles, and UIG manifested. Both the magnitude of LD and fragmentary ancestral chromosome segments indicated a long history of Uyghur. Under the assumption of a hybrid isolation (HI) model, it was estimated that the admixture event of UIG occurred about 126 [107, 146] generations ago, or 2520 [2140, 2920] years ago assuming 20 years per generation

A haplotype of R1b, with DYS393=12, has been referenced in the literature as Haplotype 35, or ht35. They can be found in high numbers in Southeastern Europe and Western Asia. The members of this haplotype are thought to be descended from early R1b's who found shelter in Anatolia during the Last Glacial Maximum instead of in Iberia. Descendants can be found in high numbers in the Armenian Highland and Armenia with smaller numbers throughout the Middle East, in Jewish populations, in Southeastern Europe, and in the Caucasus Mountains. There is also a sizable pocket of ht35 in Uyghur populations in western China, which is theorized to be a remnant of the Tocharians, an Indo-European speaking people that inhabited the Tarim Basin in Central Asia until later being absorbed by various Turkic peoples. Ht35 is also present in Britain in areas that were found to have a high concentration of Haplogroup J, suggesting they arrived together, most likely with the arrival of Roman soldiers.

 

 

* Formation of the Eurasian "Steppe Belt" of Stockbreeding Cultures: Viewed through the prism of archaeometallurgy and radiocarbon dating by E.N. Chernykh

Abstract: The Eurasian “steppe belt” is a region peculiar for its nomadic and semi-nomadic stockbreeding cultures. It extends 8 thousand kilometers west to east (from the Black Sea to the Yellow Sea), spanning an area of 8 million sq. km. The beginnings of the “steppe belt” cultures coincide with the Copper Age (5th millennium BC) and the activation of the Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province. In the Early and Middle Bronze Age (4th–3rd millennia BC), advanced pastoral cultures emerged in the Circumpontic Metallurgical Province. The appearance of the Maykop culture in the Northern Caucasus represents a significant marking point at that time. Changes were initiated including unambiguous evidence of horse riding (prehistoric cavalry) and the introduction of metal weapons such as shafthole axes and spearheads. In the late 3rd millennium BC, military-oriented stockbreeding societies emerged in Eastern Central Asia (Sayan-Altai and Mongolia). The period around 2000 BC was marked by two migration waves moving in opposite directions. Steppe semi-nomads associated with the Abashevo-Sintashta and later with the Srubnaya-Andronovo communities moved from Eastern Europe eastwards to the Altai and even to Xinjiang. Warring Seima-Turbino groups migrated from Central Asia towards the Urals and further into Eastern Europe. By the mid-2nd millennium BC, the formation of the “steppe belt” cultures was completed, and these cultures continued to exist until relatively recently. The stockbreeding societies of the steppes often played a key role in Eurasian history.

 

 

Adi People

Map of Arunachal Pradesh

Adi People: The Adi (also Abor) is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh (in northeastern India). The older term Abor is a deprecated exonym from Assamese meaning 'those who cannot be controlled'. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet, around areas near the Indian border.

Of Proto-Austronesian and Tibetan stock, they speak a language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family. However, their traditions believed them to be the lost descendants of the Tatars and Abo-Tani (Abo- Father; Tani- Man).

* Videos: Adi Song from Arunachal Pradesh, A Musical Journey of Arunachal Pradesh

 

The Austronesian people or Austronesian-speaking people, are a population group present in Oceania and Southeast Asia who speak, or had ancestors who spoke, one of the Austronesian languages. They form a diverse group of peoples stretching 57% around the globe west-to-east, ranging 206° from 44°E in Madagascar to 110° W on Easter Island. The territories settled primarily by Austronesian peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.

The first Austronesian speakers are believed to have originated on the island of Taiwan (see Taiwanese aborigines) following the migration of a group, or groups, of Pre-Austronesian speaking peoples from continental Asia approximately 10,000-6000 B.C. Due to a lengthy split from the Pre-Austronesian populations, the Proto-Austronesian language and cultures emerged on Taiwan (Blust,1988).

Beginning around 5000-2500 B.C., the large scale Austronesian expansion began. Population growth primarily fueled this expansion.

These first settlers landed in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Over the next thousand years up until 1500 B.C., their descendants started to spread south to the rest of the Philippine islands, Celebes (modern-day Sulawesi), northern Borneo, the Moluccas (modern-day Maluku), and Java.

The Austronesian settlers in the Moluccas sailed eastward and began to spread to the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia between 1200 B.C. and 500 B.C. repectively. Those that spread westward reached Sumatra, the Malay peninsula and southern Vietnam by 500 B.C.

The oceanic Austronesians had discovered Remote Polynesia by 1000 B.C. and settled its three extremities Hawaii by 400 A.D. New Zealand by 1300 A.D. and Easter Island by 300 A.D. In the Indian Ocean they reached Madagascar.

 

Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar/Татарлар), sometimes spelled Tartar, are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group or multiple ethnic groups. Most current day Tatars live all over Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Lithuania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They collectively numbered more than 10 million in the late 20th century.

The original Ta-ta inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward. In the 12th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of Russia.

In Europe, they were assimilated by the local Turkic populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Volga Bulgars, Alans, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Finno-Ugric speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.

Tatars of Siberia are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols. Later, each group adopted Turkic languages and many adopted Islam. At the beginning of 20th century, most of those groups, except the Volga Tatars and Crimean Tatars adopted their own ethnic names and now are not referred to as Tatars, being Tatars or Tartars only in historical context. Now the name Tatars is generally applied to two ethnic groups: Volga Tatars (or simply Tatars) and Crimean Tatars. However, some indigenous peoples of Siberia are also traditionally named Tatars, such as Chulym Tatars.

The present Tatar inhabitants of Eurasia form three large groups:

• those of Crimea, Bulgaria, European Russia and Western Siberia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Romania and Turkey.
• those of the Caucasus (in historical context),
• and those of Eastern Siberia (in historical context).

Due to the vast movements and intermingling of peoples along with the very loose utilization of the name Tatar, current day Tatars comprise a spectrum of physical appearance. As to the original Tatars from Mongolia, they most likely shared characteristics with the Turkic invaders from Central Asia.

The name "Tatar" initially appeared amongst the nomadic Turkic peoples of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century. These people may have been related to the Cumans or the Kipchaks. The Chinese term is Dada and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan.

As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and Hungary became known to Europeans as Tatars (or Tartars). After the break up of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, which included most of European Russia and was known as the Golden Horde.

 

Khanate of the Juan-Juan (Rouran)

Rouran (柔然), Ruanruan/Ruru (蠕蠕/茹茹) also known as Tan Tan (檀檀; literally "Tartar") was the name of a confederation of nomadic tribes on the northern borders of China Proper from the late 4th century until the late 6th century. The Rouran subdued modern regions of Xinjiang, Mongolia, Central Asia and parts of Siberia and Manchuria from the late 4th century. the power of the Rouran was broken by an alliance of Göktürks, the Chinese Northern Qi and Northern Zhou dynasties and tribes in Central Asia in 552. The remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity. It has sometimes been hypothesized that the Rouran are identical to the Eurasian Avars who later appeared in Europe. The Avars appeared in Central and Eastern Europe in the 6th century. Avar rule persisted over much of the Pannonian plain up to the early 9th century. Today the Pannonian plain is divided among Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Origin and Expansion: The Rouran were confederation of Xianbei people who remained in Mongolian steppes after most Xianbei migrated south to Northern China and set up various kingdoms. They were first noted as having defeated the Gaoche and establishing an empire extending all the way to the Hulun, at the eastern Inner Mongolia. To the west of the Rouran was a horde known in the west as the Hephthalites who originally, until the 5th century, were a vassal horde of the Rouran. The Rouran controlled the area of Mongolia from the Manchurian border to Turpan and, perhaps, the east coast of Lake Balkhash, and from the Orkhon River to the China Proper. Their ancestor Mugulu is said to have been originally a slave of the Toba tribes, situated at the north banks of Yellow River Bend. Mugulu's descendant Shelun is said to be the first chieftain who was able to unify the Rouran tribes and to found the power of the Rouran by defeating the Gaoche and Xianbei. Shelun was also the first of the steppe peoples to adopt the title of khagan (可汗) in 402, originally a title of Xianbei nobility.

The Rouran and the Hephthalites had a falling out and problems within their confederation were encouraged by Chinese agents. In 508, the Gaoche, then operating under the name Tiele, defeated the Rouran in battle. In 516, the Rouran defeated the Tiele. Within the Rouran confederation was a Turkic tribe noted in Chinese annals as the Tujue. After a marriage proposal to the Rouran was rebuffed, the Tujue joined with the Western Wei, successor state to the Northern Wei, and revolted against the Rouran. In 555, they beheaded 3,000 Rouran. European history books commonly claim that the Rouran then fled west across the steppes and became the Avars, though this is probably a mistake. The remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity. The last Rouran khagan fled to the court of Western Wei, but at the demand of Tujue, Western Wei executed him and the nobles that accompanied him.

 

 

MDS Plot Revealing Different Patrilineal Affinities of Northern and Central-Southern Russians from Two Sources of the Russian Patrilineal Heritage in Their Eurasian Context by Oleg Balanovsky, et al.

(Croatians, Bosnians, Central South Russians, Tatars, North Russians, Finns)

 

 

Tartary

"A new Map of Great Tartary and China..." by Edward Wells (1704)

Tartary or Great Tartary (Latin: Tataria or Tataria Magna) was a name used by Europeans from the Middle Ages until the twentieth century to designate a great tract of northern and central Asia stretching from the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean inhabited by Turkic and Mongol peoples of the Mongol Empire who were generically referred to as "Tartars", i.e. Tatars. It incorporated the current areas of Siberia, Turkestan (including East Turkestan - Xinjiang), Greater Mongolia, Manchuria, and sometimes Tibet.

Geography and History: Tartary was often divided into sections with prefixes denoting the name of the ruling power or the geographical location. Thus, western Siberia was Muscovite or Russian Tartary, eastern Turkestan (later Chinese Xinjiang) and Mongolia were Chinese or Cathay Tartary, western Turkestan (later Russian Turkestan) was known as Independent Tartary, and Manchuria was East Tartary.

As the Russian Empire expanded eastward and more of Tartary became known to Europeans and East Asians, the term fell into disuse.

European areas north of the Black Sea inhabited by Turkic peoples were known as Little Tartary.

Tartary in Fiction: In the novel Ada by Vladimir Nabokov, Tartary is the name of a large country on the fictional planet of Antiterra. Russia is Tartary's approximate geographic counterpart on Terra, Antiterra's twin world apparently identical to "our" Earth, but doubly fictional in the context of the novel.

According to the Metropolitan Opera's summary of Puccini's final opera, Turandot, the son of the vanquished king of Tartary, Prince Cala'f, is smitten with Turandot's beauty and determines to win her love.

In Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels, the European main characters often express fear of tartars, a term apparently referring to many Asian races, as the story takes place far from Mongolia.

In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the witches include Tartars' lips in their potion.

In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein pursuits the monster "amidst the wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he still evaded me, I have ever followed in his track."

In Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, Herbert Pocket describes Estella Havisham as a Tartar because she was "hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex."

 

News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir by Peter Fleming

 

 

 

Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus by Robert D. Kaplan

 

 

 

The 20th century racial classification by American anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, divided humanity into five races: Caucasoid race, Negroid race, Capoid race, Mongoloid race, Australoid race

 

 

The Silk Road

 

The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting East and West by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. The trade route was initiated around 114 BC by the Han Dynasty (114 BC), although earlier trade across the continents had already existed. Geographically, The Silk Road or Silk Route is an interconnected series of ancient trade routes connecting Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, extending over 8,000 km (5,000 miles) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the foundations for the modern world.

As it extends westwards from the commercial centers of North China, the continental Silk Road divides into north and south routes to avoid the Tibetan Plateau.

The Northern Route travels northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu, and splits into three further routes, two of them passing north and south of the Taklamakan Desert (through modern day Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang) to rejoin at Kashgar; and the other going north of the Tien Shan mountains through Turfan, Talgar and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan).

All routes join up at Kokand in the Fergana Valley, and the roads continue west across the Karakum Desert towards Merv, joining the northern route briefly.

One of these routes turns northwest along the Amu Darya (river) including Bukhara and Samarkand the center of Silk Road trade to the Aral Sea, through ancient civilizations under the present site of Astrakhan, and on to the Crimean peninsula. From there it crosses the Black Sea, Marmara Sea and the Balkans to Venice; another crosses the Caspian Sea and across the Caucasus to the Black Sea in Georgia, thence to Constantinople.

 

 

Dinaric Race

Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) shows a Tirolian woman as an example of the Dinaric type

In physical anthropology, the Dinaric race (or Adriatic race or Epirotic race) is one of the subcategories of the Europid (White; Caucasian) race into which it was divided by anthropologists in the early 20th century. It is no longer considered scientifically useful, as genetics has become the main tool in classifying ethnic groups.

The concept of a Dinaric race originated with Joseph Deniker, but became most closely associated with the writings of Hans F. K. Günther and Carleton S. Coon. The name was derived from the Dinaric Alps (the western part of the Balkan Peninsula) which was supposed to be the principal habitat.

Characteristics were defined as tall, mostly mesomorph bodily build, with relatively long legs and short trunk and a medium arm span. The overall anatomy of the head was said to be brachycephalic to hyperbrachycephalic (Cranial index: 81-86) whereby the condition is caused by both rather high breadth of the head and a medium length of the neurocranium, whose back part is often somewhat flattened (planoccipital).

This is how the type was described:

The vertical height of the cranium is high. Eyes are set relatively close and the surrounding tissue defines them as wide open. The iris is most often brown, with a significant percentage of light pigmentation in the Dinaric population. The nose is large, narrow and convex. The face is long and orthognathic, with a prominent chin, and also wide. The form of the forehead is variable, but not rarely it is bulbous. The hair color is usually dark brown, with black-haired and blond individuals in minority, blondness being the characteristic of the more Central European, morphologically similar Noric race (a race intermediate between Nordic and Dinaric races). The skin is lacking the rosy color characteristic for Northern Europe as well as the relatively brunet pigmentation characteristic for the southernmost Europe and on a geographical plane it is of medium pigmentation and often it is variable.

Several theories were postulated regarding the genesis of the Dinaric race. Most researchers agreed that this race was autochthonous to its present habitat from the Neolithic period. Both Günther and Coon claimed that the Bell-Beaker people of the European Bronze Age were at least partially Dinaric.

Coon also argued, however, in The Origin of Races (1962), that the Dinaric and some other categories "are not races but simply the visible expressions of the genetic variability of the intermarrying groups to which they belong." He referred to the creation of this distinctive phenotype from the mixing of earlier separate groups as "dinarisation". In his view Dinarics were a specific type that arose from ancient mixes of the Mediterranean race and Alpine race.

According to the Dinaric model, Dinarics were to be found in the mountainous areas of the western Balkans (Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria, Montenegro, most of northwestern Bulgaria, and northwestern Republic of Macedonia). Northern and Eastern Italy was considered mostly a Dinaric area as well as western Greece, Romania, eastern Ukraine, southeastern German-speaking areas, and parts of southern Poland and southeastern France.

"Noric" Subtype: The Noric race (German: Norische Rasse) was a racial category proposed by the anthropologist Victor Lebzelter. The Noric race was supposed to be a lighter sub-type of the Dinaric race. The term derived from Noricum, a province of the Roman empire roughly equivalent to southern Austria. The term is not to be confused with Nordic.

Norics were characterized by tall stature, brachycephaly, nasal convexity, long face and broad forehead. Their complexion was said to be light, and blondness combined with light eyes to be their anthropologic characteristic.

Norics were supposed to populate parts of Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia and South-Eastern Germany.

 

 

History of the Bosniaks

Early History: The Pre-Slavic roots of the Bosniaks can be traced back to the earliest well known inhabitants of the area now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Illyrians. This ancient people presumably arrived in the west Balkans around 2000 BC, overrunning the various old European cultures who lived there before them (such as the Butmir Culture in the vicinity of modern Sarajevo). Despite the arrival of the Celts in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the Illyrians remained the dominant group in the west Balkans until the arrival of the Romans.

Rome conquered Illyria after a series of wars, the final being the crushing of a rebellion by certain tribes in what is now central Bosnia around 9 AD. Latin-speaking settlers from all over the empire settled among the Illyrians at this time. The Roman province of Dalmatia included Herzegovina and most of Bosnia, and a strip of northern Bosnia, south of the Sava River, was part of the province of Pannonia. The Vlachs, a historically nomadic people who live throughout the Balkans, speak a language derived from Latin, and are the descendants of Roman settlers and Romanized indigenous peoples. No longer present in a large number, they were absorbed into Bosnia's three main ethnic groups based on religion during the Ottoman period.

It should be noted that Bosniaks, unlike other people whose land is named after an ancient ethnic name, derive their name from Bosnia. The most commonly accepted theory regarding the origins of the name Bosnia is that it comes from the river Bosna, which has had a similar name since ancient times. That word itself is of either Latin or Illyrian origin.

The Goths conquered Roman Dalmatia in the fifth century, and later the Alans, who spoke an Iranian language, and the Turkic Huns and Avars passed through what is now Bosnia. These invaders left few linguistic traces, and whatever remnant populations were left behind were absorbed by the Slavic wave that was to follow.

Medieval Bosnia: Slavs settled in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the surrounding lands, which were then part of the Eastern Roman Empire, in the seventh century. The Slavic Serbs and Croats settled sometime after the first wave of Slavs. The Croats established a kingdom in what is northwestern Croatia. The Serbs settled in what is now southcentral Serbia, and later expanding into the upper Drina valley of eastern Bosnia and into Eastern Herzegovina, known in the later Middle Ages as Zahumlje. The Croats to the west came under the influence of the Germanic Carolingian Empire and the Roman Catholic Church, and Croatia was closely tied to Hungary and later Austria until the twentieth century. The Serbs to the east came under periodic Byzantine rule, converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity and absorbed Byzantine cultural influences. After some centuries of rule by Croatia, Serb principalities, and the Byzantine Empire, an independent Bosnian kingdom flourished in central Bosnia between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries.

The subject of ethnicity in medieval Bosnia has been one of great debate ever since it was brought up in its current context by historians during the second half of the 19th century. All three ethnic groups in Bosnia have a different view on the matter, and this complex and sensitive subject has been further obscured by nationalism and propaganda through the ages. Proving their people as the true heirs of the medieval Bosnian state is important to many nationalists because they consider this indigenousness to have important implications in modern social, political, and interethnic issues.

The Bosnian Kingdom blended cultural influences from east and west; although nominally Roman Catholic, the Bosnian kings embraced elements of Byzantine culture and court ceremonial, and formed alliances and dynastic marriages with the neighboring rulers of both Croatian-Dalmatian and Serb states. Because of Bosnia's mountainous and inaccessible terrain and its remote location on the borderland between the Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, control by church authorities was weak. The religious situation was also peculiar because of the presence of an indigenous Bosnian Church (its adherents were known as krstjani, "Christians"). The krštjani were considered heretics by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Modern historians have debated whether the Krštjani were a branch of the Bogomils, a Manichean sect which originated in Bulgaria, or whether they were members of the Catholic Church who had acquired some heretical beliefs and influences from Eastern Orthodoxy and fell into Schism.

At its largest extent, under King Tvrtko Kotromanic, the Bosnian Kingdom included most of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of north-western Bosnia, as well as parts of Dalmatia and western Serbia. Discord among his heirs weakened the kingdom after his death, and Bosnia and the Serb principalities to the east were unable to prevent Ottoman Turkish incursions into the western Balkans. The final Turkish conquest in 1463 marked the end of an independent Bosnia and the beginning of the influence of a third civilization, Islam.

Ottoman Rule: Historians have long debated how and why the Bosnians converted in such large numbers to Islam. There is no simple answer to this question, and the underlying reasons are complex and numerous. The Ottoman Empire at the time was centered on militaristic expansion independent of religion, and the primary split was not between Muslims and nonbelievers but between the military-administrative class (the Ottomans) and the serfs (raya), neither of which was exclusive to any particular faith. Though the state eventually acquired a more Islamic focus, by this time, Muslims already made up a large majority of Bosnia's population.

The Ottoman conquest of Bosnia was notable because, unlike all other European regions that came under Ottoman control, Bosnia retained its status as a distinct entity from the very beginning (first as a sanjak, then as a province [eyalet]). The Ottomans imported their feudal system to Bosnia shortly after the take-over, and estates were granted to men called sipahis, in return for military service in times of war. At the beginning of the Ottoman period, these estates were usually, but not exclusively, granted to Muslims, and later only to Muslims. In Bosnia, these land grants gradually became hereditary, and by the end of the Ottoman period, a majority of the landowners in Bosnia were Muslims, and most Christians were peasants or serfs.

Probably the biggest reason behind the spread of Islam in the region was the very weak presence of the Church in Bosnia at the time. The old competition between the Catholic and Bosnian churches (along with the Orthodox Church in certain areas) contributed to a very weak and disorganized religious structure in much of Bosnia. To many Bosnians religion was a combination of traditions and superstitions. Compared to the well-funded and organized religious institutions of their neighbors, it was relatively easy for Bosnians to switch from their folk-Christianity to Islam. It is significant that the only other European region under Ottoman control where a large segment of the population adopted Islam was Albania; also home to competing Christian sects.

Also important was the growth of urban centers, the vast majority of which were Muslim. Cities that were founded at the time, such as Sarajevo (video) and Mostar (video), grew rapidly with a specifically Islamic character and advanced living standards. It is understandable that many Christians in the outlying rural regions would convert to Islam to be part of the superior conditions in such places. Further, slaves who converted to Islam could petition for their freedom, and many of the Christians enslaved during the wars with Habsburg Austria, Hungary, and the Republic of Venice converted to Islam in order to secure their release. Many of these newly-freed converts settled in the growing cities, further contributing to their growth and development.

It is thought that the greater rights afforded to Muslims in the Ottoman Empire motivated Christians to convert to Islam. However, the extent to which Muslims were privileged is often overestimated. The primary discrimination faced by non-Muslims was of a legal nature, as Christians and Jews were not allowed to file lawsuits or testify against Muslims in court. There were also rules of conduct imposed upon them, but there were many to whom these rules did not apply. Though much has been made of the fact that Christian and Jewish subjects of the sultan paid a poll tax from which Muslims were exempt, Muslims were also faced with the religious zakat tax, whereas Catholics made donations to their church only on a voluntary basis.

Some Christians became Muslims through the devsirme system, whereby boys were gathered from the Ottoman lands and were sent to Istanbul to convert to Islam and be trained as Janissary troops, servants of the Sultan or Ottoman officials. One observer in the 16th century even mentioned that the Sultan believed Bosniaks were "the best, most pious and most loyal people" and "much bigger, more handsome, and more able" than other Muslim peoples. Though the devsirme system probably didn't influence the demographics of Bosnia significantly, it did firmly establish the Slavic element and language in Istanbul's administration and provided Bosnia with local Bosniak governors from 1488 onward.

The 17th century brought major defeats and military setbacks on the Ottoman Empire's western frontier. With major wars occurring every few decades, Bosnia was economically and militarily exhausted. For Bosnia and Bosniaks, the most critical conflict of all was the Great Turkish War. At its very start in the mid 1680s, the Habsburgs conquered nearly all of Ottoman Hungary, sending tens of thousands of Muslim refugees flooding into Bosnia. A similar process occurred with the Habsburg conquest of Lika and Slavonia. Thousands of Muslims from these parts fled eastward into the Bosnian pashaluk, while those who remained were forcibly converted to Catholicism. In total, it is estimated that more than 100,000 Muslims were expelled from the frontier regions and settled in Bosnia during this time. Many brought with them a new sense of hostility towards Christianity.

Ottoman military disasters continued into the next decade. In 1697, Habsburg Prince Eugene of Savoy conducted an extremely successful border raid which culminated in Sarajevo being put to the torch. The Great Turkish War was finally ended by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. However, in the late 1710s yet another war between the Ottomans and the Habsburg-Venetian alliance ensued. It was ended by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, but not before sending another wave of Muslim refugees fleeing to Bosnia proper.

These events created great unrest among Bosniaks. The sentiment of discontent was further magnified by war and an increased tax burden. As a result, Bosniak revolts sprang up in Herzegovina in 1727, 1728, 1729, and 1732. A large plague that resulted in the death of thousands during the early 1730s contributed to the general chaos. In 1736, seeking to exploit these conditions, The Habsburgs broke the Treaty of Passarowitz and crossed the Sava river boundary. In one of the most significant events in Bosniak history, local Bosniak nobility organized a defense and counterattack completely independent of the ineffective imperial authorities. On August 4, at the Battle of Banja Luka, the outnumbered Bosniak forces routed the Habsburg army and sent them fleeing back to Slavonia.

Traditionally, the Ottoman authorities classed subjects of the Empire not by nationality, but by religion. During the nineteenth century, modern national consciousness began to increase among the south Slavs; some historians now believe that it was in this period that Catholic Bosnians increasingly began to think of themselves as Croats, and Orthodox Bosnians as Serbs. The beginnings of a Muslim Bosnian national consciousness is also first attested in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as these early Bosniak nationalists began to assert a national identity distinct from both their Orthodox and Catholic neighbors, and from the other Muslim inhabitants of the empire. Most Serb and Croat nationalists tend to deny a separate Bosniak national identity, claiming that Bosniaks were either Serb or Croat in origin, but of Islamic religion. This debate, whether Bosnia and the Bosniaks are "really" Croats, Serbs, or a separate Bosniak Bosnian nation, has energized debates among nationalists until the present day. Anthropologists find the nationalist statements on Serbian or Croatian origin rather irrational and ultimately undignified attention, since, with a few notable exceptions, the ethnicity and history of the dominated in communist and monarchy Yugoslavia has been prescribed by the dominators and by the general demographics of a region.

Like national identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina in general, Bosniak national identity is chiefly based on religion and communal feeling, as opposed to linguistic and/or physical differences from their neighbors. In that sense, the earliest foundation of modern Bosniak national development can be found as early as the beginning of the 18th century, as native Bosnian Muslims found themselves often fighting against the empire's enemies by their own (i.e. the Battle of Banja Luka, where the city's garrison was composed entirely of Bosniaks). On top of present cultural uniqueness, by the first half of the 19th century upper class Bosniaks and intellectuals were already propagating what can be considered early Bosniak nationalism, by way of writing and politics, all of which would later lead to the Bosniak rebirth at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Variability in Bosnians and Slovenians by B. A. Malyarchuk, et al.

Abstract: Mitochondrial DNA variability in two Slavonic-speaking populations of the northwestern Balkan peninsula, Bosnians (N = 144) and Slovenians (N = 104), was studied by hypervariable segments I and II (HVS I and II) sequencing and restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the mtDNA coding region. The majority of the mtDNA detected in Southern Slavonic populations falls into the common West Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups (e.g., H, pre-V, J, T, U, K, I, W, and X). About 2% of the Bosnian mtDNAs encompass East Eurasian and African lineages (e.g., M and L1b, respectively). The distribution of mtDNA subclusters in Bosnians, Slovenians and the neighbouring European populations reveals that the common genetic substratum characteristic for Central and Eastern European populations (such as Germans, Poles, Russians and Finns) penetrates also South European territories as far as the Western Balkans. However, the observed differentiation between Bosnian and Slovenian mtDNAs suggests that at least two different migration waves of the Slavs may have reached the Balkans in the early Middle Ages.

 

 

History of the Serbs

Origin and history of the Serbs: Serbs (Serbian: Срби or Srbi) are a South Slavic people who live mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia. They are also a significant minority in the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. A Serbian diaspora dispersed people of Serbian descent to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the United States and Canada.

Medieval History: The Serbs migrated from White Serbia and settled in the Balkans in 610-626, led by the Unknown Archont. This migration was at the invitation of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who sought aid in defeating the Avars in Dalmatia. Following their victory over the Avars, they were first given land and settled in the province of Thessalonica in a town called "Servia". The Serbs are said to have been homesick and decided to leave the Balkans for their homeland in the north, but eventually decided to stay in Roman Dalmatia under the supervision of the Byzantine Empire, acting as guardians of the northern Byzantine frontier. Teir are aof settlement encompassed modern Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro (Pagania, Zahumlje, Travunia, Doclea, Rascia, later parts of the 14th-century Serbian Empire). There the Serbs assimilated with Thracio-Dacio-Illyrian tribes (extinct peoples), Byzantine Greeks and Latin-speaking inhabitants.

The Serbian tribes, who were pagan (Slavic Mythology) came in immediate contact with Christianity when arriving at the Balkans: the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII recounts that they were initially converted by "elders" from Rome, however Cyril and Methodius are the missionaries from Constantinople that are venerated as the converters of the Serbs. The process of Christianization is held to have been completed by 870, when Greek (Byzantine) and Theophoric given names became permanent tradition in Serbian culture.

At times, the Serbs struggled to gain independence from the Byzantines. The acceptance of Imperial authority and alliance in early Serb history can be seen in the Serbian tribes' alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Basil I the Macedonian against the Saracens, or the Serb naval detachments fighting under the Frankish king Louis II of Italy in 870 against the Muslim Arabs.

The most powerful Serb states were Rascia and Doclea, that started breaking away from the Byzantine Empire in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, after Serbian rulers took power by force from the local Byzantine governors. The Serbs became more powerful under Saint Sava, who became the first head of the Serb Orthodox Church and his brother Stefan Prvovencani who was made son-in-law (sebastokrator) to Emperor Alexios III Angelos after marrying Eudokia Angelina, thus ensuring the autonomy of Serbia and continuing loyalty to the Byzantine Empire. At the time, Serbia did not exist as a state of that name but was rather the region inhabited and ruled by the Serbs; its kings and tsars were called the "King of the Serbs" referring to lands where the Serbs lived. The medieval Serbian state is nonetheless often, albeit anachronistically, referred to as "Serbia".

Serbia experienced its golden age under the House of Nemanjic, with the Serbian state reaching its apogee of power in the reign of Tsar Stefan Uros Dusan, when the Serbian Empire dominated the Balkans. Serbia's power subsequently dwindled amid interminable conflict between the nobility, rendering the country unable to resist the steady incursion of the Ottoman Empire into south-eastern Europe. The Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is commonly regarded in Serbian national mythology as the key event in the country's defeat by the Turks, although in fact Ottoman rule was not fully imposed until some time later. After Serbia fell, the kings of Bosnia used the title of "King of the Serbs" until Bosnia was also overrun.

Ottoman Domination: As Christians, the Serbs were regarded as a "protected people" under Ottoman law but in practice were treated as second-class citizens and often harshly treated. They were subjected to considerable pressure to convert to Islam; some did, while others migrated to the north and west, to seek refuge in Austria-Hungary.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the First Serbian Uprising succeeded in liberating at least some Serbs, for a limited time. The Second Serbian Uprising was much more successful, creating a powerful Serbia that became a modern European kingdom.

Genetics: Subclade J2f1 is present at 2.5% in Serbs and Slavic Macedonians. I1b* (xM26) is at 29-32% in Serbs, Macedonians and Croats, as low as 3% in Macedonian Roma and Kosovar Albanians, as high as 63% in Herzegovinians. The R1a is the same in Macedonians and Serbs at 15% and close to Herzegovinians at 12%, notable gap between the Albanians (4%) and Croats (35%). Bosnian Serbs are closer to Bosniaks than to Croats, the J Haplogroup is 9% in Serbs and 12% in Bosniaks and almost non-existent among Croats. I-P37 is higher in Croats (71%) than in Serbs (31%) and Bosniaks (44%). In Europe, the highest frequency of the E3b1-α cluster is among Albanians from Kosovo (45.6%), Albanians from Albania (27.0%), and Macedonians (24.1%). The frequency of this cluster among Serbs from Serbia is 20.4%, and among Herzegovinians 8.5%.

Y Chromosome HG2 is around 50% in Yugoslavs, Georgians, Ukrainians, with Turks and French at 25%. HG1 is at 10-15% in Serbs, Greeks, Cypriots, Belarusians, Ukrainians and in the Baltic peoples. HG3 is frequent in Central Europe but declines towards Eurasia, 15% in Serbs and Romanians, 8% in Greeks, 50% in Russians and 55% in Poles. HG9 is non-existent in Northern Europe, 10% in Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Serbs, Portuguese, higher concentration in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Caucasus. HG21 is at 13% in Serbs, Italians and Portuguese, higher concentration in Greeks at 30% and as low as 4% in Ukrainians.

The high frequencies of haplogroup I1b* (xM26) among Serbs and neighboring Slavic-speaking populations, the highest in Europe, testify to their common paternal lineage. Serbs have also a relatively high frequency of R1a. High frequencies of both I1b* (xM26) and R1a are characteristic for Slavic paternal gene pool. The main genetic heterogeneity among Serbs is observed in the frequencies of the E3b1-α cluster. The population of the Dinaric complex has a significantly lower frequency of that cluster than the population of the Morava-Danube river system. This is a result of the distribution of different pre-Slavic Balkan populations.

Serbian Culture: For centuries straddling the boundaries between East and West, Serbia had been divided among: the Eastern and Western halves of the Roman Empire; between Kingdom of Hungary, Bulgarian Empire, Frankish Kingdom and Byzantium; and between the Ottoman Empire and the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary), as well as Venice in the south. The result of these overlapping influences are distinct characters and sharp contrasts between various Serbian regions, its north being more tied to Western Europe and south leaning towards the Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Byzantine Empire's influence on Serbia was profound, through introduction of Greek Orthodoxy from 7th century onwards (today- Serbian Orthodox Church). Different influences were also present- chiefly the Ottoman, Hungarian, Austrian and also Venetian (coastal Serbs). Serbs use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. The monasteries of Serbia, built largely in the Middle Ages, are one of the most valuable and visible traces of medieval Serbia's association with the Byzantium and the Orthodox World, but also with the Romanic (Western) Europe that Serbia had close ties with back in Middle Ages. Most of Serbia's queens still remembered today in Serbian history were of foreign origin, including Hélène d'Anjou (a cousin of Charles I of Sicily), Anna Dondolo (daughter of the Doge of Venice, Enrico Dandolo), Catherine of Hungary, and Symonide of Byzantium.

Serbia has eight cultural sites marked on the UNESCO World Heritage list: Stari Ras and Sopoćani monasteries (included in 1979), Studenica Monastery (1986), the Medieval Serbian Monastic Complex in Kosovo, comprising: Dečani Monastery, Our Lady of Ljeviš, Gračanica and Patriarchate of Pec- (2004, put on the endangered list in 2006), and Gamzigrad - Romuliana, Palace of Galerius, added in 2007. Likewise, there are 2 literary memorials added on the UNESCO's list as a part of the Memory of the World Programme: Miroslav Gospels, handwriting from the 12th century (added in 2005), and Nikola Tesla's archive (2003).

* Serbian Culure: Serbian epic poetry, Serbian cuisine, Serbian literature, Serbian art, music of Serbia, cinema of Serbia

Genetics: Serbs are generally of "Balkan genetics" (Dinaric), contributed by Paleo-Balkan tribes.

The subbranch E3b1-a is present at high frequencies among the Greeks, Serbs and South Italians (up to 25%). Subclade J2f1 is at 2.5% in Serbs and Slavic Macedonians. I1b* is at 29-32% in Serbs, Macedonians and Croats, as low as 3% in Macedonian Roma and Kosovar Albanians, as high as 63% in Herzegovinians. The R1a is the same in Macedonians and Serbs at 15% and close to Herzegovinians at 12%, notable gap between the Albanians (4%) and Croats (35%). The most common western European haplogroup R1b values in Serbs are 10.6%, in Cypriots 9.0% being the lowest in Europe, the highest values being 89% in Welsh, medium values 56% in French. Bosnian Serbs are closer to Bosniaks than to Croats, the J haplogroup is 9% in Serbs and 12% in Bosniaks and almost non-existent among Croats. I-P37 is higher in Croats (71%) than in Serbs (31%) and Bosniaks (44%).

 

 

History of the Montenegrins

Medieval Times: During medieval times, Montenegrin territories often shifted possession, but the medieval principalities of Doclea and Zeta under local rulers were fairly long-lived and have paved the path for what will ultimately become the modern Montenegro. In 1496, Zeta fell under Ottoman rule, but the Turkish influence was fairly limited to cities while Montenegrins tribes, although disunited, had control over the surrounding hills. They formed a loosely governed theocracy of "prince-bishops", starting with Archbishop Vavil in 1516.

During the 12th century, the area became known as the Principality of Zeta. Between 1276 and 1309, Zeta was ruled by the Queen Jelena, widow of the Serbian King Uroš I. She secured autonomy for Zeta within Nemanjić's Serbia and built and restored around 50 monasteries, most notably Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Srđ and Vakh) on the Bojana River under Shkodër/Skadar. The name Montenegro (Crna Gora) is mentioned for the first time in the charter of St. Nicholas' monastery in Vranjina, dating to 1296 during Jelena's reign. Under King Milutin (Uroš II) Nemanjić, at the beginning of the 14th century, the Archdiocese in Bar was the biggest feudal lord in Zeta.

Throughout the 14th century, the Houses of Balšić and Crnojević contested for control over the Montenegrin territories until the Crnojevićs attained supremacy in the 14th century. Under the Crnojevićs, the Serbian Church reached its peak. In 1496, the Ottomans conquered part, but not all, of Montenegro.

Modern: The Montenegrins maintained their independence from the Ottoman Empire, during the Ottoman's reign over the entire Balkan region(Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc). The Montenegrins were gathered around the Metropolitans of the Cetinje Metropolitanate, which further led to national awakening of the Montenegrins all around. The creation of a theocratic state and its advancement into a secular and independent country was even more evident in late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The rule of the House of Petrović in the 18th and 19th century unified the Montenegrins and established strong ties with Russia and later with Serbia(under Ottoman occupation), with occasional help from Austro-Hungarian Empire. That period was marked by several clashes with Turkish conquerors as well as by a firmer establishment of a self-governed principality.

In 1878, the Congress of Berlin recognized Montenegro as the 27th independent state in the world. Montenegro participated in the Balkan Wars of 1911–1912, as well as in World War I on the side of allies.

Controversy about Montenegrin ethnic identity: Both present-day Montenegro and Serbia were part of medieval Serbia, until the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, which resulted in separation of the two that lasted for 3 centuries. In the 19th century national romanticism among the South Slavs fueled the desire for re-unification. A number of works published during this period see Montenegrins as Serbs

On the other hand, it is undeniable that the uniqueness of the Montenegrin identity is based on centuries-long distinct traditions, statehood, and dialectal and cultural particularities, formed under the rule of the Ottomans and Italians. The exact roots of the Montenegrin ethnic identity is easy to trace, as the Serbian and Montenegrin identities were considered opposing rather than compatible, as Montenegrins were documented as a nation since the 1900s.

Perhaps the turning point came with the Podgorica Assembly, where the pro-independence group called zelenaši (" the greens"), which promoted "nationalism, localism, and chauvinism" lost to the pro-unionist bjelaši ("the whites"), which promoted "national nihilism" under debatable conditions. The repercussions of that split last to this day. The proponents of Montenegrin uniqueness are sometimes pejoratively referred to as "zelenaši" by the pro-unionists, while the proponents of Montenegrin-Serb dual identity are sometimes called pejoratively "bjelaši" by the Montenegrin independentists. The split into communist partisans and royalist chetniks during World War II, although chiefly ideological, was not without consequences to the national identity issue. The communists, who won the war against the Chetniks, actively promoted Montenegrin ethnicity and nationhood since 1945. The censuses of 1948-1991 describe majority of Montenegro's residents as Montenegrins. Proponents of pro-unionist ideas in Montenegro maintain that this was due either because it was not actively confronted by a Serbian identity, or because it was imposed by propaganda and force. However, during the latest national census that was conducted in a free and democratic manner (as Montenegrin authorities claim), majority of Montenegrins still declared themselves as having a Montenegrin ethnicity - without opting for the optional Serbian identity.

Present Situation: The political rift in late 1990s caused the Serb/Montenegrin ethnic issue to resurface.

The population of Montenegro is presently roughly divided on ethnic and political issues between the group composed of the ethnic Montenegrins, ethnic Bosniaks, ethnic Muslims, ethnic Croats and Albanians on one side, and the group composed of the ethnic Serbs on the other. The former group forms a majority over the latter and has repeatedly won national elections.

* Culture of Montenegro: Montenegrin literature, Music of Montenegro, Cinema of Montenegro, Montenegrin cuisine

 

 

History of the Croats

Origin: The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. According to the most widely accepted Slavic theory of the 7th century, the Croatian tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia. However, some scholars doubt the above theory, which is based primarily on De Administrando Imperio, a tenth century work by Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The doubt is primarily on archaeological and historiographical grounds. D.A.I states that the Croats arrived during Heraclius' regnal years (610-640 AD). However, there is little archaeological supporting such a migration. Moreover, it is unlikely that any political entity such as White Croatia ever existed. Instead, Curta points to some burial assemblages in the northern Dalmatia region, which he dates to 800 AD. Here, there are some exceptionally rich burials showing Byzantine, Avar, Frankish and Slavic material elements, perhaps representing a "community of Croats". That is, Curta suggests that the Croats emerged as some kind of an elite caste of Slavic-speaking warriors, consequently spreading their influence, thus their name, over much of Dalmatia and parts of Pannonia. Subsequent papal recognition ensured the evolution from a prominent tribe to a medieval kingdom.

Other theories also exist. According to the autochthonous model, mostly promoted by the Illyrian Movement in the 19th century and abandoned by the mid-19th century, the homeland of Slavs is actually in the area of southern Croatia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round. A revision of the theory, developed by Ivan Muzić argues that Slav migration from the north did happen, but the actual number of Slavic settlers was small and that the Illyrian ethnic substratum was prevalent for formation of Croatian ethnicity.

The Iranian theory suggests that the Croats are descendants of ancient Mitanni Hurrians, this theory is based solely on linguistic evidence and spread of the Old Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ, which is almost certainly a borrowing into Slavic. The earliest claimed mention of the Croatian name, Horouathos, can be traced on two stone inscriptions in the Greek language and script, dating from around the year 200 AD, found in the seaport Tanais on the Azov sea, located on the Crimean peninsula (near the Black Sea). Both tablets are kept in an archaeological museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Whilst not impossible, such a theory is solely based on the disputable premise that the term Hourathos is actually related to the Croat ethnonym. The two words may have separate origins. This theory became popular amongst some Croatian scholars during the Homeland War of Independence from SFR Yugoslavia. See also Iranian theory about descent of Croats.

Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>87%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups -- Haplogroup I (38%), Haplogroup R1a 35% and Haplogroup R1b 16%. All three groups migrated to Europe during the upper paleolithic around 30,000-20,000 BC.

Later, neolithic lineages, originating in the Middle East and that brought agriculture to Europe, are present in surprisingly low numbers. The haplogroups J, E and G constitute together less than 10% - significantly lower than other populations in the region. Furthermore the dominant presence of haplogroup I is rather interesting. This group exists in Europe only and is fairly widespread, but in relatively small percentages. Its frequency in the Balkans is high, but the only populations that have similar levels of the I group are the Scandinavians. Haplogroup I is believed to have weathered the last glacial maximum in the western Balkans, migrating north as the ice sheets retreated.

There are a number of relevant conclusions that can be drawn from the genetic data.

First of all it gives strong support to the theory that the region of modern day Croatia served as a refuge for northern populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Eastern Adriatic coast was much more to the south, northern and western parts of that sea were steppes and plains, while modern Croatian islands (rich with the archeological sites from Paleolithic) were hills and mountains. After the LGM, the offspring of these survivors repopulated much of central- eastern and southeastern Europe. Those who remained in the Balkans are the ancestors of about 38 per cent of modern day Croats men in the Croatian mainland and more than 50 per cent of modern day Croats in Dalmatia (Croatia).

The second conclusion that can be drawn is that the theory of an Iranian origin has little genetic support. Modern-day Iranians have a significantly different haplogroup distribution, although millennia ago Iranic speaking communities lived in eastern Europe. The low frequency of Anatolian haplogroups suggests that agriculture spread into the region of Croatia primarily by way of cultural contact.

And the third conclusion from the genetic evidence points to the fact Croats are genetically heterogeneous, pointing to a high degree of mixing of the newly arrived medieval migrant tribes (such as Slavs) with the indigenous populations that were already present in the region of the modern day Croatia. Hence, most modern day Croats are descended from the original European population of the region and have lived in the territory by other names, such as Illyrians and their forebears. These original inhabitants also served an important role in re-populating Europe after the last ice age.

History: The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian Duke of Dalmatia Tomislav of Trpimir united all Croats. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of Pannonia as well as maintaining close ties with Pagania and Zahumlje.

Since the creation of the personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Croats were at times subjected to forceful Germanization and Magyarization, especially from the 17th century onward. The ensuing Ottoman conquests and Habsburg domination broke the Croatian lands into disunity again—with the majority of Croats living in Croatia proper and Dalmatia. Large numbers of Croats also lived in Slavonia, Istria, Rijeka, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Over the centuries ensued a wave of Croatian emigrants, notably to Molise in Italy, Burgenland in Austria and eventually the United States of America.

* Culture of Croatia: Art of Croatia, Croatian Cuisine

 

Mediterranean Winter: The Pleasures of History and Landscape in Tunisia, Sicily, Dalmatia, and the Peloponnese by Robert D. Kaplan

 

 

 

* Signature of Recent Historical Events in the European Y-chromosomal STR Haplotype Distribution by Lutz Roewer, et al.

Clustering by Minimum Y-STR-based FST of 45 Male European Samples and Metasamples.
The significance of individual groupings is indicated by vertical bars below the dendrogram (top line
randomisation P<0.05, bottom lineP<0.001)

 

 

* Population History of the Dniester-Carpathians: Evidence from alu insertion and y-chromosome polymorphisms by Alexander Varzari

Plot from Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) Analysis of a FST Values from Y Chromosome
Haplogroup Frequencies, Showing Genetic Affinities among European and Anatolian Populations

GAGK=Gagauzes from Kongaz; GAGE=Gagauzes from Etulia; MOLK=Moldavians from Karahasani; MOLS=Moldavians from Sofia; ROME=Romanians from Piatra Neamt and Buhus; UKRT=Ukrainians from Trans-Dniestria; AND=Andalusians; BASS=Spanish Basque; CAL=Calabrians; CAT=Catalans; CZSL=Czech and Slovakians; DUT=Dutch; FRE=French; GER=Germans; GRE=Greeks; HUN=Hungarians; ITCN=Central-Northern Italians; GREM=Macedonian Greeks; POL=Poles; UKRU=Ukrainians from Ukraine; TUR1- TUR9=Turks; ROMC=Romanians from Constanta; ROMP=Romanians from Ploiesti; GRET=Thracian Greeks; BEL=Byelorussians; CROB=Bosnian Croats, HER=Herzegovinians, SERB=Bosnian Serbs; ALBK=Albanians from Kosovo; SERS=Serbs from Serbia; CROC=Croats of Croatia; ALBA=Albanians from Albania; BOS=Bosnians; MAC=Macedonians. The investigated in the present study populations are marked in blue.

 

Plot from Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) Analysis of a RST Values from Y Chromosome STR
Haplotype Frequencies, Showing Genetic Affinities among European and Anatolian Populations

GAGK=Gagauzes from Kongaz; GAGE=Gagauzes from Etulia; MOLK=Moldavians from Karahasani; MOLS=Moldavians from Sofia; ROME=Romanians from Piatra Neamt and Buhus; UKRT=Ukrainians from Trans-Dniestria (present study); MOSR= Moscow [Russia]; POLG=Gdansk [Poland]; POLW=Wrozlaw [Poland]; POLL=Lublin [Poland]; LIT=Vilnus [Lithuania]; LAT=Riga [Latvia]; EST=Tartu [Estonia]; HUN=Budapest [Hungary]; RUSN=Novgorod [Russia]; BRUS=Byelorussia; UKRK=Kiev [Ukraine]; ALB=Albania; SLO=Ljubljana [Slovenia]; GERB=Berlin [Germany]; GERC=Cologne [Germany]; GERM=Munich [Germany]; AUS=Vien [Austria]; DAN=Denmark; SWE=Sweden; GREA=Athens [Greece]; ITAS=Sicily [Italy]; ITAC=Lazio [Italy]; ITAN=Lombardy [Italy]; CRO=Croatia; TUR=Turkey; BUL=Bulgaria [Bulgarians]; TURB=Bulgaria [Turks]; MAC=Macedonia; BOS=Bosnia; SER=Serbia; GRET=Thrace [Greece]; ROMC=Constanta [Romania]; ROMP=Ploiesti [Romania]. The investigated in the present study populations are marked in blue.

 

 

 

Croat Haplogroups

 

Haplogroup I (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup I is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup, a subgroup of haplogroup IJ, itself a derivative of Haplogroup IJK.

Y-DNA Haplogroup I represents nearly one-fifth of the population of Europe. It can be found in most present-day European populations, with greatest density in Scandinavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Sardinia. The haplogroup is almost non-existent outside of Europe, suggesting that it arose in Europe. Estimates of the age of Haplogroup I suggest that it arose prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. It may have been confined to refugia around the Black Sea and in the Balkans during the last Ice Age, and then spread northward during the recolonization of northern Europe following the retreat of the glaciers.

European LGM refuges, 20 kya.
Solutrean and Proto Solutrean Cultures,   Epi Gravettian Culture

Origins: The TMRCA (time to most recent common ancestor) for the I clade, expressed in ky (confidence interval), is 22.2 (15.3-30.0), placing the Haplogroup I founding event approximately contemporaneous with the onset of the last glacial maximum (LGM) approximately 21 thousand years ago. Some speculate the initial dispersion of this population corresponds to the diffusion of the Gravettian culture.

Haplogroup I is closely related to Haplogroup J, which is today most common in Semitic and Northeast Caucasian peoples; both Haplogroup I and Haplogroup J have mutations in common making them descendants of Haplogroup IJ (S2, S22) which, however, split into I & J thousands of years before the emergence of semitic cultures, people or languages as they are historically attested to.

Distribution: Rootsi et al. 2004 suggest that each of the ancestral populations now dominated by a particular subclade of Haplogroup I experienced an independent population expansion immediately after the ice age.

Haplogroup I Y-chromosomes have also been found among some populations of the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, but they are found at frequencies exceeding 10% only among populations of Europe and Asia Minor, particularly among Germanic, Slavic, Uralic, and Turkic peoples, as well as among the Romance-speaking populations of France, Romania, Moldova, and Sardinia, the Albanian-speaking population of Albania, and the Greek-speaking population of Greece.

Within Europe, several populations are distinguished by having a significantly lower frequency of Haplogroup I than the surrounding populations: these depressions in the frequency of Haplogroup I distinguish the populations of Italy and Switzerland from Germany and Sardinia, Iberia from southern France and Normandy, Greece, Albania and the Slavic peoples, and the Baltic Latvians from the Finnic Estonians. In all these areas, Haplogroup I populations are small relative to the dominant European haplogroups (R1b in Western Europe, R1a1 in Eastern Europe, and N in Northeastern Europe).

The subclades of Haplogroup I with their defining mutations:

• I (M170, P19, M258, P38, P212, U179)
  • I*
  • I1 (M253, M307, M450/S109, P30, P40, S62, S63, S64, S65, S66, S107, S108, S110, S111) (formerly I1a) Typical of populations of Scandinavia and Northwest Europe, with a moderate distribution throughout Eastern Europe
    • I1*
    • I1a (M21) (formerly I1a2)
    • I1b (M227) (formerly I1a1) Appears to be limited to a marginally low frequency of approximately 1% among Slavic and Uralic peoples of Eastern Europe; also detected in a single Lebanese man
      • I1b1 (M72) (formerly I1a1a)
    • I1c (P109)
    • I1d (P259)
  • I2 (M438/P215/S31) (formerly I1b)
    • I2*
    • I2a (P37.2) (formerly I1b1) Typical of the South Slavic peoples of the Balkans, especially the populations of Bosnia and Croatia; also found with high haplotype diversity values, but lower overall frequency, among the West Slavic populations of Slovakia and the Czech Republic; a node of elevated frequency in Moldavia correlates with that observed for Haplogroup I2a (but not for Haplogroup I1)
      • I2a*
      • I2a1 (M423)
        • I2a1*
        • I2a1a (P41.2/M359.2) (formerly I1b1a) Typical of the population of the so-called "archaic zone" of Sardinia; also found at low frequencies among populations of Southwest Europe, particularly in Castile, Béarn, and the Basque Country
      • I2a2 (M26) (formerly I1b1b)
        • I2a2*
        • I2a2a (M161) (formerly I1b1b1)
    • I2b (M436/P214/S33, P216/S30, P217/S23, P218/S32) (formerly I1b2)
      • I2b*
      • I2b1 (M223, P219/S24, P220/S119, P221/S120, P222/U250/S118, P223/S117) (formerly I1b2a - old I1c) Occurs at a moderate frequency among populations of Northwest Europe, with a peak frequency in the region of Lower Saxony in central Germany; minor offshoots appear in Moldavia and Russia (especially around Vladimir, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and the Republic of Mordovia)
        • I2b1*
        • I2b1a (M284) (formerly I1b2a1) Generally limited to a low frequency in Great Britain
        • I2b1b (M379) (formerly I1b2a2)
        • I2b1c (P78) (formerly I1b2a3)
        • I2b1d (P95) (formerly I1b2a4)

Note that the naming of some of the subgroups has changed, as new markers have been identified, and the sequence of mutations has become clearer. Names from older literature which have now been superseded are listed in parentheses in the chart above.

Haplogroup I2a* (P37.2) accounts for most of the Haplogroup I component in the Y-chromosome diversity of Eastern European populations, reaching its peak in the Western Balkans, most notably in Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (40 - 50%).

The high frequency and diversity of Haplogroup I2a* among populations of the Western Balkans lends support to the hypothesis that the Adriatic region of modern-day Croatia served as a refuge for populations bearing Haplogroup I2a* during the last glacial maximum.

Haplogroup I2 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. Until 2008, it was formerly known as Haplogroup I1b.

 

 

Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup R1a refers to a major cluster of human Y-chromosome types and is a frequent topic of discussion in human population genetics and genetic genealogy. Men in the same Y DNA haplogroup share a set of differences, or markers, on their Y chromosome, which distinguish them from men in other haplogroups. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son, and so men in R1a all descend from a shared male line ancestor.

R1a can be viewed as a family tree of male lineages. However one sub-branch, R1a1a, is much more common than the others in all major geographical regions. The mutation that is currently used to define the R1a family most broadly is M420. The recent discovery of M420 resulted in a reorganization of the known family tree of R1a. In particular, this discovery demonstrated that there are R1a lineages which are not in the R1a1 branch leading to R1a1a. These have only been found in Asia, including the area of the Middle East, where R1a1a is relatively uncommon.

R1a1a is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia. The origin of R1a and R1a1a is uncertain. However they are believed to have originated somewhere within Eurasia, most likely in the area from Eastern Europe to South Asia. The most recent studies indicate that Asia is a more likely region of origin than Europe.

Phylogeny (Family Tree)

Publications in 2009 created major changes in the scientific understanding of R1a. In particular, the discovery of the mutation M420 has defined a previously unidentified category of lineages, which are distant relatives of R1a1a, which is the most common and well-known variant of R1a. R1a1a is therefore now known to represent only one sub-branch of a bigger "family tree", and itself has many branches which have already been defined. Each major branching of this tree is identified by a corresponding set of known SNP mutations which are used to test individuals, and define the relationships between branches of descent.

Roots of R1a: R1a evolved from a male-line ancestor who was in haplogroup R1. R1 is defined by SNP mutation M173. The R1a clade can be distinguished by several unique markers including M420. R1a also has a similarly common sister-clade, called R1b, which also has M173, but is distinguished by its M343 marker. There is no simple consensus concerning the places in Eurasia where R1, R1a or R1b evolved, although Underhill et al. (2009) recently suggested that "the most distantly related R1a chromosomes [...] have been detected at low frequency in Europe, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Caucasus and Iran"implying that R1a's origin may perhaps be somewhere in or near these regions. The origins of the most common type of R1a, R1a1a, will be discussed separately below.

Distribution of R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198)

R1a has been found in high frequency at both the eastern and western ends of its core range, for example in some parts of India and Tajikistan on the one hand, and Poland on the other. Throughout all of these regions, R1a is dominated by the R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade.

Central and Northern Asia: R1a1a frequencies vary widely between populations within central and northern parts of Eurasia, but it is found in areas including Western China and Eastern Siberia. This big variation is possibly a consequence of population bottlenecks in isolated areas and the large movements of Turco-Mongols during the historic period. For example, exceptionally high frequencies of R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198; 50 to 70%) are found among the Ishkashimis, Khojant Tajiks, Kyrgyzs, and in several peoples of Russia's Altai Republic. Although levels are comparatively low amongst some Turkic-speaking groups (e.g. Turks, Azeris, Kazakhs, Yakuts), levels are very high in certain Turkic or Mongolic-speaking groups of Northwestern China, such as the Bonan, Dongxiang, Salar, and Uyghurs. R1a1a is also found among certain indigenous Eastern Siberians, including: Kamchatkans and Chukotkans, and peaking in Itel'man at 22%.

South Asia: In South Asia high levels of R1a1a been observed in some populations. For example, in the eastern and northern parts of India, among the high caste Bengalis from West Bengal like Brahmins and Kshatriyas (72%), Uttar Pradesh Brahmins (67%), Bihar Brahmins (60%), Punjab (47%), and Gujarat (33%) of male lineages have been observed in this lineage. It is also found in relatively high frequencies in several South Indian Dravidian-speaking tribes including the Chenchu and Valmikis of Andhra Pradesh and the Kallar of Tamil Nadu suggesting that M17 is widespread in tribal southern Indians. To the south of India, it has also been found in >10% of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.

Middle East and Caucasus: R1a has been found in various forms, in most parts of Western Asia, in widely varying concentrations, from almost no presence in areas such as Jordan, to much higher levels in parts of Turkey and Iran.

Wells et al. (2001), noted that in the western part of the country, Iranians show low R1ala levels, while males of eastern parts of Iran carried up to 35% R1a. Nasidze et al. (2004) found R1a in approximately 20% of Iranian males from the cities of Tehran and Isfahan. Regueiro et al. (2006), in a study of Iran, noted much higher frequencies in the south than the north.

Turkey also shows high but unevenly distributed R1a levels amongst some sub-populations. For example Nasidze et al. (2005) found relatively high levels amongst Kurds (12%) and Zazas (26%).

Further to the north of these Middle Eastern regions on the other hand, R1a levels start to increase in the Caucasus, once again in an uneven way. Several populations studied have shown no sign of R1a, while highest levels so far discovered in the region appears to belong to speakers of the Karachay-Balkar language amongst whom about one quarter of men tested so far are in haplogroup R1a1a.

Europe: In Europe, R1a, again almost entirely in the R1a1a sub-clade, is found at highest levels among peoples of Eastern European descent (Sorbs, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians; 50 to 65%). Levels in Hungarians have been noted between 20 and 60% The Balkans shows lower frequencies, and significant variation between areas, for example >30% in Slovenia, Croatia and Greek Macedonia, but <10% in Albania, Kosovo and parts of Greece. In the Baltic countries R1a frequencies decrease from Lithuania (45%) to Estonia (around 30%).

R1a1 was present in Europe at least 4600 years ago, as demonstrated by Y-DNA with the Y-SNP marker SRY10831.2 extracted from the remains of three individuals near Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, discovered in 2005. The discovery demonstrated the appearance of R1a1 with Corded Ware culture in Central Europe.

There is a significant presence in peoples of Scandinavian descent, with highest levels in Norway and Iceland, where between 20 and 30% of men are in R1a1a. Vikings and Normans may have also carried the R1a1a lineage westward; accounting for at least part of the small presence in the British Isles.

In Southern Europe R1a1a is not normally common but it is widespread and found in significant pockets. Scozzari et al. (2001) found significant levels in the Pas Valley in Northern Spain, and also the areas of Venice, and Calabria in Italy.

Origins and Hypothesized Migrations of R1a1a

Most discussions of R1a origins concern the dominant R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade. There are two foci of high frequency of R1a1a, one in South Asia, near North India, and the other in Eastern Europe, in the area of the Ukraine. Until 2009 claims regarding the oldest R1a populations varied greatly between different articles, with Eastern Europe and South Asia being the main contenders. Such studies generally look at the STR haplotypes of each major population of R1a positive men. (These are the same markers mentioned above as being useful in trying to discover potential new branches within the R1a1a family tree.) Higher variation of STR haplotype in any particular region is normally seen as an rough indicator that a haplogroup has been present longer in that region. In order to gain more insight, the STR haplotypes are also often examined in detail, looking for clusters of more or less related male lines.

In 2009, several large studies of both old and new STR data, including Mirabal et al. (2009), Underhill et al. (2009), and Klyosov (2009) concluded that not only are there are two separate "poles of the expansion" with similar ages, but also that of these two poles, Asian R1a1a is apparently older than European R1a1a. The data is therefore said to be more consistent with Asian origins for R1a1a, as opposed to European origins, with a particular focus remaining upon South Asia.

South Asian Origin Hypothesis: As data collections have built up, an increasing number of studies have found South Asia to have the highest level of diversity of Y-STR haplotype variation within R1a1a. Three recent studies have argued that South Asia is a likely original point of dispersal, while four other studies have concluded that the data is at least consistent with this scenario. The most thorough study as of December 2009, including a collation of retested Y-DNA from previous studies, makes a South Asian R1a1a origin the strongest proposal amongst the various possibilities.

A particular interest has been taken in using R1a1a to investigate the long-presumed connection between Indo-Aryan origins and high caste Brahmins. For example Wells et al. (2001), noted that the Indo-European-speaking Sourashtrans, a population from Tamil Nadu in southern India, have a much higher frequency of M17 (R1a1a) than their Dravidian-speaking neighbours, the Yadhavas and Kallars, adding to the evidence that M17 is a diagnostic Indo-Aryan marker. On the other hand, some authors have not accepted this association. For example Saha et al. (2005) examined R1a1a in South Indian tribals and Dravidian population groups more closely, and their analyses of the haplogroups "indicated no single origin from any lineage but a result of a conglomeration of different lineages from time to time. The phylogenetic analyses indicate a high degree of population admixture and a greater genetic proximity for the studied population groups when compared with other world populations".

Age estimation techniques play a role in whether authors accept or reject any connection between Indo-Aryan languages, and R1a1a in any broad sense. In particular, researchers such as Underhill et al. and Mirabal et al., estimate the dispersal of R1a1a in India to be much older than the Indo-Aryan language family.

The proposal of Klyosov (2009) based upon STR cluster analysis is that Indian R1a1a combines two distinct clades not yet defined by SNP. One of these is approximately 4000 years old and appears similar to Eastern European R1a1a, thus apparently in accordance with the theory that some R1a1a came from the direction of the Eurasian Steppe, in association with an ancestral version of Indo-Aryan languages. The other R1a1a cluster is older and more uniquely Indian, and is estimated to have had a common male line ancestor about 7000 years ago according to his approximation. (Klyosov does not use the "evolutionarily effective" Zhivotovsky method as used by Underhill et al.).

Central Eurasian Origin Proposals: Cordaux et al. (2004) argued, citing data from 3 earlier publications, that R-M17 (R1a1a) Y chromosomes most probably have a central Asian origin. Central Asia is still considered a possible place of origin by Mirabal et al. (2009) after their larger analysis of more recent data. However these authors do not clearly distinguish the case being made for Central Asia for the case being made for Asia, particularly South Asia, more generally.

Recently, looking at Chinese STR data not included in other studies Klyosov (2009) concluded that the common source of Indian and European R1a must be somewhere near the modern Chinese ethnic groups known as the Hui, Bolan, Dongxiang and Sala and approximately 20,000 years ago, possibly somewhere near southern Siberia.

Eastern European Migration Hypotheses: Theories that the earliest generations of R1a1a men originated in Eastern Europe have become less common with the publication of bigger and more international surveys. However suggestions have been made which associate the distribution of R1a clades with several proposed movements of people in history and prehistory in Eastern Europe. As usual, these suggestions mainly concern the R1a1a sub-clade defined by M17 or M198, because this is the dominant R1a clade, and the only one for which there is significant data.

Four approximate time periods are frequently mentioned by different authors, but they are not mutually exclusive given that R1a lineages may have been taken part in many different human movements over time in the same geographical region. In an article which is still very widely cited, Semino et al. (2000) proposed that there may have been two expansions, suggesting that the spread of R1a from a point of origin in Ukraine following the Last Glacial Maximum may have been magnified by the expansion of males from the Kurgan culture. In a study of the Balkans, Pericic et al. (2005) saw evidence for "at least three major episodes of gene flow" adding "possibly massive Slavic migration from A.D. 5th to 7th centuries" as a third. Below is a discussion of various proposals about R1a in Europe, broken into different periods.

Researchers using the "evolutionarily effective" dating method therefore suppose that any Neolithic or more recent dispersals of R1a1a could not represent the initial spread of the whole clade, and might be more visible in the distribution of a subclade or subclades. Underhill et al. (2009) remark on the "geographic concordance of the R1a1a7-M458 distribution with the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Corded Ware (CW) cultures of Europe". However they also note evidence contrary to a connection: Corded Ware period human remains at Eulau from which Y-DNA was extracted of R1a haplogroup appear to be R1a1a*(xM458) (which they found most similar to the modern German R1a1a* haplotype.) An earlier paper speculated that "R1a [in Norway] might represent the spread of the Corded Ware and Battle-Axe cultures from central and east Europe." Although Klyosov (2009) does not use the Zhivotovsky method, his interpretation of certain Balkan and Chinese data would lead him to agree that R1a1a was already present in Europe around 11,000 years ago, having departed from Asia closer to 20,000 years ago. However, in his scenario modern R1a1a in Europe is mainly a result of much later movements of R1a1a coming from a Balkan point of origin within Europe.

Europe from the Holocene to the Early Bronze Age: Semino et al. (2000) proposed that R1a1a originally spread from a Ukrainian refugium during the Late Glacial Maximum. This proposal is no longer the leading one, though it is still widely cited. Amongst recent publications, Underhill et al. (2009) does propose that R1a1a is old enough for this scenario, but finds it more likely that it was initially in Asia. These authors also estimate that R1a1a was in parts of Europe by approximately 11,000 years ago. Most age estimates for R1a1a having such an early presence in Europe come from papers using the "evolutionarily effective" methodology described by Zhivotovsky et al. (2004), the latest such example being Mirabal et al. (2009) and Underhill et al. (2009). Other methods, such as used by Klyosov (2009), tend to give much younger estimates for any given set of data. Klyosov and Zhivotovsky were amongst authors involved in an exchange in the journal Human Genetics in 2009 which was relevant to R1a age estimations.

Researchers using the "evolutionarily effective" dating method therefore suppose that any Neolithic or more recent dispersals of R1a1a could not represent the initial spread of the whole clade, and might be more visible in the distribution of a subclade or subclades. Underhill et al. (2009) remark on the "geographic concordance of the R1a1a7-M458 distribution with the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Corded Ware (CW) cultures of Europe". However they also note evidence contrary to a connection: Corded Ware period human remains at Eulau from which Y-DNA was extracted of R1a haplogroup appear to be R1a1a*(xM458) (which they found most similar to the modern German R1a1a* haplotype.) An earlier paper speculated that "R1a [in Norway] might represent the spread of the Corded Ware and Battle-Axe cultures from central and east Europe."

The Corded Ware culture is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic (Stone Age), flourishes through the Copper Age and finally culminates in the early Bronze Age, developing in various areas from ca. 3200 BC/2900 BC to ca. 2300 BC/1800 BC. It represents the introduction of metal into Northern Europe.

The role of the Corded Ware culture in the history of the Indo-European languages is actively debated. The Corded Ware people are mostly seen as ancestral to Proto-Balto-Slavic in its eastern regions, and to the Centum dialects (i.e. Proto-Germanic, Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic) in the western parts.

Steppe Cultures: From the late Neolithic and into the Iron Age, archaeologists recognize a complex of inter-related and relatively mobile cultures living on the Eurasian steppe, part of which protrudes into Europe. Many of these are in turn associated with the dispersal of Indo-European languages, the most recent dispersal being the one which led to the Indo-Iranian family of languages becoming the dominant modern languages of regions from Kurdistan to Western China, including such civilizations as Persia and India. (With the Slavic and Baltic languages considered to represent a relatively closely related branch.)

Geneticists believing that they see evidence of R1a1a gene-flow from the Eurasian Steppe to India have frequently proposed the involvement of these Steppe cultures, Indo-European languages, and possibly with specific cultural traits such as Kurgan burials and horse domestication. All of these are generally felt to originate in the specifically European part of the steppes, which stretches as far west as the Ukraine.

Such a Steppe origin for R1a1a has also been argued by Keyser et al. (2009) on the basis of DNA results from ancient remains from several South Siberian late Kurgan sites, including some from the Andronovo culture. 9 out of 10 male specimens were found to be in R1a1a. Two of the three from the Andronovo culture, "matched the most frequent R1a1 haplotype (12 loci) seen in the southern Siberian population" (a haplotype found also in Eastern Europe and Anatolia). More generally, the authors considered 8 of these 9 R1a1a haplotypes to be of a type typical of Slavic, Baltic and South Siberian populations. The R1a1a evidence was felt by the authors to support the proposal that the Steppes Kurgan culture spread from Europe to Siberia. R1a1a has also been found in central European ancient DNA samples Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. In combination with the above-mentioned DNA samples found in Central Asia, the ancient DNA evidence is therefore thought to make it highly likely that R1a1a was present in or near any of the normally proposed staging points for the original dispersals of the Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic branches of the Indo-European language family, both thought to have originated in Eastern Europe, and both in the so-called "satem" cluster of Indo-European languages. (Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian also share the Ruki sound law.)

Based on analyses of STR diversity and clustering, Klyosov (2009) gives the most recent genetics based argument that there was a movement of R1a1a from Eastern Europe (specifically from the Balkans, he proposes) via the Steppes, to India, and associated with languages ancestral to Indo-Iranian and Slavic. According to Klyosov's analysis modern Indian R1a1a is made up of two components, an "Indo European" component which came from the direction of Europe, and another which must have been in India earlier, and which does not appear to derive from European lineages.

* The Genetic Link of the Viking – Era Norse to Central Asia: An Assessment of the Y Chromosome DNA, Archaeological, Historical and Linguistic Evidence by David K. Faux

* Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists by Sanghamitra Sengupta, et al.

 

 

* Geographical Distributions of Y-chromosomal Haplogroups P*(xR1a), R1a, and J from Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times by Yali Xue, et al.

 

 

 

Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA)

 

Haplogroup R1b is the most frequent Y-chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe, where its frequency is highest.

More specifically, its frequency is highest in Atlantic Europe and, due to European emigration, in North America, South America, and Australia. In southern England, the frequency of R1b is about 70%, and in parts of north and western England, Spain, Portugal, France, Wales, Scotland and Ireland the frequency of R1b is greater than 90%. It is also found among Italians, particularly in northern Italy.

R1b is also present at lower frequencies throughout Eastern Europe, although diversity is higher than in western Europe, suggesting an ancient migration of R1b from the east.

It also appears in North Africa where its frequency surpasses 10% in some parts of Algeria.

Haplogroup R1b is defined by the presence of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) M343, which was discovered in 2004. From 2002 to 2005, R1b was defined by the presence of SNP P25. Prior to 2002, today's Haplogroup R1b had a number of names in differing nomenclature systems, such as Hg1 and Eu18.

Origins: I. Dupandunlop argued in 2002 that Basque genes and hence haplogroup R1b1b2 (R1b1c) were the most representative of Paleolithic European population. In this she followed previous research done fundamentally on mitochondrial DNA. Many other authors have followed her conclusions for further research, assuming thereafter that R1b1b2 (R1b1c) is of Paleolithic origin.

Based on R1b frequency and variability, most researchers considered the genetic pool of western European countries - Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, north Italy, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom - to date back to Paleolithic times, noticing the overlap between R1b previously estimated age (about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago) and the European Upper Paleolithic. The hypothesis met apparent confirmation in the fact that the Basques, who traditionally have been considered descendants of the European Paleolithic strata, have one of the highest frequencies of R1b in the world.

However, linguistic-historical studies performed by paleo-Hispanists, and also some genetic research, the latter focusing on the lower R1b1b2 (R1b1c) diversity among Basques, disputed either their assumed remote Hispanic origins or their position as the group who has best conserved their Paleolithic European genetic ancestry, and deny Basque territory represents a mayor focus of expansion:

"Contrary to previous suggestions, we do not observe any particular link between Basques and Celtic populations beyond that provided by the Paleolithic ancestry common to European populations, nor we find evidence supporting Basques as the focus of major population expansions"

Despite lower frequencies, diversity is higher in Eastern Europe than in the west. Analysis indicates that all European variants of R1b shared an existence in Kazakhstan before migrating to Russia and then splitting into two major migrations, primarily along rivers and coastlines.

Diversity peaks also occur in other low frequency areas, especially northern Croatia.

By 2008, T. Karefet et al., based on the latest discoveries on polymorphisms, rearranged the human paternal phylogenetic tree by adding one new haplogroup and altering some of the estimated ages of previously known haplogroups, including the parent haplogroup to R1b, R1, now considered to have originated 18,500 BP.

Studies from Volga-Urals on the border of Europe and Asia have revealed high frequencies of R1b1b2 in Bashkirs, although the genetic diversity is low, suggesting a founder effect.

R1b1b2: Most of the present-day European males with the M343 marker also have the P25 and M269 markers. These markers define the R1b1b2 subclade.

This subgroup is believed by some to have existed before the last Ice Age and has been associated with the Aurignacian culture (32,000 - 21,000 BC). Archeological evidence supports the view of the arrival of Aurignacian culture to Anatolia from Europe during the Upper Paleolithic rather than from the Iranian plateau.

Although the precise route of the M269 marker is not known, it is theorized to have originated in Central Asia/South Central Siberia. It could have entered prehistoric Europe from the area of Ukraine/Belarus or Central Asia (Kazakhstan) via the coasts of the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. It is considered widespread in Europe throughout the Paleolithic already before the last Ice Age.

Traditionally this culture is associated with the Cro-Magnon people, the first modern humans to enter Europe. However, this view has recently been challenged. The people of the Aurignacian culture were the first documented human artists, making sophisticated cave paintings. Famous sites include Lascaux in France, Altamira in Spain and Valley of Foz Côa in Portugal.

The glaciation of the ice age intensified, and the continent became increasingly uninhabitable. The genetic diversity narrowed through founder effects and population bottlenecks, as the population became limited to a few coastal refugia in Southern Europe. The present-day population of R1b in Western Europe are believed to be the descendants of a refugium in the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), where the R1b1b2 haplogroup may have achieved genetic homogeneity. As conditions eased with the Allerød Oscillation in about 12,000 BC, descendants of this group migrated and eventually recolonised all of Western Europe, leading to the dominant position of R1b in variant degrees from Iberia to Scandinavia, so evident in haplogroup maps.

A second R1b1b2 population, reflected in a somewhat different distribution of haplotypes of the more rapidly varying Y-STR markers, appear to have survived alongside other haplogroups in Eastern Europe. However, they do not have the same dominance that R1b has in Western Europe. Instead the most common haplogroup in Eastern Europe is haplogroup R1a1.

Note that haplogroup R1b and haplogroup R1a first existed at very different times. The mutations that characterize haplogroup R1b occurred ~30,000 years bp, whereas the mutations that characterize haplogroup R1a occurred ~10,000 years bp.

(In earlier literature the M269 marker, rather than M343, was used to define the R1b haplogroup. Then, for a time [from 2003 to 2005] what is now R1b1b2 was designated R1b3. From 2005 to 2008 it was R1b1c. This shows how nomenclature can evolve as new markers are discovered and then investigated).

 

 

Haplogroup E (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup E (M96) along with haplogroup D, make up the two main components of the older Haplogroup DE. The E clade is divided into two subclades: E-P147 and E-M75.

Origins: Semino et al. (2004) propose that haplogroup E arose in East Africa based on the concentration and variety of E subclades in that area today). Chandrasekar et al. (2007) on the other hand, argue that the fact that all the major sub-sets of Y lineages that arose from the M168 lineage did not originate in Africa (including haplogroup E's sister clade, haplogroup D, which is only found in Asia), suggests that E first arose in Asia and was subsequently carried into Africa by a back migration through the Levant. Part of the basis of these conclusions rely on previous data provided by Hammer et al. (1997). However, based on more recent data provided by Hammer in conjunction with Karafet et al. (2008), time estimates were significantly rearranged leading to a Y-Chromosome typology allowing for "new interpretations on the geographical origin of ancient sub-clades". Thus, they attribute to haplogroup E, an African origin going back 50,000 ybp (a date older than previously thought), while suggesting that the parent lineage, haplogroup D/E would have left Africa some 65,000 years ago, coinciding with the migration of modern humans out of Africa.

Distribution: E1a and E2 are found almost exclusively in Africa, and only E1b1b is observed in significant frequencies in Europe and western Asia in addition to Africa. Most Sub-Saharan Africans belong to subclades of E other than E1b1b, while most non-Africans who belong to haplogroup E belong to its E1b1b subclade.

E1b1b, which is at once the most common Y haplogroup among Ethiopians, Somalis, Eritreans and North African Berbers and Arabs, is the third most common haplogroup in Europe. It is also common in the Near East, from where it spread into the Balkans and the rest of Europe. E1b1b has three common subclades: M78, M81, and M34.

 

 

Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup J (previously known as HG9 or Eu9/Eu10) is defined by the 12f2.1 genetic marker, or the equivalent M304 marker.

Origins: Haplogroup J is believed to have arisen roughly 30,000 years ago in Southwest Asia (31,700±12,800 years ago according to Semino et al.. 2004). It is most closely related to Haplogroup I, as both Haplogroup I and Haplogroup J have mutations in common deriving from Haplogroup IJ (S2, S22). Haplogroup IJ and haplogroup K derive from Haplogroup IJK (L15/S137, L16/S138), and only at this level of classification does haplogroup IJK join with Haplogroup G and Haplogroup H as immediate descendants of Haplogroup F. The main current subgroups J1 and J2, which now comprise between them almost all of the population of the haplogroup, are both believed to have arisen very early, at least 10,000 years ago.

Haplogroup J is found in greatest concentration in Southwest Asia. Outside of these regions, haplogroup J has a moderate presence in Southern Europe (especially in central and southern Italy, Greece, and Albania), Central Asia, and South Asia, particularly in the form of its subclade J2-M172. Haplogroup J is also found in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, particularly in the form of its subclade J1-M267. Subclades J2a and J2a1b1 are found mostly in Greece, Anatolia, and southern Italy.

J1: Haplogroup J1, defined by the 267 marker is most frequent in the Arabian Peninsula Yemen (76%), Saudi (64%), Qatar (58%), and Dagestan (56%). J1 is generally frequent amongst Arab Bedouins (62%). It is also very common among other Arabs such as those of the southern Levant, i.e. Palestinian Arabs (38.4%), in Algeria (35%), Iraq (33%), Tunisia (31%), Syria (30%), Lebanon (19%), Egypt (20%), and the Sinai Peninsula. The frequency of Haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries with mainly non-Arabic speaking countries, such as Turkey (9%).

J2: Haplogroup J2 is found mainly in the Fertile Crescent, the Mediterranean (including Southern Europe and North Africa), the Iranian plateau and Central Asia. More specifically it is found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Israel, Greece, Italy and the eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, and more frequently in Iraqis 29.7% (Sanchez et al. 2005), Lebanese 29.7% (Wells et al. 2001), Syrians 29%, Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Iranians 24%.

J*: Haplogroup J* includes all of J except for J1 and J2. J* is rarely found outside of the island of Socotra, where it is quite frequent at 71.4%. Haplogroup J* has also been found with lower frequency in Oman, Ashkenazi Jews, Pakistan, Greece, the Czech Republic, and several Turkic peoples.

 

 

Haplogroup P (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup P (M45) contains the patrilineal ancestors of most Europeans and almost all of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It also contains approximately one third to two thirds of the males among various populations of Central Asia and Southern Asia.

Origins: Haplogroup P is a branch of Haplogroup K (M9). It is believed to have arisen north of the Hindu Kush, in Siberia, Kazakhstan, or Uzbekistan, approximately 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The descendant haplogroups of P include Q (M242) and R (M207).

Distribution: Besides the typically European/South Asian Haplogroup R and South-Central Siberian/Native American Haplogroup Q, other patrilines derived from Haplogroup P-M45 are labeled for sake of convenience as Haplogroup P* and are reported to have been found at low to moderate frequency among modern populations of Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, and the Russian Far East. There is a conspicuous presence of Haplogroup P* on the Isle of Hvar in the Adriatic Sea off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, which may be due to historical immigration of Avars from Central Asia. There have also been reports of Haplogroup P* from samples of Ashkenazi Jews, Native Americans, and some populations of South Asia and Oceania, but it is not entirely clear whether these were truly Haplogroup P* or rather instances of a rare haplogroup derived from Haplogroup P, such as Haplogroup R2 or Haplogroup Q.

 

 

Haplogroup K (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup K (M9) is a descendant of Haplogroup IJK. Its major descendant haplogroups are L (M20), M (P256), NO (M214) (plus NO's descendants N and O), P (M45) (plus P's descendants Q and R), S (M230), and T (M70). Haplogroups K1, K2, K3 and K4 are found only at low frequency in South Asia, the Malay Archipelago, Oceania, and Australia.

Origins: Y-DNA haplogroup K is an old lineage established approximately 40,000 thousand years ago whose origins were probably in southwestern Asia. At present this group contains two distinct classes of subgroups: (1) major groups L to T (refer to the main tree at Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree) and (2) minor groups K* and K1 to K4 which do not have any of the SNPs defining the major groups. These groups are found at low frequencies in various parts of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and the South Pacific.

 

 

Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup G (M201) is a branch of Haplogroup F (M89). Haplogroup G has an overall low frequency in most populations but is widely distributed within many ethnic groups of the Old World in Europe, Western Asia, northern Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia (including parts of China and the Malay Archipelago). Between 75 and 100 million males worldwide are in Haplogroup G.

Origins: Various estimated dates and locations have been proposed for Haplogroup G. The National Geographic Society places its origins in the Middle East 10-20,000 years ago and presumes that people carrying the haplogroup took part in the spread of the Neolithic. Two scholarly papers have also suggested an origin in the Middle East, while differing on the date. Semino et al suggested 17,000 years ago. Cinnioglu et al reduced that to 9,500 years ago.

Distribution

Caucasus: The haplogroup is the most frequent in the Caucasus (found at over 60% in ethnic North Ossetian males and around 30% in Georgian males). The Kabardinian and Balkarian peoples of the northwestern Caucasus are known to be 29% G. Armenians are known to have around 11% of their males in HgG.

The exceptionally high level of G in the North Ossetians has attracted attention and speculation. Since the Ossetians trace their descent from the Alans it was thought that the Alans and their presumed ancestors the Scythians must also have been high in Haplogroup G. However no G was found in the nine skeletons from the Andronovo culture which were DNA tested. Nor does G predominate in the steppe regions once home to the Scythians. Nasidze et al concluded that, although the mtDNA of the Ossetians indicated an Iranian origin, their Y-DNA was the result of inter-mixture with their neighbours in the Caucasus, where they settled in the medieval period. However, the Andronovo culture north of the Caucasus dates from a median age of 3,650 years ago; in contrast, the Alans were an ethnic group in the first several centuries of the last millennium AD. Results from only nine skeletons also raises questions of statistical significance.

Alanic Hypothesis: It has been hypothetised that G2a was brought to northern France and Belgium by the Alans, who traversed all continental Europe. G2a1 being the most common variety in the Caucasus nowadays, the fairly recent Alanic migration (from a genetic point of view) could have carried that particular subclade. In fact, G2a1 has been found all along the Alanic migration route (Hungary, France, Spain), as well as in Britain (Samartian element), but hardly anywhere else.

Scythian Hypothesis: It is likely that most Scythians who were steppe people belonged to haplogroup R1a. If any of them did belong to G, they presumably were G1, not G2a. This would explain the few cases of G1 in North-Western Europe though.

Europe: In Europe Haplogroup G is found at 4.88% on average throughout the continent. Frequencies range from 5% to 11% north of the Caucasus, in southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. Frequencies also increase to >5% in central and southern sections of the continent, such as mainland Greece, Italy, and parts of Spain. It has relatively high concentrations in the Greek island of Crete (approx. 7% to 11%), Sardinia (approx. 21% in Tempio, 14% in Cagliari, 12% in Sorgono), and the Tyrol region of Austria (8%). Moving north and westwards from the Alps, concentrations drop to around 7–5% in parts of Germany, Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary. In the British Isles, Scandinavia, northern France, northern Germany, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries it is less common, e.g. Britain and Norway at 2%. Around 4% of Welsh men are in Haplogroup G.

Around 10% of Ashkenazi Jewish males have Haplogroup G, and the Jewish diaspora to Europe from the Middle East and the Moorish (Arabs and Berbers) occupation of Spain are two other probable routes into Europe for certain types of G.

Southwest Asia & Northeast Africa: In Southwest Asia, Haplogroup G is found in approximately 13% to 15% of Iranian Persian, 11.5% of Pashtun, and 11% of Turkish males, similar to Armenians. Haplogroup G is found in approximately 18% to 20% of Kalash and approximately 16% of Brahui, and at lesser percentages among some other populations in South Asia. In Northeastern Africa, the haplogroup reaches 9% in Egypt and 8% in Libya.

Central Asia: In Central Asia, G is found in small percentages in a belt extending from the Caucasus through the Central Asian steppes out to the Uyghurs of Xinjiang Province in western China. It has an overall frequency of 4.17% around Central Asia. The Belt then diverges and weakens; Haplogroup G is found at an average of 0.5% in North Asia and 0.25% in far East Asia (i.e. around 1,250,000 Han Chinese).

Subgroups

Three commonly occurring subgroups of Haplogroup G have been identified so far: G1 (M285), G2a (P15) and G2c (M377). G2b (M287) exists but is rarely found in the G population.

G1: The highest reported concentration of G1 is in Iran, with next most frequent concentrations in neighboring countries.

G2: G2 represents the majority of Haplogroup G Y-chromosomes in all countries, and a recently discovered subcategory (likely to be called G2a3) accounts for a high percentage of G in all sampled countries.

G2c: A clade of closely related Ashkenazi Jews represent virtually all G2c persons, with just three other G2c haplotypes having been reported so far: one Turk from Kars in northeast Turkey near Armenia, one Pashtun, and one Burusho in Pakistan. The extreme rarity of G2c in northern Pakistan could indicate that G2c in this area originates outside the region and was brought there in the historic period, perhaps from further west (Pakistan was part of both the Achaemenid Persian Empire, conquered by Alexander the Mecedonian, and then formed a part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom). These two reported Pakistani G2c haplotypes are quite divergent from the Ashkenazi Jewish clade, and therefore do not at all indicate a recent common origin. The Turkish G2c is somewhat closer, but not identical. It remains to be seen if testing will reveal G2c haplotypes in other populations — this is some indication that G2c occurs at low levels in the Near East. Early reports that Ashkenazi G men were all G1 are now proven incorrect. There are also Jewish genetic clades within G2 and G1 whose members are not closely related to the G2c men. All G2c men tested so far have a rare null value for the DYS425 marker, (a missing "T" allele of the DYS371 palindromic STR), the result of a RecLOH event, a finding not yet seen among most other G haplotypes. Among Jews worldwide, Haplogroup G comprises between 10–20% of the population. Though forming some recognizable clades, Jews today comprise a small percentage of the total number of G men worldwide.

 

 

Haplogroup F (Y-DNA)

Haplogroup F and its subclades contain more than 90% of the world's extant male population, including almost everyone outside of Africa, except for Tibet, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Japan, Polynesia, and communities of indigenous Australians, while also including many men within those regions.

Haplogroup F is an ancestral haplogroup to Y-chromosome haplogroups G (M201), H (M52), I (M170), J (12f2.1), and K (M9) along with K's descendant haplogroups (L, M, N, O, P, Q, and R).

Origins: This ancient haplogroup may have first appeared in North Africa, the Levant, or the Arabian Peninsula as much as 50,000 years ago: 50,300 ± 6500, Hammer and Zegura 2002; 48,000 (38,700-55,700). It is sometimes believed to represent a "second-wave" of expansion out of Africa. However, the location of this lineage's first expansion and rise to dominance appears to have been in the Middle East or somewhere close to it within extended South Asia; all of Haplogroup F's descendant haplogroups also show a pattern of radiation from South Asia (haplogroups H and K) or the Middle East (haplogroups G and IJ).

Several lineages derived from Haplogroup F appear to have migrated into Africa from a homeland in Southwest Asia sometime during prehistory. Y-chromosome haplogroups associated with this hypothetical "Back to Africa" migration include R1b, and T.

Besides the major clades G, H, IJ, and K, other patrilines derived from Haplogroup F-M89 can still be detected at a very low frequency among many populations of the southern fringe of Eurasia and Oceania, from Portugal in the west to Korea and the Malay Archipelago in the east. India, Korea, and the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan Province in southwestern China appear to be the only regions where such lineages, which are grouped for convenience as Haplogroup F*, comprise a significant portion of the Y-chromosome diversity of the modern populations. Haplogroup F* Y-chromosomes have been found to be particularly common among the Kucong or Yellow Lahu, a group of hunter-gatherers who live in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan. Korean F* probably reflects a rare brother clade of haplogroups G, H, IJ, and K that may have experienced a geographically limited expansion during historical times, as such Haplogroup F* Y-chromosomes have not been found among the neighboring Japanese.

 

 

Illyrian Movement

Illyrian movement (Croatian: Ilirski pokret), also Croatian national revival (Hrvatski narodni preporod), was a cultural and political campaign initiated by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of 19th century, around the years of 1835-1849 (there is some disagreement regarding the official dates). This movement aimed to create a Croatian national establishment under Austro-Hungarian rule through linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs.

Context of the Movement: In 19th century Europe, liberalism and nationalism were ideologies which came to the forefront of political culture. In Eastern Europe, where the Habsburg Empire had long asserted control over a variety of ethnic and cultural groups, nationalism appeared in a standard format. The beginning of the 19th century, "was the period when the smaller, mostly Slavic nationalities of the empire - Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Ukrainians, and the Latin Romanians - remembered their historical traditions, revived their native tongues as literary languages, reappropriated their traditions and folklore, in short reasserted their existence as nations." This revival of national heritage encompasses the Illyrian Movement in Croatia.

In 1813, the bishop of Zagreb Maksimilijan Vrhovac issued a plea for the collection of "national treasures" (Poziv na sve duhovne pastire svoje biskupije), thereby heralding the national revival movement.

Beginnings: Just as Croatia felt nationalistic stirrings at this time, so did its larger neighbors, Hungary and Austria. Croats were uneasy with rising Hungarian nationalism, which pursued reduction of the Croatian autonomy and increased Magyarization. In order to preserve their autonomy, Croats pursued a deepening of their culture and a revival of their heritage.

In the beginning of the 1830s, a group of young Croatian writers gathered in Zagreb and established a movement for national renewal and unity of all South Slavs within the Habsburg Monarchy. The city of Zagreb had become an important center of political, economic, and cultural activity, so it was the center of the movement. Count Janko Drašković published his Dissertation in 1832, a pamphlet that later came to be considered the political, economic, social and cultural program of the movement, as it promoted the native language as official, more autonomy from central government, and better education and enlightenment for the common people.

The most important focus of the new Illyrians was the establishment of a standard language as a counter-weight to Hungarian, and the promotion of Croatian written literature and official culture. Ljudevit Gaj was instrumental in providing the foundation for the flourishing of the Croatian literature. Gaj was in fact the leader of the movement as a whole in the beginning for eight or nine years, at which point the leadership changed hands. Gaj was largely responsible for writing the Croatian orthography and grammar (Kratka osnova horvatsko-slavenskog pravopisanja – Brief basics of the Croatian-Slavonic orthography), which was necessary before a literary movement would be successful.

The Choice of the Name "Illyrian": The "Illyrian" name was chosen instead of "Slavic", because of the autochthonist (and unsubstantiated) theory that the local population had an Illyrian origin.

Choosing "Illyrian" as their title was a symbolic gesture on the part of movement members and leadership, an attempt to bring the history of the Croatian people to the forefront. It is somewhat comparable to the French recalling the Gauls.

The Illyrian name was first revived during the Napoleonic Wars, when the French gave the name Illyrian Provinces to the Adriatic possessions acquired from the Austrian Empire in 1809. After 1813, when the territories were again included in the Austrian Empire, the Austrians kept the denomination and formed the Kingdom of Illyria, which comprised mostly the Slovene Lands.

Progress: The most influential writers within the movement were Ivan Mažuranić and Petar Preradović. Mažuranić contributed his epic Smrt Smail-age Čengića during this time, and Preradović published love lyrics.

Other notable literary contributions were made by Antun Mihanović (notably Horvatska Domovina which later became Our Beautiful Homeland), Stanko Vraz (satiric lyrics), Ljudevit Vukotinović (romantic lyrics), Dimitrija Demeter (prose, notably Grobničko polje, and drama), Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski (prose), Antun Nemčić (prose and itineraries). There was also the first notable itinerary Pogled u Bosnu by Matija Mažuranić.

After the government allowed the publishing of newspapers in Croatian in 1834, the new Illyrians issued the first Croatian newspaper, "Novine hrvatsko-slavonsko-dalmatinske", in 1835, establishing Croatian journalism. The paper was edited by Ljudevit Gaj and it also had a literary magazine "Danica" attached, both of which printed in Gaj's "National print" (Narodna tiskara). These literary successes "ultimately won intellectual, linguistic, and educational...independence for Croatia."

In 1836, the papers were renamed to use the Illyrian name (Ilirske novine, Danica ilirska). In 1838, Janko Drašković helped found a reading room in Zagreb which served as a meeting place for the first "Illyrians".

In another cultural success, in 1846 the composer Vatroslav Lisinski wrote the first opera in Croatian, "Ljubav i zloba" (Love and malice).

The Illyrian movement, while concentrating on Croatian lands, was quite nationally inclusive, as it included many non-Croats. For example, Petar Preradović was an ethnic Serb, as was Josif Runjanin, Stanko Vraz was an ethnic Slovene, and Dimitrija Demetar was an ethnic Greek or Aromanian.

Struggles: In 1840, the Illyrian movement suffered an internal setback when Stanko Vraz, Joakim Rakovac and Ljudevit Vukotinović split off from the movement due to creative differences in poetry. In 1842 they started publishing their own literary newspaper named Kolo.

More importantly, the movement was not well received by Hungarians and pro-Hungarian nobility. In 1843, the use of the Illyrian name was banned. Struggles in Croatian Sabor were so harsh that they caused unrest on Zagreb streets. On July 29, 1845, violent conflict causing bloodshed took place on Marko's square, later known as "July victims". Even still, Hungarian officials were unable to crush the movement.

The movement practically ceased to exist due to the Revolutions of 1848. In 1849, the Emperor Francis Joseph imposed a new constitution, all political dissent was censored, and the Danica went out of print.

Aftermath: The movement's plea for unity among the Slavs, particularly South Slavs, also found supporters among prominent Serbs of the time, most notably Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, the reformer of Serbian language. Ljudevit Gaj had, in fact, appealed to Serbia (along with Dalmatia and Russia) for moral and financial support given their ethnic and cultural connections.

In 1850, a small group of Illyrian and Serbian representatives signed the "Vienna agreement" which in effect proclaimed the southern Shtokavian dialect to be the standard, common language of Serbs and Croats, with Serbian Cyrillic and Croatian as equal letters. The agreement was the basis of subsequent formation of Serbo-Croatian language and helped to solidify the linguistic progress of those two cultures.

Assessment and Criticism: The Illyrian movement was the first and most prominent Pan-Slavic movement in Croatian history.

The Illyrian movement was successful in its goals for culture. "Where there was no precedent for nineteenth-century concepts like Czechoslovak or Illyrian nationhood these projects failed. Nationalism took hold insofar as it built on existing realities, historical, linguistic or social." The period of the Illyrian movement is today referred to as the "Croatian national revival".

The movement formed the basis for a common Serbo-Croatian language, and it fostered support in Croatia for the later creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. However, in its ultimate goals of creating an Illyrian state, the movement failed. This failure of the idea to achieve Serbian-Croatian unity was apparent with the occurrence of the bloody Yugoslav wars. Furthermore, increasing Croatian nationalism back-fired on pan-Slavic ideals because a Croatian identity evolved and superseded the "Illyrian" hopes.

 

 

Countries of Former Yugoslavia

 

 

Yugoslav Wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of violent conflicts in the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) that took place between 1991 and 2001.

The Yugoslav wars were comprised of two sets of successive wars affecting all of the six former Yugoslav republics. Alternative terms in use include the "War in the Balkans", or "War in (the former) Yugoslavia", "Wars of Yugoslav Secession", and the "Third Balkan War" (a short-lived term coined by British journalist Misha Glenny, alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–1913). They were characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts between the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats, Bosniaks or Albanians on the other; but also between Bosniaks and Croats in Bosnia and Macedonians and Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia. The conflict had its roots in various underlying political, economic and cultural problems, as well as long-standing ethnic and religious tensions.

The civil wars ended with much of the former Yugoslavia reduced to poverty, massive economic disruption and persistent instability across the territories where the worst fighting occurred. These wars were the bloodiest conflicts on European soil since the end of World War II. They were also the first conflicts since World War II to have been formally judged genocidal in character and many key individual participants were subsequently charged with war crimes. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the United Nations to prosecute these crimes.

The Yugoslav civil wars can be split in three groups of several distinct conflicts:

• Wars during the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia:
  1. War in Slovenia (1991)
  2. Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995)
  3. Bosnian War (1992-1995)
• Wars in Albanian-populated areas:
  1. Kosovo War (1996-1999)
  2. Southern Serbia conflict (2000-2001)
  3. Macedonia conflict (2001)
• NATO campaigns against Serbia:
  1. NATO bombing of Republika Srpska (1995-96)
  2. NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (1999)

 

Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History by Robert D. Kaplan

 

 

 

The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999 by Misha Glenny

 

 

 

Hotel Sarajevo by Jack Kersh

 

 

 

 

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

 

Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

Talking about Genocide: Bosnia

 

Bosnia Genocide

 

Genocide Studies Program: Bosnia

 

 

 

My first job has been to do the best thing for the Bosnian people. Not for the Serbs, the Bosniaks or Croats, but the people as a whole.

Paddy Ashdown

 

Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC, (born 27 February 1941), commonly known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician and international diplomat.

Ashdown was Member of Parliament (MP) for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001, and leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 until August 1999; later he was the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27 September 2002 to 30 May 2006. A gifted polyglot, Ashdown is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and other languages. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) in the New Year Honours 2006.