Illyrians
[1] The first account of Illyrian people dates back to the 6th century BC, in the works of the ancient Greek writer Hecataeus of Miletus.
Illyric settlement in Italy was and still is attributed to a few ancient tribes which are thought to have migrated along the Adriatic shorelines to the Italian peninsula from the geographic "Illyria": the Dauni, the Peuceti and Messapi (collectively known as Iapyges, and speaking the Messapic language).
[17] Eichner also points out the tribal name's close semantic correspondence to that of the Enchelei which translates to 'eel-people', depicting a similar motif of aquatic snake-like fauna.
[21][22][note 1] In the Macedonian history during the 6th and 5th century BC, the term Illyrian had a political meaning that was quite definite, denoting a kingdom established on the north-western borders of Upper Macedonia.
[39] Ancient Roman writers Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela used the term Illyrii proprie dicti ('properly called Illyrians') to designate a people that was located in the coast of modern Albania and Montenegro.
According to other modern scholars, the term Illyrii may have originally referred only to a small ethnos in the area between Epidaurum and Lissus, and Pliny and Mela may have followed a literary tradition that dates back as early as Hecataeus of Miletus.
[42][43][44] The proto-Illyrians during the course of their settlement towards the Adriatic coast merged with such populations of a pre-Illyrian substratum – like Enchelei might have been – leading to the formation of the historical Illyrians who were attested in later times.
[35] The main fact which these theories tried to address was the existence of traces of Illyrian toponymy in parts of Europe beyond the western Balkans, an issue whose origins are still unclear.
Out of the nine Y-DNA samples retrieved, which coincide with the historical territory where Illyrians lived (including tested Iapodian and Liburnian sites), almost all belonged to the patrilineal line J2b2a1-L283 (>J-PH1602 > J-Y86930 and >J-Z1297 subclades) with the exception of one R1b-L2.
[58] Different versions of the genealogy of the Illyrians, their tribes and their eponymous ancestor, Illyrius, existed in the ancient world both in fictional and non-fictional Greco-Roman literature.
[70] It seems that the weakening of the kingdom of Enchelae resulted in their assimilation and inclusion into a newly established Illyrian realm at the latest in the 5th century BC, marking the arising of the Dassaretii, who appear to have replaced the Enchelei in the lakeland area of Lychnidus.
[77] The Taulantii—another people among the more anciently known groups of Illyrian tribes—lived on the Adriatic coast of southern Illyria (modern Albania), dominating at various times much of the plain between the Drin and the Aous, comprising the area around Epidamnus/Dyrrhachium.
The Illyrian attack under Agron, against Aerolians mounted in either 232 or 231 BC, is described by Polybius: One hundred lembi with 5000 men on board sailed up to land at Medion.
A single charge, however, of the Illyrians, whose numbers and close order gave them irresistible weight, served to dislodge the light-armed troops, and forced the cavalry who were on the ground with them to retire to the hoplites.
[93] The impetus behind the emergence of larger regional groups, such as "Iapodes", "Liburnians", "Pannonians" etc., is traced to increased contacts with the Mediterranean and La Tène 'global worlds'.
[95] Emerging local elites selectively adopted either La Tène or Hellenistic and, later, Roman cultural templates "in order to legitimize and strengthen domination within their communities.
The term Illyrians last appears in the historical record in the 7th century AD, in the Miracula Sancti Demetrii, referring to a Byzantine garrison operating within the former Roman province of Illyricum.
[108] Since the Middle Ages the term "Illyrian" has been used principally in connection with the Albanians, although it was also used to describe the western wing of the Southern Slavs up to the 19th century,[109] being revived in particular during the Habsburg monarchy.
[citation needed] The Illyrians were a notorious seafaring people with a strong reputation for piracy especially common during the regency of king Agron and later queen Teuta.
[125][126][127] In modern research, use of concepts like "Hellenization" and "Romanization" has declined as they have been criticized as simplistic notions which cannot describe the actual processes through which material development moved from the centres of the ancient Mediterranean to its periphery.
An extinct Indo-European language, Messapic was once spoken in Apulia in the southeastern Italian Peninsula by the three Iapygian tribes of the region: the Messapians, the Daunii and the Peucetii.
Symbols are depicted in every variety of ornament and reveal that the chief object of the prehistoric cult of the Illyrians was the Sun,[145][146] worshipped in a widespread and complex religious system.
The rich spectrum in religious beliefs and burial rituals that emerged in Illyria, especially during the Roman period, may reflect the variation in cultural identities in this region.
[122] It is also evident that in a region which stretches from the southern Dalmatian coast, its hinterland, Montenegro, northern Albania up to Kosovo and Dardania, apart from a uniformity in onomastics there were also some archaeological similarities.
It consists of settlements usually built below hillforts along the Lezhë (Praevalitana)-Dardania and Via Egnatia road networks which connected the Adriatic coastline with the central Balkan Roman provinces.
The development of Komani-Kruja is significant for the study of the transition between the classical antiquity population of Albania to the medieval Albanians who were attested in historical records in the 11th century.
[165] What was established in this early phase of research was that Komani-Kruja settlements represented a local, non-Slavic population which has been described as Romanized Illyrian, Latin-speaking or Latin-literate.
[173] Whether this population represented local continuity or arrived at an earlier period from a more northern location as the Slavs entered the Balkans remained unclear at the time but regardless of their ultimate geographical origins, these groups maintained Justinianic era cultural traditions of the 6th century possibly as a statement of their collective identity and derived their material cultural references from the Justinianic military system.
In Winnifrith's view, the geographical conditions of northern Albania favored the continuation of the Albanian language in hilly and mountainous areas as opposed to lowland valleys.
[182] After the demise of the First French Empire in 1815, the Habsburg monarchy became increasingly centralized and authoritarian, and fear of Magyarization arouse patriotic resistance among Croatians.
