Historians have been seaching for the origin of cultures for centuries now. Many of them were interested in Ancient Greece, which led them to Thracians, Trojans, Phrygians, Etruscans, Celts, Iberians, Phoenicians, Ethiopians and Illyrians. The history of Illyrians is quite interesting, the cultural existence of these tribes and the connection for centuries between , Spartans,Athenians, Argives, Ionians, Beotians, Lycians , Macedonians, Thracians, , Pelasgians, Paeonians, Thesprotians EteoCretans,etc. Prehistoric cultures that ebbed and flowed some times in the mountains of beyond the Danube some times over the Pindos mountain regions. They were tribal , disconnected and since the stone age they maintained organized raids on the Thracian tribes , Macedonian tribes and each other. The darkness that exists in the annals of Albanian, Squeptarian or Illyrian cultural identity lies in the lack of a literate and acheolgically organized artifacts that can connect the roots of this culture. The people remained tribal and secluded in their montain top villages for centuries, they suffered the same lack of education most of the cultures experience durring a time occupation or brief economic expansion that results in feudal kingdoms and principalities that feed off the sweat and blood of the impovrished serfs . The only knowledge we have of them is through their struggles against literate cultures like the Greeks , Romans and the Middle Age historians of the East and West. Unfortunately the Greeks (Hellenes) are not given the full respect and importance they deserve in their connection to the surrounding cultures with whom they had scraped up against or influenced in through historical time. We cannot view the historical record as little susinct insect jars where we map Illyrians here and Bulgarians there and Slavs over on the right etc. People move around and cultures clash , meld , push , shove and mix. That is the natural flow of humans. Even in the racially and politically restrictive regions of Germany and Russia of the early 19th century Jewish communities flourished and even mixed with the indigenous Christian communities. The same goes for all nations. This type of behavior explains only a fraction of the mosaic we call historical human interaction. There is music and food , there is dance and religious exchange , ideas and and trade all these weave a fabric of cultural connectivity that existed in the Balkans before and after the Slavic & Turkic and peoples inhabited southern Europe. Without this contact and human connectivity there would be no life in these regions. There is no life in a vacuum. Greeks from the dawn of their introduction to the Balkan region were not even defined as one culture like their neighbors they were fragmented groups , tribes , kingdoms and eventually states. Still they fought and still they interacted. Athenians struggled against Thebans, Spartans against Argives and so on. They fought for economic superiority , the right to vote or the right to live as they saw fit. The same occured a millenium later when new tribes came together to form Slavic nations , Turko Slavic nations, or Squeptarian peoples. They sought sovreignty and economic security as well the Hellenes became Greeks the Romans Byzantine , then the names became the same and indistinguishable. Is it so hard to beleive now that there are borders and lines and languages and religions fading yet again in Europe that once under Byzantine Imperial Protection some Hellenic nobles lived amongst Slavs, Squeptarians , Bulgars, Romanians, Seljuk Turks and Gypsies and called them all their people. That they defended the state as it stood then. That in Constantinople , Armenian Emperors ruled for decades and that Bulgaro Roman Greeks mixed and sailed the mediteranean fighting off Arabs and Vikings. Is it so hard to believe a wealthy Greek general married a Slavic princess and as a favor to the interests of the Empire agreed to move to the northern provinces to protect the inhabitants who supplied the Empire with goods and manpower. The Empire was at its end the invaders encroached on its borders and the sons of the Empire and what it represented defended what it stood for. At that time they defended the Cross, the Emperor and what it meant to belong to Byzantium. Alliances changed populations were put to the sword or converted into another faith and the rest as we say is history. If George Kastrioti, Skanderbei was an Illyrian, Italian,Macedonian, Cuman, Armenian, Capadocian or Greek it does not matter and that is because he would have seen no difference except to say he was a Christian and not a Ottoman Turk. Having lived a life as both Muslim & Christian the fact that he chose his Christian identity says enough. This was why he stands out. Was their an Squeptarian loyalty to the people he grew up with and fought alongside? Yes! Did he have Hellenic Byzantine roots and alliances? Yes! Did he have Slavic matrialinial alliances? Yes! Did he have Squeptarian or Albanian family? Yes!. These are all true. What divides Greeks, Albanians, Slavs and Triballians today is quite a different story. The devastation of the fall of The Empire and the 500 years of darkness and servitude that followed under Ottoman Turks affected Albanian, Greek,Armenian, Romanian, Slav, and Arab alike. The ignorance, greed and barbarity of a caged animal affected the behavior of all subject peoples during the break up of the Ottomans. It was evident in the way we turned on the Turks when they were weak and the way we turned on each other when we were free of them. If we were ever free from them that is. It is the stigma of a concentration camp survivor that makes the Balkans the powderkeg of misery that it has been and has become after all these years. Some think that racial cleansing or distinct cultural borders or a historical re-analysis of a fallen hero will prove anything , it will not. No ones words mean enough to fight or die for. Your identity is not on the line and neither is the identity of some one whose dry bones decorate a museum. One must Forge and understanding of what history teaches us and gives us. Ideals like these which created this website. Curiousity of ouselves and others. What historical contemplation has acheived through exchange and transformation either with positive creative energy or through destructive struggle and survival ? We are all the end results of these struggles the genetic mesh that survived the centuries and grindstone of time. What new thing will we the inheritors of this mantle introduce to the next genetic heap? Or will we continue the same old bussiness and wander around like oxen tied to a pole forever stomping the same old ground?
taken from ALBANIANSUPREMACY.AL
Origin of Albanians " The Dark Myth"
taken from ALBANIANSUPREMACY.AL
