History of the Macedonian People from Ancient times to the Present
Part 1 - Introduction
by Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com
April 2003
source: http://www.maknews.com
All people that have existed on this planet have left their mark in some form or another. The Macedonians are no exception and will be the subject of this series of articles.
To properly reconstruct history, corroborating information from
at least two sources must be obtained. One such source might be data collected
from analyzing material finds like tombs, artifacts, relics and inscriptions,
the type of information that can be derived from archeological research. Another
source might be a body of literature derived from stories, legends, myths,
folklore, poems, songs, etc. passed down from generation to generation.
Unfortunately, for obvious reasons upon which I will expand, the reconstruction
of the Macedonian history has been neglected and as a result has not achieved
the desired maturity to be considered adequate.
Scientific interest in the southern Balkan region in general began for the
first time in the early 1800’s alongside political and economic interests.
While German and British scholars were studying findings from the Bronze Age
in the Peloponnesus and Crete, Macedonia was still in the grip of the Ottoman
Empire. Later, after 1912 and 1913, in the hands of the Greek, Bulgarian and
Serbian States, anything to do with Macedonia became politically sensitive.
Since the time that Greece annexed a large part of Macedonia the Greek authorities
have concealed all archeological materials which didn’t agree with their
political agenda. Only materials that strengthened their claims to Macedonia
and attracted tourists are made public.
Without sound archeological data, reconstruction of history is scant at best. “Early
twentieth-century historians continued occasionally to write political biographies
of the pre-eminent fourth-century B.C. kings, and when they did consider Macedonian
affairs they viewed them only as part of general Greek history. What was required
for a deeper understanding of Macedon and its kings were serious source studies
and archeology, but archeological interest remained dormant for decades because
twentieth-century interest in Macedonia sprang from modern politics rather
than from a study of antiquity.” (page 8, Eugene N. Borza, In the Shadow
of Olympus, The Emergence of Macedon).
As for using literature to reconstruct Macedonia’s history, 19th century
Western scholars relied heavily on Greek and Roman sources and neglected to
reference Eastern, Macedonian and other literary sources. Eastern scholars
on the other hand by political motivation or by nonchalance, continued to stagnate.
Unfortunately to this day, Greek and Bulgarian opposition still remains the
biggest obstacle to reconstructing Macedonia’s history. Both states occupy
Macedonian territory and refuse to cooperate on matters of Macedonian interests,
especially archeology. Greece, which occupies the largest and archeologically
richest part of Macedonia, will only cooperate if Macedonian history remains
peripheral to mainstream Greek events and if it is presented from the Greek
point of view.
Bulgaria still refuses to recognize a Macedonian nation and is in agreement
with Greece on matters of ancient history.
The academic community to date has been hesitant to become involved in the
reconstruction of a mainstream Macedonian history (outside of the 4th century
B.C.) partly due to the difficulties in obtaining information from non-Greek
sources but mostly due to Greek pressure to keep Macedonia under the Greek
periphery. Whatever evidence exists today, is fragmented and derived mainly
from biased sources. “What we know about the Macedonians are primarily
from Greek sources or from translations derived from the Greek sources and
therefore we have a skewed view of them depending upon the views of people
who were largely their enemies in antiquity”. These are the words of
Dr. Eugene Borza, the “world authority” on ancient Macedonia. Dr.
Borza clearly summarizes the conditions under which mainstream Macedonian history
has been presented.
I want to emphasize that the Ancient Macedonian history taught in schools today
was written during the 19th and early 20th centuries mostly by Western authors
who relied mainly on politically motivated Greek sources for their research.
Even though the Ancient Macedonian people were a unique and separate nation,
their history presented to us always places them together with the people of
the Greek city-states. There is no western text where the Macedonian identity
is treated separately from the Greek identities of the city-states. Also, the
same mainstream history which is taught to our children today, personifies
the ancient Macedonian people as a mere vehicle that united the city-states
and did nothing more than do their bidding in spreading Hellenic culture throughout
the ancient world. Also, Modern Greek historians made sure that the negativity
of orators like Demosthenes referring to the Macedonians as “barbarians” and “culturally
backwards”, was well portrayed in the minds of western writers.
The fact that some modern authors ascribe Hellenic affinity to the ancient
Macedonians should come as no great surprise, given the impact of Johan Gustav
Droysen on early nineteenth-century historians where Macedonia is depicted
as a natural "unifier" of the Greek city-states. The same role was
played by Prussia and Savoy in German and Italian unification in the nineteenth
century. "On this false analogy the whole of Greek history was now boldly
reconstructed as a necessary process of development leading quite naturally
to a single goal: unification of the Greek nation under Macedonian leadership".
(Werner Jaeger)
To paraphrase Eugene Borza, it was a dynamic idea in the minds of 19th century
German intellectuals and politicians to see something of themselves, of the
German State unification, conquests, creativity and culture in the Greeks and
Philip as the embodiment of national will and the unifier of Greece.
In other words, the ancient history written for the modern Greeks by 19th century
German scholars was nothing more than a German vision of the “Glorious” German
unification superimposed on the Greek model.
To Demosthenes and others like him, the Macedonians were an enemy that conquered
and subdued them and embodied everything that was vile and despicable. Ignoring
all signs of a rich and civilized culture beyond imagination, modern Greek
scholars hid the real face of ancient Macedonia under a veil of contemptible
words spoken by enemies and by bitter politicians.
Modern day Greeks would like to pass off Demosthenes’s castigations of
Philip II as political rhetoric, and yet Demosthenes was twice appointed to
lead the war effort of Athens against Macedonia. He, Demosthenes, said of Philip
that, “Philip was not Greek, nor related to Greeks but comes from Macedonia
where a person could not even buy a decent slave.” Soon after his death
the people of Athens paid him fitting honours by erecting his statue in bronze,
and by decreeing that the eldest member of his family should be maintained
in the prytaneum at public expense. On the base of his statue was carved his
famous inscription: “If only your strength had been equal, Demosthenes,
to your wisdom Never would Greece have been ruled by a Macedonian Ares.” (J.T.
Griffith) Greece "ruled" not "united" by a Macedonian Ares.
Also, was it not the Greek philosopher Lycurgus who said, "With the death
of Chaeronea was buried the freedom of Greece?"
The reader should be aware that the word “Greek” is a Latin term
that originated during Roman times and should not be used to refer to a people
that existed hundreds of years earlier. The people of the ancient city-states
could not possibly have been called “Greek” before the word was
actually invented. Also, modern Greek academics are more than willing to interpret
ambiguous evidence when it serves their political interests, and at the same
time, to dismiss the obvious when it doesn’t. If you want to learn more
about the differences between the ancient Greeks and ancient Macedonians please
read Josef S. G. Gandeto’s book, Ancient Macedonians, Differences Between
the Ancient Macedonians and the Ancient Greeks.
“ There is not a single word or fact written by the ancient authors that
shows that the Macedonians are Greek. There is not a single word or fact written
where the Macedonians thought of themselves as Greeks. There is not a single
book written by the ancient authors, including the ancient Greek authors, that
has mixed the lineage and has not shown diverse differences between Macedonians
and Greeks.” (Joseph Gandeto)
Since the emergence of the Republic of Macedonia in the 1990’s, research
in the field of archeology has increased dramatically but mainly inside the
Republic of Macedonia. Also, new Macedonian literature and publications are
slowly emerging and in time should provide an alternative to the vast, biased
Greek sources.
On the subject of language, it would be evident from the text of Arrian, Plutarch,
and Curtius Rufus that Alexander's army spoke Macedonian not Greek. Any other
interpretation would be intolerably difficult, if not impossible, to accept.
“ The main evidence for ancient Macedonian existing as a separate language
comes from a handful of late sources describing events in the train of Alexander
the Great, where the Macedonian tongue is mentioned specifically. The evidence
suggests that Macedonian was distinct from ordinary Attic (ancient Athenian)
used as a language of the court and of diplomacy. The handful of surviving genuine
Macedonian words - not loan words from Greek - do not show the changes expected
from a Greek dialect.” (Eugene Borza)
There are many scholars who will argue that there is ample evidence to place
the ancient Macedonians as a distinct nation with a unique culture and language,
separate from the ancient city-states. Unfortunately, until recently there
was little interest and not much incentive to carry the argument beyond discussion.
If the ancient Macedonians were a distinct nation, then where did they come
from? What language did they speak? Has any part of their language survived?
What was their culture like?
To answer these questions we need to avoid being bogged down by conflicting
arguments. We need to get away from the well-trod mainstream path, free ourselves
from the biased modern Greek sources and take a fresh look at the old and new
evidence, especially the evidence that has been omitted or intentionally bypassed
in the past.
It has been my belief that the arguments presented by Greek historians are
not only biased and politically motivated, but are designed to bog down the
academic world and keep it on the defensive thus stifling any chance for real
progress.
On the topic of new archeological and linguistic evidence, there have been
numerous projects undertaken since the 1960’s.
A major archeological discovery was made in 1977 in Kutlesh (Vergina) about
30 miles north of Mount Olympus. Archeologists uncovered what appeared to be
the royal tomb (Golemata Tumba) of Philip II. In addition to yielding much
information about the Macedonians, the find also unearthed much controversy.
Some of the artifacts found, according to Eugene Borza, belonged to a later
period of the 4th century B.C., which cast some doubt as to whether it was
truly Philip II’s tomb. What is more important however, is the type of
treasure found in the tomb. The treasure is physical evidence which “proves
unmistakably” that the Macedonians were not a barbarian tribe whose only
accomplishment was making war. Archeologists are finding increasing evidence
that the Macedonians were a far more sophisticated culture than previously
thought.
What was most impressive in this find, besides the solid gold casket with the
symbol of the starburst, was the exquisite gold foiled wreath made from 313
gold oak leaves. It is the heaviest and most elegant gold wreath ever discovered.
Since the emergence of the Republic of Macedonia new and exciting archeological
discoveries have been made. Rocks with inscriptions never before deciphered
were found in several sites inside the Republic of Macedonia. Similar inscriptions
have also been found in Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and even Crete, Pil and Knosos.
Unfortunately, up until now archeologists have consistently failed to decipher
them. Thanks to dedicated archeologists like Vasil Ilyov the inscriptions have
now been deciphered.
According to Ilyov’s palaeographic and paleolinguistic research, the
signs on the rocks are actual letters of an old pre Slavic phonetic alphabet
that belongs to the Macedonian language of Aegean Macedonia. In other words,
the language of the Pelazgian and other Macedonian tribes, like the Payonian,
Piertian, Brygian or Phrygian, Venets or Enets, etc., is in fact the language
of the ancient Macedonians which dates back to prehistoric times.
Symbols found on Prevedic solar and cosmographic artifacts that belong to the
Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic cultures, place the inscriptions somewhere
between 7,000 to 3,000 B.C. (Page 37, October 15, 1999, number 560, Makedonija
magazine).
What is more interesting is that Vasil Ilyov and his team have translated almost
every inscription discovered and so far have identified and tabulated 35 characters
of the ancient alphabet. (Pages 60 and 61, July 1, 2000, number 577, Makedonija
magazine). There is finally proof that a Macedonian written language existed
in prehistoric times. In fact, according to Vasil Ilyov, not one but two phonetic
alphabets have been discovered. One was known as the common alphabet used by
the general public and the other was known as the “secret” alphabet
used for religious and ceremonial purposes. To date, the texts of more than
150 artifacts have been translated and about 6,000 ancient Macedonian words
have been identified.
According to Ilyov, apart from giving us the oldest phonetic alphabet found
to date, the prehistoric Macedonians have also given us clues that they were
gazing at the skies. The word “cosmos” which the Hellenes borrowed
from the Macedonians, and the modern Greeks without offering adequate etymology
pass off as their own, Iliov says comes from the Macedonians.
In the ancient Macedonian language the base of the noun cosmos comes from the
adjective KOS (winding slanted) and the noun MOS (bridge). “Kosmos” was
the winding bridge that the ancient Macedonian astronomers called the cluster
of stars in the Milky Way galaxy looking like a winding bridge when viewed
from the earth.
Even before Irodot (Herodotus 484-424 B.C.) gave the world the idea of history
as we know it today, the ancient Macedonians were already familiar with the
notion. The West considers Herodotus to be the father of history. As for the
word “history”, its roots are found in the ancient Macedonian noun “TR” which
is the oldest name given to the god of thunder. In time, the word evolved from “TR” to “TOR”, “TORI” and
in the past tense, “STORI” which in Macedonian means “happened”.
If we apply this action to events that involve people we then come up with
the Macedonian words “TIE I STORIA” which in English translates
to “they did”. So, when Herodotus published his work under the
title “HISTORY” by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, he in fact used
a Macedonian word for his title.
If Herodotus, using a similar analogy derived his title from the Atikan dialect,
as modern Greeks claim, he would have had to produce a noun from the verb “KANO” or “EKANA” and
the actions “they did” would translate to “AVTI EKANAN” which
is a far cry from the word HISTORY. (Pages 56 and 57, June 15, 2000, number
576, Makedonija magazine).
I want to mention here that in spite of Greek claims otherwise, Irodot (Herodotus)
was not Greek and was not from Athens. Herodotus was Karian born in the city
of Halicanassus in Asia Minor.
More evidence that gives credence to the existence of an ancient prehistoric
Macedonian civilization comes to us from ancient literature. One such source
that greatly influenced our impression of the ancients and inspired Alexander
the Great to seek adventure was Homer’s epic poems. About five hundred
years after the Trojan Wars, Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer’s
work captivated his audience with events that, according to Tashko Belchev,
began and ended in Macedonia. Homer was born in the 8th century B.C. and created
true literary masterpieces that are enjoyed as much today, as they were in
the days of Alexander the Great. Originally, Homer’s stories were folktales
told and retold for millenniums until they were immortalized in print in the
6th century B.C.
What is most interesting about Homer’s stories, especially the Iliad,
is that they were originally written in the prehistoric Macedonian language.
The first paleolinguist to openly proclaim the similarities between the words
of the Iliad and those of the modern Slavic languages was the German Homerologist
Pasov. Inspired by Pasov and others, researcher Odisej Belchevsky has furthered
the study by clearly illustrating the fundamental relationship between the
modern Macedonian language and the language of Homer.
“ In the Iliad and Odyssey, attributed to Homer, the great multitude of
non-Greek people living around Olympus and further north in Europe were described
as being as, ‘Numerous as the leaves in the forests… with chariots
and weapons decorated with gleaming gold and silver…like gods.’
Unless destroyed by natural disaster, large nations and their languages do
not simply disappear but rather change and evolve over time. This evolution
is influenced by the conditions of life and interaction with other nations,
called ‘symbiosis’ by Lidija Slaveska in The Ethnological Genesis
of the Macedonian People.
A tremendous number of words from everyday life as well as the names of a number
of places, rivers, mountains, kings, gods, common people, and numerous tribes
can be found in the Homeric poems. The majority of these words have survived
until today. This is not a strange phenomenon. What attracts our attention
is that these words have retained their basic meaning and can be easily recognized
especially by the speakers of the contemporary Slavic languages. This linguistic
material clearly shows the existence and strong influence of a language, which
surely was neither Greek nor Latin.
After extensive research taking over twelve years, I (Oddisej Belchevski) have
studied, analyzed and resolved a large number of linguistic problems through
the evidence of that archaic language which profoundly influenced the Greek,
Latin, and Germanic languages in their historic development since ancient times.
The question of what constituted ancient Macedonian has been studied by many
scholars over many centuries. There have been many attempts to reconstruct
it as a “Greek dialect.” My research indicates the following:
1. 1. Not a single linguist nor scholar in any other field has ever conducted
a comparative study of this ancient language with the largest linguistic group
in Europe and Asia--the Slavic languages--in use today! The question is: Why?
It seems that the truth has been hidden in darkness and altered by western
scholars and politicians for almost two hundred years. It is easy to suppose
that this has been done for nationalistic, political interests and gains.
2. 2. The Macedonian words identified in Homer (1000-800 BC) are a part of
the basic everyday life of the Macedonian people today. When compared to the
contemporary Macedonian language, there is an incredible similarity and in
many cases there are complete cognates.
3. 3. Moreover, those Homeric words which belong to that base are found in
the roots of many words in the modern Macedonian language. They form huge families
of words--a series of words that are interrelated on a functional basis or
are simply built according to the Law Of Functional Etymology.
4. 4. Some of these words have been adopted in the Greek language, but have
been assimilated beyond recognition. Others again “stand alone” in
the Greek language, without Greek roots or functional relationships. But most
of these words are absolutely not related to modern Greek.
Many western scholars think that kinship terms from 1500-1000 BC disappeared
long ago. My research proves that they exist today in the largest language
group of nations in Europe and Asia, including the modern Macedonian nation.
These specific terms were of utmost importance as they were the basis for preserving
large family units --clans, tribes, and the prevention of marriages between
family members. All this resulted in forming of great nations.
The Pelazgian people are clearly described in Homeric poems as non-Greek, with
their own language and traditions totally different from Greek. They inhabited
the Balkan Peninsula (known by the names Macedonians, Thracians, Illyrians,
etc.) and they spread throughout south-eastern Europe (under the common name
Scythians). Later, they migrated to the east in Asia Minor (Lydians, Brigians-Frigians
etc.) and to the west into central and northern Italy (Etruscans, Veneti etc).
Their name, Pelazgians, most logically could be interpreted as the ‘dwellers
of the flat lands’. They cultivated the fertile valleys and became a
part of the landscape their fecundity only paralleled by the far Eastern nations.
In the Iliad, they are identified as Trojans and as the inhabitants of Crete.
According to Greek writers, they are credited with building the Acropolis and
as those natives that the ‘Greek’ tribes met when they arrived
in Southern Europe. How could it have happened that so great a number of Pelazgian
tribes disappeared without leaving traces of their language? It should be pointed
out that there is forgotten evidence revealed in the linguistic inscriptions
on stones in Delphi (Greece) and Asia Minor (Turkey). These are written in
Greek and in ‘another language’, which western scholars identify
as Etruscan. In his study ‘The Language of the Etruscans’, L. Bonafonte
identifies the ‘other language’ as Etruscan. My study of the Etruscan
and Lydian languages reveals that these languages were closely related to the
ancient and modern Macedonian language. Other apparent lexical correspondences
between the Homeric and modern Macedonian are, for example: paimiti(s)-pamti;
veido, veiden-vide; ischare-izgara, skara; idri-itar; kotule-katle; okkos-oko;
steno-stenka; pliscios-seli, preseli; oditis-odi od odenje. There are a great
many examples like this in the 1800 dictionary compiled by the German linguist
Ludwig Franz Passoff on the basis of the most ancient extant manuscripts of
Homer’s Iliad. The English edition was prepared by Henry George (New
York, 1850). Not knowing the Macedonian language, Passoff concentrated on the
most contrasting preserved words, unknown in Greek and Latin with the Czech
and Slovak languages of that time. So these words were identified, in fact,
as Slavic words. Hence, in my opinion the golden rule for analyzing a language
is the aforementioned Functional Etymology. Since the functional relations
of words are the fundamental building blocks of word forms, I name this rule
the ‘GOLDEN RULE OF FUNCTIONAL ETYMOLOGY.’
In studies of the ancient and modern Macedonian language at the Canadian-Macedonian
Historical Society in Toronto the priority project based on an earlier understanding
is the question of ‘Studying The Macedonian Language--Ancient and Modern’.
Another interesting topic is the problem of the ‘Lost Words in the Indo-European
Language Exist Today in the Modern Macedonian Language’. In order to
illustrate my argument in this respect, I focus on some examples of the genetic
relationships between ancient and modern Macedonian language, through the Macedonian
word daver, dever ‘brother in law’.
When a young woman marries, the brother of her husband (usually the youngest) becomes a ‘dever’. This is an ancient tradition done to ensure that the young male is entrusted with the care of the family in case the husband dies or is killed.
In such circumstances the youngest brother becomes the new husband
and takes over the family. This was necessary to protect the children and keep
accrued wealth and property within the same family. The meaning of the word
in Macedonian, according to functional etymology could be extracted as follows:
vera-verba-doverba-doveri-dever ‘to be entrusted’. This word belongs
to a large cluster of Macedonian words containing the root (-verba-).
In ancient Macedonian (1000 BC), according to Homer (p.305 L.L.) there is da-DAVER;
dao(s), where the digama stands for/v/ and the word means ‘brother in
law’. In the word daver-daer we note the missing consonant /v/ in inter
vocalic position. This indicates that the rule of the speech economy has been
in force for a long time in the language. Dropping consonants has been a rule
quite often occurring in Macedonian as in the examples: to private >to praoite;
covekot ojde > coekon ojde, etc. Yet in Greek ‘brother in law’ ginaika
delfos ‘ginaika delfoos’, could obviously not be related to the
Homeric daver-davero(s).”( Odisej K. Belchevski, Pages 29, 30, 31 and
32, Number 503, III 1995, Makedonija magazine).
If you didn’t know who Homer was and happened to be reading his stories
about the customs of the Trojans, you would think that he was talking about
modern Macedonia. After three millenium, we find the same customs, crafts,
hunting techniques, agricultural methods, etc. being practiced today. Be it
spinning, weaving, dowry, hospitality, nature, or house design, everything
else described in Homer’s epics, says Angelina Markus, is unchanged and
present all around us today. (Page 56 and 57, July 1, 2000, number 575, Makedonija
magazene.
Another archeological source that provides evidence for the Macedonians is
the work of German Toponimist Max Fasmer. Fasmer in his book “The Slavs
in Greece” examines the origins of 334 prehistoric Phoenician toponyms
in Epirus and concludes that they are of Slavic origin. Through his studies,
Fasmer has discovered that there is a relationship between the ancient Phoenicians
and the medieval Slavs. He also clearly emphasizes that that “Slavs” inhabited
Epirus. What is also interesting is that in German, the words “Slaven” and “Vinden” are
synonymous. Tashko Belchev furthers the idea that the Slavs inhabited the Balkans
long before previously thought by connecting the Vindi, Veneti and Phoenician
to a single family of people with common origins. (Page 68, February 1, 2001,
number 591, Makedonija magazine).
According to the writings of G. S. Grinevich, dealing with the subject of pre-Slavic
literacy, the decoding and linguistic coding results show that pre-Slavic literacy
existed much before the creation of the letters and coding of the Slavic language
by the brothers St. Cyril and St. Methodi. This is more evidence that the proto-Slavs
originated in Macedonia and according to Grinevich, the language spoken by
the Aegean Pelasti is the same as that spoken by the pre-Slavs (p. 175). Grinevich
has also stated that the pre-Slavic written language is very close to the Old
Slavic written literary language of all Slavs. (Genadij Stanistavlovich Grinevich,
World History Department, Russian Physical Society, Moscow, 1994)
According to Alexander Donski, “There are many indications that the ancient
Macedonians were of Venetic origin (the term "Slavic" came into use
much later), and there is evidence in favor of this.
Historical Evidence We can see from several ancient documentary
sources that Macedonians and Hellenes were two different peoples. Some Greek,
as well as Roman historians, have explored this view, and have left evidence
collected from earlier periods, clearly showing that ancient Macedonians were
of Venetic origin.
Linguistic Evidence Although the surviving vocabulary of the ancient Macedonians
is relatively small, it gives a good indication in favor of our thesis; which
is, that the modern Macedonian language is at least in part the continuation
of the language spoken by Alexander the Great and his contemporaries.
Onomastic Evidence There is considerable heritage from the area of burial customs
and archaeological remains. They contain many examples of sameness or similarity
between the ancient and modern Macedonian, and other Slavic languages. There
are also some narrative, oral testimonies pointing in the same direction.”
Alexander Donski has recently published a book on this subject, which will
be available in English soon.
A recently published book "Veneti: First Builders of European Community",
considered to be one of the most comprehensive works on the early history of
Slovenes, presents the Proto-Slavic Veneti as the first known nation of central
Europe and the Slovenes as their most direct descendants. The Veneti (not to
be confused with Venetians) settled in the alpine area in Slovenia, northern
Italy, eastern Switzerland and Austria during the Bronze Age around 1200 B.C.
In their original settlement area there are to this day countless Slovene place-names.
These facts presented in the book are not new and have already been studied and reported by earlier researchers but for unknown reasons, have not been taken seriously.
Besides important historical data, the authors of this book have
presented numerous Slovene toponyms in the alpine region and to the west and
north where the Veneti once lived. Also, the book reveals many similarities
between the modern Slovene and the Venetic languages. Research done on the
Venetic inscriptions has proven that not only was the ancient Venetic language
(contrary to official linguistics) Proto-Slavic, but also that the modern Slovene
language is a continuation of it.
The first known nation of central Europe, according to the authors of this
book, were the Proto-Slavic Veneti and the original language of central Europe
before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans around 2,000 B.C. was Slavic.
The book "Veneti: First Builders of European Community" is a first step towards the gradual correction of the “distorted history” which was “written for us” by foreigners.
Until recently, no one had been able to decipher the Venetic script on the urns unearthed from archeological digs because no one ever thought of using the ancient Slavic language as a basis to try and solve this ancient mystery. So they say!
Matej Bor, a Slovenian linguist, seems to have cracked the Venetic
script using the Slovenian language. (Jozko Šavli, Matej Bor, Ivan Tomazic, “VENETI:
First Builders of European Community”)
Soon perhaps, Macedonian researchers will compare notes with Slovenian researchers
and shed some new light on this ancient mystery.
In the article “Who is Afraid of Ancient Macedonian Culture, and Why?” Tashko
Belchev talks about Deyan Medakovic, President of the Serbian Academy of Science
and his attempts to cover up certain archeological facts that do not agree
with mainstream Serbian history.
On March 4, 1987 Academic, Vladimir Dediyer, President of the
research board of the Serbian Academy, sent a letter to Deyan Madakovic complaining
about his involvement in stopping the symposium devoted to the Vincha world
which existed 6,000 – 3,000 years B.C. The symposium was organized by
the Serbian Academy of Science and Art, the Historical Science Department and
the Center for Scientific Research at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.
Among other things, the letter chastised Medakovic with the words, “Damn
you Deyan Medakovic, for your petty ambitions to be President of the Serbian
Academy of Science. You are a sycophant to the authorities, breaking all human
principles of behaviour. (L. Klyakic, ‘Beginning of the Road’,
p. 56.)” (Page 69, August 1, 2000, number 579, Makedonija magazine).
On the subject of the Vincha Group, Vasil Iliov, in an article in the Makedonija
Magazine, talks about a discovery of a rather imposing monument containing
an ancient script found in Sitovo cave, located near the city of Plovdiv in
Bulgaria. The monument has two lines of inscriptions about 3.4 meters long
and the text is about 40 centimeters high, written from right to left. According
to Ilyov, the text can be dated back to 4,500 B.C. and is written in the ancient,
prehistoric Macedonian phonetic language. The text, although not deciphered
at the time, was published in 1950 and again in 1971. With Ilyov’s assistance,
the text was finally deciphered in 1995. In a crude attempt, here is what it
says in English “and the father-in-law ran in (flew in) and in the flight
horrors have haunted him and there the house psalms (in the house they sing
psalms) and in roast you are a guest of the ducks-go dream!” (Page 71,
December 15, 1999, number 564-565, Makedonija magazine) You can decide for
yourself what the ancient scribe wants to say. More importantly, it is not
what the message says but rather that it has been deciphered and translated.
Perhaps it is not a message meant for us. In any case here is Iliov’s
interpretation. The duck in this message refers to an ancient swamp bird, which
rises from a deceased person and carries his/her spirit to the blue sky. Ilyov
has based his interpretation on an artifact in the shape of an anthropomorphic
figure standing on a chariot drawn by harnessed swamp birds. The central figure
is decorated with symbols of the sun and planets.
Yet another source of archeological data in support of a Macedonian civilization
comes from Bronze Age research. According to Vangel Bozhinovski (page 61, June
1, 2000, number 575, Makedonija magazine) the Neolithic civilization in Macedonia
appeared 3,000 years before it appeared in Western Europe. Similarly the Bronze
Age appeared in Macedonia 1,200 years earlier and the Iron Age 200 years earlier.
The tragedy of the Bronze Age is reflected in the death and destruction it
brought to Macedonia after it was introduced to Western Europe. In the hands
of the Europeans to the North and to the West, the metal that once shaped art
in Macedonia became a weapon of death and destruction. Was it mankind’s
nature to crave war above peace? If we examine our behaviour by the amount
of money we spend on our military budgets today, I would say yes.
Almost all of the valuable artifacts made between 1,200 and 800
B.C. were discovered in cemeteries. Macedonia dubbed “the culture of
the fields of urns” has an abundance of cemeteries. It seems that no
matter how many are unearthed or destroyed there are plenty more to be found.
It is in mankind’s nature to be this way says Vangel Bozhinovski, just
look at the textbooks from which our children learn in school today and you
will realize that civilization is nothing but an endless war. War is a western
invention which was imported to Macedonia during the Bronze Age and has become
our way of life ever since.
It has been said that thousands of years ago many small tribal kingdoms occupied
the region where the three continents meet (Europe, Asia and Africa). They
lived off the land, traded, and peacefully co-existed with each other for many
centuries. Even though they were known by many names, the people had a common
ancestry and spoke dialects of the same language.
For a thousand years the masters of the crafts possessed the secret of the
metals with which they made their cities beautiful with sculptures and decorations.
It was foretold that if the secret of the metal (bronze) was
allowed to escape, the gods of peace would curse the people and allow disaster
to befall them for a thousand years. Unfortunately, after a thousand years
or so of contentment, ignoring the ancient warnings, the old masters became
arrogant and careless and let the secret of the metal escape. No one could
have predicted the outcome of what was about to happen, especially the gentle
tribes who knew nothing of evil, violence or bloodshed.
When the gods of war who lived to the north and west of the gentle tribes learned
the secret of the metal, they forged mighty weapons. With promises of power
and glory, they bewitched the tribesmen’s leaders to use the weapons
against their enemies. Greed and lust for power soon blinded the tribesmen
who unleashed bloodshed, death and destruction. When the cities of light turned
to dust the wars ended and the dead were buried in cities of tombs below the
surface of the earth where their bones lay in peace, undisturbed for all eternity
or until archeology unearthed them.
In 800 B.C. when the catastrophic wars were finally over, the survivors of
the small tribal kingdoms were left weak, devastated and vulnerable. One of
those small kingdoms was Macedonia. But Macedonia’s story does not end
with the tribal wars, it only begins.
There are those who believe that the name “Macedonia” was first
spoken by the child warriors who longed to return home during the tribal wars.
What they affectionately called “Makedon” was not their kingdom
but their wish to return to “mother’s home”.
“Make” (mother) and “don” (home) or Makedon
as it came to be known to the outside world, was “mother’s home” to
the children of Macedonia.
There are other stories that make reference to the meaning of the name “Makedon” but
this, I believe, is the most realistic meaning.
One of the oldest sources of evidence written on stone in the ancient Macedonian
phonetic language dates back to the Neolithic period, to the time of the “Zets”.
I want to mention here that a “Zet” is a “son in law”.
From the deciphered inscriptions, it appears that the Zets of various tribes
seemed to be involved in some sort of conflict with each other.
Perhaps one of the most characteristic documents ever found was the text engraved
on a stone in the shape of a long fish found in Osinchani, near Skopje. Here
the inscription describes a battle between Zets expressing how one Zet subdued
another.
Another description that dates between 2,100 B.C. and 1,200 B.C., tells a boastful
story of how the Zet Ig’Lal destroyed the Ege kingdom. (Vasil Ilyov,
page 51, August 15, 2000, number 580, Makedonija magazine).
Yet another Neolithic inscription from the Tsrna Loma or Ilina Gora locality,
near the village Osinchani, conveys the following message: “taa, rechta,
zasega e uteha na majkite, koishto loshoto voinata, niv gi oshteti”,
which in English translates roughly to, “the word for now is consolation
for the mothers, whom the wicked war damaged”.
Outside of Homer’s epics, nothing has captured the young imagination
more than the adventures of the ancient mythological gods and heroes.
Were these gods and heroes exclusively Egyptian, Greek and Roman? Because that
is exactly what the modern Greeks would want us to believe.
Contrary to modern Greek claims, Professor Tashko Belchev believes that the
mythology as we know it today originated in the fertile minds of much older
people than the ancient Greeks, the ancient Macedonians. The Greeks simply
took the mythology and adopted it for themselves. Even the word “mythology” comes
from the ancient Macedonian words “mit” and “log”.
In modern Macedonian the word “mit” means “telling” or “bribing” (potmiti
go, bribe him) and the word “log” (logika) means “logic” or “science”.
Putting the two words together we come up with “Mitlog” or, in
modern Macedonian, “Mitologija” the science of telling or the science
of “bribing” the young imagination. (Page 58, June 15, 2000, number
576, Makedonija magazine).
Taking all evidence into consideration, it is not difficult to piece together
a theory of what the pre-Macedonian world looked like. We already know a lot
about the ancient city-states and how they dealt with overpopulation and expansion.
For example, as each of the ancient city-states grew beyond the city’s
ability to support its population, people were driven out or left voluntarily
to start a new city. New settlements followed the coastline indicative of the
peoples’ desire to pursue a familiar means of livelihood.
The same principle can be applied to the pre-Macedonian inland dwellers who
lived in what we today call geographical Macedonia.
For personal protection and for companionship, the ancient people
built their homes in close proximity similar to those of today’s modern
villages. As the community grew in population beyond the land’s ability
to support it, people moved and started new communities. This practice continued
uninterrupted as long as there was space to expand. In time, the entire region
of Macedonia became dotted with settlements. Unchecked by war, disease and
pestilence, the populations grew and expanded outwards.
Since the people of the various towns were related to each other, they maintained
close contact through visits, celebrations, etc. which kept their traditions
and language from diverging.
The maximum population an ancient town could hold was dependent upon the land’s
ability to support it. If a family could no longer make a living because it
was too large for its land holdings, it either moved away in whole or split
up. Some family members moved away to a smaller town or started a new community
elsewhere. Newly founded towns usually took the name of the founding family.
Keeping track of genealogy was very important for several reasons.
Family size usually dictated social status in the community. The family clan
protected its family members and expected certain loyalties from them in return.
Marriages between family members were avoided by knowing who belonged to which
family. It was common practice in those days for a young man to leave his own
family, marry and become a Zet (son in law) in another family. Based on the
ancient scripts, being a Zet had its privileges, including those of waging
war on other Zets for control over the family.
Because the Balkan terrain could not support uniform population growth, clusters
of settlements developed usually with the larger towns in the fertile lowlands,
surrounded by smaller towns in the highlands. As the older settlements grew
and matured they began to trade with other settlements and developed transportation
routes, commerce and a written language. They also developed a central administration,
a security force and appointed central tribal leaders, who in time evolved
into tribal kings. With the expansion of trade beyond the boundaries of the
local community, the ancient people came into contact with other people who
had new ideas and innovations.
With the discovery of metal, powerful weapons were built and bloodshed and
destruction was not too far behind. Even family squabbles over small matters
turned violent and ugly. A society that valued kinship and family above all
else had the tendency to stick together and interact freely and peacefully.
Unfortunately, at around 1,200 B.C. something went terribly wrong and war erupted
between the various groups (families?), bringing four centuries of death and
devastation to the peace loving people of ancient Macedonia.
Documented but not well understood are ancient “kinship and family ties”.
Kinship was very important to the ancient people of Macedonia who ranked it
at the top of their value system. A good example of this is Philip II’s
marriages to various women from his annexed worlds. Marriages were a powerful
symbol for bonding family ties and for forging powerful alliances. This custom
may seem bizarre today but it was common practice in ancient Macedonia.
From a cultural and linguistic standpoint, the close relationship between the
ancient societies allowed free interaction between the various peoples and
kept their language and culture from diverging. This could account for the
widespread Slav language commonality we are witnessing today.
Thus far, I have given you a glimpse of the remnants of an old prehistoric
world with a rich culture and language. The sources of information that I have
referenced provide valuable evidence of the existence of a world never before
acknowledged. Also, the deciphered inscriptions and translated texts not only
suggest that a pre-historic civilization existed, but also that the people
of this old world are the ancestors of the modern Macedonians.
Some of the artifacts, like the stone writings and the “Iliad” translations,
have been discovered and deciphered since the 1990’s but to this day
they have not attracted the attention of mainstream archeology and paleolinguistics.
Why?
I believe there are several reasons for this:
1. There are some who think the work is not serious enough to warrant their
consideration.
2. Others, especially the highly paid administrators, are satisfied with the
status quo and don’t want to rock the boat.
3. Yet others believe that any involvement on their part could undermine the
entire foundation of ancient history as we now know it.
4. Unfortunately, there are also those, myself included, who believe that mainstream
ancient history as we know it today, had been fabricated to support the political
objectives of the 19th century Great Powers and their allies.
As George Orwell once pointed out, "Who controls the past controls the
future; who controls the present controls the past." History is written
by the victors.
As I mentioned earlier, when the foundation of ancient history was laid down
by the 19th century revisionists, it was done in aid of political objectives.
Modern Greece was created by the Western Powers expressly to curtail Slavic
expansionism. Moreover, Greece was created to divide the Slavs and stop Imperial
Russia from achieving her long ambition of sailing the waters of the Mediterranean
Sea.
In their zeal to satisfy their own ambitions, the 19th century Powers, perhaps
unbeknownst to them at the time, unleashed a “Balkan turmoil” that
would have long lasting consequences for the Balkan people.
People that existed together, united for centuries by a common faith, were
divided without their consent and thrown into disarray by artificially imposed
values and ideals.
A century has passed and peace has not been achieved. Why?
When the Western Powers superficially created Greece in 1829, they launched
her on a polemic course, her survival to be made possible only at the expense
of the Macedonian nation.
The problems experienced between Greece and Macedonia today are nothing new
but another stage in a continuous and timeless struggle.
Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia have generated more literature to disprove the
existence of a Macedonian nation than they have written books about their own
histories. This is truly sad and such a waste of effort.
To be continued…
References:
Josef S. G. Gandeto, Ancient Macedonians, The differences Between the Ancient
Macedonians and the Ancient Greeks
Eugene N. Borza, In the Shadow of Olympus, The Emergence of Macedon
Jozko Šavli, Matej Bor, Ivan Tomazic, VENETI: First Builders of European
Community
George Nakratzas M.D., The Close Racial Kinship Between the Greeks, Bulgarians
and Turks, Macedonia and Thrace
Genadij Stanistavlovich Grinevich, World History Department, Russian Physical
Society, Moscow, 1994
Makedonija Magazine – Ilustrirana Rebija za iselenitsite od Makedonija,
Broj 503, 560 - 591
You can contact the author at rstefov@hotmail.com