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History of the Balkans
The Balkans, partly corresponding with the Balkan Peninsula, encompasses areas that may also be placed in Southeastern, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its often turbulent history, with the region experiencing centuries of Ottoman conflict and conquest. The Balkan Peninsula is predominantly mountainous, featuring several mountain ranges such as the Dinaric Alps, the Pindus Mountains and the Balkan Mountains.
First human settlement in Europe is Iron Gates Mesolithic (11000 to 6000 BC), located in Danube River, in modern Serbia and Romania. It has been described as "the first city in Europe", due to its permanency, organisation, as well as the sophistication of its architecture and construction techniques.
The first known Neolithic culture of Old Europe was Kakanj culture that appeared in Central Bosnia and covered periods dated from 6795 to 4900 BC, making the culture's eponymous town of Kakanj the Europe's oldest continuously inhabitted settlement.
Archaeologists have identified several early culture-complexes, including the Cucuteni culture (4500 to 3500 BC), Starcevo culture (6500 to 4000 BC), Vinča culture (5500 to 3000 BC), Linear pottery culture (5500 to 4500 BC), and Ezero culture (3300—2700 BC). The Eneolithic Varna culture in Bulgaria (4600–4200 BC radiocarbon dating) produced the world's earliest known gold treasure and had sophisticated beliefs about afterlife. A notable set of artifacts are the Tărtăria tablets found in Romania, which appear to be inscribed with proto-writing.
The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture", around 5000 BC, until it encompassed the entire pontic steppe. Kurgan IV was identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC.
Yamnaya steppe pastoralists apparently migrated into the Balkans about 3000 to 2500 BCE, and they soon admixed with the local populations, which resulted in a tapestry of various ancestry from which speakers of the Albanoid, Hellenic, and other Paleo-Balkan languages emerged.
At ca. 1000 BC, Illyrian tribes appear in what is modern day Albania and all the way aside Adriatic Sea in modern-day Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, parts of Serbia and North Macedonia. The Thracians lived in Thrace and adjacent lands (now mainly Bulgaria, but also Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey, eastern Serbia and North Macedonia), and the closely related Dacians lived in what is today Romania. These three major tribal groups spoke Paleo-Balkan languages, Indo-European languages. The Phrygians seem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle in Asia Minor, now extinct as a separate group and language.
After the period that followed the arrival of the Dorians, known as the Greek Dark Ages or the Geometric Period, the classical Greek culture developed in the southern Balkan peninsula, the Aegean islands and the western Asia Minor Greek colonies starting around the 9th or 8th century BC and peaking with the democracy that developed in 6th and 5th century BC Athens. Later, Hellenistic culture spread throughout the empire created by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. The Greeks were the first to establish a system of trade routes in the Balkans, and in order to facilitate trade with the natives, between 700 BC and 300 BC they founded a number of colonies on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) coast, Asia Minor, Dalmatia, Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) etc.
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History of the Balkans AI simulator
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History of the Balkans
The Balkans, partly corresponding with the Balkan Peninsula, encompasses areas that may also be placed in Southeastern, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its often turbulent history, with the region experiencing centuries of Ottoman conflict and conquest. The Balkan Peninsula is predominantly mountainous, featuring several mountain ranges such as the Dinaric Alps, the Pindus Mountains and the Balkan Mountains.
First human settlement in Europe is Iron Gates Mesolithic (11000 to 6000 BC), located in Danube River, in modern Serbia and Romania. It has been described as "the first city in Europe", due to its permanency, organisation, as well as the sophistication of its architecture and construction techniques.
The first known Neolithic culture of Old Europe was Kakanj culture that appeared in Central Bosnia and covered periods dated from 6795 to 4900 BC, making the culture's eponymous town of Kakanj the Europe's oldest continuously inhabitted settlement.
Archaeologists have identified several early culture-complexes, including the Cucuteni culture (4500 to 3500 BC), Starcevo culture (6500 to 4000 BC), Vinča culture (5500 to 3000 BC), Linear pottery culture (5500 to 4500 BC), and Ezero culture (3300—2700 BC). The Eneolithic Varna culture in Bulgaria (4600–4200 BC radiocarbon dating) produced the world's earliest known gold treasure and had sophisticated beliefs about afterlife. A notable set of artifacts are the Tărtăria tablets found in Romania, which appear to be inscribed with proto-writing.
The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture", around 5000 BC, until it encompassed the entire pontic steppe. Kurgan IV was identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC.
Yamnaya steppe pastoralists apparently migrated into the Balkans about 3000 to 2500 BCE, and they soon admixed with the local populations, which resulted in a tapestry of various ancestry from which speakers of the Albanoid, Hellenic, and other Paleo-Balkan languages emerged.
At ca. 1000 BC, Illyrian tribes appear in what is modern day Albania and all the way aside Adriatic Sea in modern-day Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, parts of Serbia and North Macedonia. The Thracians lived in Thrace and adjacent lands (now mainly Bulgaria, but also Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey, eastern Serbia and North Macedonia), and the closely related Dacians lived in what is today Romania. These three major tribal groups spoke Paleo-Balkan languages, Indo-European languages. The Phrygians seem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle in Asia Minor, now extinct as a separate group and language.
After the period that followed the arrival of the Dorians, known as the Greek Dark Ages or the Geometric Period, the classical Greek culture developed in the southern Balkan peninsula, the Aegean islands and the western Asia Minor Greek colonies starting around the 9th or 8th century BC and peaking with the democracy that developed in 6th and 5th century BC Athens. Later, Hellenistic culture spread throughout the empire created by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. The Greeks were the first to establish a system of trade routes in the Balkans, and in order to facilitate trade with the natives, between 700 BC and 300 BC they founded a number of colonies on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) coast, Asia Minor, Dalmatia, Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) etc.