arshba.ru

10th century BC

Thracians — a collective name for a numerous (about 200 ethnonyms) group of tribes that inhabited in antiquity the northeastern regions of the Balkan Peninsula and northwestern Asia Minor. The Thracians are first mentioned in Homer's Iliad, in the story of the Trojan War. In the 6th-3rd centuries BC, there existed an independent state of the Thracians led by the Odrysians. In the 3rd century BC, the Thracians fell under the rule of the Celts; from the 1st century BC, they were under Roman rule. During the reign of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the main territory inhabited by the Thracians was turned into the Roman province of Thrace. The Thracians engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding, primarily horse breeding, and were renowned for metalworking and ceramics. Contacts with the Greeks played an important role in their socio-economic development. During the Great Migration of Peoples, the Thracians mixed with other tribes. In ancient historiography, the Thracians were considered wild, drunken barbarians and skilled horsemen.

The term "Thracians" appears already in Homer. His information about Thrace is usually dated to the 10th-9th centuries BC, and some episodes — to the 7th century BC. Already in the 5th century BC, the Greeks called the tribes living in the territory of modern Romania, who spoke one of the dialects of the Thracian language, Getae, and later the Romans called them Dacians. The formation and spread of the Thracians into Asia Minor dates to the era of the Sea Peoples' migrations. Already Homer places the Thracians on the shores of the Hellespont (Iliad, II, 845). By the 5th century BC, the Thracians inhabited the northeastern Balkans and the lands adjacent to the west of the Black Sea. Herodotus in Book V called them the second (after the Indians) in number in the known world, and potentially the most powerful militarily — if they stopped their internal squabbles. In that era, the Thracians were divided into a large number of warring tribes; Xenophon vividly described their internal wars in his Anabasis. However, the Thracians managed to create for some time fragile states, such as the Odrysian Kingdom, the largest in Europe in the 5th century BC, and in Roman times — Dacia led by Burebista. After the invasion of Celtic tribes into Thrace, a kingdom of the Gauls was formed with its capital in the city of Tylis. Ultimately, most Thracians adopted Greek (in the region of Thrace) and Roman cultures (Moesia, Dacia, etc.) and, in fact, became subjects of these states. However, small groups of Thracians existed until the Slavic migration to the Balkans in the 6th century AD, i.e., it is not excluded that some Thracians were assimilated by the Slavs. The records of the Thracians in the Iliad mainly tell about the Hellespont and about the tribe of the Ciconians, who fought on the side of the Trojans (Iliad, Book II). From the Thracians, many mythical beings passed to their neighbors the Greeks, such as the god Dionysus, Princess Europa, and the hero Orpheus. Josephus claimed that the progenitor of the Thracians was the seventh son of Japheth, Tiras. He also claimed that originally the Thracians were called Tirasians, but then the Greeks renamed them.

The Thracians spoke the Thracian language, which is classified as Indo-European. Judging by the preserved isoglosses, the Thracians are close to the Balts. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes describes the Thracians as externally different from the Greeks due to their light hair and blue eyes. However, anthropologists believe that the Thracians still predominantly had the Mediterranean type with a small Dinaric admixture, possibly with light pigmentation, i.e., they were mostly Pontids. Herodotus describes the equipment of the Thracians fighting the Persians: "The Thracians in the campaign wore fox-skin caps on their heads. On their bodies, they wore tunics, and over them, colorful cloaks. On their feet and knees, they had wrappings of deerskin. They were armed with javelins, slings, and small daggers (History, VII, 75)." The Thracians wore mustaches and beards, and preferred to gather the hair on their heads at the crown. A number of researchers identify the ancestors of the Thracians with the bearers of the Sabatinovka, Belozerka, and Bilohrudivka cultures. Genetically, after migrating from the Carpathians to the Balkan Peninsula, the Indo-Europeans belonging to haplogroup R1a assimilated with the local Paleo-Balkan tribes of haplogroup I2a, resulting in the Thracian peoples known to us from written sources (in which haplogroup I2a dominated with a small admixture of haplogroup R1a); at the same time, the new Thracian language was formed on the basis of the language of the conquerors, that is, on an Indo-European basis, incorporating some local features.

In his Book V, Herodotus describes the customs of the Thracian tribes: "Among the tribes living north of the Crestonaeans, there is the following custom. When someone from the tribe dies, his wives (and they all have many wives) begin a heated dispute (with the zealous participation of friends): which of them the deceased husband loved most of all. Having resolved the dispute, the men and women shower the chosen wife with praise, and the nearest relatives stab her at the grave and then bury her together with her husband. The other wives grieve greatly that the choice did not fall on them: for this is for them the greatest disgrace. The customs of the other Thracians are as follows: they sell their children abroad. They do not guard the chastity of girls, allowing them to have relations with any man. On the contrary, the fidelity of married women is strictly observed, and they buy wives from their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing on the body is considered a sign of nobility among them. Those who do not have it are not of noble birth. A person who spends time in idleness is held in high honor among them. On the contrary, they treat the farmer with the greatest contempt. They consider the life of a warrior and a robber the most honorable. These are their most remarkable customs. The Thracians honor only three gods: Ares, Dionysus, and Artemis. And their kings (unlike the rest of the people) honor Hermes above all gods and swear only by him. According to them, they themselves descended from Hermes. The funeral rites of the rich Thracians are as follows. The body of the deceased is displayed for three days. During this time, sacrificial animals of all kinds are slaughtered, and after funeral lamentations, a feast is held. Then the body is burned or otherwise buried, and having heaped up a mound, various competitions are held. The highest awards are given for single combat, depending on the importance of the competition. These are the funeral customs of the Thracians."

Historical regions of the Thracians: Thrace (Bulgaria and European Turkey), Dacia (Romania), Bithynia (northwestern Anatolia), Mysia (northwestern Anatolia).

According to ancient authors, the Thracians are a mixture of steppe Proto-Indo-European tribes with autochthonous Neolithic inhabitants of the Carpathians (Trypillia culture). If so, their haplogroups were most likely the following: R1a (about 30%), R1b (10%), I2a1b (25-30%), E-V13 (10-15%), G2a, J1, J2a, J2b, and T1a. The Dacians were closely related to the Thracians and likely had the same composition of haplogroups. ^{[Maciamo Hay 2008]}

According to Khudaverdyan 2012, craniological and dental studies reveal a direct familial relationship between subjects from the following burial grounds:
• 2000-1500 BC — 99 Volga-Ural region, Spiridonovka II, Rozhdestveno I. Abashevo culture. Figure 2
• 1800-1100 BC — 144 Ukraine, Shirochansky. Thracians, Cimmerians. Srubnaya and Belozerka cultures. Figures 2, 3
• 1100-600 BC — 20 Georgia, Mtskheta, Samtavro, Tserovani. Figures 2, 3
• 600-300 BC — 129 Don Estuary, Beglitsa. Scythians, Maeotians. Figure 2

Judging by the Abkhaz-Adyghe G2a2b, which prevailed in the Northern Black Sea region before the Caucasian War, there are direct grounds to consider G2a2b as one of the main haplogroups of the proto-Thracians.

VARIANT NAMES: Latin Thraci, Thraces, Traces, Thracesii, Greek Θρακος, Θρακες, θρηικες, θρακησιοι, Russian Frakiĭtsy, Frakesii.


Sources:

Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015