A Short Look at Transnistria

Transnistria is the last of the disputed territories we're going to cover this week. We've touched on Kosovo, Northern Cyprus and the Caucusus' states of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia already. Transnistria is not a member of the Caucusus region, but Transnistria's independence claims stem from the collapse of the USSR like these Caucusus would-be nations. Transnistria is sandwiched between the Ukraine and Moldova. Moldova, from whom they claimed independence, doesn't not recognize them and still holds Transnistria as part of its sovereign territory. Transnistria has a much older history though than the current independent or not state.

In prehistoric times and antiquity it was occupied Dacian and Scythian tribes, settled by Greek colonists at Tyras and eventually became a Thracian homeland to a branch of the Getae. The area would fall under the sway of the Roman Empire in 56 AD when Rome rebuilt the city of Tyras along the Black Sea. Tyras would become an important minting city for Rome and over a couple of centuries this city in what Rome called Lower Moesia. Numerous copper coins would go out from Tyras throughout the whole empire.

As the Western Roman Empire was collapsing the area would see a whole host of people groups swing through, including the Goths and the Huns. The Huns would destroy the city of Tyras but the Goths would stick around for centuries and live throughout Transnistria. Then the Slavic peoples migrated through the area, both Southern and Eastern tribes. Also various Turkic peoples would settle and then move sometimes living alongside Slavic tribes and other times displacing them. The area would eventually become dominated by a Turkic confederation by a tribe called the Cumans. Cumania, a land more or less controlled by this semi-nomadic confederation stretched from the Balkans in the west to the Caucusus and further east into modern Iran. This large swathe of land brought them into conflict with the new threat from the east, the Mongols. But the Mongols didn't establish any tangible permanent legacy and the region entered part of the Kievan Rus' sphere of influence.

At about the turn of the 15th century the area became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then part of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. This would last for nearly 300 years until the area was taken over by the Russian Empire in 1792 and 1793. By this time the area was occupied primarily ethnic Moldavian, ethnic Ukrainian and a number of various Tatar peoples (one of the few holdovers from Mongol invasions). Under Russian influence which lasted from 1793 until the Russian Revolution in 1917 the area was heavily colonized. Russian peasants were moved there to be given land (as all of the Russian land was in the hands of noble Russians). Also, Jews and Germans were moved to the region to help build up the economy.

After the fall of the Russian Empire and the dawn of the USSR, Transnistria became a part of the Socialist Republic of Moldova under the power of the Kremlin. The area was not given any rest though as it was invaded during World War II when it came under the control of Romania. Romania instituted a strict Romanianization program over the area and a multitude of Ukrainian and Moldovan Jews were either killed or sent to concentration camps by combined Romanian and German forces. Other ethnic groups were relocated and forced to move. After the war the Soviets reacquired the region but took a page out of German/Romanian playbook and relocated numerous Moldovan and Romanian families, often eastward to places like Kazakhstan and Siberia.

In the late 1980's as the USSR was coming apart at the seams the Moldovan authorities pushed for more autonomy and power. They readopted the Latin alphabet, declared Moldovan to be the only official language of the region and declared the closeness of Moldovan and Romanian linguistic heritage. This nationalism and ethnic posturing caused many Russian speaking and Slavic ethnic groups to become very uncomfortable. They were worried about two major things. First, the rhetoric of some of the Moldovan groups was very damning to non-Moldovan/Romanian people living within Moldova. Second, they were terrified by a reunification of Romania and Moldova.

In response to all of this war broke out as the people who did not want to return to a Romanian-Moldovan alliance attempted to break away from Moldova. From 1990 - 1992 war between Moldovan and Romanian forces against the breakaway region raged. Transnistria would have been easily crushed had it not been for support they received from official elements of the Russian army, Russian volunteers and Ukrainian volunteers. As a result of the war Transnistria has been a de facto state since 1992, only it has been almost entirely recognized as a part of Moldova by the international community.

Since 1992, the government of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) has been ruled from its capital of Tiraspol, a city built on or near the ruins of the Greek settlement of Tyras by the Russians in 1792. The population of Transnistria is over 30% Moldovan, making it the largest percentage of the population. However, ethnic Russians and Ukrainians combine for a near 60% of the population. Thus, they speak Slavic based Russian language and use the Cyrillic alphabet in Transnistria as opposed to the Romance based Moldovan language and Latin alphabet used in Moldova. Tensions still simmer in this disputed region, especially given the fact that FC Sheriff Tiraspol dominates the Moldovan Football League. In a recent BBC World Football report it was noted that crossing the border from Moldova to Transnistria for a football match was a lot like crossing the border back into the days of the USSR, murals, police checkpoints, complete with hammer & sickle and all. It is a starkly different place than both Moldova and Ukraine which border it.

Mitterberg Copper and Slightly off Alien Origin Theories

The Mitterberg region of Austria has a number of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age copper mines that are fascinating for a number of reasons. First, the mines are old. They date from around 2000 BC which pushes them back towards the end of the Chalcolithic. Second, they have mine shafts that are as long as 150 meters following massive veins of copper. In addition to these regular shafts there were also smaller shafts that archeologists reckon were merely ventilation shafts to help the miners breath better and to allow for air in order to stoke better fires, a necessity in copper extraction. Third, the shafts were protected by a series of dams made of both stone and wood to keep the shafts from flooding. This was undoubtedly produced after long and intense negotiations with the miner's unions. Lastly, the copper that was extracted from these mines was exported all over Europe to be used by people in various ornamental fashions.

We are not alone.

One of these ornamental uses was to create the Nebra Sky Disk. The Nebra Sky Disk is a 30 cm or so copper disk painted a bluish green and inlaid with gold. The gold depicts a number of astronomical phenomena like the sun or full moon, crescent moon, and the Pleiades  It has, after being accepted as authentic, been attributed to the Unetice Culture of Germany. There are two theories on what the disk is, one of which is credible and the other, slightly off kilter.

The more credible explanation is that it is some sort of star map that was used in some sort of religious setting. The slightly off explanation is that it is connected with the things around Europe like Stone Henge that represent an age when ancient man was visited by ancient space travelers. In this explanation the Disk could have been a map on how to meet up with the ancient aliens at a later date. If this is true and although I haven't yet seen Prometheus, I suggest that we not follow up on that map so as not to invite unwelcome trouble.

The Wonderful World of Megaliths

The Megalithic cultures of Europe (and elsewhere) decided that they, in their spare time would move massive rocks into a wonderful array of shapes and orders. Here is a quick overview of the various structures that these prehistoric peoples put up.

Dolmen

One of the most popular was a dolmen. A dolmen is a tomb that consists of a number of large rocks supporting a top table rock. They are found all over Europe. There are a number of great examples of Dolmens on the West Coast of Ireland, like the one pictured to the left.

Taula

A Taula is another table top structure similar to the dolmen. In fact the word Taula is table in Catalan. The Taulas are peculiar to the Talaiotic Culture that existed on the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain.

Newgrange in Ireland

Another popular megalithic structure was a passage grave. These burial chambers were often positioned so that the entrance would receive direct sunlight on important dates, like the sunrise of the winter solstice or the sunset of the equinox.

Cairn

Cairns are stacks of rocks that are found all over Europe. Sometimes they were used as decorations around other megalithic structures. Other times though they had a functional purpose as well. In England and Ireland they were strategically placed near forts to make conquering it that much more difficult. In Scandinavia they were put along the coast so that people could see them from the sea as guide posts. In Iceland, like the one pictured, they were basically prehistoric road markers.

Grand Menhir Brisé

A menhir is a single standing stone. In the Northwest of France alone there are over 1200 menhirs, with  Brittany having some of the most fascinating menhirs on earth. At the village of Locmariaquer in Brittany once stood the Grand Menhir Brisé or Great Broken Menhir. It was put up sometime around 4700 BC to decorate the Table des Marchand (Merchant's Table) passage grave. When it was erected it stood over 67 feet high and weighed over 280 tonnes. If that wasn't impressive enough, the stone was quarried and carried to the spot from a few kilometers away. Somehow though the menhir came crashing to earth around 4000 BC and broke into four pieces. Some archeologists think that it was deliberately pulled down, while others think that its tumble was caused by an earthquake.

Swedish Stone Ship

There was also the construction of a stone ship. Basically a stone ship was a group of menhirs arranged in a way that it looks like the outline of a ship. These types of structures were mainly found in Scandinavian countries, Germany and the Baltic States. The ships varied from only a few meters to massive like the Jelling Stone ship in Denmark which is over 1100 feet long. The Jelling Stone Ship is interesting because it combines a number of eras of construction. The mound and ship were originally a bronze age burial, but King Harald Bluetooth extended it and built two giant burial mounds in it for his mom and dad. The pictures of this from an ariel shot are fairly interesting and you can check them out here. Pictured to the right is a stone ship that gives a much clearer representation of what we're talking about. This stone ship is the largest in Sweden and dates to around 200 AD.

There a whole host of other megalithic structures like the tumuli or kurgans (large burial mounds), cromlechs (a burial site that looks a lot like dolmens combined with a stone circle that is Welsh in origin), stone rows (rows of single stones in straight order) and of course, the stone circle. The most famous of stone circles is Stonehenge and we'll save that for its own post.

The Prehistoric History of Turkey, Part I, the Paleolithic

Turkey is one of those countries that straddles Europe and Asia. For me, trying to do a European History podcast, Turkey marks a dilemma. I can't leave it out, because the Thracians, Greeks and Byzantines are certainly a part of Europe's heritage. So too are the Seljuk Turks and the Ottomans. But at the same time, it's east of the Bosporus and technically an Asian country. I'm at a loss!!! But, because the peoples of modern day Turkey have had such an impact on Southeastern Europe and the Balkans I have to include them somewhere. Turkey didn't make the cut in the Paleolithic, Mesolithic or Neolithic podcast except through tangential relationships so I'm going to blog about them. While modern day Turkey continues to debate admittance to the European Union, I won't dally any longer. Turkey has a rich European history and we'll include them in our studies. So here is a sweeping overview of her history up to the Chalcolithic period.

The Turkish region of Anatolia is one of the longest, continuously inhabited places in the world. Paleolithic evidence dates to sites like the Karain Cave, the Belbaşi Culture and a whole host of sites we'll not really cover here because of space reasons. The earliest sites of Anatolia, or Asia Minor in Latinized terminology date to around 500,000 BC. While this rich cultural heritage deserves about a hundred thousand pages of a well documented book, we'll do our best with a couple of blog posts. So let's just focus on the two aforementioned Paleolithic sites.

Karain Cave shows evidence of human inhabitation dating from around 200,000 years ago. It's located in the Antalya region of modern day Turkey, near the Southwest coast along the Mediterranean Sea. The artifacts found at this cave are hosted in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations located in Ankara, established in 1921. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, that contains everything from prehistoric hippopotami bones to early Greek inscriptions carved into the walls. Basically the cave complex has a rich million year history that shows some of the earliest human endeavors in Turkey.

The Belbaşi Culture is an ancient Paleolithic/Mesolithic Culture of tool making that spawns from a number of cave sites in the Southwest of modern day Turkey. It has findings of tanged arrowheads and other artifacts. Its artifacts are similar to those of the Kebaran Culture, a site named after the artifacts found near Haifa in modern day Israel and the Natufian Culture, a Levantine Culture that existed from 13,000 - 9,800 years ago in modern Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. But, while the Belbaşi Culture had eastwards roots, it expanded and changed westward. The Belbaşi Culture seems to have taught the cultures of the Balkans and Southeastern Europe how to farm and domesticate animals, making it an important predecessor culture for our studies.

The culture learned to craft tools from obsidian, flint, bone and antler. It coupled this technology with new farming techniques that made it a Neolithic culture. In addition to to adapting to farming techniques it created pottery that would revolutionize Southeastern European pottery in the coming times. These cavemen would eventually build houses in the Balkan countries of Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria before branching north to Romania to follow the Danube and become subsumed by the Danubian Cultures. It's truly fascinating that prehistoric peoples in Turkey would have an impact on those in Germany.

The Bronocice Pot

There's a whole lot of different types of pot in this world. But none can compare to the Bronocice Pot. If you want a high on history, just have a gander at the Bronocice Pot. The Bronocice Pot comes down to us  from the Funnelbeaker Culture, which we'll discuss in the next Podcast, Neolithic Part II. The pot was found in Bronocice, Poland and was a major find for the Funnelbeakers that stretched from the Netherlands to the west, Scandinavia to the north (specifically Sweden, Denmark and Norway) and Poland to the east. But the heart of the Funnelbeaker Culture was in Germany and Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic). The Funnelbeaker Culture was defined by their distinctive pottery. The Bronocice Pot is a type of this pottery, but has importance because of its decorations.

The pot is decorated with what appears to be a wagon being pulled by some type of draught animal. It dates to some time between 3635 BC - 3370 BC, making it among the earliest drawings of a wheeled vehicle. This gives it a great status as a Neolithic invention. In the middle of the wagon drawing is a circular pot, that probably represents the harvest that the wagon is carrying. Basically, because of its early date, the Bronocice Pot deserves great granddaddy status in the evolution of vehicles, and all that that entails. The picture on top is the actual pot, in reconstructed form. The picture to the right is a rendition of the drawing of the earliest wagon. You can't tell by the drawing but it was likely a precursor to the ultimately cool 1967 Ford Country Squire. It probably had seats in the back so kids could sit and watch the cars come up behind it. Stationwagons should be brought back to save the American Auto industry. Who needs an efficient smart car when you can have the coolness of wood paneling?

On this day in European history...

Medieval depiction of the battle.

On this day in we'll focus on the Battle of Fontenoy. Not the later battle fought during the War of the Austrian Succession, but the earlier battle fought by the grandsons of Charlemagne. The battle during the War of the Austrian Succession was fought on May 11, 1745 and would be the obvious selection for this day in history. The earlier battle was actually fought on June 25, 841 and wouldn't necessarily qualify for the exact "On this day history" criteria, but this battle was far more interesting to research and so I'll relate it here rather than on June 25th which was already slated for a different historical occurence. I don't have to be exact. This is my blog and I'll do as I please, thank you very much!

Lothair I

Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious had ruled the inherited empire of his father seemingly well enough, but as he was getting on in age he decided to dole out his territories to his sons in keeping up with Frankish law rather than the eldest one getting the whole shebang. But, in keeping with many Medieval cultures (and ancient ones' too) Louis gave his sons co-ruler status while he was still alive.

Louis the German

Lothair, Louis' eldest son was given the title of Emperor of the Romans and King of Italy by his pops. His full brother Louis the German was given the title of King of Bavaria. Their half brother, Charles the bald was given Western Francia to rule over. Lothair and Louis the German decided that their half-brother had no claim to rule and decided to go to war with their father and Charles the Bald over the latter's promotion to rule. They fought three separate civil wars to show their dismay at Charles getting some territory. But, in the end Charles the Bald would have a chance to rule as Louis the Pious would beat down his two sons in battle. But, eventually Louis the Pious would pass away and after he did, all hell broke loose. Lothair decided he had had enough of his brothers and decided to try and take over the whole kingdom of Charlemagne and claimed it for himself. Louis the German and Charles the Bald balked at this assertion of dominance and war broke out amongst the brothers.

Charles the Bald

The war between the brothers was brutal and the Battle of Fontenoy was decisive in nature. Lothair brought in his nephew, Pepin II, King of Aquitaine and Gerard II, Count of Paris. Louis the German and Charles the Bald were able to muster about the same number of troops as their older brother Lothair through their barons. The battle started off well for Lothair as Pepin's troops pushed back the forces of Charles the Bald. But, the troops of Lothair started to lose ground to the men of Louis the German. As Lothair's men got beaten back further and further the troops of Bernard of Septimania decided that the victors would be Louis the German and Charles the Bald. He entered the fray and turned the victory into a rout. Lothair would retreat from battle, but on his way back to his capital of Aachen in modern Germany, Lothair would pillage and plunder and grab a whole bunch of treasure. If he wasn't going to rule all of Charlemagne's kingdom he was going to take as much of its wealth as he could. He lost the battle and the chance to rule like Charlemagne. Charles the Bald and Louis the German retained the rights to their kingdoms, but Charles the Bald would find that he had a rather impoverished kingdom to look after. And that's what happened on this day in history, sort of...

On this day in history, the world's second constitution

The Constitution of May 3 is widely considered the second oldest constitution in the world. It was an act of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth, a country that existed from about 1569 - 1795, before being split up into the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the Russian Empire. The Constitution was aimed to right the ship of the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth as the magnates of this nation had come to have enormous power over both the government and the people. Basically, a massive amount of class warfare had been going on between the nobles (szlachta) of the commonwealth and the commoners. This class warfare threatened to tear the commonwealth apart so the the parliament, called the Sejm put into place a constitution to level the playing field between the local folk and the big wig Szlachta. However, outside players were having none of this compromise as it limited their influence in the commonwealth.

Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Prussians didn't like the new powers of the Polish-Lithuanian king because it might have led to a demand on Prussian lands that were once in the hands of the Poles. Other powers didn't like it because it was a threat to the notion of absolute monarchy and these threats could've caused some political instability. All in all, the Constitution was regarded contemporaneously as a nuisance. The Russian invasion and the discontent of its neighbors leaked into the second partition of Poland. This led to Polish and Lithuanian lands falling into the hands of the Russians and Germans. The bourgeoisie of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were beaten back and the old magnates returned to their former glory under the Prussians and Russians. Poland would lose independence until the 20th century on account of this constitution. While this might be sad for most Poles, the constitution retained power long after it was abandoned as a symbol for what is right and good about the Polish culture. It became a beacon in the history of democracy and has inspired countless other democratic movements. It now stands as both a Polish and Lithuanian holiday marking the democratic spirit of both peoples.

Wattle-and-Daub

In the next few podcasts, the Mesolithic, Neolithic A, and Neolithic B we'll talk about some of the houses that the various cultures in these periods lived in. One of the types of houses is a wattle-and-daub home. So, since we're going to be mentioning that the Neolithic Germans of the Rössen Culture or the Linearbandkeramic Culture lived in wattle-and-daub homes I thought it might be a good idea to talk about what wattle-and-daub is.

Well wattle is basically just wood that's been woven together. The daub is a combination of some materials like clay, soil, sand, straw and animal poo. The daub is applied to the wattle, white washed and voila, you've got a fully functional wattle-and-daub home.

Wattle-and-daub is making a bit of a comeback. This unlikely renaissance is occurring because of modernity's fascination with sustainability. As green becomes more and more en vogue it is possible that we might begin to see more and more wattle-and-daub structures in our busy and modern metropolises. This could give some cities a bit of quaint charm. Or it could make the buildings look entirely out of place. We'll see what happens in the future.

The Mighty Tasty Aurochs

Throughout the podcast series I plan on supplementing the episodes with some blog posts about some of the more interesting features of European history that I leave out of the episodes. I'm going to have to leave some things out for time concerns, so I'll try to make it up with these supplemental blogs.

An aurochs skeleton that dates to around 7500 BC. It
was found in Denmark along with another near full
skeleton. Notice the horns and how they point out. Those
were the horns that early modern humans had to deal with
in order to get a descent burger. Thank heavens for Five Guys.

On Episode 2 Paleolithic Europe, we mentioned the mighty tasty Aurochs. These guys are so fascinating that they deserve a blog post.  Aurochs were the ancestors to most of today's many species of domesticated cattle. They were truly massive animals, growing as tall as 5'11. Though, the northern Aurochs grew to be a bit larger than their southern cousins. They also weighed over 1500 lbs on average. But a number of specimens found put the weight of the beast at well over a ton and a British ton at that (2204 lbs, not the measly American ton of 2000 lbs).

If we were transported back in time to see an Aurochs we'd easily recognize it as a species of cow, but it had some major differences to today's varieties. First, the horns were enormous and why not? It had the muscle mass to support them. Might as well go big. The legs of the aurochs were skinnier than modern cows and longer too. This gave them a very broad look up front, sort of like a cartoon version of a bull.

How aurochs behaved is a bit of a mystery and causes some disagreement between scientists. Some think that aurochs basically behaved like modern cows and other creatures like Buffalo and Bison. Others think they might have been different and more solitary creatures. This line of thinking comes from observing the tail end of aurochs existence on earth. But, this could have been because of limited numbers and the loss of the wild open plains and forests they once roamed so freely in. Before domestication, the aurochs roamed all over Europe (excluding Ireland and Iceland) throughout Asia and into North Africa.

The taming of Aurochs would happen independently in various regions around the world. This can explain some of the wide varieties of cattle we have throughout Europe and Asia. The domestication began somewhere around 10,000 years ago in the Indian Subcontinent and around the same time in parts of the Near East. The taming of the Aurochs happened a little later around 6000 BC in the Caucasian Mountains and Mesopotamia.  Then the domestication would travel into other parts of Europe and slowly most of the wild aurochs were no longer wild.

The few surviving Aurochs found their movement restricted by civilization and climate change so they holed up in Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania, East Prussia, and Poland. Hunting of the last wild aurochs became an activity that would become limited. First, only nobles could hunt them and finally only the royal houses. The 1% only could enjoy the tasty hamburgers. But as the population still dwindled we see an early attempt at ecological activism. Kings hired people as gamekeepers to help the remaining aurochs survive. But it was too late. The population dwindled further and further until the last aurochs died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest in Poland. I joked on the podcast about the Swedes taking offense to this and invading Poland in response. The Swedes did invade Poland shortly the death of the last aurochs, but this was because of a combination of some uppity Polish Cossacks and Ukrainian peasants distrust of the Lithuanian-Polish rule and Swedish opportunism. However, in the looting that came out of the war the skull of the last aurochs found its way into the hands of the Swedes and remains in a Swedish museum to this day.

I keep referring to the aurochs as tasty and there is a reason for this. Obviously the kings and nobles wanted to keep all the meat to themselves and then tried to preserve it when it was running out. But the aurochs has been depicted throughout history.

 Here is a picture of some petroglyphs of the aurochs in a cave in Bourdeilles, France that date back some 18,000 years ago.

Here is a picture of the famous cave painting in Lascaux, France that date around 17,000 years ago. The aurochs were still prevalent enough when Julius Caesar was tromping around Gaul that he mentions them in his book The Gallic War.







Another reason I think that they must have been so tasty is that people have been trying to bring them back into existence since the 1920's. A couple of German brothers starting breeding aurochs descendants in the hope of being able to make an aurochswurst sandwich to enjoy with a bit of sauerkraut. It didn't quite work, but the resulting Heck Cattle does have some of aurochs' features.

Polish scientists are hoping to reconstruct aurochs from extracting DNA from the ancient remains of some of the aurochs they have in their possession. I don't believe there are any plans in Sweden to give them back the Jaktorów head. Another group of scientists have started the TaurOs project, a Danish effort to bring back the aurochs into existence. With any luck, we'll be able to sit down to an aurochs cheeseburger with our grandkids.