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.

A brief look at South Ossetia

In continuing our blog discussion on the disputed territories and states of Europe we're heading back to the Caucuses. This time we're going to focus on South Ossetia, a state that has a few backers in the international community but one that Georgia still claims as part of its territory. Like most of the other Caucuses states that we've talked about this week, much of the current state of affairs has to do with the break up of the Soviet Union and deep historical issues that predate the communist empire by centuries.

The Ossetians were a people group that are believed to have descended from the Alani tribes, one of the many barbarian hoards that poured into parts of the Roman Empire when everything out east went haywire because of the Huns and other massive tribes that messed up the old social order. The Ossetians became Christianized through Byzantine and Georgian influences during the early Middle Ages. But, like the Alani from whence they came they too were pushed out of their homeland by a massive group of barbarians, the Mongols. When the Mongols started pouring eastward the Ossetians settled into what became known as Ossetia, which today is split into roughly two halves, North Ossetia-Alania, a federal subject of Russia and South Ossetia, the de facto independent state that is disputed by Georgia. This split occured during the late Middle Ages, early Modern period when the northern Ossetians fell under Russian rule and the Southern ones came under Georgian power. Both enjoyed refuge from the Mongols in this set up so all was well and dandy.

Eventually though, South Ossetia became part of the Russian Empire in 1801 with the rest of Georgia. This lasted until the Bolshevik uprising when North Ossetia sided with the Bolsheviks and Georgia sided with a breakaway communist group called the Mensheviks. Some Georgians accused the South Ossetians of being Bolshevik supporters and a series of South Ossetian rebellions sprang up between 1918-1920. Eventually though the Bolsheviks would control the whole Soviet Empire and the relative peace and normality that existed between Ossetians and Georgians would resume, basically unabated until the end of the Soviet Era.

As the USSR was crumbling there was a surge of nationalism within much of the Soviet Empire and the Ossetians and Georgians were no different. South Ossetia didn't mind being part of a new nation of Georgia so long as they retained the autonomy they had enjoyed under Soviet dominion. Georgia however was looking to annex all of its historical boundaries and create a unified state. South Ossetians bucked at a call for Georgian to be the only nationally recognized language and conflict soon broke out when Georgia removed any autonomy for South Ossetia. The 1991-92 South Ossetian war witnessed atrocities committed by both Georgian and South Ossetian militias. In 1992 a cease fire was reached between Georgia and South Ossetia because the Georgians feared a full scale military conflict with Russia who was backing South Ossetia. It was this war and the genocidal tendencies within that really fueled the current state of affairs in the Georgian-South Ossetian relations.

All was relatively quiet for 12 years until in 2004 tensions flared up again. Georgia created a South Ossetian government within the Georgian capital of Tblisi in order to gain more control over the region. South Ossetians, especially those in the region's capital of Tskhinvali railed against this power grab. Georgian troops came in and stormed a black market operation that crippled the South Ossetian economy and fought against South Ossetians and Russian "freelance" fighters. Somehow I think the term mercenary here would be appropriate. The fighting was short-lived but atrocities furthered the rift between South Ossetia and Georgia.

In 2008 fighting flared up again. A quick cease-fire was announced but Georgian troops rolled in right before the cease-fire was supposed to come into effect. They did this, according to Georgian sentiments because of a growing number of Russian military troops and vehicles in the region. In the attack on Tskhinvali a number of Russian peacekeepers were killed. The day after Russia came into the region and steamrolled the Georgian forces. As this was happening, Russia entered into Georgia proper by way of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia and Russia came to a cease-fire, but South Ossetia was left as a de facto independent state. Unfortunately though the capital of Tskhinvali was left in ruins and nearly 40,000 people had been killed or displaced by the short war. Today, South Ossetia operates as its own independent state and efforts to rebuild the capital are underway, albeit slowly.

A brief roundup of Nagorno-Karabakh

Nagorno-Karabakh is another one of those autonomous regions in Europe that is a de facto independent nation that is not fully recognized by other nations. In fact Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is only recognized by three other nations, each of which has recognition problems of their own. The reason for this is because both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim the territory for their own nation.

The ancient history of Nagorno-Karabakh has been covered here in the blog twice as the Kura Araxes culture here and here, so we´ll focus more on what happened after this prehistory. There are some legends surrounding the region. Armenian myths claim that the area was first settled by the progeny of Noah. Then in the 5th century AD a prince was appointed by an Armenian king to run the territory for Armenia. During this period the region suffered from frequent invasions by the Persians and then the Armenians would claim it back. This went on for quite some time until the Mongols and Tartars ending up conquering all of the Caucuses. Nagorno-Karabakh became a semi autonomous region under the Mongols for a few centuries before the Arabs and Persians came into control it. Then it was a nealry autonomous region under Persia. The Christianity of the Armenians however seemed to continue unabated through all of this Muslim control. But, many of the Christian Armenians were displaced and moved into other parts of the Persian Empire. This left the area to the mostly Azerbaijani Tartars.

In the early 19th century the region became part of the Russian Empire. Numerous Armenians migrated back to the region from Persia where they had lived for centuries. This population swell of Armenian Christians tipped the scales so that the region became overwhelmingly Armenian and Christian rather than Azerbaijani and Muslim. Friction would soon arise and after a century of Russian rule conflict brokeout between the Muslim Tartars and Armenian Christians. Within a decade though the Russian Empire was broken up as the Soviets came to power.As the Soviets consolidated power Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1920 to1921.In 1921 the Armenians defeated the Azerbaijani forces, but in the same year the Bolsheviks siezed power in Armenia.

After the Soviets had seized firm enough control in Moscow, they retook the Caucuses including Nagorno-Karabakh. To gain support in Armenia the Bolsheviks promised that Nagorno-Karabakh and a few other predominately ethnic Armenia enclaves within Azerbaijan would fall under Armenian rule within the Soviet Union. But, the Bolsheviks were duplicitous and Nagorno-Karabakh became an autonomous region under Azerbaijani control. From 1921 to 1991, under Soviet rule, ethnic tensions mounted as more and more Azerbaijani settlers moved into the region. The ethnic Armenians in the region resented this turn of events. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent states, war broke out between the two over the region.

The war was bloody and consisted of tons of mass ethnic migrations in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. The end result of the war was that nearly all of the ethnic Azerbaijani were driven from Nagorno-Karabakh and ethnic Armenians were driven from various places within Azerbijan. Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is predominately Armenian and they control a small strip of land to connect Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Azerbaijan still claims it as part of their nation. Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region are still raw and conflict could escalate at any point.

Prehistoric Nagorno-Karabakh, The Kura-Araxes

As we continue to study the history of some of Europe's disputed states we return to the Caucasus in the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Currently Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory claiming independence from Azerbaijan. But, way back when in Prehistory the region was the center of a prehistoric culture that spread out from Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey and four Russian subjects: Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia. It is known today as the Kura-Araxes culture, corresponding to the two rivers that flank its homeland.

The Kura-Araxes culture lasted from roughly 3400 BC - 2000 BC. It began as a humble type of civilization subsisting on some farming and mostly cattle. They original built small, round homes that were often grouped together behind some sort of earth and stone fortifications. Hey, this in the neighborhood of most of the projected Urheimats so they were eventually going to have to deal with those violent Indo-Europeans. You can understand why they built walls.

But, their humble beginnings would give way to a much more lavish lifestyle as the Kura-Araxes people became great traders. They traded with Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. There is even evidence that some offshoots of the Kura-Araxes ended up in the Levant after the fall of the ancient Akkadian Empire. What they had to offer had to pretty good considering some of their artifacts have been found flung between modern Israel and Chechnya in Russia. So what did they bring to the table?

First and foremost they brought pottery. Their pottery was super distinctive. It was black and red with geometric ornamentation all over it. They also produced wheeled-carts which when they weren't hauling awesome pottery to trade all over the Ancient Near East and Eastern Europe were probably being traded themselves. Eventually the Kura-Araxes would take up metallurgy and became pretty good smiths. They worked with copper, gold, silver, tin and bronze, adding metal goods to their already impressive arsenal of trade goods.

We've mentioned the Kura-Araxes before way back on May 6, but I thought since we're studying some disputed regions I'd mention them again. But, we've learned quite a bit about history since May so rather than regurgitating what I wrote earlier I thought I'd add something new. Although we're focusing on the History of Europe it's impossible to look at Europe in complete isolation, especially when you're dealing with either the Mediterranean Cultures or the Caucuses. This is because there was massive cultural exchange between these European Cultures and the Asiatic ones. The Kura-Araxes were intercontinental traders and it might be good to mention some of their Asiatic dealings. As you can see from the map above the Kura-Araxes culture dealt with some heavyweights of the Ancient Near East including the Assyrians, the Hurrians and the Hittites, not to mention all the other unlisted Mesopotamian giants.

Black pot, geometric designs to adorn it. Evidence or conjecture?

The traders would have gone up and down the established trade routes and brought a whole bunch of wealth to the Empires of the day, Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Mittani, etc., etc. But as the traders went along the routes they might have become familiar with the areas and liked it enough to eventually settle down. Often in this period we talk about how Asiatic cultures (and Egypt) often influenced later European ones. But, the Kura-Araxes might have flipped the script and decided to settle down in modern day Israel and become the culture known as the Khirbet Kerak. Khirbet Kerak is located on the Sea of Galilee and was established sometime around 3000 BC and lasted for about a thousand years (the end of the Kura-Araxes culture). The site is similar enough to Kura-Araxes cultures that have led some to believe that it was a trading colony at the far end of their world, but still within their world. Basically, some people think that this Caucuses culture settled down in Israel for about a thousand years before abandoning the site in 2000 BC. There's similar pottery, similar circular homes and fortifications that could match the Caucuses sites. But, other than that it is conjectural. Although it isn't known for certain, it's interesting to see that European might have had a big influence on the Near East as the Near East most certainly had a big influence in Europe at the time.

A very brief history of Modern Abkhazia

The next few weeks of Podcasts (which I think I said would start on Sunday, but our episode days will be Fridays not Sundays, that way every one will have something to look forward to) will be focusing on the end of the Prehistoric period and moving into a bit more of the historical period. Of course, it's not the historical period per se, but we'll be entering into the Bronze Age and have a much better trove of information to draw on. However, this week on the Blog we're going to be focusing on some of the "states" of Europe that are either not fully recognized internationally or are dependencies of other nations with enough amounts of autonomy to warrant a Label by this humble Blog. We'll start with Abkhazia.

Abkhazia is located in the Northwestern corner of Georgia. I say this because Georgia feels that Abkhazia is part of its territory, not because I am backing up Georgia's claim to the territory. I'm neither backing it or denying it. But, Abkhazia is only recognized by a number of nations as being its own state, three tiny island nations in the Pacific, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Russia. Russia's recognition of Abkhazia caused Georgia to claim that Abkhazia is a "Russian occupied territory". Tensions between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia have been at a boiling point since the break up of the Soviet Union. In a war from 1992-93 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Abkhazia went to war with Georgia. The result of the war was a victory to the Russian and Armenian backed Abkhazia over Georgia. During and after the war 200,000 - 250,000 ethnic Georgians living within the territory of Abkhazia were either killed or forced into mass exodus in what has been labeled an ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia. In 1998 some ethnic Georgians within Abkhazia started a guerrilla war against Abkhazia that officially lasted for about six days, but continued into the early 2000's.

I wondered if this conflict was limited to Modern European History or if it had deeper roots. I researched to find more information on this breakaway region and scantly recognized state. The origin of the Abkhaz people is somewhat disputed, as could be guessed because of the ongoing conflict. The 1st Century Greek writer Strabo labeled the primary group living in the current region of Abkhazia as the Zygii. But in the late 8th century a kingdom popped up on the map known as the Kingdom of the Abkhazes when it gained independence from the Byzantine Empire. It lasted for a little over a 120 years before being married into and absorbed by the larger medieval Kingdom of Georgia. The Georgians and Abkhaz people seemed to get along well enough in the early medieval period because they teamed up against the Seljuk Turks and expelled them from the Georgian lands. However, by the 15th century, when the Kingdom of Georgia erupted into the civil war that would be its eventual downfall, the Principality of Abkhazia, a Georgian feudal entity, sided against Georgia. Abkhazia would go on to become a relatively autonomous part of the Ottoman and the Russian empires before becoming a full fledged part of the Russian Empire in 1864.

But it was under the Soviets when things flared up again to take a turn for the worst. During the Soviet era Abkahzia was under the dominion of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Many of the Abkhazia elite became dismayed at the "Georgianization" of Abkhazia and demanded to be transfered from Georgian dominion to Russian dominion as many as three times, in 1957, 1967 and again in 1978. This seems to be a continuing strife that ripples through the Northern Caucus regions as both South Ossetia (another Georgian breakaway region) and Abkhazia continue to look toward Russia as Georgia begins to look increasingly westward. So, there you have it, a very brief history of the modern Abkhazia and its historical reference points.

The Incredible Khvalynsk Culture of the Lower Volga

Late Khvalynsk?

Ok, it's been one week since my last blog post and one week since the release of Episode 6 of the History of Europe Podcast the Rise of the Indo-Europeans. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to get around to producing another podcast tonight to release in time. Fortunately though, the stuff not going into the podcast is totally blogworthy and we shan't waste the opportunity to post them forthwith.

The Khvalynsk Culture didn't quite make the cut into the podcast though their successor culture the Yamna did. This is because they are a pre-Proto-Indo-European culture that sits on the outskirts of the eastern most front of the Europe that we're covering here on the blog and with the podcast. But my failure to include them in the podcast is not an indication of their unworthiness. It is quite the contrary, it is my own shortcomings as a speaker to get an audience as excited about the Khvalynsk as their history demands.

The Khvalynsk Culture was located in the Saratov Oblast, famous for among many others, the Billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich. So, it is conceivable that this 5th millennium BC culture would in a roundabout way produce the owner of the Champions League winners. Or, this is sensationalism aimed solely at search engine optimization. You can make the call...

Here you can see the difference
between the earlier Khvalynsk and
later Sredny Stog cultures that
occupied Western Russia in the
Chalcolithic period of European
History.

Shameless tactics aside the Khvalynsk Culture was fascinating. The Khvalynsk were early forerunners in the use of domesticated horses and burying their important dead in kurgans. If you remember from previous posts or are a listener to the podcast, you'll know that a kurgan is a burial mound made popular  with the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. The burial of their dead also marks a transition from an egalitarian society to a more stratified one. Some of the graves contain far better arrays of grave goods than others, but their was yet to be a special marker for a chief or ruler of a community. They were also early adopters of the metal technologies. Many of their graves have metal ornamental jewelry. Conspicuously absent though are metal tools or weapons, suggesting that either the Khvalynsk had not discovered the incredible usage of metal, were only advanced enough smiths to make jewelry or imported the metal objects from other cultures surrounding it.

Marija Gimbutas, the archeologist we relied on heavily for episode 6 of the podcast, visited the Khvalynsk site herself and denoted a grave she believed to be a chief. This grave contained a number of highly crafted flint weapons and a number of beads. In addition to the beads there were the teeth of a number of wild animals, some of which are difficult to extract. The difficulty in which these teeth were cut out of an animal after death suggests that some of the teeth might have been valuable enough as trade items. Whether or not they served as a proto-currency though is impossible to tell. The Khvalynsk would eventually devolve and reemerge as the Yamna culture and to a lesser extent, the Sredny Stog Culture, both of which episode 7 of the podcast will delve into.

The Early Days of Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is a city of about 200,000 people, making it Bulgaria's sixth most populated city. Officially, Stara Zagora got its name in 1875, but the city's history stretches back at least 8,000 years. In the meantime the city has had a host of names depending on who was in control. The city was held by Neolithic peoples, who if they had a name for the area weren't kind enough to jot it down for us. Prior to the Roman arrival the city was held variously by Greeks and Thracians, who called the city Beroe. In 106 AD the Roman provincial city was founded and named Augusta Traiana. Some time in the 4th century the city was renamed Beroe and was a center for Christianity in the Balkans. That named lasted until the city caught the eye of the Byzantine princess Irene, and the city became known as Irinopolis. When the Bulgarians broke from the Byzantines the city was re-re-re-re-refounded (give or take 2 re's) as Vereya (or Bereya or Beroya, presumably after the earlier name Beroe). As a city in the Bulgarian Empire, it was an important financial center. In a later installment of the various Bulgarian kingdoms of the Middle Ages it was called Boruy. When the Ottoman Empire captured it, the city was called Eski Zagara, which means the Old Fortress of Zagora. When the Bulgarians gained their independence the city was renamed again to Zheleznik, but was shortly renamed Stara Zagora. During this shuffling of names, one of the areas of the city called the Bereketska Mound was continually inhabited from about 6000 BC - 1200 AD. The Bereketska Mound is just one a whole treasure chest full of archeological sites in one of Europe's longest inhabited city.

The Bereketska Mound is about one of a hundred or so mounds in the area that contain burial items dating back to the Neolithic period. The Azmashka Tomb was one of the earliest sites in Southeastern Europe to receive a full archeological treatment. It has produced a wealth of data and artifacts, including the Venus Figurine to the right. Stara Zagora is also host to the Metchi Kladenets, one of, if not the earliest copper mine in Europe. The copper that was mined there produced copper tools that were traded all over the region, some traveling as far north as the Volga River in Russia. In addition to all these Neolithic Artifacts, there are great collections of Classical Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval Bulgarian, Russian and Ottoman artifacts, but we'll save these for later.

Ten bucks says I'll get more clicks on this Neolithic post than any other

Modern Descendants of the Uralic Language groups mentioned
at the bottom. This is a blatant attempt at a bait-and-switch
marketing scheme.

For the ten-thirteen podcast listeners eagerly awaiting the next installment of the The History of Europe podcast allow me to ensure you that the Neolithic part one podcast will be coming soon. I had planned on recording it today and sending it out, but there is a party beneath my apartment and I can't get good quality sound at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow, but plan on getting both parts of the Neolithic podcast within the week. As I am unable to release a podcast today, I plan on unleashing a slew of prehistoric cultures that didn't make the cut onto the blog. Here is one such unleashed item (actually its two rolled into one)

The Pitted-Ware Culture and the Comb Ceramic Culture were precursors to the Chalcolithic Corded Ware Culture. This culture will get a whole lotta love on the Chalcolithic podcast, which may or may not be a multi-part podcast. But, for now we'll focus on the Neolithic Pitted-Ware and Comb Ceramic cultures that preceded it.

Pitted-Ware Sculpture example

The Pitted-Ware Culture lasted from roughly 3200 BC - 2300 BC in areas of Northeast Denmark, Southern Norway, Sweden and on the Åland Islands, a Swedish archipelago under the rule of the Finnish government. The culture is named "Pitted-Ware" because the pottery that they created had horizontal rows of pits or circles pressed into the pottery. Other than that this widespread Scandinavian Neolithic culture was tied together by their use of nets and propensity for hunting marine animals like seals, whales and porpoises. They used basically the same structure of tools, though their composition varied on what materials were readily available. 

The Comb Ceramic Culture was a bit more far-flung than the Pitted-Ware Culture. It stretched across the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway and the islands of around these countries down into the Baltic Region of Poland and other Baltic states. The Narva Culture of Estonia was under the umbrella of this overarching culture status. We talked about the Narva in the Neolithic podcasts. It was a bit older than the Pitted-Ware culture and lasted a bit longer, ranging from around 4200 BC - 2000 BC before being taken over by the Corded Ware culture we'll spend some time on in the Chalcolithic podcast. 

This silly looking bike rack is located in Poland as a cultural
nod to the Comb-Ceramic Culture that existed there around
4000 BC. While this modern shaped comb probably wasn't
the exact prototype to the Comb Ceramic Culture, it was a
comb similar to this (on a smaller scale) that was used to
create the distinctive markings on this culture's pottery.

Like the Pitted-Ware Culture, the Comb Ceramic Culture was a hunter-gather group that made pottery. Its distinctive trait was lines made by what appear to be combs rather than the horizontal pits in the Pitted-Ware Culture. Other than that these two cultures were similar in their economical makeup. When the Comb Ceramic Culture was located near the sea they were maritime. When they were further inland they hunted. But, like the Pitted-Ware Culture they were nomadic and chased down their meals. They traveled around and built semi-nomadic settlements and stayed in oversized teepees. They made stone tools out of the locally abundant slate and quartz. When there was spare time they liked to paint in caves and make figurines. These figurines were similar to the Pitted-Ware culture in construction techniques but often depicted land animals like moose and deer, whereas the Pitted-Ware Culture depicted maritime animals like seals and porpoises in their statuary art.

These two scandinavian cultures get little to no play in the coming Neolithic podcasts, but shouldn't be written off in importance. They served as the basis for the far reaching and influential Corded Ware culture of the Chalcolithic. For this reason they are getting some love here on the blog.

Both the Pitted-Ware and Comb Ceramic culture likely spoke an early version of Uralic languages. Uralic languages have an incredibly large breadth of territory where their modern offshoots are spoken, including parts of Finland and Estonia (Finnic branch), Hungary (Hungarian branch) and places in Norway, Sweden and Finland that speak a local Sami language (Sami branch). There are a number of branches of the Uralic languages in Russia as well, including the Khanty, Mansi, Mari, Mordvinic and Samoyedic languages. In conclusion, the Pitted-Ware and Comb Ceramic Cultures have achieved boss status long after being taken into the wider Corded Ware Culture. But, not everyone has realized this boss status until now..

Ah to be swallowed up…

Ah to be swallowed… the importance of the Dnieper-Donets Culture, Samara Culture & Khvalynsk Culture was that they would eventually be spit up...

The Dnieper-Donets Culture was a culture based on hunting and geathering, but eventually would come around to farming. This makes the Dnieper-Donets a culture that straddled the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods of European history. The Dnieper-Donets appares to be your average, run of the mill Meso-Neo transitional culture except for the fact of who they appear to have evolved into. The Dnieper-Donets appear to be a precursor to the later Yamna Culture, with the Yamna adopting a number of Dnieper-Donets traits. This puts the Dnieper-Donets culture as a centerpiece to the Kurgan Hypothesis of the Indo-European invasion and subsequent takeover of Europe. So, it’s possible that this incredibly primitive, even by Neolithic standards, culture is a precursor to most European language speakers and genetic frameworks.

The Samara Culture was a Russian contemporary of the Belorussian Dnieper-Donets Culture (Volga vs. Dnieper River basins) but had adopted the use of copper, making it a Chalcolithic culture. In addition to having the use of the handy metal copper, the Samara Culture was superior to their southeasterly neighbors in that they had domesticated horses. Other than that, the two cultures were very similar. Undoubtedly though the Samara Culture elite looked down on their stone age counterparts from their high standing as early metal tech adopters. But, their own self-righteousness was unimportant when the Yamna Culture came along to swallow them up. But, that act of swallowing ensured that the Samara Culture would go on to great things as the Indo-Europeans would emanate from this area to become masters of Europe (again, based on the Kurgan Hypothesis).

Lastly, the Khvalynsk Culture was another Russian Chalcolithic culture that served as a basis for the later and vastly more important Yamna Culture. In fancy terms the Khvalynsk is referred to as a proto-Kurgan culture, but that is simply jargon and antagonistic towards basic understanding of European prehistory. Basically whoever coined the phrase proto-Kurgan was looking to compensate for something when they were seeking approval from academic circles. But, like the Dnieper-Donets of Poland and Belarus and their Russian counterparts the Samara, the Khvalynsk would be swallowed deep by the Yamna Culture and eventually spit out all over Europe if Marija Gimbutas, the author of the Kurgan Hypothesis was right.

Kura-Araxes and Maykop mop up

As we mentioned on our last blog post, the Caucusus got excluded from the Neolithic podcasts coming up in the next two weeks primarily because their development was so entrenched with contemporary Mesopotamia. We'll focus on two last Neolithic cultures from this area (that eventually become Chalcolithic and Bronze Age cultures) and then ensure that the Caucusus gets some dap in the podcasts from now on.

First we'll talk about the Kura-Araxes Culture that existed in the southern Caucusus from around 3400 BC - 2000 BC. The culture is known by two very distinct things, both of which were so highly sought after that they spanned a large swathe of the ancient world.

First, they made very distinctive pottery. Like most early cultures we often identify a group by its style of pottery. The Kura-Araxes people made distinctive pottery that was painted with red and black geometric designs and contained Nakhichevan-type lugs, which you can surely see in these pottery shards? As far as I can tell the Nakhichevan-type lug is that circular thing you see on some of the pieces of pottery that is done in a way that is distinctive to the Kura-Araxes Culture. The pieces you see here on the left were found at a site in Iran, a place where the Kura-Araxes culture did not live.

Spear found
in Gegharot,
Armenia.

Second, as they became more settled in the Caucusus regions and pushed north into the present day Russian territories of Chechnya and Dagestan, they began to work copper. They worked it real good. Then they pushed on people. Copper made tools that are distinct to the Kura-Araxes have been found as far north as the Volga, Dnieper, and Seversky Donets rivers. The copperworks have been found as far south as Syria, Palestine, Israel and into central Turkey.

So how did the Kura-Araxes' wares get from all the way north in Russia down into modern day Irsrael? Two ways. First, the Kura-Araxes had extensive trade networks allowing them to spread their goods to a far flung field. Second, they invaded areas. They began to expand their borders outward. That expansion however was abruptly stopped by someone who had been making his way into Europe for some time, but decided to begin its wave after wave of advancement at about this time that would forever change Europe.

But, the Kura-Araxes were not the only players in the Caucusus at this time. They were basically contemporaneous with the Maykop or Maikop Culture (ca. 3700 BC - 2500 BC). They Maykop culture was located in the Ukraine, Southern Russia and the Northern Caucusus. It was highly influenced by the Kura-Araxes culture beneath it and another minor culture to its north, the Novotitorovka Culture.The Novotitorovka culture was a part of the wider Yamna culture, which is very important and we'll attempt to give that a quick summary here as to why.

The Kurgan Hypothesis, which I'm studying a bit more intensely to get a better grasp on and will let you know about later states that the European languages and cultures that we're familiar with today have a common ancestry. Under the kurgan school of thought that culture is the Yamna culture and its predecessors. So under this widely accepted theory of European ancestry the Kura-Araxes and Maykop were the last non-Proto-European groups living in the Caucusus before the Indo-European invasion. The Indo-Europeans brought a pretty different lifestyle to Europe. Some would claim, including the developer of the Kurgan Hypothesis that the change was as drastic a shift from a peacenik, hippy matriarchal society to a warmongering man's world. I think that might be overdoing it a bit, but I'm not a feminist.

While the Kura-Araxes were definitely tied into the south with roots and offshoots in Mesopotamia, the origins of the Maykop are a bit fuzzier. They were either a) indigenous pre-Indo-European Caucasians, b) Mesopotamians or proto-Assyrians who migrated north like the Kura-Araxes, or c) part of the wider Yamna Culture. We're unsure of their origins because they exhibit both Kura-Araxes traits and Indo-European ones. Under the Kurgan Hypothesis they were Indo-Europeans who did not have the willpower to impose their culture on the south, but were rather weak Indo-Europeans that had become Kura-Araxesified. Either way, they produced some incredible metal working, but unlike the Kura-Araxes culture that dabbled and innovated in copper making skills, the Maykop were a refined people and moulded using silver and gold.

The Maykops produced an incredible trove of silver and gold items. Some of which you see here. They have also been called a possible first culture to use the wheel. That alone would make them a culture worth noting...

The Shigir Idol

The Shigir Idol is the world's oldest wooden carving. It was made sometime around 7500 BC for some unknown reason. I joked on the podcast that it might have been made as a coat and hat rack. I don't actually believe that in case you were wondering.

Any way the idol is unique because we don't have a lot of these old wooden sculptures because wood doesn't hold up as well their stone counterparts. This one was preserved in some peat and found in the late 19th century in the Ural Mountains. The picture on the left is how the idol looks now, preserved in a glass case and on display in a museum in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The picture beneath is a drawing made of the sculpture by the early 20th century archeologist Vladimir Tolmachev. This is a fascinating piece of early Russian history and gives us a glimpse of what their religious sentiment was about. Unfortunately though, many of the idols created in pre-Christian Russia were lost or destroyed during the Christianization. So we don't know too much about the religion, only what we can glean from the few remaining statues.

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.

The Duplicitous Dubrovnikians

Today, I was in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. First, allow me to plug this delightful seaside town. Cabarete is among my favorite places that I have ever been. Even then it is a bit of a backwater, it is incredibly cosmopolitan. I stayed at the Kite Beach Inn, which was unbelievably affordable, well kept and fantastically run. The place is owned by someone from Chicago, but currently run by an Italian couple and they were delightful. We stayed there for two nights for under $65 in an air conditioned room. It is among the best places I've stayed in Cabarete. The only drawback is to the hotel is that it is a bit removed from the center of the town where our favorite places are. However, because of its boonies status, we found this incredible breakfast nook next to the Dare2fly Kite School. The breakfast nook was run by a Yugoslavian refugee that fled to the Dominican Republic after she and her family fled Belgrade after a bombing in 2000. 

The breakfast was excellent. It was the first good bagel I've had since I was in Brooklyn in 2011. As we were leaving the place though I mentioned that I might be going on a honeymoon to Split, Croatia because of its history. She however suggested that we go to Dubrovnik, as it was in her estimation, one of the most gorgeous cities in the world. Interested, I checked the place out and saw that it had a fascinating history. So without further ado, here is the brief history of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is currently a Croatian city on the Adriatic coast. There are a couple of theories as to when it was founded. The older theory suggests that it was founded sometime in the 7^th century AD by some refugees. However, another theory suggests that the city is much older and was founded sometime prior to the BC/AD switchover by Greek sailors who would have likely made it a port between two other Greek settlements in the area, Budva and Korčula. This alternate theory is boosted by the presence of a Byzantine basilica from the 8^th century that was large enough to suggest that Dubrovnik was quite populous in its time. It would have been unlikely to grow so rapidly in an hundred years to warrant such a large church.

If the latter theory is to be believed the ancient Greek settlement would have fallen into the hands of the Roman Empire during the conquest of Dalmatia and then became part of the Ostrogothic kingdom upon the fall of the Western Empire. From there it seems to have been protected by the Byzantine Empire in the east and grew to a respectable maritime power in the region. But, another more famous maritime power decided that this little city could not be allowed to grow into a more serious threat. Venice began as early as 948 AD, though with no success. Venice wouldn’t give up on this though and eventually took over the city and its lands in 1205 during the fourth crusade.

Venice ruled over Dubrovnik for about 150 years. When the city finally broke free they became the Republic of Ragusa. Being a smallish kingdom they searched for a big brother to keep them safe. This led them into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Ragusa remained free, but paid some cash to the Ottomans for protection. This fended off the Venetians. It also paid off some dividends. Ragusa got special trade permissions in the Ottoman Empire and did all of the Ottoman’s business along the Adriatic Sea. The Republic became quite wealthy and was a viable alternative and fierce rival of Venice.

It was after it broke free from Venice when it tried its hands at the double game, playing both sides against the middle. Dubrovnik looked initially to the Hungarians for some muscle to back them up. Then, to make sure that Venice wouldn’t try any of its old tricks, the Republic of Ragusa cozied up to the Ottoman Empire, declaring their allegiance to the Sultan. This arrangement worked well for a while, but as the Ottomans pushed to far into Europe it made the Hapsburgs quite cantankerous. The Austrians got their crew together, including Venice and began to push back. For a little while the duplicitous Dubrovnikians found themselves paying homage both the Emperor of Austria and the Sultan of the Ottomans. After the Austrians and their allies defeated the Ottomans and the Ottomans had to give up a large chunk of their eastern European holdings Venice began to make a power play at Ragusa. Venice began to grab up all the land surrounding the republic, which would have given them a chance to attack Ragusa from both land and sea. But, Dubrovnik played another master stroke, giving some of their land to the defeated Ottomans to build a buffer between themselves and Venice. As much as the Austrians loved to quarrel with the Ottomans they weren’t about to start a new war so that Venice could snuff out their old rivals.

The double-dealings of the Ragusans could not save them forever though. After the end of the Austrian – Ottoman conflict simmered down a bit, the rest of Europe decided to duke it out over the 1700s. Ragusa however decided to stay neutral. They used their neutrality to trade between enemies and this somehow worked really well. Until of course Napoleon came along and screwed everything up for everyone. Napoleon pushed down into the Balkans and began to gobble up all of the cities and forts along the way. The Russians who were in the area came up to Dubrovnik and asked to use their very defensible city against the onslaught of Napoleon’s forces. Ragusa balked and the Russians besieged the city. But, it would be the French who eventually occupied the city. Dubrovnik would become a big fish in a small pond as a part of the Illyrian Provinces of the French Empire. But, Napoleon would have his Waterloo, which for Napoleon actually was Waterloo and the Republic of Ragusa would be folded into the Austrian-Hungarian Empire as the Kingdom of Dalmatia. The Hapsburgs decided however that Dubrovnik had been a seat of power for long enough. The capital of the newly created puppet kingdom would be Zadar. Dubrovnik would fall out of fashion and a number of the city’s noble families would move away. Dubrovnik would last in the Austrian Empire until 1918 when it was transferred into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. This little political experiment wouldn’t last and the city would become a part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia would go from kingdom to socialist republic to bloody civil war and in the end, Dubrovnik would wind up being in the modern state of Croatia.

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.