Balkan genomes trace the rise/fall of Roman Empire's frontier, migrations
phys.org
phys.org
It’s a shame early Slavs didn’t have writing. When we got Christianized later, it destroyed much of our older culture and it would be cool to know more about those roots. We know the eastern slavs had vampires and werewolves, did we? We know old folk tales mention faeries and kings sleeping in caves for centuries and even the Greek Argonauts, but it’s all very fragmented. It would be nice to know more.
A lot of our (Slovenian, probably Croatian) folk tales mix with even older tales from the celts who used to live in the area. It’s all very fascinating and largely lost because first the Romanization of the Celts and later the Christianization of the Slavs were both quite aggressive.
Another funfact: The oldest wooden wheel was found in my home town -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana_Marshes_Wheel
A lot of the older generation are trying to emphasize our differences and even make wild claims that I won't repeat here. Those borders were drawn by people who are very similar.
Also, after the Justinian plague (541–549 AD) a lot of the local population was decimated, hence the new slavic arrivals found it easier/space to move to the country side (initially as a trickle of immigration in the late 6th century, then eventually as settlers/invaders later in the early 7th century).
Always has been. You think there was such a thing as “French” a thousand years ago? Are people from Munich really that different than Vienna? Do folks in Geneva really differ deeply from people in Lyon?
Europe is very small. From Kyev, capital of Ukraine, to Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, it’s about the same distance as San Francisco to Los Angeles. Yet it crosses 3 countries.
Kings and governments come and go, but the people stay. My great grandma, for example, lived in 4 different countries without leaving her village.
For another US reference point: the entire European Union is about the same size as Alaska.
EU is a lot bigger than Alaska and there's a lot of Europe it doesn't cover.
In the context of European "genetics" keeping Russia and Ukraine out of Europe is basically non-sense considering the Slavs kind of come from there :)
This article is about analysing the genetics of people living in Europe, so the entire continent must be considered and "historically" Europe extends until west Russia.
If you consider only the European Union, you kind of exclude the British, who share a lot with the rest of the continent.
One is a bit over 500 km and the other is about 1300 km. It's not meaningfully 'about the same distance'. It's an enourmous distance to hit only three European countries, though, you can do this in much less time/distance driving around nearby Trieste or Bratislava.
Here’s a more fun context instead: after college I went on a roadtrip and covered 13 countries in about 4000 miles.
Empirically/anecdotally I bet quite a few people could with 90%+ accuracy pick a (third-generation) Iberian vs Frank vs Polack vs Scandi out of a lineup just by physical features
Alternatively take a reasonably deep look at American (North or South) indigenous tribal societies- the empirical history is thinner there but similar conclusions
If they have the same haircut, tan and clothes? Highly doubtful...
I guessed, and got 7 of 8 correct. (The one I missed was Sardinian)
Looking at a larger, but still relatively closely connected region, magnifies those differences further: https://site.nevgen.org/2020/05/05/autosomal-pca-charts-of-e...
if governance were a technical field (which it is)
that idea would be like a theorem
the remaining puzzle is who is really "ruling" the balkans?
Maybe Churchill?
I've driven by car from Bucharest to Methoni (at the South-Western tip of the Peloponnese) this past autumn and early on during the trip I started counting the battle-places I was passing by: Giurgiu and the 1812 war between Tsarist Russia and the Ottomans, Pleven and the 1878 war between the same Tsarist Russia and the Ottomans, driving down towards Thessaloniki I was thinking about the cemeteries of Western WW1 soldiers located nearby, I spent my night somewhere between Kozani and Ioannina, in Northern Greece, which had been a very active front in the Greek Civil War, next day I passed close to Missolonghi, passed on the magnificent bridge at Patras close to where the Lepanto battle had taken place, and then on to the Peloponnese and Methoni itself. But not before passing close to the ancient Old Navarino castle nearby Pylos, the same Pylos where the naval Battle of Pylos took place during the Peloponnesian War, shortly followed by the Battle of Sphacteria. And Methoni itself was the location of three battles [1] involving the Venetians and the Ottomans.
And then, on my way back, I visited the exceptional Mystras Archeological Site [2], seeing Western Gothic architecture as a part of the Byzantine/East-Roman complex, in the middle of the Peloponnese, was really a very cool experience, highly recommend it.
Btw, speaking of the Slavs and the Southern Peloponnese and Mystras, the nearby mountains had been inhabited by this Slavic tribe back in the day, the Melingoi [3], I hadn't know that before physically visiting those places
> The Melingoi or Milingoi (Greek: Μηλιγγοί) were a Slavic tribe that settled in the Peloponnese in southern Greece during the Middle Ages.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Modon
Although I'm not sure if this isn't because Europe has more written history than the other places.
What does that even mean? It wasn't any different than the Roman empire in the 300s in that regard.