The post will be about the historiographical aspect of the origin of the Croats and Serbs. The text, to get some basic information, will be cited from few generally informative Wikipedia articles which statements already have references to specific reliable sources (to not link them here).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_hypotheses_of_the_Croats (current revision in work since March 2015)
White Croats (current revision in work since January 2016)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Croatia (current revision in work since March 2015)
Also advise for basic information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Slavs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Slavs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbs
When is mentioned the origin of the Croats (Hrvati) and Serbs (Srbi), should be clearly distinguished what is meant by specific ethnonym: a) the origin of the Slavic tribe which arrived in the Middle Ages b) the origin of the modern Slavic nation.
In the case of present-day Croatian nation it could be said that several components or phases influenced its ethnogenesis (according to mainstream scholarship):
- the indigenous prehistoric component which dates from Stone Age, before 40,000 years, and the younger Neolithic culture like Danilo dated 4700-3900 BC, and Eneolithic culture like Vučedol dated 3000 and 2200 BC.
- the protohistoric component, which includes ancient people like Illyrians, the Dalmatae and Liburnians in coastal Croatia, and the Celts people, the Iapydes, Taurisci, Scordisci and Pannonii in continental Croatia. In the 4th century BCE there also existed several Greek colonies on the Adriatic islands and coast.
- the classical antiquity component caused by the Roman conquest, which included a mixture of ancient people and Rome's colonists and legionaries, as well presence of Iranian-speaking Iazyges.
- the Late Antiquity-Early Middle Ages component from the Migration Period, started by the Huns, and which in Croatia included in the first phase Visigoths and Suebi, who didn't stay for a long period of time, and Ostrogoths, Gepids and Langobards, who formed Ostrogothic Kingdom (493-553 AD). In the second phase occurred the great Slav migration, often associated with the Avars' activity.
- the final Middle Ages-Modern Age component, which included Franks, Magyars, Italians, Germans/Saxons. After the 14th century, because of the black death, and the late 15th century, because of Ottoman invasion, the Croatian ethnonym expanded from the historic Croatian lands to Western Slavonia, which caused Zagreb to become capital city of the Croatian Kingdom, and to become incorporated the population ethnogenesis of that territory. The Ottoman invasion caused many migrations of the people in the Balkans, in Croatia like those of Vlachs, but the upcoming world wars and social events also influenced the Croatian ethnogenesis.
The Slavic ancient homeland "Urheimat" have traditionally been placed in the Pripet marshes of Ukraine, or alternatively between the Bug and the Dniepr. In the 5th century Slavs are mentioned as living north of the Danube in the written sources from that era. From the 5th century, they supposedly spread outward in all directions. The Balkans was one of the regions which lay in the path of the expanding Slavs.
Regarding the Slavs mentioned by 6th-century Byzantine chroniclers, Florin Curta states that their 'homeland' was north of the Danube and not in the Belorussian-Ukrainian borderlands. He clarifies that their itinerant form of agriculture (they lacked the knowledge of crop rotation) "may have encouraged mobility on a micro regional scale". As a reaction to this economic isolation, and external threats caused political and military mobilisation. The Danube basin hypothesis is also supported by an early Medieval Slavic narrative source – Nestor's Chronicle.
The mention of the Croatian ethnonym Hrvat for a specific tribe before the 9th century is not yet completely confirmed. According to Constantine VII's work De Administrando Imperio (10th century), a group of Croats separated from the White Croats who lived in White Croatia and arrived by their own will, or were called by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610-641), to Dalmatia where they fought and defeated the Avars, and eventually organized their own principality. According to the legend preserved in the work, they were led by five brothers Κλουκας (Kloukas), Λόβελος (Lobelos), Κοσέντζης (Kosentzis), Μουχλώ (Mouchlo), Χρωβάτος (Chrobatos), and two sisters Τουγά (Touga) and Βουγά (Bouga), and their archon at the time was father of Porga, and they were baptized during the rule of Porga in the 7th century.
The old historical sources do not give an exact indication of the ethnogenesis of these early Croats. Constantine VII partially identifed Croats with Slavs. John Skylitzes in his work Madrid Skylitzes identified Croats and Serbs as Scythians. Nestor the Chronicler in his Primary Chronicle identified White Croats with West Slavs along Vistula river, with other Croats included in the East Slavic tribal union. The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja identifies Croats with the Goths who remained after king Totila occupied the province of Dalmatia. Similarly, Thomas the Archdeacon in his work Historia Salonitana mentions that seven or eight tribes of nobles, which he called "Lingones", arrived from present-day Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership.
It should be noted that some terms, like in the case of Scythians, Goths, Huns and so on, later became generic terms often used no matter of the tribal actual origin and identity(!). The exact etymological origin of the five brothers and two sisters (as well first known ruler) is not known, and varies between Turkic, Iranian and Slavic (see the article "White Croats").
Nestor the Chronicler in his Primary Chronicle (12th century) mentions them, depending on manuscript, as Horvate Belii or Hrovate Belii: "
Over a long period the Slavs settled beside the Danube, where the Hungarian and Bulgarian lands now lie. From among these Slavs, parties scattered throughout the country and were known by appropriate names, according to the places where they settled. Thus some came and settled by the river Morava, and were named Moravians, while others were called Czechs. Among these same Slavs are included the White Croats, the Serbs, and the Carinthians. For when the Vlakhs (Romans) attacked the Danubian Slavs, settled among them, and did them violence, the latter came and made their homes by the Vistula, and were then called Lyakhs (Lendians or Lechites). Of these same Lyakhs some were called Polyanians, some Lutichians, some Mazovians, and still others Pomorians". Other historical sources mention can be found in linked articles.
The epithets "white" for Croats and their homeland Croatia, as well "great" (megali) for Croatia, is in relation to the symbolism used in ancient times. The epithet "white" is related to the use of colors for cardinal directions among Eurasian people. It meant "Western Croats", in comparison to lands where they lived before. The epithet "great" signified "subsequently populated" land, but also "old, ancient, former" homeland for newly arrived Croats to the Roman province of Dalmatia.
Theories
The theories were sometime elaborated in non-scientific terms, supported by specific ideological intentions, and often by political and cultural intentions of the time. There four main theories about the origin of the Croats:
Pan-Slavic, is a theory which considers that Croats and Serbs, ie. all South Slavs belonged to the same group of pure Slavs who arrived in one migrational wave to "partially empty house". However, such a viewpoint was emphasized because of the political context and was the only officially accepted theory by the regime, and other theories or foreign elements in the ethnogenesis were usually ignored. The main problem with the theory was the fact that the Croatian (and Serbian) ethnonym could not be derived from the Slavic language.
Autochthonous-Slavic theory considers that the Slavs homeland was in the area of former Yugoslavia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round. If a Slavic migration occured, the actual number of Slavic settlers was small and that the autochthonous ethnic substratum was prevalent in the formation of the Croats. However, there several issues with such a view point. One is that a possible autochthonous majority completely adopted minority's culture and language, without any exact trace of autochthonous heritage. Theoretically, this scenario can only be explained with the possible distortion of cultural and ethnic identity of native Romanized population that happened after the fall of West Roman Empire, and that the new Slavic language and culture was seen as a prestigious idiom they had to, or wanted to accept. Archaeological evidence of burial graves and cemetery types indicate an uninterrupted continuity of traditions from late antiquity, reflecting a contiguous demographic spread that chronologically matches with the arrival of Slavic-speaking groups. There's still debate about it.
Without excluding that some Gothic segments could survive the collapse of Gothic Kingdom, is based on loose evidence. The main argument, about the ruling caste which was formed from the foreign non-Slavic warrior element, was the Gothic suffix mære (-mer, famous) found among the names of Croatian dukes on stone and written inscriptions, as well Slavic suffix -slav (slavan, famous), and that -mer eventually was changed with mir (peace), because the Slavs twisted the interpretation of the names according their language. Thus exist contradictory Ratimir, Trpimir, Zvonimir. The accounts from the late 12th and 13th work by Priest of Duklja and Thomas the Archdeacon, where Croats are identified with the Goths, can be easly reidentified with the Slavs, like in the case of seven or eight tribes of nobles, which he called "Lingones" (probably wrong transcription of a certain Slavic tribe, like Lendians), and arrived from present-day Poland, to the legend where the Croats were led by seven nobles (five brothers and two sisters).
It was initially developed by Otto Kronsteiner in 1978, on several rejected claims. The theory considers Avar (Mongoloid Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes from the Steppe, similar to the Huns) origin. Later developed by Walter Pohl, the mention of two sisters is interpreted as additional elements which joined the alliance "by the maternal line", and the symbolism of the number seven is often encountered in the steppe peoples. Pohl noted that the Kronsteiner's merit was that, instead of the previously usual "ethnic" ethnogenesis, he proposed a "social" one. As such, Croatian name would not be an ethnonym, but a social designation for a group of elite warriors which ruled over the conquered Slavic population on the Avar Khaganate's boundary, the designation eventually becoming an ethnonym imposed to the Slavic groups. He did not support Kronstenier's derivation, nor consider the etymology important as it is impossible to establish the ethnic origin of "original Croats", i.e. the social categories which carried the title of "Hrvat".
Iranian-Caucasian theory, dates to the 1797 and the doctoral dissertation by Josip Mikoczy-Blumenthal who, as the dissertation mysteriously disappeared in 1918 and was preserved only a short review, considered that Croats originated from Sarmatians who were descending from Medes in North-Western Iran. It is generally considered that the name of Croats - Hrvat/Horvat/Harvat, etymologically is not of Slavic origin, yet a borrowing from Iranian languages. It is considered that the ethnonym Hrvat is first attested on the two Tanais Tablets (
the father of the devotional assembly Horouathon and the son of Horoathu, while on the smaller inscription Horoathos, the son of Sandarz, the archons of the Tanaisians), founded in the Greek colony of Tanais in the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD, at the time when the colony was surrounded by Iranian-speaking Sarmatians. First Iranian tribes who lived on the shores of Sea of Azov were Scythians, who arrived there c. 7th century BCE. Around 4th century BCE they withdrew before the incursions of Sarmatians. In that area happened extensive Early Slavic and Iranian cultural and linguistical contacts.
From the 4th until 7th century, Slavs who lived in that area and to the West between Dniester and Dnieper (both of Iranian etymology) in the medieval sources are known as Antes (Iranian etymology). It is considered that White Croats were part of the Antes tribal polity who migrated to Galicia in the 3rd-4th century, under pressure by invading Huns and Goths. They lived there until the Antes were attacked by the Pannonian Avars in 560, and the polity was finally destroyed 602 by the same Avars. The theory is further explained with the Avar's destruction of Antes tribal polity in 602, and that the early Croats migration and subsequent war with Avars in Dalmatia (during the reign of Heraclius 610-641) can be seen as continuation of war between Antes and Avars.
The thesis was subsequently supported by Francis Dvornik, George Vernadsky, Roman Jakobson, Tadeusz Sulimirski, and Oleg Trubachyov among others. In 1985, Omeljan Pritsak considered early Croats a clan of Alan-Iranian origin which during the "Avarian pax" had frontiersman-merchant social role.
The hetereogenous composition of the Croatian legend in which are unusually mentioned two women leaders Touga and Bouga indicate what the actual archaeological findings confirmed - the existence of "warrior women" known as Amazons among the Sarmatians and Scythians. As such, Trubachyov tried to explain the original proto-type of the ethnonym from adjectives *xar-va(n)t (feminine, rich in women), which derives from the etymology of Sarmatians, the Indo-Aryan *sar-ma(n)t (feminine), in both Indo-Iran adjective suffix -ma(n)t/wa(n)t, and Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian word *sar- (woman), which in Iranian gives *har.
Another interpretation was given by the scholar Jevgenij Paščenko, according to whom under the ethnonym
Hrvati should not be necessary seen a specific or even homogeneous tribe, yet archaic religion and mythology of a heterogeneous group of people of Iranian origin or influence who worshiped the solar deity Hors (Sun, heavenly fire, force, war).
General consideration is that whether the early Croats have been Slavs who taken the name of Iranian origin or were ruled by Sarmatian elite caste, or were Slavicized Sarmatians, the remote Irano-Sarmatian elements or influences on the Croatian ethnogenesis cannot be entirely excluded.
However, following the Croatian ethnonym even further back in the past, in the the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE) as noted before, or certain
hurrwuhé and
hurâti in the alleged kingdom
Harauvatiya (2600-2323 BCE),
Hurátina (2843-2578 BCE),
Hurrwuhi-Ehelena (3520-3268 BCE) and
Hurrwúrtu (4360-3710 BCE), and some other names in between, are very problematic. Firstly, while researching couldn't find information on those names and other connections, seemingly are from outdated sources and misunderstood. Secondly, although the suggestive similarity, it is etymologically incorrect, for example the region Arachosia (
Harahuvatiš) in Indo-Iranian mean "one that pours into ponds", which derives from the name of (mythological) Sarasvati river. Thirdly, the genetic timeline doesn't abide with the Persian theory. Fourthly, following them to the Afghanistan-Pakistan and India, there's major departure from the evidence (and C's report) which is near Caucasus.
Croats and Serbs
Thus, while there is difficult to detect (see the article "White Croats") an exact Croatian tribe by name in pre-9th century sources, it is generally considered that the Croatian name can be followed from the Balkan where arrived in the c. 630s AD from the area of Bohemia-Galicia, where arrived from the East ie. city of Tanais ie. somewhere north of the Sea of Azov (north of Caucasus) in 2nd-3rd century AD. For other scholars ethnonym etymologies see "Name of Croatia".
The Serbs also arrived in the 630s AD to the Balkan from the area of Bavaria-Bohemia, probably both during the uprising of the Slavs led by the king Samo in between 631 and 658 AD (temporally and geographically suited as passage). The name of the Serbs is considered to be of better luck as is mentioned by Pliny the Younger in his work
Plinii Caecilii Secundi Historia naturalis from the first century AD (69–75), mentioned as
Serbi, who lived near the Sarmatian tribes, presumably on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; and the 2nd century (around 175 AD), the Egyptian scientist Claudius Ptolemy mentioned in his
Geography people named
Serboi or
Sirboi, who presumably lived in the north hinterland of the Caspian Sea (North-East from the Caucasus).
Conclusion
According to the latest scholars considerations, both tribes came from the territory known as Sarmatia, and their ethnonyms can be historically, linguistically and geographically related to the Iranian languages - ie. the Scythian language which belong to the Eastern Iranian languages. The Scythians (including Sarmatians and Alans, although some migrated to Great Britain during Roman times, or Spain after leaving the Huns alliance) although influental, were entirely assimilated by the Slavs (perhaps not including the Northern Baltic Slavs). The Iranian-Scythian heritage can be seen in some elements, as the ethnonyms and toponyms, vocabulary, for example some consider words for god (*bogъ), demon (*divъ), house (*xata), axe (*toporъ) and dog (*sobaka), but the extensive contacts cannot be proof for the many considered loanwords due to the general Indo-European and Sanskrit roots of the words. Possible matriarchy. The same usage of colors for cardinal directions (general feature of Eurasian nomads). The solar deities Hors and Simargl. Possibly the official titles like
župan,
ban,
gospodar, and many more.
The Iranian, was it ethnogenetical or ethnocultural influence, resulted with strong Slavic-speaking tribes of probably non-Slavic ethnonyms who managed to preserve their names in both Central-Eastern and Southern Europe until at least 20th century, becoming minorities and nations in Europe. With the arrival of those already heterogeneous tribes to the Balkan, there encountered other Slavs (who arrived before them in the 500s AD) and the indigenous population, probably hidden in the mountains. Why in the mountains? Because part of those populations were Romance speaking pastoralist communities (some later known as the Vlachs and Arbanasi) who lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle and geographically didn't need valleys for pasturage like the Slavs who were known for the agriculture (but it wasn't always the case). From that point on, started another and new chapter in ethnogenesis of the Croats and Serbs. The next chapter will discuss the genetics of humanity, and whether it can connect with these theories.
This will be interesting...
