Ali Slovenci poznate svoje korenine?

	•	Paleoveneti

	•	Oswald Gutsmann: Windische Sprachlehre

	•	Sarmatijos Sueivija. RUGIJA – Rujanen – Rana - Rugen.

	•	REITIA Dea dei Veneti

	•	Trg" (market)

	•	Ancient ashes found buried in Rome (United Press International)

	•	Vindhya parvata

	•	Found: Europe's oldest civilisation

	•	The Slovieni

	•	Slovenskie kljuci

	•	Slovieni - Veneti in Russia a new addition has been added by Igor Pirnovar

	English: http://sloveneti.tripod.com/veg/e/Ven/slovieni_rusia_e.html

	Slovene: http://sloveneti.tripod.com/veg/s/Ven/slovieni_rusia_s.html


	•	Alexander The Great

	•	How it all begun - Borut Prah

	•	The Veneti


	•	The Venetians - our early Ancestors - Ivan Kobal

Trg" (market)

May 30, 2006

Hello, I found this article Veselia Felicetas in Alpe- Adria and the letter VESELIA FELICETAS...., a critical view in Echo more than interesting and directly related to the Sarmatian (Baltic) nation:

"But the Romanization did not mean an immediate loss of the native Venetic language. In the countryside, the Venetic language remained preserved for a very long time indeed. The town folk evidently spoke two languages. Proof of this are the inscriptions in Roman (CIL IX, 6086; XXX, 8) and in Venetic (Od 5) script, which were engraved on the projectiles by various Venetic soldiers serving in the Roman army. They originated from Oderzo, what in Venetic language would mean Oterg or Optergn, later Opitergium, in Latin. The basic word of this name is "trg" (market), which still exists today in Slovenian (neo-Venetic) language. In other countries we find many double inscriptions, meaning, besides the Latin denomination appears also the Venetic one: P. Domitius P. (f.) Tergitio negotiator (CIL, III, 1251), from Scarbantia in Pannonia, and Veselia Felicetas (CIL, III, 3093), from Brac in Dalmatia. In today's Slovenian still exists the word veselje (delight), whereas "tergitio" took on already the form of trgovec (merchant). These examples stimulated Matej Bor, a Slovenian linguist, to decipher Venetic inscriptions based on Slovenian language and its dialects."

Marketplace Lithuanians are calling - 'Turgus'. It's driven from the Baltic/Sarmatian word "Turt'as" which means 'staff, capital, wealth, assets, worth, cash etc.' So, to solve the mystery from where the Vends came, you have to visit theSarmatian/Baltic lands... .

Kind regards,

Aivaras C. from www.Lietuvos.net

http://www.lietuvos.net/


	REITIA Dea dei Veneti


	(in Italian language)


	You can buy it online at this website:


	http://www.raixevenete.com/ecomm/product.asp?pid=596

Udine, 29 aprile 2007

We publish the Italian original review of this interesting work on Reitia, the goddess of the Veneti, as she was called in Retia and Venetia. It is about the very ancient Earth Goddess, who was known as Noreia in Noricum, Histria in Istria, Zemla (Earth) in origin, Zemele among the Thracians. She has also been described in our column Slovenian Mythology, article Zemla. We congratulate Dr. Piero Favero on his work, which is a precious contribution to the history and culture of the ancient Veneti.

By courtesy of our reader Richard Jamsek, who forwarded the article to Carantha.

Ancient ashes found buried in Rome (United Press International)

The United Press International (Feb. 8/06) reported, that a team of archaeologists, while excavating the floor of the Forum in Rome, found ashes of an ancient chief or priest who lived three centuries before the legendary founding this city. The archeologists previously found two graves in the same site. They were small, less than a meter (ca. 40 inches) deep.

The newly found pit is six feet deep and four feet wide. Officials said the prehistoric tribes probably placed the ashes of the low-ranking dead in surface buildings and buried only ashes of the notables.

The remains, dating to about 1,000 BC, were discovered last month in a funerary urn at the bottom of a deep pit, along with several bowls and jars -- all encased in a hut-like box.

Carantha editor's observation:

It was the period of the Urnfield culture (after 1200 BC), which was spread by the migration of its bearers, the Veneti, who originated in the Lusatian culture. These migratory people settled also in the Apennine Peninsula and in Sicily. They buried the ashes of their defunct in urns. An important Venetic settlement was found on Palatine Hill in Rome, which rises above the Forum.

~~~

Vindhya parvata

(Windian Hills)

View on Vindhya parvata under the monsoon close to the city of "Mândû"

by Dr. Jožko Šavli

Vindhya parvata (Windian Hills) is the name of the range of 460 - 1,500 m altitude, which geographically divides the Indian continent into the northern part called Hindustan, and into the southern part called Deccan. The name Vindhya is evidently connected with the Vends or Veneti, (the predecessors of Middle European nations). I have already written about this in my paper entitled "Veneti, naši davni predniki" (Veneti, Our Remote Ancestors, Vienna 1985). In my paper it was pointed out for the first time that in Europe, during the pre-Celtic period, a powerful race existed, which beyond doubt bore the name Vends, or Veneti, or Sloveneti. Until now, they were mostly called "bearers of the Urnfield culture".

As it is generally known, in about ca. 1200 BC major migration waves of Veneti from Lusatia (Eastern Germany) moved into all directions of Europe and perhaps also to the Middle East. The name Vindhya parvata is witness, that one of their migration currents also reached India. But when? The problem was solved already at the beginning of the 60s by Prof. Pere Bosch - Gimpera, a Catalonian archaeologist and Professor at the University of Mexico. In his book called "Les Indo-Européens" (Paris 1961), he described the Veneti on their road to India on base of archaeological finds. It was after the fall of Troy in 1184 BC, when a Vendic group went East through northern Persia and present-day Afghanistan until they reached Punjab in the Indus basin in ca. 1150 BC. But Prof. Bosch - Gimpera was not aware of the Veneti, he called them Hindi and considered them the last migration wave of the Aryans.

At that time Aryans had already settled the Indus basin. Scholars consider that they arrived from Central Asia after ca. 1800 BC. Aryans and Veneti still spoke similar languages and evidently united into one people. After incursions to the East in ca. 1000 BC they were able to conquer the Ganges plains until the Himalaya range. A wave of Veneti migrated south of the dessert Tar and reached the above mentioned range, which since then has been called Vindhya parvata.

The question, why do such great similarities exist between Sanscrit and the Slovenian language, as displayed in particular by Eng. Joseph Skulj (Toronto), could be clarified in this way. The Slovenian language descends directly from the ancient Vendic. The same has to be considered for Lusatian and Pomeranian (Slovinzian). Regretfully, from this standpoint the academic world did not make the necessary researches. Thus, the question about the Veneti (Vends) completely confutes explanations of history and prehistory, as they have been presented until now.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A2nd%C3%BB" \o Mândû

Vindia

~~~

Found: Europe's oldest civilisation

11 June 2005

By courtesy of our reader, who forwarded the article to Carantha

Our question is: Did it pertain to the Vends?

Archaeologists have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800 BC and 4600 BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

In all, more than 150 temples have been identified. Constructed of earth and wood, they had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a religious people who lived in communal longhouses up to 50 metres long, grouped around substantial villages. Evidence suggests.

Their civilisation seems to have died out after about 200 years and the recent archaeological discoveries are so new that the temple building culture does not even have a name yet. Excavations have been taking place over the past few years - and have triggered a re-evaluation of similar, though hitherto mostly undated, complexes identified from aerial photographs throughout central Europe.

Archaeologists are now beginning to suspect that hundreds of these very early monumental religious centres, each up to 150 metres across, were constructed across a 400-mile swath of land in what is now Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and eastern Germany. The most complex excavated so far - located inside the city of Dresden - consisted of an apparently sacred internal space surrounded by two palisades, three earthen banks and four ditches.

The monuments seem to be a phenomenon associated exclusively with a period of consolidation and growth that followed the initial establishment of farming cultures in the centre of the continent. It is possible that the newly revealed early Neolithic monument phenomenon was the consequence of an increase in the size of - and competition between - emerging Neolithic tribal or pan-tribal groups, arguably Europe's earliest mini-states.

After a relatively brief period - perhaps just one or two hundred years - either the need or the socio-political ability to build them disappeared, and monuments of this scale were not built again until the Middle Bronze Age, 3,000 years later. Why this monumental culture collapsed is a mystery.

The archaeological investigation into these vast Stone Age temples over the past three years has also revealed several other mysteries. First, each complex was only used for a few generations - perhaps 100 years maximum. Second, the central sacred area was nearly always the same size, about a third of a hectare. Third, each circular enclosure ditch - irrespective of diameter - involved the removal of the same volume of earth. In other words, the builders reduced the depth and/or width of each ditch in inverse proportion to its diameter, so as to always keep volume (and thus time spent) constant Archaeologists are speculating that this may have been in order to allow each earthwork to be dug by a set number of special status workers in a set number of days - perhaps to satisfy the ritual requirements of some sort of religious calendar. The multiple bank, ditch and palisade systems "protecting" the inner space seem not to have been built for defensive purposes - and were instead probably designed to prevent ordinary tribes people from seeing the sacred and presumably secret rituals which were performed in the "inner sanctum".

The investigation so far suggests that each religious complex was ritually decommissioned at the end of its life, with the ditches, each of which had been dug successively, being deliberately filled in. "Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe's first truly large scale earthwork complexes," said the senior archaeologist, Harald Stäuble of the Saxony state government's heritage department, who has been directing the archaeological investigations. Scientific investigations into the recently excavated material are taking place in Dresden.

The people who built the huge circular temples were the descendants of migrants who arrived many centuries earlier from the Danube plain in what is now northern Serbia and Hungary. The temple-builders were pastoralists, controlling large herds of cattle, sheep and goats as well as pigs. They made tools of stone, bone and wood, and small ceramic statues of humans and animals. They manufactured substantial amounts of geometrically decorated pottery, and they lived in large longhouses in substantial villages.

One village complex and temple at Eythra, near Leipzig, covers an area of 25 hectares. Two hundred longhouses have been found there. The population would have been up to 300 people living in a highly organised settlement of 15 to 20 very large communal buildings. (Accentuations in colour by Carantha).


	A settlement of the Band Ceramic people. In the background we see part of a typical longhouse. (The illustration has been taken from the book: Frühe Geschichte der Lausitz by Lech Leciejewicz, 1985).

Remarks from Carantha editorial:

The question, which arises in connection with the discovery, is as follows: Who were the bearers of the newest discovered civilization with the centre in Lusatia, which does not have a name yet? Were they the Vends (Veneti)? The Vends were formed, it is true, in the Lusatian Culture (ca. 1500 - 1100 BC). Anyway, they descended from a substrate, that goes back into the period of the pre-Indo-European culture of Band Ceramics (ca. 4200 - ca. 2000 BC), which is considered the first agrarian culture in Europe.

The recently discovered civilization with the centre in Lusatia dates back to ca. 4800 - 4600 BC. It extended practically in the same territory as the later Lusatian Culture. Was the recently discovered culture a predecessor of the Band Ceramics? This is very probable. Further on it is said, that their economy was based on cattle, sheep, goat and pig farming. Here, the archaeological relations do not mention the agriculture, but it cannot be wholly excluded. In particular, because the introduction of agriculture in Europe from Mesopotamia is estimated to ca. after 6000 BC (cf. L. L. Cavalli - Sforza: Geni, popoli e lingue, 1996, 154).

Evidently, the later culture of Band Ceramics is to be considered a derivation from the great culture, which at present-day was discovered in Lusatia: communal longhouses, substantial villages… They were also characteristic for the Band Ceramics. The matriarchate, in which the Band Ceramists lived, has to be also assumed for the preceding period. It was characteristic for the pre-Indo-European period, in which the very similar cultures extended from North Africa across Europe to the Urals. We can call it the Afro-European period.

The incursions from the East in ca. 2000 BC brought the so-called "Indo-Europeanization" of Europe based on the Patriarchate, in which the people of the Band Ceramic culture survived as a substrate. After 1500 BC arose from this substrate the culture of Lusatia followed by the Urnfield culture (after 1200 BC), which formed the people, who entered history under the name of Vends or Veneti. After the discovery of a civilization preceding the Band Ceramics, the roots of the Vends demonstrate to be of a much older period. They remained preserved in Middle Europe as a country people until this very day. The only question is, in which period is one ready to call them Vends, this is, to call them by their real name?

(cf: T he Vends and the Germans)

Landesamt für Archäologie - Sachsen (http://www.archsax.sachsen.de/grabungen/)

http://www.archsax.sachsen.de/grabungen/biehla2.pdf

www.archsax.sachsen.de/grabungen/zwenk2.html

~~~

The Slovieni

A Venetic Stock in Russia

They were the founders of the Slovenia there,

which later was called »The Republic of Novgorod«

The discovery of common roots represents a new base of friendship between Russians and Slovenians

by Dr. Jožko Šavli

Quite by chance I came across an interesting article entitled "Wie die Sloviene an den Ilmensee kamen" (How did the Slovieni reach Ilmen Lake), which was issued in the magazine "Welt der Slaven" (Munich 1985). The publisher is the well-known linguist and Slavist Heinrich Kunstmann, who strongly believes he can prove, that the Slovieni at Ilmen Lake (Russia) originated from the "Illyrian, Makedonian and Thracian". Indeed, Kunstmann's article is very instructive and reflects a great linguistic knowledge. But his argument is not convincing enough. What's the matter?

The well-known Russian chronicler Nestor mentions the appearance of the Slovieni race among the first Russian tribes in his "Povest' vremennych let" (11th/12th century AD). According to Nestor, they settled around the Ilmen Lake south of Sankt Petersburg, and founded the city of Novgorod. - It is certain, that the Slovieni of this area came from elsewhere. But Nestor does not state, where did they migrate from and when did this happen. Therefore, several scholars researched their primordial homeland, and they are still doing so.

The early settlement area of the Slovieni (Russia)

Some time ago, I myself tried to explore this question by adducing findings of fact from Tacitus (Germania, 46), who quotes, that the Veneti are making incursions across the territory of the Peucini (Balts) into the territory of the Fenni (Finns). Apart from Tacitus (56 BC - 117 AD) there are no other charters, from which we could conclude, that a migration wave of the Veneti really reached the area of Ilmen Lake, i.e., that of Novgorod (Russia). But several other evidences lead us to such a conclusion. The first one is the fact, that Nestor's Slovieni preserved their original Venetic name. Indeed, the Veneti called themselves Sloveneti, abbreviated Sloventi (Matej Bor). In the Alps developed from this name the form Slovenci (Carantania), at the Baltic coast that of Slovinci (Pomerania), and in the present-day Novgorod region that of Slovieni (Russia). - Cf. my article "The Vends and the Slavs".

The Venetic language was spread over several peoples, making them the present-day »Slavs«. However, only the original Venetic race, not because of their language, but because of their ethnological peculiarities, preserved the primordial Venetic name. It also seems to be preserved in the name of the Slovakians (the Slovakian woman is called Slovenka), as well as in that of the Swedes (svensk - Swedish is an abbreviation of »slovensk« - Slovenian). Indeed, the question of the Veneti - Sloventi is very ample, it deserves a particular research.

In this article I want to point out only the problem of two peoples, who preserved the Slovenetic name: one was found in the extreme north-east in Russia (Slovieni), the other one in the Alpine south-west region (Slovenci). A comparison of several peculiarities of both ethnical groups make it possible to infer their Venetic autochthonism.

The Slovieni (Russia)

Tacitus, it is true, indirectly quotes the settlement of a group of Veneti in the then Finnic territory. That this group was called Veneti in the West is evidenced by the following facts: Still in the 16th century, on a carta marina, elaborated by Olaus Magnus, the Finnic Gulf is denoted as: Mare Finonicvm sive Sinvs Venedicvs. The Sinvs Venedicvs (Venetic Gulf) could only have been named after the Slovieni (Novgorod), at that time already subjected to the supremacy of Moscow.

Slovensk (Novgovord) in the 1st century AD (reconstruction).

The settlement was composed of wooden houses.

Further on, recently researchers with a Novgorod dialect, as published by the miscellany »Ocerki kulturi Slavjan« (Moscow 1996), discovered astonishing similarities between the Slovieni and the Western Slavs (Veneti). As reference, I adduce two of these testifyings.

The excavations at the St. Sofia Cathedral in the Novgorod Citadel (kremlin) brought to light a large number of birch-bark inscriptions. A. A. Zaliznjak, who examined many of them, stated that the Novgorod dialect developed directly from the ancient Slav (i.e. Venetic) language, and that some phonetic, morphological, morphosyntactical, and lexical isoglosses are connected with the Western Slav languages and with the Slovenian... (Lisjak, ibidem, 72). - S. M. Gluskina, a linguistic scholaress, but says, that the language of the ones (i.e. Slovieni), who settled the Novogord area, developed separately from that of the other Slavs, because at that time the phonetic process of the second palatalization appeared, which lasted there for some generations and was an isolated linguistic continuum (Lisjak, ibidem).

I think, these statements confirm Tacitus' quotation, from which one must conclude that Nestor's Slovieni only could have originated from the ancient Veneti (Sloveneti), who in the 1st century AD still settled in Central Europe.

The Venetic or Slovenetic settlement in the present-day Novgorod area is also witnessed by many Slovenian names all around this city. They could have arisen only in a previously Finnic territory. Later, when the Venetic (Slovenetic) language widely prevailed, it still possessed the proper ethnical characteristics of the Veneti (Sloveneti) in confront to their Russian neighbours. The latter, it is true, were of the same language, but they, in my opinion, preserved in their tradition many ethnical elements of the older substrate (customs, phonetic peculiarities in their speech...). Therefore, they manifested a particular ethnic entity, which could not have been overlooked by other groups.

With regards to the »Slovenian names« in that region, we are surprised to learn, that the same Ilmen Lake at one-time was called Slovenskoe morje (Slovenian Sea). A minor river in this area, today known as the Slavjanka, used to be called Slovenskaja reka (Slovenian River) until the First World War. Moreover, in the city of Staraya Russa, located on the southern bank of Ilmen Lake, the following story has become a legend:

Two warriors, brothers Sloven and Rus, as they moved from the Black Sea area far to the North, had been looking for quite some time for a good place to settle down. At last, they came to a beautiful lake. They named it Ilmen, after their sister. And, following the advice of the Magi, the older brother founded the city, Slovensk-the-Great. And, he named the river 'Volkhv', to commemorate the wise Magi, or, Volhov, in Russian. The younger brother founded the town Rusa at the confluence of two rivers. And, he named those two rivers 'Polist' and 'Porusya', after his wife and daughter.

Indeed, the first founded township of the later Novgorod, on the northern part of Ilmen Lake, was called Slovensk. In the aforesaid story, the Slovenian (Venetic) and the Russian ethnic entities are still distinguishable. The well-known Slovenian historian, Jože Pirjevec (Trieste), found the interesting data in the city library of Novgorod, that the first princess there was called Slovenka (Lisjak ibidem, 61).

Since so many references point to "Slovenian" names, the only correct conclusion that can be drawn is, that almost in its entire first period the region of Nestor's Slovieni was called Slovenia. But there is still more to it! We have witness of the very existing Slovenian dynasty called Slovenich.

The Slovenich Dynasty:

•

Sloven, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 7th century AD

•

Ivan the Glorious, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 8th century AD

•

Vandal, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 8th century AD

•

Burivoy, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 8th century AD

•

Randver, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 8th century AD

•

Ratibor, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 9th century AD

•

Gostomysl the Reasonable, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 859 AD

•

Vadim I the Brave, Prince of Slovenia (Novgorod), 859 - 862, 867, 870 AD

In 870, Vadim (Vladimir) I finally abdicated († 872). He was followed by Godoslav, a Varyag (Viking), and the prince of Kiev, who married Umila, Gostomysl's daughter. But it seems, that Godoslav only held the title of a Slovenian prince. Indeed, according to ancient traditions, already in 862, the inhabitants of Slovensk invited his son Rurik I to become their ruler. Then, with the initial interruptions, Rurik's dynasty governed in (Nestor's) Slovenia also. - How the name Novgorod came about?

The centre of the administration of the Slovieni was first in Gorodišce (pron. gorodishche, meaning a hill fort). It was situated on the isle in the middle of the Volhov River. In the 10th century, new settlements were created close to this centre on both sides of the riverbanks. On the one side, where the Kremlin (citadel) was, the cathedral of St. Sophia was erected, in 989. In the 11th century, Prince Jaroslav had his new residence built on the other side, and called it Jaroslavovo dvorišce (pron. yaroslavovo dvorishche).

In 886, Oleg transferred the capital to Kiev. Novgorod, however, remained the centre of foreign trade, and in 997 it obtained self-government. One of Oleg's successors was St. Vladimir I the Great (of the Rurik line), Prince of Kiev and All Russia († 1015), grandson of St. Olga. He was the first Russian ruler to embrace Christianity. In 1136, Slovenia achieved independence from Kiev, and it became the capital of an independent republic. In 1044, Vladimir II († 1052) granted city status to all settlements on both sides of the Volhov River. At that point in time the name Novgorod (new city) was officially introduced. It was the expression of the sovereign Slovenian (Venetic) Republic now called Great Novgorod, that embraced the whole of Northern Russia to the Urals.

The new capital of the ancient Slovenia (in Russia), Novgorod, was so important and rich, that the state itself started to become known as the Republic of Novgorod or solely Great Novgorod. It is very interesting, however, that a particular quarter of the new city was named Slovenski konec (Slovenian quarter). It stretched out behind Jaroslavovo dvorišce. On its edge, the Slovenski holm (Slovenian hills) are raising, on which later the Sts. Peter and Paul Church was erected in ca. 1406.

View on medieval Novgorod and the city plan,

indicating the Slovenski konec with the Slovenski holm (Slovenian hill)

This Great Novgorod was the first and the only republic in Russia. It gained control of a vast swath of territory in Northern Russia and was a centre of trade. It was far less autocratic than the other Russian principalities of those times. The Prince was elected by a council of nobles, also known as the Novgorod Vece (pron. veche), which had the legislative competence. It was the ancient parliament, the democratic assembly of representatives of all city parts or all free people in most important cases. The Vece not only elected, but also exiled the princes. Although, they held supreme military and judicial powers, the princes had no administrative function. This power was vested in elected magistrates. However, the first popular assemblies were disorderly, and power was gradually amassed by the aristocracy.

The strength of the republic rested on its economic prosperity. Situated on the great trade route to the Volga valley, it became one of the four chief trade centres of the Hanseatic League. German merchants had a colony in Novgorod. The enterprising merchants of Novgorod extended the power of the republic over the entire north of Russia, levied tribute even beyond the Urals, and founded many colonies. The citizens of Great Novgorod escaped the Mongol invasion of Russian territory, after 1236. With Alexandr Nevskij on the head they also repulsed the attacks of the Swedes (1240) and of the Teutonic Knights (1242). At its height, in the 15th century, the population of the Novgorod Republic rose to ca. 400,000. Its splendour during that period, its hundreds of churches, its great shops and arsenals, its huge fairs, have all furnished rich themes for later Russian art and folklore.

The 15th century, however, also witnessed the start of Novgorod's long struggle with Moscow for supremacy. Internecine disputes among the republic's leaders weakened it in the face of growing Muscovite strength. Although it became a vassal of Moscow after the Muscovite invasions, in 1456 and 1470, Novgorod was allowed to retain its self-government. It was not until 1478 that it came under Moscow's complete control and lost its freedom. Novgorod retained its commercial position until St. Petersburg was built in 1703.

Novgorod - The cathedral of St. Sophia and the church of Sts. Peter and Paul (1406) found on the Slovenian Hill. The latter, as it seems, still reflects a Slovenian touch.

The Slovenci (Carantania)

In this article, the reader's attention was directed to several similarities between the Slovieni (Russia) and the Slovenci (Carantania), as referenced by the Russian scholars A. A. Zaliznjak and S. M. Gluskina, who adduced the linguistic similarities between both ethnical groups, as well as many Slovenian (Venetic) names. But there are many other similarities.

Regarding their ancient state organization there has to be particularly pointed out the great conformity between the ancient Slovenian and Russian people's law (consueto). It is very possible that the ancient Russian people's law prevalently descended from that of the Slovieni. Its similarities with the people's law of the Slovenci must be searched in the common Venetic (Sloventic) origin and tradition.

Without having any knowledge of the existence of the Veneti, the well-known Slovenian historian, Josip Mal (Mal, Probleme 1939), draw people's attention to this problem already before the Second World War, when he referred to the work of authors like Vladimirskij-Budanov or T. Taranowski. Like in Novgorod, the popular assembly in pre-feudal Carantania was also called Veca (pron. vetchah). In this (national) assembly the delegates, called good men, were the peoples' representatives, who elected the Prince (duke). Among the aforesaid similarities, the Veca is the most characteristic one on the judicial field. Carantanians also elected magistrates, etc. Both, the Slovieni (Russia) and the Slovenci (Carantania) are evidence of an ancient State organization, which based on social structure and on territory.

Nevertheless, scholars already as a rule are reckoning Slovenians to the group of Southern Slavs, who demonstrate a whole different juridical tradition and social structure. Beside the ignorance, under such circumstances the forced subjugation to a state ideology, the Yugoslav (Southern Slav) one, is evident. The Southern Slavs (Yugoslavs) had to be regarded as the ancestors of Slovenians, on the other hand they should have appeared as »separatists«. Says Milko Kos, a well-known Slovenian historian: In the period between the end of the 6th and the end of the 9th century AD, a Slovenian does not differ from his neighbours of the same stock and blood in the South and South-East... (Kos, Zgodovina 1955). This statement, it is true, was given without the necessary argumentation, but it must have been written in accordance with the ideology of the State, which financed the academic institutions.

Some years later, Francé Bezlaj, the Slovenian linguist, just because of the so great structural diversity of the Slovenian language in contrast to the Southern Slav ones, concluded, that a Slav tribe must have arrived in the Eastern Alps (i.e., the historical Slovenian territory) already before the supposed great migration wave from the Balkans in the 6th century AD (Bezlaj, Eseji 1967, 122). Then, with regards to the Slovenian language he also envisaged further »waves« and said: There is an astonishing great number of Russian - Slovenian lexical parallels in the Slovenian expressional fund. They are not limited to the defined dialectical environs only, they are found all over Slovenia. The majority is found in the western area... One can conclude, that the »Easterlings« arrived among the last migration wave, and settled at the most exposed and the poorest soil... (Bezlaj, Eseji 1967, 132, 133).

In this way, the Slovenian question of origin was somewhat corrected, but it was not explained in a persuasive way. In his statement Bezlaj ascribed the aforesaid parallels to the supposedly preceding migration wave, as assumed by him. But the parallels, it is true, are prevalently found in dialects of western Slovenian territory. He overcame an evident contradiction with the explanation, that the »Easterlings« were one of the last ones who arrived, and that they must have settled on the poorest soil (Bezlaj, Esseji 1967, 132). But even this territory, in regards to Slovenian linguistic and cultural traditions, is the most archaic one. Besides, the same migration wave, which first was considered to be a previous one, now became "the last one". Thus, a new contradiction.

View on the very well maintained Kremlin (citadel) of Novgorod

So many discrepancies regarding the Slovenians are also found with other authors. They can only be solved by taking into consideration the existence of the ancient Veneti. Their original language was gradually widely spread to many other peoples, who from the ethnical point of view never were Veneti. In this way the »Slavs« appeared. Such a denomination is, now as before, an academic construct. It was shaped on linguistic similarities only, and it became the base for the Slav and Southern ideology. Its unreliability becomes clear, if we, for example, should have reckoned to the »Romans« also the Spanish speaking Mexicans, Argentineans etc., or to the »Germans« the English speaking Americans... Yes, Slovieni and Slovenians, until now, one could not have foreboded that the common roots go back to pre-history. The question of the origin of the »Slavs« must be revised again.

(Concerning the origin of Khazars as a direct connection between them and the Veneti is not known. But we think about the mission, that St. Cyril carried out among the Khazars in the early 9th century. He and his brother Methodius thereafter were missionaries among Slovenians (from the linguistic point of view: Veneti) in Pannonia and among Moravians. The saint brothers spoke the Slav language very well, which they knew from their native Salonika (Macedonia). After our sondages, ancient Macedonians spoke a Venetic language. Now, one must ask, how did St. Cyril carry out his mission among the Khazars? The conclusion is, that they only could have spoken a Slav (in fact a Venetic) language. In this connection we dare to warn of the Tripolje Culture (Ukraine), which was a remainder of the Band Ceramic Culture (ca. 4000 – 2000 BC). The Veneti, it is true, originated from the substrate of this culture, which after 2000 BC was overflown by the so-called Indo-Europeans, which arrived from the East. Thus, it is very probable, that the Khazars spoke a Venetic language, which was similar to the Slav.)

Bibliography:

	•	Heinrich Kunstmann: Wie die Sloviene an den Ilmensee kamen, in: Welt der Slaven (Halbjahresschrift für Slavistik, Jg. XXX, 2, N.F. IX, 2), München 1985

	•	Bruno Volpi Lisjak: Cupa, prvo slovensko plovilo in drevaki /Cupa, the first Slovenian sailing gear and the canoes/, Trst 2004, 61 ff. - For the existence of the Slovensk name, B. V. Lisjak quotes the annals of the Holopievsky monastery on Mologa River and other authors.

	•	Milko Kos, in: Zgodovina Slovencev /Slovenian History/, Lublana 1955, pp. 33, 34

	•	France Bezlaj: Eseji o slovenskem jeziku /Essays about the Slovenian language/, Lublana 1967, p. 122

	•	John Nikolls: The House of Rurik, in: The Augustan Society Omnibus 14, Torrance (Calif.) 1993, p.19

	•	Ocerki kulturi Slavjan /Outlines of the Slav Culture/, published by the Institut Slavjanovedenia i balkanistiki (Rossiskaja akademija nauk), Moskva 1996, pp. 86 - 93

	•	Josip Mal: Probleme aus der Frühgeschichte der Slowenen, Lublana 1939, p. 120 ff.

~~~

Slovenskie kljuci

The surroundings of Izborsk (west of Pskov), Russia

by Simone Arnoffi

This discovery was made by Simone Arnoffi, a young student of Russian language and culture from the Treviso area of Venetia, Italy. On a student trip to the surroundings of St. Petersburg and Izborsk, which is 30 km west of Pskov, he came across the area's well known water sources called Slovenskie kljuci (pron. klyutchi), literally meaning Slovenian springs. Not long ago, we introduced in Carantha the one-time Slovenia (Venetia) in Russia, as the Great Principality of Novgorod or Slovensk was first called until the 15th century AD. We quoted already many Slovenian names, which were preserved in this region until today. (cf. article The Slovieni).

The waterfall called "Slovenskie kljuci" near Izborsk, in the region of Pskov (Russia).

Simone Arnoffi's current research adduced another Slovenian name found in the area. In today's Slovenia, the etymon kljuc or kluc has been conserved only in the meaning of key. However, in the original Croatian language, which is close to Slovenian, the word "kljuc" still means a water source. This reminds us of the name Kluc, as the creek is called, which flows under the main street of Trieste (now Via Carducci). At one-time, this street was known as Klutsch Street.

~~~

Alexander the Great

356 - 323 BC

Was he a Venet?

The Macedonian question

Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)

by Dr. Jožko Šavli

The discovery of the Veneti re-opened anew the question of the language spoken by the ancient Macedonians. In this connection, Charles Bryant-Abraham recorded Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC), King of Macedonia and Greece, who, at a gathering admonished one of his men, Philotas by name, to talk in his mother tongue and not in Greek (cf. The Augustan, Vol. XXXI, Nr. 3, Daggett, Calif. 1999, p. 21). His mother tongue could have been only Macedonian, which evidently was different from Greek.

Yet, to which linguistic group pertained the then Macedonian language? I would say, we find a reliable answer in the inscriptions of Dura-Europos, deciphered by Anthony Ambrozic (cf. his book on "Adieu to Brittany", Toronto 1999, p. 74 ff.). He deciphered inscriptions based on the language, which I call Venetic, from which the Slav languages descended. - On this question see my explanations below.

What was Dura-Europos? It was a fortress on the Euphrates in present-day Syria, founded by Alexander the Great. Shipments from India were transported by sea and on the river Euphrates to the docks of this fortress. There, they where displayed, reloaded, and hauled over land to the Mediterranean coast. Thus, it was a very strategic post, which Alexander the Great entrusted only to his most reliable men. And, as the inscriptions in the "Slav" (Venetic) language confirm, they were his compatriots, the Macedonians. The garrison of Dura-Europos evidently survived the decline of Alexander's empire. The aforesaid inscriptions descend from the period of the Romans, who annexed the fortress in 165 AD, and were expelled by the Sassanians in 256 AD. Nevertheless, these inscriptions do not bear witness yet, that the then Macedonians were of Venetic origin.

In my researches concerning the Veneti, I found out, that in the pre-Roman period several peoples spoke nearly the same language: Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, continental Celts, very probably also Phrygians,... But they were not of Venetic origin. Anyway, with regard to the Macedonians, an important indication of their Venetic origin is the quotation of Herodotos (ca. 480 - 425 BC), who also mentioned the presence of the Veneti in the Illyricum (I, 196), i.e., in the Balkans. But where was the territory of their settlement?

	Pella, north of Salonika, was the capital of Alexander the Great and of Macedonia. In the South it bordered on Thessaly, where still today the names Venetikos and Veneton bear witness of the Venetic origin of the Macedonian people.

I suppose, they were the ancestors of the Macedonians. Thus, because on the border of ancient Macedonia (in present-day northern Greece) I find even today a village called Veneton, situated on the Aegean coast (Thessaly) near Zagora. Further on, a tributary of the Aliakmon (Bistrica) River is still called Venetikos. I believe, these names bear witness of the places, where the very Venetic area ended. Other Venetic or Slav names are found inside all over the Greek peninsula and in the Peloponnese. But these are, in my opinion, a legacy of the Pelasgians, who spoke a similar language, even if they were not Veneti.

The Veneti had their origin in the Lusatian culture (ca. 1500 - 1100 BC), and their migrations into all directions of Europe were carried out around 1200 BC and after. Therefore, the so-called Vinca culture of ca. 4000 BC (Vojvodina), because of such a great distance of time and place, certainly did not pertain to the Veneti or proto-Veneti. The symbols it left behind are similar to the letters, but no one succeeded to individuate any words from them. In opposite to this, the Veneti evidently used the script.

An ulterior characteristic of the Veneti was their social organization, based on the village community called vas. This community was composed of family dwellings, among which the field was divided. The social organization of many other peoples, like Celts, Germans, Illyrians... was based on the great family - Sippe, clan,... with the common field. In the Balkans, such a great family, called "zadruga" (in Serbian) or "rod" in (Bulgarian), was preserved until the 20th century AD. So, I am very anxious to know, whether or not in the tradition of Macedonians there are traces of such a (Venetic) village community and if in their language the word Vas exists? It is known to me, that in Macedonian language exists the word Drzava (State), but the basis of it was formed by village communities.

It could be that the word Vas did not develop among Macedonians. But also the Drzava is an ancient Venetic tradition of social organization. Anyway, these noble and peaceful people descend from the ancient Veneti. Their spirituality and religious experience must be considered of Venetic origin. I will cite an example only: During the Turkish occupation, two brothers secretly chiseled a fantastic altar in the church of St. Salvator in Skopje . They evidently were inspired by an intuition, which I identify with the ancient Venetic spiritual message of the inside. Much more examples of such a spirituality and religious sentiment are found all over present-day Macedonia.

	Dionysus riding the Panther (Pella, mosaic of ca. 300 BC). The panther (leopard) was a divine animal in the suite of several divinities already in the antiquity.

Concerning Alexander III the Great, King of Macedonia and Greece, we know, that he was educated in a splendid Greek civilization. But his soul evidently remained Macedonian, or Venetic. From his conquering of the world, one cannot imagine, that he was born with the desire to subjugate territories and peoples, but rather to bring peace and progress to them. Such a desire had also the ancient Veneti, who wanted to bring to the world their idea of salvation after death.

In his inner self, Alexander the Great experienced this message also, but because of his Greek upbringing, the message remained an intuition only, and did not mature in his consciousness and in his thinking. Anyway, his men and the people understood his way and followed Alexander. In the East, his image was preserved among the people and entered later the Christian era.

~~~

HOW IT ALL BEGUN

by Borut Prah

In early eighties Dr. Jozko Šavli, professor of economics in Gorizia, was doing a research on a linden tree (tilia europaea ). Tilia species is spread all over the Northern Hemisphere. Its wood is so perfect for carving that it has been used for most statues in churches. Even its bark has been employed by Russian peasants for their summer footgear.

In Slovenia, however, linden tree has been considered much more than a renewable natural resource. From time immemorial, it has been considered a national tree due to its special role. To this day, many a Slovenian village still clusters around an ancient linden tree, and for a good reason. Throughout history, the tree has served as a social and political center of the village. To its inhabitants it symbolized the "tree of life".

Šavli's research led to an interesting discovery: Only certain Slavic ethnic groups had such reverence for a linden tree. He noticed that while Southern and Eastern Slavs had no special interest in the tree, the culture and politics of Western Slavs, i.e., Slovenians, Czechs, Slovaks and Poles evolved under their linden trees. Beyond these Slavic lands, reverence for the linden tree continued into eastern, central and southern Germany, eastern Switzerland and in Tyrol.

Curious, thought Šavli, that an allegedly ancient Slavic custom straddles several foreign ethnic groups whose territories were never reached by the migration of Slavic tribes, while it is ignored within the ethnic group itself, this is, by Southern and Eastern Slavs.

Then Šavli noticed that the spread of linden tree intersects rather well with the toponyms of Veneti origin. This led him to suspect that Slovenian heritage of linden tree derived from an older custom established by Veneti and not from newly arriving South Slavic tribes who had no cultural interest in the species.

An examination of written historical records further confirmed his suspicion of a link to Veneti. The writings made much more sense when viewed in relation to the civilized Veneti, rather than to the relatively primitive South Slavs.

One of the earliest records which links Slovenians to an older civilization is the report on the state "Provincia Sclaborum" in 595 A.D. (Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, c. IV, 7). This report dates from the period when early waves of Slavic tribes had barely arrived in the area. It also refers to the Langobard kingdom as "Provincia", providing a reasonable conclusion that "Provincia Sclaborum" was organized on the level of a Slovenian kingdom or state. There is no evidence even in the official Yugoslavian history books that the migrating South Slavic tribes had at that time a political or social structure that would merit designation of "Provincia". There can be little or no doubt that Paulus Diaconus wrote about Slovenians.

A further link to Veneti from the 615 A.D. source (Vita s. Columbani) should clear any remaining doubt: termini Venetiorum qui et Sclavi dicuntur, that is, land of Veneti called Slavs. And eight years later, the inhabitants of this state are referred to as Sclavos coinomento Vinedos (Fredergarii Chronicon, ad a. 623). Indeed, many early historic documents use Slovenians and Veneti as synonyms.

Later other forms of the name were also used: Venedi, Wenden, Vendi, Vindi, and Windische. To this day, Veneti names are found all over the "village-linden-tree" territory. In Northern Switzerland, a major Roman military base Vindonissa is today Windisch. When Bavaria was occupied by the Romans, it was called Vindelicia. In Germany we have Wedemark (Wendenmark), in France Vendee, to say nothing of Venezia, Veneto, and others in Italy.…

Throughout these lands, many Venetic place-names have been preserved, although the meaning of some has been lost. It is clear, however, that in Central Europe, a substrate of pre-historical Venetic vocabulary has survived the Middle and Modern Ages and is now part of the Slovenian language. Many Venetic inscriptiona have been recently deciphered on the basis of Slovenian language and other Slavic languages.

Šavli published his research in 1985 as a study in Glas Korotana Issue No. 10, Vienna (see above). It immediately raised a major polemic with heavy political ramifications: if Slovenians are not South Slavs, or more particularly, Yugoslavians (a term Yugoslavia was created around 1930), then they are not bound to the state of Yugoslavia and the South Slav brotherhood.

His research provided rationale for Slovenia's independence.

Not surprising, the Yugoslavian communist government, already on the verge of economic collapse, sprung a violent opposition to any notion of Slovenia's independence and especially against any doctrine which would provide moral and ideological foundation toward secession. The whole academic apparatus was engaged, but no rational counter-arguments to the fledgling Veneti theory were found.

The key proponents of the Veneti Theory were an unlikely group. Dr. Jozko Šavli, an economist in Italy; Matej Bor, a famous former communist poet, author, and linguist in Slovenia; and father Ivan Tomazic, a priest, professor and philanthropist in Austria. Šavli wrote the first study, Bor solved the enigma of the Tablets of Este and deciphered many Venetic inscriptions, and Tomazic wrote reviews and commentaries, and also funded the publications.

Title-page of the German edition (1988) and of the Slovenian edition (1989)

of the book about the ancient Veneti

Their joint efforts on Veneti Theory was first published in German (1988), then in Slovenian (1989), in Italian (1991), and in English (1996). A Russian translation is being prepared. Several collections of articles, polemics were published in Slovenian (1991, 1995, 2000).

Title pages of the Italian edition (1991) and the English edition (1996)

about the ancient Veneti

The Russian edition was completed in 2002

Recently, the book "Veneti", written by Dr. Jozko Šavli, was published in Russian language in Moscow. It is the first part of the English publication "Veneti, First Builders of European Community" issued by three authors: Jozko Šavli, Matej Bor and Ivan Tomazic (Vienna 1996). The recent Russian edition deals with the part, that was published for the first time in Slovenian (Vienna 1985), and then, together with the work of Matej Bor, in German (Vienna 1988). Followed by another edition in Italian (Vienna 1991), which also included the contribution made by Ivan Tomazic, who was curator and publisher of all books treating the Venetic topic. The studies treated in the book, deal with the origin of the Slavs and other nations of Central Europe, like Italians and Germans for example.

The discoveries continue to create a major upheaval and rethinking of many facts on which ancient European history has been written. It is now up to the world of academia to interpret the history with open mind in light of these discoveries. Of course, knowledge of Slovenian language, currently only spoken by fewer than two million people, will be essential in this endeavor. (January 2001)

~~~

The Veneti

Wenden, Winden, Windische

by Dr. Jožko Šavli

A mysterious people, whose traces we encounter in the nomenclature and in the customs throughout Germany as well as in nearby countries. Their name reflects also the form of the present-day linguistic groups like Wenden (Sorben of Lusatia), Winden (Kashubi of Pomerania) or Windische (Slovenians) and also Veneti (in Veneto, Italy). Their traces are to be found in all territories between the Baltic and the Adriatic Sea, where today different nations live. Who were the Veneti?

We must go back to the prehistoric period of the pre-Indo-European time. I prefer to call it rather the Afro-European period, because in those times of Mesolithic the same nomadic cultures extended practically from North Africa over Europe toward and still over the Ural. Around 4200 BC the first agrarian culture developed on the fertile loess grounds on the upper river basins in Central Europe. In archaeology it is called band ceramics, after the decorations on its vessels. It is characteristic that the social structure of this culture was based on the matriarchal. The power of this culture lasted to the end of the third millennium BC.

Around 2000 BC there were incursions of nomadic people from the East who conquered Central and Western Europe. They were bearers of another type of culture called string ceramics, and their social structure was based on the patriarchal. They are called Indo-Europeans because of their linguistic area, which extends today from Europe to India. They impregnated the groups of fishers and hunters, but they did not destroy the agrarian group in Central Europe.

On the contrary, the (Afro-European) agrarians continued to exist as a substratum under the (Indo-European) superstratum, and around 1800 BC a new culture called the Aunjetitz culture, with its center in Bohemia, began to flourish. Around 1500 BC it was followed by the potent Lusatian culture with its center in Lusatia (Luzice, Lausitz), that could be retained as the cradle of the people of Veneti. Their social structure was not based on patriarchal and not even on matriarchy, but father and mother were the head of the family.

From the territory of the Lusatian culture many migrations took place into all parts of Europe, around 1200 BC. Many names are conserved until today especially in the territory between the Baltic and Adriatic Sea (Wind-, Wend-, Windisch...), we say that they were called Veneti or Vends by their neighbours. They spoke a language which was close to the present-da