DETECTING THE PHYSICAL REMAINS

OF THE 7TH CENTURY SERBS & SLAVS

IN MODERN LIVING ALBANIANS

 

 

The aim of this section is to identify the population that contributed blond hair, blue eyes and light skin to contemporary Albanians, who descend from the Asiatic Dardanians (see: section 8, II). Only 2 populations could have contributed to Albanian blondism: the Serboi & the Slavs. It should be noted here that when we are speaking about Nordic or Wendish Serbs and Nordic Slavs, we are speaking about unassimilated Serbs & Slavs: before they assimilated their name onto the Romanized Illyrians and Slavicized them.

 

Any Illyrian influence to explain Nordic features among living Albanians will have to be ruled out on the grounds outlined below - despite the fact that the Halstatt Illyrians were in fact, Nordic:

 

The significance of our study of the Illyrian peoples is as follows: on the plains of south central Germany and Lower Austria, where the Hallstatt culture arose, the racial type involved was skeletally a Nordic one.

 

            Races of Europe

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            (Chapter VI, section 2)

            The Illyrians

            Macmilan Press

            1939

 

Unfortunately, the Illyrians of Central & Northern Albania, called Illyris in ancient times, were completely massacred by the Romans in 168 BC for siding with Macedonia:

           

Roman treatment of Illyrians south of the Drin had reached a brutal climax following the victory over Macedonia in 168 BC. In attacks by the Roman army on Macedonian allies in northern Epirus and Illyris, 70 communities were destroyed, 150 000 of the population enslaved and the countryside devastated.

           

            A century & a half later, Strabo records:

 

"...at the present time desolation prevails in most parts, while in the areas still inhabited they survive only in the villages and among the ruins".     

 

            John Wilkes

            The Illyrians

            Chapter: Prehistoric Illyrians

            Page: 208        

            Blackwell Publishers

            1992

 

It is safe to rule out an Illyrian origin for Albanian blondism on these grounds.

 

The Wendish Serbs, who migrated to northern Albania in 620 AD, however - were blond, blue-eyed and Nordic:

           

In the period between the 8th to 12th centuries, at the time of the maximum Slavic expansion westward, and before the Germanic counter-thrust eastward, the Wends occupied much of present-day Mecklenburg. They were a long-headed people, with a mean cranial index of 76.6, mostly Nordic...

 

            The Serbs, the most important single people in this southern expansion - still speak a    language closely allied to that             of the Wends of Germany.

 

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            Races of Europe

            (Chapter XII, section 8)

            The Living Slavs

            (a) Czechs and Wends 

            Macmillam Press

            1939

 

The Slavs who reached Prevalitania and the Shkumbi River in 610 AD, were also blond, blue-eyed and Nordic:

 

If the literary evidence makes the early Slavs Nordic in stature & pigmentation, that of ostocology makes them the same in the metrical & morphological sense. In brief, the earliest Slavic skeletal material (8th - 11th centuries) falls by group...into one or more of the Nordic categories... 

 

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            Races of Europe

            (Chapter VI, section 7)

            The Slavs

            Macmillam Press

            1939

 

It should also be noted that Albanian blondism is found in its highest frequencies only in areas settled by the Wendish Serbs in 620 AD:

 

Light brown or blond hair, which is almost always on the golden or slightly rufous side, accounts for the other 15 per cent. Only two men out of 1100 were found to have ash-blond hair.

           

(5) A blond, brachycephalic, convex-nosed Noric, of standard type. It is commonest in Zadrima.

            (6) A few light brown-haired Nordics, centered in Luma.

           

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            Races of Europe

            (Chapter XII, section XIII)

            Albania and the Dinaric Race

            Macmillam Press

            1939

 

Note (5): Nordics in Albania are commonest in Zadrima, which is in northwestern Albania.

 

This area was actually settled by Serbs & Slavs in the early 7th century. This is not surprising because the name Zadrima is a pure Serbian word, meaning 'behind the Drim'. Za is a shortened form of iza, which means behind. The letter 'a' is a Slavic neuter posessive suffix. Wendish Serb tribes used variations based on the word za - behind when they settled in Bosnia, Hercegovina & Dalmatia in the same period as they settled North Albania, for example: the medieval Serb state of Zahumlje (http://en.wikipedia.org/Zahumlje).

 

The movement of the South Slavs took them...to the Gore region of Northwestern Albania.

 

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            Races of Europe

            (Chapter VI, section 7)

            The Slavs

            Macmillam Press

            1939

 

Note (6): Nordics in Albania are commonest in Luma, also - a region which was specifically settled by Wendish Serbs in the early 7th century:

 
"The once important Serbian influence in Albania has left few vestiges, other than Slavic place names, and the presence of a few islands of Moslem Serb speakers in the mountains, as in the Gora district of Luma".

 

            Carleton Stevens Coon

            Races of Europe

(Chapter XII, section 12)

1939

 

The extermination of the 'real Illyrians' in 168 BC who dwelt in Central & Northern Albania, called Illyris - nullifies the possibility of secondary characteristics of Nordic morphology in living Albanians being of Illyrian origin.

 

On the other hand, the fact that these Nordic characteristics are found in high frequency only in parts of Albania known to have been settled by Slavs & Serbs in the early 7th century - confirms beyond doubt that secondary characteristics of Nordic morphology in living Albanians being of unmixed Serb & Slavic origin.