By Mathieu AREF, Albanologist, University of Sorbonne, Paris
(mat.aref@wanadoo.fr), source.
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| Albanianologist Mathieu AREF refers to one of his studies (archive) |
Must all of us Albanians adopt their misguided perspectives on our PELLAZGË ancestors and their current ALBANIAN language? Here is a brief excerpt from the true history, a work that has cost me 50 years of continuous study and research.
This petition seems bitter, undemocratic, against freedom of expression, and above all, a maneuver to harm us. Academics suppressing "public discourse" and "curtailing freedom of expression" do not exist in Western Europe. Thus, in this way, Albania will not join the European Union unless it changes its ideology.
First and foremost, these pseudo-academics have chosen to cast doubt on two essential points of the Albanian nation: the recognition of the Pelasgians as true ancestors of the Albanian people and the ancient origin of the Pelasgo-Albanian language. It is unimaginable that some academics and Albanian officials could start a petition questioning these two fundamental aspects of our unique specificity in Europe without providing the slightest evidence or argument, without the smallest reference to what they claim: solely to satisfy themselves and confirm their ideological beliefs. This contradicts any worthy study by people claiming to be "scholars."
For more than 50 years, I have studied in-depth the origin of our ancestors and our language. Thanks to my studies and research, detailed analyses, and irrefutable references supported by a thesis submitted to the University of Sorbonne in Paris, I shed new light on the history and language of our prestigious ancestors, whom the Tirana Academy has thrown into the mud to satisfy its false beliefs and to make our inherited enemies happy. Apparently, our pseudo-academics rely on political or geopolitical considerations rather than reliable and unquestionable scientific arguments and methods.
Then why did these pseudo-academics choose the Illyrians and not the Pelasgians as their ancestors when the name "Illyrians" only appeared after the 7th century BCE? Why do they refuse to accept the antiquity of the Albanian language in what is unjustly called the "Indo-European" system when a team of American scholars has just claimed that the Albanian language is one of the oldest in Europe? Without convincing evidence or arguments, these pseudo-academics allow themselves to deny our true origin, denigrate the ancientness of our language, betray our homeland, and mock our people!
Before responding "scientifically" (and not with empty words in a petition) to these two fundamental points, I must tell all these improvised censors that they are fighting the wrong battle on topics they absolutely do not master, and their petition is absurd because they throw everyone into the same pot.
Furthermore, I don't understand why and how people who call themselves "scientists" rely on modern authors to write the history of the Albanian people when these authors merely repeat the mistakes of their predecessors?! They make serious mistakes because they prefer to imitate others (even if they are wrong) rather than write their own history by conducting proper and in-depth studies and research, referring to the oldest sources of antiquity to seriously support their work using scientific research methods. But beyond this, and to further complicate their case, it is clear that by choosing to rewrite the history of their country based on inappropriate criteria and obvious historical errors (made by modern authors), they are playing into the hands of enemies of Albania for various reasons. Finally, when politics or geopolitics intervene in the history of a country, it is clear that something is happening that is not in any way for the good of that country: when ideology interferes or merges with history, it kills history. So how can we consider our history and language as dubious and in favor of Greece: the historical and linguistic position of the Academy of Tirana? This is a true betrayal of the people, their history, their language, and the entire Pelasgian-Albanian nation.
Now I will briefly address the so-called issue of the Pelasgians and the modern Albanian language raised by the Academy of Tirana. Certainly, my thesis is revolutionary (as no one has done it so far) because it questions the origin of Greece and the "Indo-European" language system of European languages, where almost half of the states and peoples of Europe are not "indigenous" but have their origin from the neighboring continent of Asia. This last point forces me to start below with "Linguistics" before talking about Pelasgian-Albanian history.
Modern linguistics is a late discipline, and its foundations were laid at the end of the 19th century. The followers of this discipline, failing to find the native language of Europe, artificially created a base language: "Indo-European." All these linguists for about 150 years locked themselves in their ivory tower, that is, their discipline. In fact, their work was not multidisciplinary and would require, to be credible, the help of other disciplines: prehistory, history, archaeology, anthropology, chronology, mythology... Peoples and their languages were mixed regardless of their history, ethnic origin, ancestral languages, chronological representation in Europe, etc. All these elements constitute a "scientific basis" for the start of any scientific work, and at the end of which "linguistic studies" intervene, including semantic, syntactic, morphological, phonetic, phonological, comparative studies, etc. Unfortunately, "multidisciplinary work" was not done, and studies were specifically based on "linguistics." But from the beginning, due to the lack of finding the "true native language" of Europe (which could only be found in Europe), linguistic studies took a wrong turn that could only lead to a real dead end. Unfortunately, if the first linguists had focused diligently on the Albanian language (which I consider a "living fossil"), we would not be in this state. They would not have "invented" Indo-European and would not have gone to Central Asia or India to find Sanskrit or Tocharian. All they could do was consider "Albanian" as a language on its own... so it was put on the shelf. Here I stop my explanations because it is too long to give all the necessary explanations here (refer to my books, thesis, and articles). The end of this paragraph is a good transition to talk about the Pelasgians and their "language."
The Pelasgians, according to "all ancient authors," are considered the predecessors of the Greeks and not their ancestors. The civilization that modern authors have called "Mycenaean" has never existed with this name because the only pre-Greek civilization that existed before the appearance of the Greeks was the "Pelasgian Civilization." Moreover, ancient authors only knew the name of the "city" of Mycenae and never spoke of a "Mycenaean civilization," an invention of the pseudo-archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who during his excavations in the city of Mycenae in Argolis (formerly Pelasgian excellence before the Greek occupation) discovered a treasure which he attributed to "Agamemnon." Because of the name "Mycenae," he decreed that it was a Mycenaean civilization (1650 to 1100 – dated by modern archaeologists and historians) which he considered Greek: all archaeologists, historians, and modern linguists then accepted Schliemann's claims as unquestionable truths, and the mistake continues without being questioned... except by me... and the mathematical logic of my in-depth studies and research! But no one has noticed that there was a period called the "Dark Ages" (-1200-800 BCE) that remained completely silent where we know absolutely nothing... hence the term "dark." How can we consider that the Greeks descended from the Mycenaeans when they only appeared after this period where we have no traces of the Greeks? How can they emerge from "nothing"? Moreover, the Greeks and Dorians are not mentioned in the epic poems (Iliad and Odyssey) and especially in the "Catalogue of Ships" in the Iliad! On the other hand, in the Iliad, Zeus is considered "king, Dodona, and Pelasgian." Later, according to Porphyry, the biography of Pythagoras, who before he died, asserted that Zeus was called "Zan" (in Geg Albanian "zan, zani" = voice, sound in Tosk Albanian). This is confirmed by the priests of Dodona, who interpreted the "Zan" of Zeus from the rustlings of the leaves of the "Sacred Oak." Why the "sacred" oak? Because it is very likely to be a "reminiscence" of the prehistoric past of the Pelasgians who lived in "caves." That's why I called them "Cavazg" = Cave People: an ethnonym that I discovered thanks to a Pelasgian defining suffix (kept only by the Armenians because the Albanians lost it long ago) that defines a "people" and where the "materials" of the oak fed the Pelasgians during their prehistoric wanderings.
Furthermore, to demonstrate the apparent connection between the Pelasgians and the present-day Albanians, you need to know that the epic poems (Iliad and Odyssey) were "poems of the Pelasgian oral tradition"... therefore, most of the anthroponyms, eponyms, toponyms, and epithets of the Iliad (the older poem than the Odyssey) can be interpreted very accurately from the Albanian/Geg language (refer to my Lexicon included in my thesis and included in my first book "Albania..."). Or do we find any traces of the Greeks before the 8th century BCE? Certainly not... and many other discoveries and claims and numerous references (over 900 in my thesis) are in my thesis and my books. These few indications or findings are just a small part of all my studies and research dedicated to the Pelasgians and the Albanian language for more than 50 years of my life.
Now, in the following paragraph, ALL the essential facts and gestures of the Hellenic civilization itself are usurped, monopolized, modified, and manipulated to serve the interests of the Greek conquerors after the 8th century BCE. Before the 8th century BCE, there is no trace of the existence of the Greeks. Here are the historical and cultural events that occurred AFTER the appearance of the Greek conquerors:
It should be noted that a significant fact is the population of Attica/Athens quadrupling within 50 years, from 800 to 750 BCE! This migration is an example confirming the Greek conquest at that time. "This date actually corresponds to the appearance of the Greek conquerors."
From the 8th century BCE and beyond (in what would become Greece), significant social and cultural changes are emerging from the so-called Mycenaean society. We are far from what is called "Minoan or Aegeo-Cretan" (implicitly by modern authors, erroneously considered predecessors of the Greeks!), which in this context has nothing in common with the Greeks historically or ethno-linguistically.
The disappearance of the kingdom and the establishment of tyranny. This is another example that proves political and state upheaval during that time.
The emergence of new, unknown gods from Homer, such as Dionysus.
Colonization movements would have started around 775 BCE (a debatable date, roughly 60 years descent) towards the western seas (Corfu, Italy, Marseille...) and around 700-680 BCE towards the shores of Asia Minor and the Adriatic Sea. This is the era of the creation of famous trade corridors ("emporion") and "Apoikoi" ("colonies").
The practice of burning the dead (Pelasgian) replaces the burial of the dead, also known as Mycenaean.
The Iron Age replaces the Bronze Age (Pelasgian). Homer in his poems often talks about iron, while the Mycenaeans (Pelasgians) did not know the use of this metal in those early times.
The emergence of the alphabetic writing from the end of the 8th century BCE, which is concretized only from the end of the 7th century BCE and then in the 6th century BCE with the publication of the Iliad and Odyssey under the tyranny of Pisistratus (living around 600-527 BCE). In addition, these poems continued to be "embellished" and revised until the Hellenistic era (3rd century BCE), a period during which they were finally transcribed. There is no allusion to any kind of alphabetic writing in Homer.
The alphabet was called Phoenician by Herodotus (V, 58). It should be noted that before Pliny, Diodorus Siculus (< -90/ > +30) spoke of that alphabet. The irony is that the alphabets (Greek, Etruscan, and Latin) said to derive from the so-called "Phoenician" alphabet were actually of Pelasgian origin. The Greeks usurped and revised it to write their language, based on Pelasgian elements mixed with the languages of the Greek conquerors: something that cannot be explained without the Albanian language being considered "Greek." Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca Historica – III, 67; V, 74 and onwards § V. 3. c.) stated that from the beginning, this alphabet was called "Pelasgian characters" and that it was not Phoenician. He added that the Phoenicians served as a transmission belt, meaning that they took it from the Pelasgians in the island of Crete, turned it into Phoenician (where they assigned each character a Phoenician name: Aleph, Beth...) and then transmitted it to the Greeks (in Thebes of Boeotia) through the Phoenician Cadmus (Kadmos), whose name is explained in the modern Semitic-Arabic language as "kadem" = the comer, the one who came. According to the conclusions of my studies, I claim that with the arrival of the Greek conquerors, the Pelasgians had lost the use of writing in their language. The Greeks tried to eliminate a large part of Pelasgian traces and appropriated another part.
The Iliad and the Odyssey: poems of the Pelasgian oral tradition. These were published by Pisistratus in the middle of the 6th century BCE. Thanks to the epic poems (Iliad and Odyssey), transmitted by the Pelasgians (referred to as "divine" in Iliad X/429), the young Greek conquerors, we now know what language the indigenous peoples (Pelasgians) spoke, who inhabited the "land that would become Greece" (Herodotus I/56,58 – II/50,52 VIII/44). This language of the Gods ("different from that of men," i.e., the Greeks - cf. Iliad I/ 379 – 415), as described by Homer, the language of "Pelasgian Zeus and Dodona," is more than alive: the modern Albanian language (especially Gheg), almost untouched thanks to the inaccessible mountains of northern Albania for millennia. Isn't it today a kind of "living fossil" that provides us with evidence that these Pelasgians were indeed the ancestors of the Thracian-Illyrians and their last descendants, the modern Albanians? Can't the Albanian language decrypt or decipher most of the names of mythology (called Greek) as well as the theonyms, eponyms, toponyms, oronyms, and anthroponyms of the Iliad/Odyssey and a large part of the toponyms of Europe and especially the Danube-Balkan-Aegean region?
The language of the Pelasgians was the main component of the ancient Greeks (through the Ionians: "Pelasgians turned into Greeks after mastering Greek," as Herodotus tells us). This means in other words "bilingual Pelasgians" who provided great assistance to the Hellenic logographers in transcribing Pelasgian poems into the language that would become Greek.
The construction of temples from "stone" only begins from the 7th century BCE. Ancient temples: the two "Heraia" in Argos and Olympia were built on a base of dried bricks and with wooden colonnades! The "Naos," a part of a temple, is not at all from a time earlier than the end of the 7th century BCE. The sacred site of Delphi dedicated to Apollo started to be visited in the 8th century BCE, but the temple of Apollo was only built in the 7th century BCE. Burned in 548 BCE, this temple was rebuilt around 510 BCE. Under the tyranny of Clisthenes (600-570 BCE), Delphi became the largest sacred site in all of Greece.
Architectural styles first appeared with the Spartans/Dorians in the 7th century BCE (Doric style), then with the Ionians in the 6th century BCE (Ionic style), and finally the Corinthian style in the 5th century BCE. Architectural styluses emerged initially with the Spartans/Dorians in the 7th century BCE (Doric style), then with the Ionians in the 6th century BCE (Ionic style), and finally the Corinthian style in the 5th century BCE. From 725 BCE, orientalizing art began.
The geometric style appeared with "ceramics." Its peak is set in the years 770-750 BCE (Dipilon, Lefkandi). The celebration of the first Olympic Games begins in 776 BCE, and the Pythian Games in 582 BCE. The Panathenaic Games were established in 566 BCE. In Homer, there is no mention of any celebration of this kind.
A new type of warfare developed in Greece with the emergence of Hoplites: a new armament (hoplon, porpak, antilabe, knemide) and a new form of combat (Phalanx). The city-state, according to some authors, emerged in the 8th century BCE and according to others in the 6th century BCE. The right of citizenship was definitively established for Athens only in the 6th century BCE.
The appearance of new gods, including Dionysus and Pan; king-poets, among them Orpheus and Muse (founders of Greek civilization, according to the Greeks themselves); or new heroes, including Hercules and Theseus, who, according to some authors, was the creator of Athenian synoecism.
The legend of DEUCALION was created to completely erase the Pelasgian past, a flood that wipes out everything before the Greeks so that they can start from scratch. Thus, as if by magic, Helen, the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, emerged: Helen, the eponym of the ancestors of the Greeks. This Deucalion myth (analogous to Noah in the Bible) was formed in a relatively late period.
THE TROJAN WAR, as described in the Iliad, is not what we believe or have learned from school and university books for some reasons developed in my thesis. According to archaeologists, there are several layers in the location of the ancient city of Troy, the most significant of which are the last ones: TROY VI (-1750-1300), VIIa (-1300-1180), VIII (-950-85), IX (-85 until today). What concerns the (hypothetical) Trojan War according to archaeologists based on Eratosthenes would occupy layer VIIa. But Eratosthenes' and archaeologists' calculations are only hypothetical without any historical or scientific basis. Therefore, we have no historical writing that gives us an accurate date, and all calculations by "modern" archaeologists deviate and revolve around that of the astronomer, mathematician, and geographer Eratosthenes (-276-194), which is nothing more than a probability calculation without a scientific basis. So, EVERYTHING revolves around the (incorrect) date of Eratosthenes (-1193-1194). But at the historical level, we find no traces of the Greeks in this time interval because the true beginnings of the appearance of the Greek invaders occurred after the 8th century BCE (which corresponds to layer VIII of the archaeologists). Moreover, after the date given by Eratosthenes, there has been a period of silence for "four centuries so-called 'dark' (-1200-800)" where we have no evidence confirming the existence of the Greeks. The latter, during the conquest of ancient Troy (at the end of the 8th century), called it the ancient city: "Ilion" and at the same time named it "Iliad" (from "Ilion"!) the epic poem titled "The Wrath of Achilles" by the ancient authors. This "Ilion" period is the "eighth layer" of archaeologists: the date of the Greek conquest (-700-680) of Western Asia Minor. They transposed an ancient Trojan war, narrated in the Iliad, into their own conquest of Western Asia Minor, that of "Ilion" (Greek).