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Den | Romania | History | Colonization | 9th Century BC

Colonization Period
9th Century BC

Topics covered in this section:

Overview

At the beginning of the 9th century BC, we see the emergence of nomadic tribes moving toward the sparsely populated areas of southeastern Europe. These include the Thracians, the Scythians, and the Cimmerians. Some stayed in the region, merging into the native population, but most continued to follow their migratory patterns.

The Romanian lands became the home for a diverse people. The indigenous people were mostly an agrarian society, with a smattering of herders. However, the newcomers were mostly herders.

Note

From now on, instead of writing Romanian "lands," I'll simply say "Romania." But you'll have to realize that the geopolitical borders of modern-day Romania have nothing to do with where the nomadic tribes actually settled. But I have to call it something.

Most of the steppe region to the east still remained the domain of the horse masters and shepherds.

Thracian Tribes

The Thracians consisted of a large number of Indo-European tribal groups who had migrated from the Eurasian steppe beginning back in the Bronze Age. Generally speaking, they spread outward from the steppes, migrating in a westward and soutward direction toward Romania and elsewhere.

According to ancient historians, they spoke different dialects of the same language. However, most of these historians were not qualified to judge the characteristics of a language, much less dialects of that language.

Vast Realm

At one point, the Thracian tribes covered a large portion of the continent, stretching from the foothills of the Carpathian mountains to the Aegean Sea, and from the Vardar River in Macedonia, through most of Slovakia, and eastward into Anatolia (Turkey). Later, during Roman times, the province of Thrace was but a small shadow of its original size.

Herodotus claimed that the Thracians might have become one of the great powers of the classical world if they had been able to unite their tribes into a common goal. But of course, they never did unite ... preferring to remain separate, warring tribal groups.

Ancestors of Getae

A small portion of these migratory tribes settled north of the Danube, along with their herds and flocks, and became one of the ancestors of the people known as the Getae and later the Dacians and much later the Romanians. We'll talk about these people in more detail later.

Dacian Sarmizegetusa

One tribal member of this group, the Dacians, mostly inhabited portions of the Danubian plain (now the Banat) and the Transylvanian basin. Their cultural and spiritual center was located at Sarmizegetusa and consisted of a series of circular sanctuaries.

Sarmizegetusa, which lies in central Transylvania, was protected by the curved arc of the Carpathian mountains. It was probably chosen because the mountains there form a natural bastion.

Cimmerian Tribes

About 800 BC we find mention of the Cimmerians in inscriptions found in the Kingdom of Urartu. The Cimmerians were a branch of the Thracian tribes.

Archaeologists have recovered many examples of Thraco-Cimmerian horse gear in the Carpathian-Danube region.

Scythian Tribes

The actual boundaries of pre-historic Scythia, as with the boundaries of nearly all mobile societies, is difficult to pinpoint.

However, archaeological evidence orients it in a huge swath of territory that extends from Wallachia (Romania) to southern Siberia (Russia), incorporating portions of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, southern Russia, Georgia, and regions farther east.

The heart of Scythia was located at the meridian of the grassland steppe.

Horse Masters and Shepherds

The Pontic steppe environment was well suited to mobile societies. Since the grassland soil was relatively nutrient poor, few farming communities existed in Scythian territory.

Instead, the Scythians were noted for their mastery of horses and for their large flocks of sheep. Shepherds continued their seasonal migrations across the vast expanses of the steppes.

Cannibals and Head Hunters

The Sythians, the legendary inhabitants of this territory, lived in a constant state of warfare. Classical writers described the Sythians as cannibals and head hunters who drank blood from vessels formed out of the skulls of their victims.

Amazon Women

In Scythian society everyone was a warrior, including the women.

Tales of fierce Scythian female warriors who excised their right breast to keep it from getting in the way of using a bow and arrow probably spawned many of the European legends of Amazon women on the continent.

Transvestite Shamans

When an aging male Scythian warrior lost his ability to engage in warfare, he remained behind in camp and dressed in women's clothes. Eventually, the transvestite took on the role of a shaman.

It obviously gave the elderly male warriors the opportunity to maintain their dignity within the warrior-based community. It might also have been due to the fact that men who spent long periods of time in the saddle often became impotent.

Werewolves

But Scythia wasn't just a land of warrior tribes. It was also reported to have been the habitation of werewolves. As you know, in years to come, these mythical wolves will fuel the imaginations and superstitions of medieval Europeans.

Royal Burial Mounds

Several royal burial mounds have been recovered, including one in which the deceased chieftain was encircled by soldiers and horses who at the time of his death had been slain and stuffed.

Even in death, it seems, the Scythian elite were protected and provided for.

Steppe Geography

The geography of the steppe region varied little.

Northward

Traveling to the north, you find forest steppes, followed by sparse deciduous woodlands. These become coniferous taiga (subartic evergreen forests) before reaching the treeless tundra near the Artic Ocean.

Southward

Traveling to the south, you encounter a sloping grade into semi-desert, where artemisia bushes predominate. These slopes are bordered by mountains or seas.

Westward

Traveling to the west, you are faced with the barrier of the Carpathian mountains with its narrow gorges. Even the mighty Danube narrows precipitously at the Iron Gates gorge.

Climate Shift

Toward the end of the 9th century BC, we see a significant climate shift taking place. The steppe became much colder and drier.

The change in climate coincides with the sudden appearance of nomadic pastoralists moving outward from the steppe grasslands.

To find greener pastures, the shepherds had to increase their seasonal movements over a range of about 2000 km (about 1,250 miles).

The pastoral economy was based on a network of sources of water, which were unevenly distributed. This search for water and pastures led them toward the mountains ... and into Romania (and other regions as well).

Pronunciation Help

To help American readers, the following pronunciation guide to Romanian words used above is provided. The sounds shown are only approximations, however.

• Dacia. Dah-chyah.
• Sarmizegetusa. Sahr-meez-eh-geh-too-sah.
• Wallachia. Vah-lahk-yah.