Democritus Reformatorium Prehistoric Tribes

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Baltic tribes in medieval and modern ethnonymy

(from P. Bělíček: The Analytic Survey of European Anthropology, 2018, p. 160)

The Componential Analysis of Baltic Tribes

The earliest autochthons of Baltic countries were the Balts, who belonged to Aurignacian populations of nomadic fishers. They did not wander right from their Pontic starting-point north of the Black Sea but roamed in several mainstreams from riverside areas of Siberia as bearers of the Tungusoid Y-haplogroup C. The period between 43,000 and 37,000 BP saw their transcontinental travels in several principal directions. Classic archaeology recognised only the Aurignacian proper (37,000 BP) that headed for France and Spain. Beside this West-European Aurignacian new excavations confirm the existence of the Siberian Proto-Aurignacian that departed from Lake Baikal. Less reliable records allow us to speak also of the Indian Aurignacian that gave birth to Tulu and Telugu tribes. Some authors occasionally apply this term also to the East-African Levalloisians (95,000 BP), who were considered as the forefathers of Cromagnon people or even Homo sapiens as such. The African route pointed to the central role of the Levantine Ahmarian culture(46,000 BP) and its young offshoot called Antelian (32,000 BP). They both played a decisive role in importing to Europe the narrow prismatic blade points and burins that are now referred to as the Font-Yves type. They support hypotheses assuming that Aurignacians arrived to western Europe from the Levant via the culture of the Bulgarian Bacho Kiro cave (43,000 BP). Another source of Aurignacian industry is sought in digs from the Bohunician complex (48,000 BP). Its assemblage had a centre at Bohunice near Brno, but its finds radiate to East Europe and may have reached also Baltic ancestors.

Balto-Gothids: the dominant stock of the Gotho-Frisian Corded Ware culture (2900 BC) and its Cam-

pignian predecessors (10,000 BC); they moved eastward as Yotvingo-Prussians and made battle-

axes and boat-axes, Baltic racial phenotypes derived from Nordic tall dolichocephals mixed with

Slavic and Saamic brachycephals; heathen Prussians lived in two-caste systems like Brahmans and

Khattryias, they derived their origin from two brothers, the king Vaidevutis and the archpriest Bruteno.

Prussians → Prussians (Latin Pruteni), Bartians, Warmians/Varmians, Yotvingians (Latvian

Jātvingi, Polish Jaćwingowie, from Goths), (Samo)gitians/Zhemaitish (from Goths), Sasnans.

Baltids (Balto-Tungids): the second dominant of Aurignacian lacustrine fishers and lake-dwellers in the

Karelian lake district, artificial islands on lakes, post-dwellings and above-water lake houses, tepee

huts of lavvu type, steep A-shaped houses, whose gables had tepee-like crossed beams.

Balts (Lithuanian Baltai, Latvian Balti, balt- means ‘white’ or ‘marshland’) → Karelians/Karjala,

Curonians, Lithuanians/Lietuviu, Latvians, Latgalians, Ladogans.

Balto-Lappids: Gravettian origins, cremation burials, yodelling, melodic tones, abundant palatals

and sibilant affricates and diphthongs, satemisation, fronting round and back vowels).

Lappids → Galindians/Goliadj, Semigallians (from Saamis + Gallians), Samogitians (from Saamis +

Goths), Sambians (from Sambia Peninsula = Samland, Saami + -land), Selonians, Finns (from Wend-).

Balto-Scythids (Ugro-Scythoid tribes of tall brachycephalous kurgan-builders, mounds of cupolar and

domed shapes, convex noses, often light reddish skin and red hair) → Chud’, Varangians,

Vod’/Votes, Ingrians/Izhorians, Veps, Sudovians (from Scyth-), Węgorzewo-Mazowsze.

Balto-Uralids (the Pit-Comb Ware culture 6000 BC, Narva culture, 5300 BC, moose-hunters,

hippophagi ‘horse-eaters’, raw-meat eaters, exposition on scaffolds, cults of the World Egg,

the World Tree and the World Duck) → Estonians/Aestii/Eesti, Aukštaitians, Ross’.

Table 55. An analytic decomposition of Baltic peoples

The Baltids were known to ancient Greeks as Hyperboreans and flowed into the riverside territories of Central Europe in several mainstreams (Table 55). The Karelian, Ladogan and Polochan lake-dwellers arrived along a northwest route but their Polish and Ukrainian brothers pursued a westward direction. Their architecture preserved elements of the ancient Tungusoid tepee style in ‘steep Finish roof’, A-shaped building and gables crowned by the wreath of crossed logs at the top.

The dominant ethnic layer among Baltids was formed by Yotvingo-Prussians, who came to the Baltic area as bearers of the Corded Ware culture. Their travels traced earlier routes that lined the Mesolithic wanderings of Littoralids to the Urals and Siberia. They had a clear Europoid stamp and transported cord-patterned pottery to littoral sites in the Far East. They spread Campignian kitchen shell middens as far as the Japanese Jomon culture. The study of Prussian linguistic evidence is of great import since it conserved the state of Germanic consonantism before the circular Great Sound Shift (große Lautverschiebung). At that time Gotho-Frisians did not use the latter correlation of fortis and lenis stops but applied the opposition of voiced and surd stops as is common in most IE tongues.

The cultural dominance of the Indo-European Gotho-Frisians could not menace the chronological priority of Gravettian immigrants, who contributed the most populous layer of the Slavic and Lappic substratum. Its impact was seen in satem shifts, consonant palatalisation, nasal vowels, rich diphthongisation, i-plurals and melodic pitch accent. On the other hand, Uralic languages penetrated into the Baltic morphology by incorporating Estonian perfect tenses and locative cases. Their declinations included Uralic cases distinguishing essives, adessives, allative, illatives and comitatives.

Slavonic Polonids and Baltids

Poles are classed as a Slavic nation but their name derives from Bulgaroid Polonids. Their ancestors were the Ukrainian Polovtsy/Plavtsy, who are erroneously classified as Turcoids, because they fused with the surrounding Turcoid element. They differed from Turcoid neighbours by their Tungusoid descent from Aurignacian tribes with tepee tents and conical post-dwellings. Their core resided north of the Black Sea all over the settlements of the Yamnaya culture (3300 BC). It was identical to the racial variety of Pontids or Eastern Mediterranids. About 42,000 BP the Aurignacian diaspora dispersed Tungids from Asia and drove them from East Europe farther to the Alps and the Iberian Peninsula. Their East European hordes survived in the ethnoracial groups of Volga Bulgars, Ladogans, Baltids, Karelians and Polish Polonids. Owing to long-term assimilation their linguistic heritage is now preserved only in depleted remains.

Euro-Tungids (also called Ladogans, Baltids, Karelians, Hyperboreans; nomadic fishermen, lacustrine lake-dwellers, pole-dwellings, tepee huts, Finnish steep-sloping chalets with tepee-like gables, Lappish huts laevu and goahti, lakeside fishermen, acorn-eaters, ABO group B, low frequencies of Y-hg C):

North route 1: Karelian Tungids: Karelians (Karjalabotn, Kirjaland),1

NW route: Latvian Tungids: Baldayskaya Range ® Baltinava ® Latgalians ® Latvia ® Curones2,

W1 Polochan Tungids: Polochans, Poloczanians3 (at Polotsk, Belarusia) ® Lithuanians ® Belostok ® Polans (also Polanes, Polanians, Polish Polanie in the Warta river basin) ® Płońsk-Bielsk ® Poel ® Flensburg ® Danes (Dani)

W2 Polonian Tungids: Volga Bulgars ® Polovtsi (Polish Połowcy, Plauci) ® Polans (Opolans),

Połomia ® Bolokhoveni4,

W3 Euro-Tungids: Plone ® Belesane ® Ostfalen (Ostfalia) ® Westfalen ® Belgium (Belgica, Belginum) ® Bellovaci ® Flemish Flanders (Flandria) ® Belgae (south England).

W4 Euro-Tungids: Balti (Romania) ® Ipoly, Pilis, Ipel’ (Hungary, Slovakia) ® Pálava (Moravia) ® Tuenagove ® Blesigove ® Pfalz (Germany),

NW Pelasgids: Pelasgians (Pelasgiotes) ® Belegezites (Thessaly) ® Illyri (Illyrioi, Illyrii) ® Dalmatians ® Carantanians (Slovenes in Austria and Slovenia)

Table 56. A systematic reclassification of eastern Mediterranids as pure Eteo-Tungids

Extract from Pavel Bělíček: The Analytic Survey of European Anthropology, Prague 2018, Table 46, p. 156-163

1 The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016-1471; The Chronicle of Duke Erik, Chapter 10-The founding of Stockholm

2 Östen Dahl (ed.) 2001, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, vol. 1; W. K. Matthews: Medieval Baltic Tribes. American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Apr., 1949), pp. 126-136; Livonian Rhymed Chronicle. 6794–6800, 9095–9100.

4 Alexandru V. Boldur: Istoria Basarabiei. V. Frunza, 1992.