Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

It has been said that thousands of years ago many small tribal kingdoms occupied the region where the three continents meet (Europe, Asia and Africa). They lived off the land, traded and peacefully co-existed with each other for many centuries. Even though they were known by many names, the people had a common ancestry and spoke dialects of the same language. For a thousand years the masters of the crafts possessed the secret of the metals with which they made sculptures and decorations, beautifying their cities. It was foretold that if the secret of the metal (bronze) was allowed to escape, the gods of peace would curse the people and allow disaster to befall them for a thousand years. Unfortunately, after a thousand years or so of contentment, ignoring the ancient warnings, the old masters became arrogant and careless and let the secret of the metal escape. No one could have predicted the outcome of what was about to happen, especially the gentle tribes who knew nothing of evil, violence, or bloodshed. When the gods of war who lived to the north and west of the gentle tribes learned the secret of the metal, they forged mighty weapons. With promises of power and glory, they bewitched the tribesmen’s leaders to use the weapons against their enemies. Greed and lust for power soon blinded the tribesmen who unleashed bloodshed, death and destruction. When the cities of light turned to dust, the wars ended and the dead were buried in cities of tombs below the surface of the earth where their bones lay in peace, undisturbed for all eternity or until archeology unearthed them. In 800 BC when the catastrophic wars were finally over, the survivors of the small tribal kingdoms were left weak, devastated and vulnerable. One of those small kingdoms was Macedonia. But Macedonia’s story does not end with the tribal wars; it only begins. There are those who believe that the name “Macedonia” was first spoken by the child warriors who longed to return home during the tribal wars. What they affectionately called “Makedon” was not their kingdom but their wish to return to “mother’s home”. “Make” (mother) and “don” (home) or Makedon as it came to be known to the outside world, was “mother’s home” to the children of Macedonia. There are other stories that make reference to the meaning of the name “Makedon” but this, I believe, is the most realistic meaning. One of the oldest sources of evidence written on stone in the ancient Macedonian phonetic language dates back to the Neolithic period, to the time of the “Zets”. I want to mention here that a “Zet” is a “son in law”. From the deciphered inscriptions it appears that the Zets of various tribes seemed to be involved in some sort of conflict with each other. Perhaps one of the most characteristic documents ever found was the text engraved on a stone in the shape of a long fish found in Osinchani, near Skopje. Here the inscription describes a battle between Zets expressing how one Zet subdued another.

Another description that dates between 2,100 BC and 1,200 BC tells a boastful story of how the Zet Ig’Lal destroyed the Ege kingdom. (Vasil Ilyov, page 51, August 15, 2000, number 580, Makedonija magazine) Yet another Neolithic inscription from the Tsrna Loma or Ilina Gora locality, near the village Osinchani, conveys the following message: “taa, rechta, zasega e uteha na majkite, koishto loshoto voinata, niv gi oshteti”, which in English translates roughly to, “the word for now is consolation for the mothers, whom the wicked war damaged”. Outside of Homer’s epics, nothing has captured the young imagination more than the adventures of the ancient mythological gods and heroes. Were these gods and heroes exclusively Egyptian, Greek and Roman? That is exactly what the modern Greeks want us to believe. Contrary to modern Greek claims, Professor Tashko Belchev believes that the mythology as we know it today originated from the life experiences of much older people than the ancient City States, and these were the ancient Macedonians. The ancient City States simply took the mythology and adopted it for themselves. Even the word “mythology” comes from the ancient Macedonian words “mit” and “log”. In modern Macedonian the word “mit” means “telling” or “bribing” (potmiti go, bribe him) and the word “log” (logika) means “logic” or “science”. Putting the two words together we come up with “Mitlog” or, in modern Macedonian, “Mitologija” the science of telling or the science of “bribing” the young imagination. (Page 58, June 15, 2000, number 576, Makedonija magazine) Taking all evidence into consideration, it is not difficult to piece together a theory of what the pre-Macedonian world looked like. We already know a lot about the ancient City States and how they dealt with overpopulation and expansion. For example, as each of the ancient City States grew beyond the city’s ability to support its population, people were driven out or left voluntarily to start a new city. New settlements followed the coastline, indicative of the peoples’ desire to pursue a familiar means of livelihood. The same principle can be applied to the pre-Macedonian inland dwellers who lived in what we today call geographical Macedonia. For personal protection and companionship, the ancient people built their homes in close proximity, similar to those of today’s modern villages. As the community grew in population beyond the land’s ability to support it, people moved and started new communities. This practice continued uninterrupted as long as there was space to expand. In time, the entire region of Macedonia became dotted with settlements. Unchecked by war, disease and pestilence, the populations grew and expanded outwards. Since the people of the various towns were related to each other, they maintained close contact through visits, celebrations, etc. which kept their traditions and language from diverging. The maximum population an ancient town could hold was dependent upon the land’s ability to support it. If a family could no longer make a living because it was too large for its land holdings, it either moved away in whole or split up. Some family members moved away to a smaller town or started a new

community elsewhere. Newly founded towns usually took the name of the founding family. Keeping track of genealogy was very important for several reasons. Family size usually dictated social status in the community. The family clan protected its family members and expected certain loyalties from them in return. Marriages between family members were avoided by knowing who belonged to which family. It was common practice in those days for a young man to leave his own family, marry and become a Zet (son in law) in another family. Based on the ancient scripts being a Zet had its privileges, including those of waging war on other Zets for control over the family. Because the Balkan terrain could not support uniform population growth, clusters of settlements developed usually with the larger towns in the fertile lowlands, surrounded by smaller towns in the highlands. As the older settlements grew and matured they began to trade with other settlements and developed transportation routes, commerce and a written language. They also developed a central administration, security force and appointed central tribal leaders, who in time evolved into tribal kings. With the expansion of trade beyond the boundaries of the local community, the ancient people came into contact with other people who had new ideas and innovations. With the discovery of metal, powerful weapons were built and bloodshed and destruction was not too far behind. Even family squabbles over small matters turned violent and ugly. A society that valued kinship and family above all else had the tendency to stick together and interact freely and peacefully. Unfortunately, at around 1,200 BC something went terribly wrong and war erupted between the various groups (families?), bringing four centuries of death and devastation to the peace loving people of prehistoric Macedonia. Documented but not well understood are ancient “kinship and family ties”. Kinship was very important to the ancient people of Macedonia who ranked it at the top of their value system. A good example of this is Philip II’s marriages to various women from his annexed worlds. Marriages were a powerful symbol for bonding family ties and for forging powerful alliances. This custom may seem bizarre today but it was common practice in ancient Macedonia. From a cultural and linguistic standpoint, the close relationship between the ancient societies allowed free interaction between the various peoples and kept their language and culture from diverging. This could account for the widespread Slav language commonality we are witnessing today. Thus far, I have given you a glimpse of the remnants of an old prehistoric world with a rich culture and language. The sources of information that I have referenced provide valuable evidence of the existence of a world never before acknowledged. Also, the deciphered inscriptions and translated texts not only suggest that a prehistoric civilization existed, but also that the people of this old world are the ancestors of the modern Macedonians. Some of the artifacts like the stone writings and the “Iliad” translations have been discovered and deciphered since the 1990’s but to this day have not attracted the attention of mainstream archeology and paleolinguistics. Why?

I believe there are several reasons for this: 1. There are some who think the work is not serious enough to warrant their consideration. 2. Others, especially the highly paid administrators, are satisfied with the status quo and don’t want to rock the boat. 3. Yet others believe that any involvement on their part could undermine the entire foundation of ancient history, as we now know it. 4. Unfortunately there are also those, myself included, who believe that mainstream ancient history as we know it today was fabricated to support the political objectives of the 19th century Great Powers and their allies.

As George Orwell once pointed out, "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." History is written by the victors. As mentioned earlier, when the foundation of ancient history was laid down by the 19th century revisionists, it was done in aid of political objectives. Modern Greece was created by the Western Powers expressly to curtail Slavic expansionism. Moreover, Greece was created to divide the Slavs and stop Imperial Russia from achieving her ambition of sailing the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In their zeal to satisfy their own ambitions the 19th century Powers, perhaps unbeknownst to them at the time, unleashed a “Balkan turmoil” that would have long lasting consequences for the Balkan people. People who existed together, united for centuries by a common faith, were divided without their consent and thrown into disarray by artificially imposed values and ideals. A century has passed and peace has not been achieved. Why? When the western Powers superficially created Greece in 1829, they launched her on a polemic course, her survival to be made possible only at the expense of the Macedonian nation. The problems experienced between Greece and Macedonia today are nothing new but another stage in a continuous and timeless struggle. Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia have generated more literature to disprove the existence of a Macedonian nation than they have written books about their own histories. This is truly sad and such a waste of effort.