Customer Reviews

The 3000-Year-Old Hat: New Connections with Old Europe the Thraco-Phrygian World

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I was very disappointed in this book. I guess the definitive, popular overview of the Thracians and kindred peoples remains to be written.

Here are some of the specific problems I had with this book:

1. Lack of a standard in the spelling of Hellenized or Latinized names: Mouseios, Sparadokos, etc, but Sitalces for Sitalkes.

2. Non-standard spellings of proper names: Kotis for Kotys, Kotito for Kottyto, Celimbria for Selymbria, Getti for Getae, Odryssian for Odrysian, Remetalces for Rhoemetalkes/Rhoimetalkes, Halcidice for Chalcidice, Ebriselmus for Hebrizelmis/Gebrizelmis, Bithynni for Bithyni, Edonni for Edoni, Kickones for Kikones/Cicones, Ateas for Atheas, Agatocles for Agathocles, Suza for Susa, Tissa for Tisza, Iphycrates for Iphicrates, Bythinia for Bithynia, Everget for Euergetes, Oziris for Osiris. Some of these misspellings might be attributed to the fact that the authors are Bulgarian, and that their spelling reflects Bulgarian conventions, but that's what editors are for. Some of the most glaring errors are due to an unwarranted doubling of consonants, to a haphazardly inconsistent replacement of "y" with "i", and to a replacement of "th" with "t".

3. Innovative and unsubstantiated ethno-cultural groupings: Phrygo-Hittite, Thraco-Hittite, Thraco-Pelasgian, Thraco-Mycenaean, Thraco-Macedonian, Carians and Lydians as part of Thraco-Phrygians, Arcadians as Thracian people, etc. Even the grouping Thraco-Phrygian, part of the book's title, is somewhat antiquated and should be treated with caution. Some of these links are fascinating and worthy of study. But I think the authors play fast and loose with these terms in order to overemphasize the influence and range of Thracian culture. This exaggeration is unnecessary: the Thracians are fascinating as they are, and need no embellishment. The authors also claim for a greater Thracian ethnos peoples whose ethnic designation is controversial at best. The Dardani or Agrianes are best described as a "Mischvolk", containing Illyrian, Thracian, and Macedonian or Hellenic elements (also worthy of note is the fact that the authors barely mention the Illyrians, the other major Paleo-Balkan group of peoples)

4. Bibliography: relies heavily on Bulgarian pseudo-historians (noticeably absent: Georgiev and Dechev). Lacks many of the standard references on the subject (lists Hoddindott, but does not mention Casson, Archibald, Wiesner, Papazoglu).

5. The authors uncritically treat myth as history. One example which comes to mind is the story that Cadmus of Phoenicia came to Boeotia and founded Thebes. Another is the story that Egyptians were freely wandering in mainland Greece prior to the Persian War.

6. The authors' linguistic conclusions are laughable. They treat any chance similarity between terms as evidence of a correspondence. Examples of questionable links: Bistones/Byzantium, Perke/Berga/Bryges/Phrygians/Pergamum, Galai (Thracian tribe (?))/Galati (Celts). They also assert the existence of an ancient Thracian god Perkos/Perkonis, wishful thinking on their part as it would provide a link to Baltic Perkunas/Slavic Perun, the god of thunder and lightning. In another place they claim "some contemporary linguists" link the Thracian tribal name Dersai (sic) to the name of a Thracian god (no reference is given for this spurious claim).

Anyway, I hope you get the idea. The level of scholarship is low. On a positive note, I found the discussions of the influence of pre-Christian Thracian belief on the Arian heresy and on its persistance in the Balkan region, as well as the influence of the Thracian horseman Heros on the iconography of St. George to be quite interesting and convincing.

If you want a good starting point for study of the Thracians, try Christopher Webber's book. Its primary focus is Thracian military history and weaponry, but the historical chronology is very sound, the level of scholarship is quite high (after a visit to Webber's website, one shouldn't expect anything less), and the list of books for further reading at the end is excellent.