5 PROBLEMS with the Slavic Migration Theory

In today's episode, we will present 5 problems with the long-held Slavic migration theory, which holds that a massive migration of Slavs entered Macedonia in the 7th century, and replaced the original ancient Macedonian population.

#Macedonia #Macedonians #Macedonian #AncientMacedonianLanguage

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Throughout:

Curta F. "The Making of the Slavs: Slavic Ethnogensis Revisited" In MESS and RAMSES II, Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School. Vol. 7. Edited by Jaka Repič, Alenka Bartulović, and Katarina Sajovec Altshul (Zupanic's Collection, 28), pp. 277-307. Ljubljana: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, 2008

[1] Curta, F. "Four questions for those who still believe in prehistoric Slavs and other fairy tales" Starohrvatska prosvjeta 42 (2015): 286-303

[2] Nichols, J. "East Central Europe": - Volume 31, Issues 1-2 - Page 51, 2004.

Mario Alinei, Origini delle lingue d’Europa, Vol. I: La teoria della continuit, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1996

[3] Curta F. "Were there any Slavs in 7th century Macedonia?"
Istorija (Skopje) 47 (2012), no. 1, pp. 61-75

T.E Gregory "A History of Byzantium" Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pg. 169.

[meRussian-wypk]

The problem with the Migration of the Slavs is that it was in the opposite direction, from the south to the north and northeast

[mattpotter]

There will be no Bulgars in the comments because modern day Bulgarians are Slavic peoples, the Bulgars being peoples from the Asian steppe that pre dated the Slavs. The Bulgars are long gone.

What I do agree with you on is that whilst it's possible that some people in the modern day state of North Macedonia were displaced it is unlikely that will people from the region were replaced, this is nonsense in my opinion, and I think the DNA shows this to be the case.

What I will say, and I hope no one takes offence at this, I'm not Bulgarian, Greek, or North Macedonian, but if the people of North Macedonia want to self identify as Macedonian and have their own country that's fine, but just as I doubt the Slavs competent replaced the people already living in the area during the migration period I also doubt there's wasn't an influx of Slavic genes into the population, just as there was in modern day Bulgaria.

The fact that the Macedonian language is very similar to Bulgarian shows, I think definitively, that a large part of North Macedonia was in medieval times last of the Bulgarian Empire, before the Ottomans invaded the Balkans. Did that give Bulgaria the right to claim this land, no of course not, but Bulgaria went to war with Serbia (and Greece) over this territory, lost, and ever since this time, and especially during the existence of Yugoslavia to keep cohesion of the state Macedonians were educated to basically not believe they were brothers of Bulgarians. I know I'll get hate for saying this, but this is how all countries behave when they have territory that once belonged to another state or empire. That will didn't mean they since the disintegration of Yugoslavia that the people of what is now North Macedonia shouldn't have the right to self determination.

Why do I this? Well, as stated in the video it is very unlikely that whole populations from an area move out en masse unless forced to do so, either but climatic conditions (e.g. drought), overpopulation, or physical force (such as the Native Americans in the US). The fact that linguistically a population speaks a language of a neighbouring country almost certainly means the language came from the same root language. For those saying Bulgaria invaded and occupied North Macedonia and this is how this happened the Normans invaded England, the Norman elite spoke French, this however didn't translate to the people changing to speak it was well. Which means the eastern part of North Macedonia is either populated with people very similarly genetically to Bulgarians or migrated into the area the same time, there's no other way this is possible. If what I've written above isn't true then can someone explain to me why North Macedonia speaks a Slavic language and not a Hellenistic one, I'm happy to change my mind with convincing evidence.

[yuryd]

The name "Slavic, Slavs" is of a Slavic origin. Slovo=Word, Slava=Glory, Slov'yany=the Slavic people, or Slavs.

[Martin-gdvy]

Why do you think "sloveni" is an exonym? It's a Slavic word which comes from "slovo" (word), meaning "those who speak". Also, we don't have a place called Slavia here, but we do have many places with Slavic names, such as Bitola (monastery), Pretor (transferring load), Veles (slavic god of death), etc. Serbia and Croatia are also based on the names of Slavic tribes. We know the names of the tribes that settled here, for example people from around Ohrid call themselves Brsjaci.

Also, there isn't much archeological evidence because Slavs used to live in tribes in the mountains, as opposed to the cities, where the Macedonians and Greeks lived. Even in Poland they can't find evidence of their actual first cities because everything was built out of wood.

Furthermore, the alphabet was created, but the language was not artificial. It wasn't a language someone just invented one day and everyone just accepted without hesitation. Why would we speak the language we do now, if we don't have that heritage to a very substantial degree? It's not that we're 100% Slavic, but we have a significant share of Slavic heritage and we ought to respect our ancestors, both Macedonian and Slavic.

[septimiuistrate]

As a romanian i can tell you that our legends tell that the romanians come from Mars, and were teleported on the actual teritory of România, previously inhabited by slavs, hungarians, avars, bulgarians, cumans, etc.

[nicknedelkovski]

Mario, Macedonians the world over owe you a debt of gratitude for you well researched and presented videos. Your commitment is inspiring. Keep up the great work.

[petararnautovic]

Only from the 6th century does name Slavs appear anywhere in history boons before they only Serbs Sorbi Sorabi Sarmati in the north in the south are Rasi Raseni in the west Vendi Veneti Vindi

[lukasdziadosz]

Greeks & Slavs never should be fighting
We have a low birth rate

[alexbutler]

There being a continuity of Macedonian/illyrian people's in the area till today is very reasonable and supported by some evidence, but most of your claims about the origin of proto Slavic languages are more about trying to obscure the current scholarly consensus, rather than having actual evidence to back your claim up. If Slavic was native to the Balkans there would be more linguistic evidence from this in influence from Romance and Greek at an earlier date in the language's evolution, but this isn't the case. Yes, there are no written sources in Slavic until old church slavonic which then spread north, but through linguistic analysis you can get a pretty good idea where and how quickly a language spread by the dialectic variation and influence. You can date when South Slavic as a whole split off from west and east Slavic. This is how Albanian has been proven to be indigenous to the region, as it has loan words from ancient Greek that have been out of use in common Greek for thousands of years now, as well as romance influence from an earlier linguistic origin than any Slavic languages in the area do. So it's going against a lot of direct evidence to say Slavic originated from the Balkans.

[sergii]

Nestor's chronicle (ancient Rus) tells that all slavs went in differents sides from the Danube river homeland, but not from Pripayt or another place.

[DeepNorth]

Zdravim a Slava všetkým Slovanom..
Bratia, I see lots of differant opinion...a see lotts of comments especially about Macedonia, Balkans exetera..
Im Slovak. Proud Slovak... in my mother tongue is for me much easy speak, learn ANY other Slavic, Slovan language. My nation is may be small, but evidence of Slovaks living for thousands of years in same " Panonia" High Tatras to Danube basin coming more and more into light. WE all agree in one thing...OUR ancestry, our real history is erased, purposely betrayed by WEST...

[angelkyurkchiev]

Slavs were "invented" in 1601 AD from Mavro Orbini...

[papazataklaattiranimam]

Slavs were not empire builders, they did not even establish 10 empires in history. Rurikids were of Germanic origin who ruled East Slavs, Dulo-Krum and Asenids were of Turkic origin who ruled South Slavs and PLC was established by Balts who ruled over West Slavs😁

[josefknechtable]

Slavic Migration is not theory, but historical fact. There was no one to replace, old population was decimated by justinian plague and Avars ravages.

[GandarDooM]

slavi in Croatian means: one who celebrates, or the process of celebration itself, and in Serbia, the slava is a celebration of hospitality, a welcome to strangers as the reception of their own ancestors who can come uninvited to check the hospitality of the family

[rafaellagaribaldi]

Slavic migration theory is no longer a theory. Its proven by genetics. As for the ancient Macedonians they were long gone before the Bulgarian tribes came to the Balkans and settled in the north of Macedonia. The ancient Macedonians had become Byzantine Greek Romaioi centuries before. As the Bulgar tribes began to occupy and settle in the northern parts of Macedonia, eventually to become the first Bulgarian Empire, the Romaioi (Byzantine Greeks) were pushed further south.

[magdalenabuljan]

🇺🇦🇭🇷 White Croats ( Bili Horvati ) still live in Western Ukraine today. There is also located settlement of STILSKO, capital city of pagan Croats ❤.

Croatia is named after White Croats who came in the 7th century from ancient pagan White Croatia once located in Ukraine, south-eastern Poland north-eastern Slovakia-Czechia and Hungary.

When Hungarians conquered slavic Pannonia province in the 9th century, southern baptised Red Croatia separated from pagan White Croatia.

Ukraine and Croatia together for years celebrate common ethnic heritage of an ancient Croat people ❤🇺🇦🇭🇷

[miroslavsmiljkovic]

Theire had no slavic migration. The toponycs names in antiquity confirme it.
Sava (river) is serb name and word, for exemple.
You cannot have "Slavic" toponymy names under the Roman Empire if the "Slavs" (Serbs, Croats) did not arrive until the 6th century. It does not make sense.
PS: term Slaves appears in 13 century only.

[chrislusk]

An awful lot of straw clutching in this video.

[milanradovanovic]

Only problem is that Byzantine sources from 6th century all without exception describe those massive migrations... And they mention slavs migrating over Danube in such numbers that modern historians start to question those numbers, without any argument just saying no it can not be that so much off them migrated... Well I am gonna believe byzantine sources rather then modern scientist, those were educated roman population and their claims are valid, much more then modern assumptions without evidence... It is the only explenation how in the Balkan vast majority of population south of the Danube river are Slavs, except Greeks and Albanians pretty much all of them like 70 or 80 percent