January 23, 2013

"Bosnia has been inhabited at least since Neolithic times."

"In the late Bronze Age, the Neolithic population was replaced by more warlike Indo-European tribes known as the Illyrians. Celtic migrations in the 4th and 3rd century BCE displaced many Illyrian tribes from their former lands, but some Celtic and Illyrian tribes mixed.... Conflict between the Illyrians and Romans started in 229 BCE, but Rome wouldn't complete its annexation of the region until 9 CE. In the Roman period, Latin-speaking settlers from all over the Roman empire settled among the Illyrians and Roman soldiers were encouraged to retire in the region."

In what is now called Bosnia and Herzegovina, today's "History of" county.

21 comments:

edutcher said...

Interesting.

They were probably better off under the Austrians than the Ottomans and they certainly didn't like the Serbs.

Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds like it was the model for the Ruritania of "The Prisoner Of Zenda".

"I shot your man, you know".

"In the back, of course".

"Of course".

kentuckyliz said...

Do you believe the storia
Of Medjugorje?

My dad used to quip that.

I watched "Behind Enemy Lines" this weekend, about the shot down pilot. He fell into a mass grave...distressing.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I really hate the BCE/CE convention. What a bunch of bullshit. Either use the BC/AD designation or change the date we begin counting to something not related to religion.

I wonder what event would be momentous enough?

David said...

"I wonder what event would be momentous enough?"

B.A. (Before asteroid.)

Lauderdale Vet said...

History of…

The History I remember the most about Bosnia Herzegovina was the “ethnic cleansing”.

…breeding your enemy out as part of a paramilitary strategy.

People talk about things that happened the better part of a century ago as if it would never could never happen today. They wonder how people can bear witness to things like that, barely take note and move on.

They happen today. People barely take note and move on.

How will they talk about us the better part of a century from now?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think Clinton did the right thing not getting us sucked in to that conflict... letting NATO (I vaguely recall) take the lead.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

@David

SMOD2016?

Phil 314 said...

Someone in mania = mania

Someone from Bosnia = Bosniak

Love that.

traditionalguy said...

Neolithic... aren't those the new super batteries that are catching fire on Teslas and Boeing Dreamliners?

And what does BCE mean in newspeak: before Caesar's Erotocism?

I suspect this place must be the home of Borat.

Anonymous said...

Bosnia is the only* country in the world that is landlocked in a practical sense even though it is not geographically landlocked. Croatia runs in a north-south direction along the Adriatic Sea and separates Bosnia from the sea. A narrow strip of land known as the Neum Corridor, around ten miles wide and dating back centuries to the days of the Ottoman Empire, runs through Croatian territory and gives Bosnia a coastline on the Adriatic Sea. As only one narrow road runs through the Corridor's rugged terrain Bosnia has not tried to develop the coastal town of Neum into a commercial seaport, instead using ports in Croatia for its shipping needs.
One consequence of the Neum Corridor is that people traveling between the southern part of Croatia and the rest of the country have to pass through Bosnian territory. Special arrangements allow them to do so with minimal border-crossing delays.

* = the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("big Congo") is a semi-example; it has access to the Atlantic via a narrow corridor and does have a couple of port cities, but their facilities are so poor that most shipments come via ports in the neighboring Republic of the Congo ("little Congo").

Peter

edutcher said...

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I really hate the BCE/CE convention. What a bunch of bullshit. Either use the BC/AD designation or change the date we begin counting to something not related to religion.

I wonder what event would be momentous enough?


That's the point, though. there's nothing Common about the Era.

Everything is Christian. So call it Christian Era and Before Christian Era.

They'll really hate that.

Anonymous said...

Someone from Bosnia = Bosniak

Not necessarily. The term Bosniak is used only to refer to a Muslim resident of Bosnia (Muslims are about half of the total population). A non-Islamic person in Bosnia is a Bosnian.

Peter

kentuckyliz said...

Christian Era and Before Christian Era

That's how I say it.

gadfly said...

There are many fanciful memories about Bosnia. Who can forget Hillary's favorite:

“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia,” she said .... “There was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the First Lady."

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”


Of course, the problem was that Sinbad was tagging along with Hill and Chelsea - and he didn't remember the sniper fire.

Known Unknown said...

I count six countries that contain the word AND in their name.

Trinidad and Tobago
St. Kitts and Nevis
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Antigua and Barbuda
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
São Tomé and Príncipe

JHapp said...

Medjugorje should have a tag

ampersand said...

I count six countries that contain the word AND in their name.
Engl &
Pol &
Irel &
Greenl &
Finl &
Lapl & Where the Clintons come from.

Darrell said...

No mention of British agents using a Bosnian stooge to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, starting WWI, given the mutual defense pact between Austria and Germany?

Strelnikov said...

Is that a bong in the picture?

Rick O said...

I suspect that one day this will be year 5 AO. Or maybe 6 AO if we start with the date of the election.

Mitch H. said...

This little heretical gem is something I hadn't heard of, at least not in this context. I think I've heard of Bogomils before. There's the insinuation that the gnostic/Manichean heretics of Bosnia somehow became muslim Bosniaks, but doesn't that strike you as odd? Manichean dualism just doesn't map onto orthodox Sunni doctrine and practice; it doesn't even convert easily into Sufi practice, at least, I don't think so.