ORIGINS AND LEGENDS

I am a Romanian and I have to admit that it is a pleasure for me to write about our unknown or… less known history.

Not long ago I was telling you that "WE ARE NOT ROME'S DESCENDANTS", but rather they are ours … or I was taking you in a journey in our mythology, of the Romanians, from which the Greeks and Romans have inspired, in fact I did not tell you too much, because, AGAIN, the TRUTH must be sometimes skimped, otherwise the shock will be too strong. Not long time ago, while writing about "The Curse of the Phoenix Bird" or "The Hatching Hen with Golden Chickens", I received a lot of letters and I realized that many of you have already the fundamentals for a "new earthquake in Romanian's history", thing that I will show you immediately!

Considering the "historical facts" stock being thought to the children and the young ones in the Romanian schools or Universities regarding the Romanian's history resulted mostly from observations and deductions – apparently logic ones – from the Middle Age monasteries, thus long before the scientific explosion that took place after World War II. How could we not have today doubts about… the truth? Should we accept a history built on the knowledge of Middle Age is just like accepting that the Earth is flat as a saucer and that the Sun is revolving around us… or that we are sick because Devil entered inside us and in order to take it out we have to drink water in which were kept there frogs and a mosquito! Let's be serious, Gentlemen! The science has changed us and the Middle Age knowledge about history has to be corrected: in those times nobody was talking about archeology, anthropology, biology, physics or computers…

The American researcher MARIA GIMBUTAS, professor at UCLA wrote that "Romania is the hearth of what I called the OLD EUROPE, a cultural entity between 6500-3500 BC", and made it clear that this ancient European Carpatho-Danubian civilization preceded a few millenniums the Summerian one.

Let me give you an example about fantasy–history, by C.V. CEARM in "Deities, tombs, scholars": until not long ago (a hundred years ago, so quite recently talking about history!) Iliad was considered a fantastic poem; a German, a dreamer in love with this poem, refused to accept the dogma – that it was just a heroic, fantastic story: Heinrich Schliemann had the courage to believe it was true. So, once upon a time, deep into Europe, in a German village of the Mecklemburg region, there was a boy that receive as a gift for Christmas, in 1829, the "Illustrated Universal History" by Jerrer; this was showing Enea, the Thracian, running from burning Troja, with his father on his shoulders and keeping his son's hand, being followed by some others survivors. He, the Thracian, was to arrive in the Tiber Valley (The Valley of the Seven Hills) were his son, Julius was to be married to Latvia, the daughter of a local king, founding the ALBA LONGA DYNASTY- with descendants like Rhea Silva, the mother of Romulus and Remus, Dynasty that even Julius Caesar was proud to be a descendent of… this way, dear Italians, be careful with us, your ancestors!

That German child asks his father: "So that's what Troja looked… and nobody knows its location today? The years passed by, and little Schliemann was forced to interrupt his studies at age fourteen because of the poverty and work as a shopboy; one day somebody steps into the shop, all drunk, and starts reciting from… "Iliad", thus waking up the little dreamer. In 1841 he is in Hamburg, and goes as a cabin boy on a ship headed for Venezuela, but only two weeks later, the ship sinks near Toxel Island, Heinrich being able to save himself. We'll find him later working in Amsterdam, in his spare time studying English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

Around 1854 he was in North America and is granted American citizenship; he will be soon tempted by the gold rush, but he won't give up his business before gaining his material freedom, so that's why just around 1868 he goes to Ithaca – Ulysses' island… it's true that a man reaching the material peak, leaves everything, and runs after a fairy tale, a fantastic story. With "Iliad" in his hands he starts looking for Troja, the legendary Thracian fortress where we've been defeated by the barbarian torrent of Greeks and Achaeans arrived from Eastern Caspian Sea between 1900-1400 B.C. together with the Eolians, Dorians and Ionians. Considering the Trojan war a real one and the warriors some historical personalities, Schliemann goes to rediscover those who died three thousands years ago; he goes in Asia Minor – hiring a monk as a guide for 45 piastres, riding on a horse without rein, looking at things he just dared to dream not long ago. Walking with "Iliad" in his mind he computes distances, imagines the fight, he even marries a Greek woman, Sofia Engstromenos, that he resembles to Elena.

Finally, on June 15, 1879 he decides to start digging; after digging 250 thousand cube meters of soil, walking together with his wife, he tells her, "go and set free all the employees… tell them something… tell them it's my birthday and they are off…" When his wife returns after the workers left she finds him digging desperately among huge stone blocks that were just about to fall over him, discovering… GOLD and jewels wet by blood and tears, buried for more than three thousand years under the ruins of seven kingdoms, disappeared and brought back to light now. He was just bringing to surface our history, the Thracians' history – forgotten, buried and neglected. When are our historians going to take it into consideration and put it back into its rights?

But Schliemann believed he discovered the thesaurus of PRIAM, when apparently in fact that thesaurus belonged to a king that lived A THOUSAND years before PRIAM. Schliemann discovered strange scribbling as the Dacian spiral or the Pelasgian swastika that N. Densusianu was mentioning in "Prehistoric Dacia" in 1884 (page 74).

But what was Schliemann to do with the thesaurus? He wasn't searching for treasures! Would he surround it to the Turkish government? No way! Helped by his wife's Greek family and after many adventures the thesaurus is taken over the border to Athens without being caught by the Turkish Police. Could he be considered a thief? The little shopboy dreamer doesn't stop here: he starts looking for the treasures of Agamemnon of Micene and… he finds them! But this is a different story I don't intend telling you here.

Let me add that four thousand years BC the Balkan Peninsula was linked to the Asia Minor through a land, known by the Carpatho–Danubian people, who was using it to spread its culture and civilization to the Tiger and Eufrat. By sinking into the Mediterranean Sea, will emerge a new Sea – Aegean – and a lot of small islands. Many of these small islands still have traces of the old Pelasgian, Carpatho-Danubian civilization, "amazing" even today "the scientists" who can't understand how a small island as Crete or Sardegna could contain very advanced "isolated" civilizations!

But let's get back to the Carpatho-Danubians. The world's great civilizations have emerged and developed at the deltas of some big rivers (Ganges, Nil, Tiger, Eufrat). In Europe there is only one such big river – Danube – whose delta is situated on the territory of our country. Europe has been covered by a calotte of ice, except its South, that is the Carpatho–Danubian–Pontic area. Here, in this uncovered area by the icy calotte, with plenty of vegetation, rich in springs and salt, later on will emerge and develop a civilization, called by some "Carpatho-Danubian" and by others "Aryan" or later on, Pelasgian or Thracian, the same known today as Romanian…

And if a hundred years ago those scientists were finding that Indo-Aryans (wrongful denomination) would have appeared somewhere on the middle course of the Danube (P.P.Negulescu, Kretschmer-1896, Kiesling-1903, Dussand-1914), all the researchers from various fields (linguistics, archeology, astrology) have agreed that the Aryan people have their origin in the above-mentioned area.

Time passes by, science makes progress: at New York, Barnes & Noble published V.GORDON CHIDE'S book "THE ARYANS – THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION" in which there is a note at pages 167-177 about the cradle and distribution of the Aryans with their localization in the Carpatho–Danubian–Pontic space, saying nothing about Seine, Oder or Rhine. People changes along with the science, so let us REDISCOVER OUR HISTORY, the way it seems it really was.


THE ORIGIN OF THE ROMANIANS

Inside the Carpatho–Danubian–Pontic area and up to the Nister emerged in Europe the first human kernel; in that period of the Icy Age only this area, protected by the Carpathians arch and uncovered by ice, could generate THE ICY ERA HUMAN, human whose main occupation was hunting. Once the climatic conditions improved – the warming of the weather and the withdrawal of the glaciers – began an explosion of the flora and fauna in this region, being this way favorable to growing the population. The abundance of hunting, fish and fruits could offer then a relatively easy life; the fire was not a secret for them. As a communication means appears the language – showing the spiritual level a society can reach in its developmental process. The Carpatho–Danubians were hunting small animals, but especially big ones; the whole family took place at the hunting – the mammoths, the wild oxen, the bears weren't easy to catch. Looking for the hunting, they began their migration first toward West and the South of Europe, to continue, later on, advancing as the glaciers were retracting to the North. This fact explains also the variety of synonym terms in European languages.

This Palo–Europeans, the Carpatho–Danubians begin to raise on the spirituality level in their original area – it should not surprise us if later discoveries will situate us among the highest European civilizations. But the climatic warmth favored also the division of the Carpatho–Danubians which, looking for food when the icy blanket was retracted, are getting further and further, forming civilization centers by themselves. Due to the gradual warmth of the weather, the snowy peaks of the mountains will change their colors in green – which could say how many millenniums passed away until the hills have been covered of forests? The cage people are also affected by the fantastic changes of the nature, they start taming animals, they do agriculture, and they become sedentary.

The Nordic migratory branch of the Carpatho–Danubians that sets apart in the early stage of their forming, will be divided itself in two branches: one German and one Slavic, each having its own distinctive features but also many common ones. The South–West European branch continues to maintain close relations to the Carpatho–Danubians and they will have a lot in common, especially the LANGUAGE.

The spirituality of the Carpatho–Danibians reaches its apogee by realizing of what they could SEE and understand: they SAW deities and new life rules – and whoever really saw them, whoever understood and applied them, was said to have been born twice – the "VEDIC SPIRITUALITY" had already emerged. Here, on the lower Danube, the spirituality of what dominated and still dominates the world is born: these are the roots of the culture "VEDE" ("SEE"), source of inspiration for the Chaldeans and Egyptians and later will be the starting point of the Indoism and Christianity.

That's the place the Pastoral Society will appear and the Carpatho–Danubians will go with their herds toward Eastern Europe and Asia far and far away from home, looking for rich pastures for cattle and grasslands, springs… trying each year to come back HOME. But the roads became longer and longer, they were accumulating big quantities of food that their lazy neighbors wanted to have without working – this way emerged the first class of warriors that were guarding the HOUSE and later will become the guardians of the community: KSHA-ATRI-YA.

For those who were leaving in spring to return home in winter, the Carpathian space began having a sacred character – this way appeared the feasts (festivities). They were returning home to the great Goddess DANU, mother of the rain and rich meadows, the origin of the name of the Danube River – DANUBIUS. The customs and local names will be taken with themselves by these Carpatho-Danubians, Hystrians, Aryans – Pelasgians (or however you want to call them!) and carried all over the place, representing their main specific feature. Nicolae Miulescu in his work "Dacia – The Country of Deities" makes a very simple calculus: considering the daily distance during feeding the animals of about 15 km., to be able to return home in winter, the shepherds could easily reach the Caucasian Mountains. A proof of their Eastern expansion and settlement in the Caucasian area is also found in the well-known "ROAD OF DEITIES", marked with huge fixed stones and mentioned by KAUSHI-TAKI in the UPANISHAD with the same name (Book I, 3).

About this way of Gods, known in the Antiquity as a mysterious one, the poet PINDAR in "ISTHIA" v.20 was saying: "… Even travelling by sea or land you won't find the admired way that takes you to the main place of the hyperborians" – the way he called us. By Pindar, North to the Danube and Black Sea there was even before of his times a monumental and still majestically way by its multitude and dimension of its interior poles that, he was saying, were more than a hundred feet (more than 30 meters).

Herodotus is also talking about these poles as being "the SESOSTHRIS' (OSIRIS') COLUMNS" that were existing also in his times in Scythia. The poet Ovid says in his third book of FASTES about the triumphant ways of Bach or Liber Pater through Scythia.

We can still find today in the Romanian heroic popular songs traces about "Bacul the Brave", "Bacul the Outlaw – who had instituted a guard service on the long road between ODRIU and DIU:

"The Emperor – Emperor
That he found out
Of the Bacul name,
Bacul the Outlaw
Bacul the Brave,
That guarded the road,
From the hill of Odriu
Up to the Diu."
Theodorescu, Popular poems, page 605.

In describing Scythe Herodotus refers to a land North to the Black Sea area called by the Scythes in their language EXAMAEOS, word that translated from Greek, means the SACRE WAYS. By Herodotus those places called EXAMPEES were situated four days of navigation away on the upper Hypanis (Bug) River; so this saint way was situated almost on the same parallel with today's Chisinau and having direction from West to Est. Herodotus, though, doesn't tell us anything else about the origin and destination of this Saint Way of the Scythes, says the greatest researcher of the Romanians' prehistory, N.Desusianu.

The long row of huge stones (slabs shoved into ground), from Bessarabia to Crimea and Don, from Prut to the Azov Sea, represented one of the WONDERS OF THE PREHISTORIC WORLD, represented the saint way of the Carpatho-Danubians from Europe to Asia, represented and it represents OUR HISTORY – neglected, forgotten, abandoned and political uncomfortable for "our neighbors".

Until the 18th century this famous line of monolithic monuments was passing near the water of river Bacu that goes into the old Tyros (NISTER) near the Romanian village Gura–Bacului (The mouth of Bacu). Towards North, not far of this point, we can find even today two villages: one on the right shore and the other on the left shore of the NISTER. Both of them have the same name: "SPEIA". From the philological point of view, SPEIA is identical to the Schytian term of EXAMPE–OS, where maybe the last syllable has been vulgarized or transposed in Greek…. We are starting to find "the sacred ways" of the Aryans, Carpatho–Danubians.

And if the Englishmen are proud of their "mysterious" stones from SALISBURY or STONEHENGE or the Frenchmen with CARNAL, we the Romanians… don't even mention them in our history books and our historians seem that they didn't forget them' but not even heard of them.

I was recently reading "Lost Civilizations; Early Europe; Mysteries in stone" – Time life Books and I couldn't understand why Pindar, Herodotus, Ovid were talking about this road of the megalithics with respect and the above don't even mention it… The countries around us are proud of a small piece of a tooth or a bone – they write themselves beautiful histories… We have stone roads built for milleniums and … we don't care! In the prehistoric antiquity the raw stone columns had also a public utility, showing the travelers the directions of the roads through pastoral lands where the orientation signs weren't available. But lifting stones of about 30 meters height and mark such a long distance, - it seems a cyclopean work even for our times. Who have THEY been, OUR ANCESTORS, and how have they been able of such a work? Right now, there are no explanations… Let us not forget that in the Romanians' prehistoric customs there is a huge furrow that crosses over the Romanian and Ukrainian plains, up to the Don, from West to East - "NOVAC's FURROW". Based on other customs, this furrow is attributed to LER THE EMPEROR (Liber – Pater), warrior that scour the world, ROBBER HERO – negative character and hateful in our popular songs.

"And you, Shouting Ones
You Moron Ones,
Just go, go, go
To LER Emperor,
There, at your palace,
There you go,
There you sit,
There you die…
(Marion, Songs, page 134)

Let us mention not to confuse "Ler the Emperor " with "Ler the Gentleman, the son of the hyperborean Apollo - from our pre-Christian carols, transformed into the son of the Holly Mother at Christening. But let's return from prehistory to the year of 1716 when the scholar Ruler of Moldavia, Dimitrie Cantemir was writing: "…not far from Chisinau, little town near Bacul river, you can see a series of very big stones disposed in a straight line, just as they would have been put there by human activity. But we can't believe this because of the size of the slabs and the distance they cover: they pass over Nister up to Crimea. In popular language this row of huge stones is called "THE KEYS OF BACUL"; the peasants in their simplicity say that this has been built by – DRAGONS that decided to close the course of Bacu river " (Cantemir "Descriptio Moldaviae", 1872). The Carpatho-Danubians shepherds will continue their travel toward East after a long stay in the Caucasian zone.