The Hidden Roots of Europe
By Cultura Animi Foundation with the cooperation of EURO INNOVANET SRL, the Brukenthal National Museum and the Civic Museums of Pitigliano

It is generally accepted that the cultural heritage of ancient Greeks and Romans lies at the basis of medieval, Renaissance, and from there - of modern European civilization. But the culture of these famous peoples, which shaped the countenance of Classical Antiquity, was not born of itself and did not grow in isolation. It played a primary role among the surrounding ones, but it also bore the influence of the cultures of numerous Old World peoples.

In the last millennium BC the tribes that inhabited the territories of modern Bulgaria, Romania and Italy - Thracians, Dacians and Etruscans - created original cultures, which played an important and defining role in shaping the Graeco-Roman art. These territories have a rich history, for it was here that some of Europe's earliest prehistoric civilizations developed. For centuries on end, this was where the remarkable prehistoric societies of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age developed. Although dubbed "barbaric" by ancient Greeks and Romans, the rich culture of these peoples, , was in no way inferior to what their famous neighbors created. Despite the lack of achievements like a democratic form of governance, or remarkable examples of literary and philosophical thought, in the field of architecture and art the traditional culture of Etruscans, Thracians and Dacians influenced and changed expansive Graeco-Roman civilization to a not inconsiderable degree. The lack of an alphabet in Thracian and Dacian societies, as well as their rather more primitive form of social organization, made these cultures historically passive and made their assimilation and the imposition of Ancient Greek and respectively Roman civilization easier.

Initially, the tribal communities of Etruscans, Thracians and Dacians were headed by chieftains and their attendant mounted suites of warriors. The concentration of considerable wealth in the hands of the ruling top crust was typical of those societies. These riches enabled the ruler and his associates to trade with the resources he controlled, which quickly attracted the interest of the Hellenes involved in sea trade. This led to active economic and thence cultural interaction between Thracians, Dacians, Etruscans and Hellenes. Thus, around the middle of 1st millennium BC, the inhabitants of ancient Thrace, Dacia and Etruria became acquainted with the achievements of Greek culture, while in respect to the Etruscans this was also valid of Italic culture. The Roman tribes were considerably influenced by the civilization of Etruscans whom they conquered in the period of the 5th-3rd century BC, when the Roman Republic began its military expansion.
The stormy changes in Hellenic society in the 7th-5th century BC led to a boost in trade across the sea and to the foundation of numerous Greek colonies along the Thracian and Dacian coast. Similar processes could be observed even earlier in the region of the Apennine Peninsula, where the Etruscans were introduced to the works of art and the developed civilization of ancient Greeks. The first state formations in appeared in Etruria around the middle of the 7th century BC, and those on the territory of Thrace - in the beginning of 5th century BC. The rich ruling stratum of these primitive states strove to acquire luxury objects, which demonstrated their social status. Works of art such as fine painted pottery, metal vessels, weapons, jewelry, etc. were imported in return for precious metals, iron ore, timber, grain, and products of animal origin exported from Thracian, Dacian and Etruscan lands. These goods were produced by masters in Greek or later in Hellenic pottery, jewelry and toreutic ateliers. Gradually, some of the articles began to be produced in local workshops by foreign masters or by local craftsmen trained in a Greek milieu and followed the taste of the native population.

This helped the acquaintance of "barbarian" nations with the achievements of Ancient Greek and later with Roman art, and led to a gradual adoption and amalgamation of these cultures. The processes of adaptation can be observed in different spheres of the material culture of Thracians, Dacians and Etruscans. Ceramic vessels, which had been molded by hand for millennia, were quickly replaced by products of the potter's wheel in the middle of 1st millennium BC. That pottery was typical of developed East Mediterranean civilizations, which were dominated by Greek influence.

A specific pottery style was created on the basis of old local traditions and ceramic innovations on the territory of Thraco-Dacian and Etruscan lands. Similar phenomena also occurred in different parts of the Apennine Peninsula.

The above mentioned processes were particularly valid in Hellenistic times (end of 4th - 1st century BC), when numerous similar cultures, which were inherited by the Roman Empire, originated on the basis of Ancient Greek culture imposed by the conquests of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great in large parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Another example of cultural interaction can be given in the realm of religious beliefs. In the times we are discussing, religion didn't exist as a separate sector of social life. But religious concepts had a fundamental role - they motivated the form of state government, lay at the basis of art and generally determined the outlook and the daily life of ancient people. In this sense, the exchange of religious ideas and spiritual values is an indicator of cultural closeness, preceding and explaining the similarities of works of art and objects of daily life.

Ancient Greek writings have preserved the image of Thrace as a holy land and of Thracians as a wise and spiritual people. Thrace was the homeland of the hero of many myths Orpheus - singer, healer and founder of an esoteric teaching with a great influence in antiquity. History has evidence of adherence to the ideas of Orphism on the part of the great thinker and scientist Pythagoras, of the father of philosophy Plato and his follower, the philosopher Plotinus. The teachings of pre-existence of ideas and immortality of the human soul expressed by Plato, developed by Plotinus and woven in the Christian doctrine by their disciples, the Holy Fathers, have their grounds precisely in Thracian orphism.

The infiltration of deities from the territory of Ancient Thrace in the religious pantheon of Hellenes and Romans was also recorded in literature. The best-known example is the case of the Dionysus/Bacchus cult, as well as that of the Thracian goddess Bendis, revered as a protectress of nature. Divination of the feminine had deep roots in Ancient Thrace. Female figurines with exaggerated child-bearing organs were exceptionally popular in the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic in Thrace (end of the 7th - beginning of the 4th millennium BC). They were made of different materials like stone, clay, bone and probably wood.

It is assumed that they symbolized the supreme goddess (the Great Mother Goddess), life-giving nature or woman as a continuator of the clan. These figurines disappeared in the Bronze Age (end of the 4th - 2nd millennium BC) with the influx of new peoples and the transformation of prehistoric culture. The tradition of veneration of female deities probably continued to be practiced. In the Late Bronze Age (the middle - end of the 2nd millennium BC), a rich prehistoric civilization developed in the region of the lower flow of the Danube, in the lands of what are today Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, and again reproduced small female clay figurines in stylized form.

Anthropomorphic figurines continued to be made in the subsequent Early Iron Age (first half of the 1st millennium BC) and even until the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC in some northern regions of South-Eastern Europe.

Unlike the samples of Graeco-Roman art, which are remarkable for their definitely realistic depiction of the human figure, the products of "barbarian" art are rather more schematized.
Due to the fact that the Thracians and Geto-Dacians adopted the Greek and respectively Latin alphabet, as well as the artistic means of Graeco-Roman art, the age of the Roman Empire witnessed the appearance of many monuments of local deities, not found and consequently unknown before that period. Stone, metal and clay images of gods, accompanied with inscriptions on them, reveal the names and functions of the Thraco-Dacian religious pantheon of the time of its political independence.

The use of concepts like "barbarian" as opposed to "civilized" is an act of a culture, which underscores itself in the process of its formation and search for identity, distinguishing itself from the "other". However, from a scientific and objective point of view, a culture should not be regarded as an unquestionably closed system to be compared to others of the kind, but on the contrary - as one always in the process of development and interaction. Both in antiquity and today there is a multidimensional exchange of values, which are realized through trade, political, military and religious contacts. As a result of this interaction, culture becomes a complex amalgam of organically combined traditions and influences, a living organism, which grows and enriches itself.