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A new era in the Balkans appeared with the arrival from the East of the Slavs. This began a period of struggle among tribal groups for control of lns. The origin of the Croat tribe has been questioned . They are generally seen as members of the southern Slavs. Some Croats claimed Germanic origins which provided a justification for the NAZI honorary Aryan status. Other theories include Persian (Alan) origins. Such ethnic assessments were once based largely on speculation, often relying on linguistics. Modern DNA studies have made possible much more reliable assessments. Modern DNA research suggests that the Croat tribes to northern Central Asia (about 10,000 years ago). DNA researchers believe that Persian origins are unlikely. The earliest know historical evidence of the Croat Tribes from the Crimea. The Croatian name (Horouathos) was found on two stone inscriptions--the Tanais stone. It was written in Greek (about 200 AD). It was found at the Azov sea port of Tanais. The Croat Tribes at the time appear to have lived in the area north of the Carpathians and east of the Vistula (western Poland and eastern Ukraine). The Croats were called the White Croats, by Byzantine Emperor Porphyrogenitus. Very little is known about the Croat Tribes. The Croats and other Slavic tribes were an agricultural people. Some modern scholars believe that the nomadic Persian-speaking Alans provided a ruling chaste. Here historians rely on philological and etymological evidence. The lack of surviving DNA traces suggest that if true Alans were a very small part of the overall population. The Croat Tribes moved west after the fall of Rome and settled in the area of modern Croatia (7th and 8th centuries). There are no surviving records of this migration. There are medieval descriptions, but coming centuries after the migration the accuracy has to be treated with some caution. Medieval scholars describe how the Croats migrated from the area around modern Galicia and the Pannonian plain beginning about 600 AD. That migration was associated with the rise of the Turkic Avars. The Croats settled in Dalmatia ruled at the time by the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire. They established a capital around Biograd. The Croats also settled Dalmatia and the islands off Dalmatia. Byzantine records suggest that the Croats settled Dalmatia as a result of the Avars. 【De Administrando Imperio】 Medieval records suggest that they were variously associated with the Goths. 【Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja and Thomas the Archdeacon】 All these accounts were written so long after the actual events that they are extremely suspect. While the nature of the Croat migration is not known with any certainty, the settlement of the Croats in Pannonia and Dalmatia between the Drava river and the Adriatic is a historical fact.
De Administrando Imperio
Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja
Thomas the Archdeacon
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