Origin hypotheses of the Croats

The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. The modern Croats are undoubtedly a Slavic people, but the archaeological and other historic evidence on the migration of the Slavic settlers, the character of native population on present-day territory of Croatia, and their mutual relationship and influences is sparse.

"Slavic" theory

According to the most widely accepted, "Slavic" theory, in the 7th century, the Croatian tribe has moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats had formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic, while their subgroup Red Croats created the Principalities of Red Croatia: Zahumlje, Travunia with Konavle and Duklja. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia.

"Autochthonous" theories

According to the "autochthonous" model, mostly promoted by Illyrian Movement in the 19th century and abandoned by the mid-19th century, the homeland of Slavs is actually in the area of southern Croatia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round. The "revised" theory, developed by Ivan Mužić argues that the actual number of Slavic settlers was small and that the Illyrian ethnic substratum was prevalent for formation of Croatian ethnicity.

"Iranian" theory

Tanais stone with the Greek inscription ΧΟΡΟΑΘΟΣ "Khoroathos" highlighted

Some researchers claim that the Croatian people are of Iranian origins. This theory is however not supported by genetic evidence (see genetic origins section).

Greek and Roman writers and especially the two stone inscriptions from Tanais tell us that the Croats from the middle of the first up to the third century A.D. lived in the region of the lower Don and were one of the Median (Sarmato-Iranian) nations in that area. During the Hunnic invasion in 375 A.D. one part of the Croats on the Don retreated northwest over the Carpathians where they called themselves White (Western) Croats with respect to the Red (Southern) Croats who remained on the Don. There the White Croats intermingled with the Slavs of the central Slavic regions and adopted their language. After the collapse of the Hunnic empire the Croats at the end of the fifth century formed their own national state, calling it White or Great Croatia. It lay between the Oder and the Dniester with its capital Hrvat on the site of present-day Cracow in southern Poland.

Following the formation of Yugoslavia in 1918, certain Slavs known as the "wolves" suppressed original research on the Iranian theory. To date, only some part of the research work that has been quoted in a report prepared by the academy of sciences of former Yugoslavia in 1938 is available.

In the era of the Achaemenid (also known as the Persian empire), especially at the time of Cyrus II and Darius I, the name of the eastern Iranian province Harauvatya and the Croats of the ancient Iran Harauvatis and Harahvaiti have been mentioned for 12 times. In addition, two unearthed manuscripts belonging to the Croats living in the second and third centuries B.C. in ancient Iran have referred to the inhabitants of Horooouathos and Horoathoi. In the year 418, the Aryans were dubbed as Horites and Zachariasrhetor, in 559 the Aryan horse riders were referred to as Hrwts who lived in the vicinity of Krima and Azova and in the 7th century Croats were called as Slavs.

Indeed from the end of the I to III century A.D. in the city-state of Tanais, in the region of the Don, lived various Iranian tribes of Samatians as well as Croats who must have been Iranians. Furthermore the national name "Croat" is of Iranian origin. According to the Russian Vselod Miller the name "Croat" comes from the Iranian word Hor-va (t)u meaning: the sun’s bed or path. M. Vasmer derives the Croatian name from Hu-urvata meaning, "friend" And the terms used to designate the high officials among the Croats, "kralj, ban, župan", are of Iranian origin. The religion of the ancient Croats also bore traces of its Iranian origin: a god of light and darkness, fire-worship, cremation of the dead, and so on. Even the Croatian words used to designate religious concepts are Iranian: God, religion, sacrifice, paradise, Easter; to cry out (for), to implore, to predict, and so on. After the Iranian fashion the ancient Croats ascribed a specific colour to each of the four cardinal points of the compass in the territory which they inhabited. The colour white designated the west, red the south, green the east, and black the north. Hence White or West Croatia, Red or South Croatia and Green or East Croatia. Ancient Croatian folk art bears eastern and Iranian traces, particularly the Croatian "troplets". The Croats also brought over from Iran their national coat of arms with its 64 red and white checkers.

Identity of old-time Croat tribes Research works conducted in the past decade discuss the similarities between names and families used in the ancient-time Iran and the names and families in present Croatia. Some of these studies have pointed to the roots of alphabetic letters in the Croat language and stressed that contrary to the claims of the Slavs the roots of those letters are totally oriental and widely used at ancient times. Many manuscripts written with those letters date back to before 9th century.

Research studies on the style of dressing of the Croats show that they were dressed up as the Sassanid (also known as the second Persian Empire) and most of the local costumes of women were exactly similar to those worn by women at the time of the ancient Persian empire.

Studies on other features of the Croats such as navigation reject the Slav presumption that the Croats had not have navigated before but that they had rather learnt the art from the Italians. According to the studies, there are evidences available that the Croats were acquainted with sailing even before the Slavs and that the time for their navigation in the Adriatic goes back to the 6th and 7th centuries. It should be noted that local Croat navigators were known as "Indo-Iranian" and "Slavs" in the Adriatic.

The earliest mention of the Croatian name, Horouathos, can be traced on two stone inscriptions in the Greek language and script, dating from around the year 200 AD, found in the seaport Tanais on the Azov sea, Crimea peninsula (near the Black Sea). Both tablets are kept in the Archaeological museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

"Avar" theory

Today’s Croats are the descendants of Avars, who also used the name Croat, and of local Serbo-Slav populations, who were croatized, by this Avar tribe, in the same way the Bulgarians were, as descendants of Bulgarized Slavs. The Mixture of the local Slavs and the Avaro-Croats eventually came to speak only the Serb language, the same way as the Bulgarians speak Slav now, and not Bulgar.

Genetic evidence

Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>87%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups -- Haplogroup I (38%), Haplogroup R1a 35% and Haplogroup R1b 16%

All three groups migrated to Europe during the Upper Paleolithic around 30,000-20,000 BC. Later, Neolithic lineages, originating in the Middle East and that brought agriculture to Europe, are present in surprisingly low numbers.

File:Croat haplogroups.jpg

Croat Haplogroups

The haplogroups J, E and G constitute together less than 10% - significantly lower than other populations in the region.

Furthermore the dominant presence of haplogroup I is rather interesting. This group exists in Europe only and is fairly wide-spread, but in relatively small percentages. Its frequency in the Balkans is high, but the only populations that have similar levels of the I group are the Scandinavians.

There are a number of relevant conclusions that can be drawn from the genetic data.

First of all it gives strong support to the theory that the region of modern day Croatia served as a refuge for northern populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). After the LGM there was a migration to the north of the people whose offspring today form a significant portion of the three aforementioned Scandinavian populations. Those who decided to stay are the ancestors of about 38 per cent of modern day Croats.

The second conclusion that can be drawn is that the theory of an Iranian origin has little genetic support. Modern-day Iranians have a significantly different haplogroup distribution, although millennia ago Persia may have been home to altogether different peoples. Only a relatively small percentage of the Croats belong to one of the haplogroups that is common in the Middle East. The low frequency of these groups is consistent with the minor migration of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East that occurred around 10,000 years ago.

And the third conclusion is that modern-day Croats may not have that much genetically in common with the Croats of the proto-Slavic origin. The R1a haplogroup that is usually at 40-60% levels in most Eastern European countries is at 35% within the Croat population. Genetic evidence points to the fact that there was a high degree of mixing of the newly arrived Croat tribes with the indigenous populations that were already present in the region of the modern day Croatia. Hence, most modern day Croats are descended from the original European population of the region and have lived in the territory by other names, such as Illyrians and their forebears. These original inhabitants also served an important role in re-populating Europe after the last ice age.