Getica: I. State and Religion from the Middle of the Second Millennium to the Middle of the Sixth Century BC.

Abstract

Around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, in the Late Bronze Age, the northeastern boundaries of the Thracian lands were part of the Mycenaean koine, as is evident from the numerous archaeological finds and the analysis of the scarce written records. With the development of productive forces and the increased intensity of production, clan ties loosened, gradually and naturally completing the process of the dying off of the clan community. The gradual transition from patrilineal to neighbour-territorial community, which probably continued throughout the third and first half of the second millennium BC, also came to an end. This was the time of the transition from the two-component antagonistic tribal to the neighbour-territorial commune, which enabled new forms of exploitation. The social structure thus established to create favourable conditions also for the development of state-building processes, which naturally in turn led to the refinement of religious notions and beliefs. It can be assumed that the common Thracian religious doctrine with its regional peculiarities was already finally formed by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The lower chronological boundary is characterised by a sharp increase in the written tradition of Thrace; Ionian µhistorical prose was born, and the ever-increasing archaeological material made it possible to locate the various centres of political life more precisely.