History of Slovakia before the Slovaks

The area today known asSlovakia has been inhabited throughout theprehistoric period.

Contents
Palaeolithic
Neolithic
Bronze Age & Iron Age
Roman era
The great invasions of the 4–8th centuries
References

Palaeolithic
Radiocarbon dating puts the oldest surviving archaeological artifacts from Slovakia—found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom—at
270,000 BCE, in the Early Paleolithic era. These ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient
habitation of Slovakia.

Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era (200,000–80,000 BCE) come from the Prepost cave (Prepoštská jaskyňa) near
Bojnice and from other nearby sites. The most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium (c. 200,000 BCE),
discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia.

Archaeologists have found prehistoric Homo sapiens skeletons in the region, as well as numerous objects and vestiges of the
Gravettian culture, principally in the river valleys of Nitra, Hron, Ipeľ, Váh and as far as the city of Žilina, and near the foot of the
Vihorlat, Inovec, and Tribeč mountains, as well as in the Myjava Mountains. The most well-known finds include the oldest female
statue made of mammoth-bone (22,800 BCE), the famousVenus of Moravany. The figurine was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad
Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come
from the sites of Moravany-Žákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and Radošina. These findings provide the most ancient evidence of
commercial exchanges carried out between theMediterranean and Central Europe.

Neolithic
Discovery of tools and pottery in several archaeological digs and burial places scattered across Slovakia, surprisingly including
northern regions at relatively high altitudes, gives evidence of human habitation in the Neolithic period. The pottery found in
Želiezovce, Gemer, and the Bukové hory massif is characterized by remarkable modeling and delicate linear decoration. It also
reveals the first attempts at coloring. This deliberate adornment shows a developed aesthetic sense of the Neolithic craftsmen.

Important archaeological discoveries have been made in several formerly-inhabited caves. For example, humans inhabited the
famous Domica cave, almost 6000 meters long, to a depth of 700 meters. This cave offers one of the biggest Neolithic deposits in
Europe. The tribes who created the pottery from the Massif Bukové hory inhabited Domica continuously for more than 800 years.

The transition to the Neolithic era in Central Europe featured the development of agriculture and the clearing of pastures, the first
smelting of metals at the local level, the "Retz" style pottery and also fluted pottery. During the "fluted-pottery" era, people built
several fortified sites. Some vestiges of these remain today, especially in high-altitude areas. Pits surround the most well-known of
these sites at Nitriansky Hrádok. Starting in the Neolithic era, the geographic location of present-day Slovakia hosted a dense trade-
network for goods such as shells, amber, jewels and weapons. As a result, it became an important hub in the system of European
trade routes.

Bronze Age & Iron Age

The Bronze Age on the territory of Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BCE. Major
cultural, economic, and political development can be attributed to the significant growth in production of copper, especially in central
Slovakia (for example in Špania Dolina) and north-west Slovakia. Copper became a stable source of prosperity for the local
population. After the disappearance of the Čakany and Velatice cultures, the Lusatian people expanded building of strong and
complex fortifications, with the large permanent buildings and administrative centers. Excavations of Lusatian hill forts document the
substantial development of trade and agriculture at that period.

The richness and the diversity of tombs increased considerably. The inhabitants of the area manufactured arms, shields, jewelry,
dishes, and statues. The arrival of tribes from Thrace disrupted the people of the Calenderberg culture, who lived in the hamlets
located on the plain (Sereď), and also in the hill forts located on the summits (Smolenice, Molpí). The local power of the "Princes" of
the Hallstatt culture disappeared in Slovakia during the last period of the Iron Age after strife between the Scytho-Thracian people
and the Celtic tribes, who advanced from the south towards the north, following the Slovak rivers.

The victory of the Celts marked the beginning of the late Iron Age in the region.
Two major Celtic tribes living in Slovakia were Cotini and Boii. Cotini were
probably identical or made significant part of so-called Púchov culture. The Celts
built large oppida in Bratislava and Liptov (the Havránok shrine). Silver coins with
the names of Celtic kings, the so-called Biatecs, represent the first known use of
writing in Slovakia. Celtic dominance disappeared with theGermanic incursions, the
victory of Dacia over the Boii near the Neusiedler See, and the expansion of the A Celtic coin minted in Bratislava and
Roman Empire. its replica on a modern 5-koruna
coin.

Roman era
The Roman epoch began in Slovakia in 6 CE, inaugurated by the arrival of Roman legions on this territory that led to a war against
the Marcomanni and Quadi tribes. The Kingdom of Vannius, a barbarian kingdom founded by the Quadi, existed in western and
central Slovakia from 20 to 50 AD. The Romans and their armies occupied only a thin strip of the right bank of the Danube and a
very small part of south-western Slovakia C
( elemantia, Gerulata, Devín Castle).

Only in 174 CE did the emperor Marcus Aurelius penetrate deeper into the river valleys of Váh, Nitra and Hron. On the banks of the
Hron he wrote his philosophical workMeditations. In 179 CE, a Roman legion engraved on the rock of the Trenčín Castle the ancient
[1]
name of Trenčín (Laugaritio), marking the furthest northern point of their presence in this part of Europe.

The great invasions of the 4–8th centuries

In the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE theHuns began to leave the Central Asian steppes. They crossed the Danube in 377 CE and occupied
Pannonia, which they used for 75 years as their base for launching looting-raids into Western Europe. In 451, under the command of
Attila, they crossed the Rhine and laid Gaul to waste; then crossed even the Pyrenees, devastating the countryside of Catalonia.
However, Attila's death in 453 brought about the collapse of the Hunnic Empire (and eventual disappearance of the Huns as a
people).

After the Huns in the 5–6th century German tribes such as the Ostrogoths, Lombards, Gepids and Heruli, began to settle in the
Pannonian Basin. Their reign and rivalry determined the events during the first two-thirds of the 6th century. In the 6th century, an
early Lombard state was centered in the territory of present-day Slovakia.[2] Subsequently, the Lombards left from this area and
moved first to Pannonia and then to Italy, where their statehood was continued until the 1th century.
In 568 a nomadic tribe, the Avars, conducted their own invasion into the Middle Danube region. The Avars occupied the lowlands of
the Pannonian Plain, established an empire dominating the Pannonian Basin and they made several raids against the Byzantine
Empire whose emperors sent gifts regularly to them in order to avoid their attacks.[3] In 623, the Slavic population living in the
western parts of Pannonia seceded from their empire.[4] In 626, the Avars and the Persians jointly besieged but failed to capture
Constantinople; following this failure, the Avars' prestige and power declined and they lost the control over their former territories
[3]
outside the Pannonian Basin but their reign has lasted to 804.

References
1. Roman Limes in Slovakia(http://limes-slovensko.sk/de/html/links_1.php)Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2012
0328084804/http://limes-slovensko.sk/de/html/links_1.php)2012-03-28 at the Wayback Machine.
2. [1] (http://www.crohis.com/ssrkulj1/teodvel.htm)
3. Kristó, Gyula (1993). A Kárpát-medence és a magyarság régmultja (1301-ig)(The ancient history of the Carpathian
Basin and the Hungarians - till 1301). Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Műhely
. pp. 30–31. ISBN 963-04-2914-4.
4. Benda, Kálmán (editor) (1981).Magyarország történeti kronológiája("The Historical Chronology of Hungary").
Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 44.ISBN 963-05-2661-1.

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