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WHo Were tHe autHorS oF tHe treBeniSte Culture... - 77
– in this case the Argheads, the first dynasty of the Macedonian kingdom.
Nevertheless, the biggest problem for the scholars was the question related
to the ethnic origin of the owners of these luxurious objects, that is to say
the inhabitants of the Ohrid region. According to the written sources,
the first inhabitants of the Ohrid region known by their name were the
Encheleis/Engelanes, and later the Dassaretai. Even before the discovery
of the gold masks, there had been several opinions expressed as regards
the origin of these tribes: Illyrian 9 , an old population that was Illyrized as
a part of the Illyrian state 10 , Macedonian 11 , Brygian 12 , and Greek 13 . When
the first two gold masks were found in Gorenci/Trebenište 84 years ago, it
was not just an epochal discovery, but an enigma for the scientific world,
because with the ancient people(s) (Greeks, Thracians, Illyrians) from the
Classical Age gold masks had not been discovered until then. The masks
from Mycenae are dated thousand years before and they belong to the
Achaeans, whose overall social structure and culture are entirely different
from those of the peoples in the Classical Age, including the ancient
Greeks. And since the Macedonians at that time, with a few exceptions,
were considered Greeks, these masks were ascribed to their eastern
neighbors - the Illyrians, whose border was then not precisely defined,
first of all because of lack of sources. Namely, the ancient sources are very
inaccurate in describing the countries and nations, as they were mostly
based on oral information. So, archaeologists, linguists, and historians
usually included the tribes (Encheleis/Engelanes, Paenests, etc.) in these
border areas, which from the 4 th century B.C. occasionally used to be parts
of the Illyrian state, in the Illyrian group. However, the Engelanes, whose
name was adapted in the old Greek language in the more familiar form
Encheleis, were not included in the Illyrian tribes in the earliest written
sources, but were always mentioned separately from the Illyrians. For
example, Herodotus wrote that the Cadmeans from Thebes had come to
the Encheleis i.e. Engelanes (Her., V, 61), whereas Apollodorus, after more
than five centuries, wrote that they (Encheleis) had been fighting with the
9 Lately N. G. L. Hammond, Epirus, Oxford, 967, as well as all the Albanian authors
without an exception.
0 F. Papazoglou, Les royaumes d’Illyrie et de Dardanie, in Les Illyriens et les Albanais,
Beograd, SANU 988, p. 78, n. 20. We should say that in his earlier works, F.
Papazoglou supported the thesis about the Illirian origin of the Enheleans.
A. J. R. Wace – A. M. Woodward, Ann. BSA. 8, 909, p. 67; Fr. Geyer, RE, XIV,
9 8, s.v. Makedonia, col. 6 8-70 ; N. Proeva, Enchéléens-Dassarètes-Illyriens, Acte
du II coll. Intern. “L’Illyrie méridionale et l’Epire dans l’Antiquité Clemont-Ferrand,
990, Paris 99 , p. 97/8.
2 W. Pająkowski, Wer waren Illyrii proprie dicti und wo siedelte man si an?, God. CBI,
XVIII/ 6, Sarajevo, 980, p. 2 - 28.
M. B. Hadzopoulos, Limite d’expansion macédonienne en Illyrie, Acte du I coll.
Intern. “L’Illyrie méridionale et l’Epire dans l’Antiquité, Clemont-Ferrand, 98 , Paris
987, p. 82. N. 5.