The Illyrians

For more than a thousand years before the arrival of the Slavs in
the sixth century AD, the lands between the Adriatic and the river
Danube, now Yugoslavia and Albania, were the home of the peoples
known to the ancient world as Illyrians. This book, now available
in paperback, draws upon the considerable archaeological evidence
that has become available since the Second World War to provide an
account of the origins, culture, history and legacy of the
Illyrians.

John Wilkes describes the geography of Illyria and surveys the
region in the prehistoric, Greek, Roman and medieval periods. He
discusses Illyrian art, material, culture, religion and customs. A
chapter examines the Illyrian language, of which little trace
survives, and its connection with other Indo-European languages.
Professor Wilkes also scrutinizes the linguistic evidence for the
Illyrians' relatedness to other peoples - Thracian, Italic, Greek
and Celtic. He concludes with a discussion of a possible survival
of an Illyrian native culture in the Roman and Byzantine
periods.