Directory talk:Korcula History 2

Directory talk is my work page

• Nikola Ostojic - 1858 : "Because of the islands dark appearance of its woods it was called Corcira Melaena" referring to the Greeks.
• Romans-Latin: Corcyra Nigra

Some of the latest research studies

• Becoming Slav, Becoming Croat: Identity Transformations in Post-Roman and and Early Medieval Dalmatia by Danijel Dzino
• When Ethnicity did not Matter in the Balkans by John Van Antwerp Fine.
• Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment by Larry Wolff.
• The Italians of Dalmatia: From Italian Unification to World War I by Luciano Monzali
• University of Zadar - Sociogeographic Transformation of the Western Part of Korcula Island by Lena Mirosevic
• Identity “ConflIct” of Dalmatian Italians by Mirko Dindic (hrcak.srce.hr)
• The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region by Florin Curta

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A Bit of Dalmatian History

• The National Party (Narodnjaci) from the Kingdom of Dalmatia (Austro-Hungarian Empire). The second half of the 19th century and early 20th century.

“

According to Costant (Kosta) Vojnovic, one of the principal Dalmatian Slavophile intellectuals, Dalmatia was part of the 'Slav-Hellenic' peninsula and was populated exclusively by the ' Slav race'; there were no Italians in Dalmatia, and so it was necessary to 'nationalize' the schools, the administration, and the courts in order to erase the traces left by Venetian rule and damage it caused. The Italian culture could survive only within the limits of Slav national character of the country and, in any case, without any recognition as a autochthonus element of Dalmatian society.

”

Note: The National Party (Narodnjaci) had very interesting policies. They seem to be German Nazism, Fascism and Communism all in one. One could say Kosta Vojnović predicted future events.

• Lena Mirosevic; Department of Geography, University of Zadar on Old Croatian cemeteries & churches:

“

It appears that the 7th and the 8th century marked the ending of many cult locations in an area short of reliable archaeological traces of that time. Sacral buildings were mostly abandoned before the arrival of the Slavs i.e. Croats on the Adriatic coast. Apparently, it wasn’t until the 14th and the 15th century that the worship of the old protectors was restored, but in new churches and chapels at safer locations in the interior of the island. There are no traces of any old Croatian cemeteries, and this fact itself providesan insight into the processes of settling Korcula Island in the early Middle Ages.

”

Wikipedia and Korcula

• Wikipedia and Korcula-Town:

“

Korčula, like other islands and many coastal cities in Dalmatia, also displays a dual Latin-Slav culture which developed from the late Roman era to the emergence of the modern Croatian state. Until the late 19th century, Italians made up the vast majority of the population of Korčula town while the rest of the island was almost completely inhabited by Croatians. The island therefore possesses a distinct Adriatic or Mediterranean cultural personality which sets it apart from the mountainous Dalmatian hinterland and continental Croatia further north. (dated 9/4/2011)

”

Surnames on the west end of the island around Around 1600s

• de Ismael (Croatisation: Izmaeli)
• de Gabriel (Croatisation:Gabrijeliċ)
• de Giunio (Croatisation:Đunio)
• de Canavel (Croatisation:Kanavelić). He signed himself as Pietro Canaveli or De Canavellis.
• de Arneri
• Nikonitia or Nikoničić (according to Zvonko Maričić this is a Croatian family)
• Kolović
• Draginić (Drahinei)
• Tulić
• Nalošić
• Kostričić
• Cettineo (Croatisation:Cetinić)
• Mirošević
• Xuvella (Croatisation:Žuvela)
• Prižmić
• Marinović
• Dragojevič
• Barčot
• Surjan (Surian)
• Jacobus Bannissius (Croatisation:Jakov Baničević)

A Dalmatian, who was born on Korcula in 1466. He identified with Illyria, mentioning “my Illyria” in his corespondents, not Croatia.

Croatian Identity

Three men: Horoúathos, Horoáthos, and Horóathos (Χορούαθ[ος], Χοροάθος, Χορόαθος) are mentioned in the Tanais Tablets (primary source). They are written in Greek and are from the 3rd century AD from the city of Tanais, today's Azov, Russia. At that time it had mixed Greek - Sarmatian (Iranian) population. Discovered by a Russian archaeologist Pavel Mikhailovich Leontjev in 1853.

Dux Cruatorum Branimero or Prince Branimir inscription, c. 880 AD from town of Nin-Croatia (Old Dalmatia). This is the first primary source mention of the Croatian identity in the Balkans. (John the Deacon, who was chaplain to the doge of the Republic of Venice)

There is archaeological evidence from 16 century where the Croatian identity was used on Korcula. Stone writings in Zavalatica are dedicated to events from 889 AD. It describes a clash between the Slavic population and the Venetian army. Marinko Gjivoje wrote about the find in 1972. The stone writings uses Hrvat Dalmatinac in its writings. Hrvat means Croatian.

Slavic Identity

The term Slav was first used by the Byzantines (i.e. Procopius-Byzantine scholar, Jordanes- 6th century Roman bureaucrat) and was written in the 6th century (cia. 550) in Greek (Σκλαβῖνοι-Sklabenoi). Later in Latin it was written Sclaveni.

• The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region by Florin Curta

To my knowledge first primary source written about Slavs and Korcula is Doge Pietro II Orseolo's attack on the island in 998 - 1000. (Chronicon Venetum, Chronicle of Grado & John the Deacon, who was chaplain to the doge of the Republic of Venice)

Secondary source: "Historical Compendium of the Island of Korcula" by Nikola Ostojic and other secondary sources about the events from the year 1262:

• Smiciklas, CD V, (p237)
• N. Klaic, Povijest Hrvata u Razvijenom, (p130)