Germans indeed claimed in ancient times that they were Thracians or Cimmerians - Cimbri.

It is clear that the Thraco-Cimmerians had a great influence over Germans and Celts. ThracoCimmerians migrated from the Northern shores of the Black Sea. The Thracian branch migrated in the Balkans, Anatolia and in Central and Northern Europe. The Cimmerian one migrated in Caucasus, Anatolia and Volga river basin. (Volga basin is considered the birthplace of the Sarmatians and Sarmatians are considered the descendents of the Cimmerian people) The Carpians could be responsible from North East Romania, Republic of Moldova and Southeastern Ukraine, the Thraco-Illyrians for the Southwestern Balkan Peninsula and Cimbri for Jutland and Scandinavia. And for Sardinia you may ask? Well there are a lot of speculations in this matter... There are two explanations for Sardinia: one is that Sherden, Shekelesh and Teresh Sea People came from Sardis, Lydia in 2000 BC and populated Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany (Etruria) after escaping the Trojan war and the other is Normans that settled in Sicily and attacked and occupied Sardinia. An interesting thing though is that Sardinians have an I2 haplogroup together with people from Central and Southeast Europe while people from Norhern Europe have an I1 haplogroup. Thracians inhabited parts of the ancient provinces: Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia, Dacia, Scythia Minor, Sarmatia, Bithynia, Mysia, Pannonia, and other regions on the Balkans and Anatolia. This area extends over most of the Balkans region, and the Getae north of the Danube as far as beyond the Bug. The Thracians that reached territories inhabited by Germans and Celts mixed with the local population and have been assimilated. Thraco-Cimmerians gave birth to the Thracians and to the Sarmatians. The theory that Thraco-Cimmerians lived on the Norhern shores of the Black Sea and split ways,Thracians migrating west and Cimmerians east it has been written by the great hystorian Herodotus. As you can see haplogroup R1A proves that Thraco-Cimmerians merged with Germans thru the Thracian Branch. Also the Scythians that migrated in areas inhabited by Germans and Celts and much later the Sarmatians have been assimilated by Centum speaking people: Germans and Celts. . Thraco-Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians never reached Western Europe! R1A has been carried to the British Isles by German Migratory people - Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The relation between Thracians and Germans can't be denied! It exists! Haplogroup I has been brought by Thraco-Cimmerians from the North shores of the Black Sea and the steppes of Ukraine to the area of modern Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Romania or Haplogroup I was born after the Satem speaking hunter-gatherers Thraco-Cimmerians merged with the local Pelasians - The Danubian culture, the first agrarian society of Central and Eastern Europe. Some Thraco-Cimmerians migrated further in Central and Northern Europe and brought the I haplogroup in that area. This doesn't mean though that Dacians and Goths were the same people! Some ThracoCimmerians that came from the steppes of Eastern Europe settled in Dacia, Thrace and Anatolia while others continued their migration in Central Europe where they met Celts and in Northern Europe were they met Germans and merged with them taking their language and culture. Celts from Central Europe have been assimilated by Germans, Thracians and Sarmatians. Thraco-Cimmerians migrated in Cimbri teritory and merged with them. This is proved by testing mithocondrial DNA. Back then Cimbri were Celts and lived near the Alps. Only later they merged with the Germans from the north and took the Etruscan-based runic writing system with them. They are responsible for the Etruscan scripts in Northern Europe. The Germanic Cimbri merged with Scythians and Sarmatians afterwards. "Haplogroup I emerged when members of the Satem migrated in Centum territories and were

assimilated. It is possible that it was born when the Thraco-Cimmerians hunter Gatherers met the Danubian agrarians and merged with them. People of the Danubian culture were assimilated by the Satem speaking group. R1b was born when Centum met the local Iberians and Aquitanians and R1a when Satem met Caucasians. Danubians and Iberians were related. Both migrated from Mesopotamia and had J2 haplogroup. They were Hamitians." Haplogroup I emerged some 22000 years ago. There is absolutely no basis to state that members of Satem migrated in Centum speaking territories. "Danubians and Iberians were related. Both migrated from Mesopotamia and had J2 haplogroup. They were Hamitians." It is rather obvious by this statement that they were not related. Now Haplogroup IJ which supposedly gave birth to I and J is only hypothetical and has never been observed in nature. As I stated before please stop constructing large families that have no basis. Actually I never stated that Thracians and Germans are related. Also I never stated that the "Getae" were anything other than Goths. I consider that there are 2 big mistakes in history surrounding this issue. 1. That the Getae have been wrongly classified as "Thracians", despite the fact that the majority of their culture contradicts this notion. 2. That the Goths are considered to have migrated from Scandinavia despite the fact that there is no evidence for a Gothic culture at the time of their supposed migration as given by Jordanes. That is sometime between 1500 BC and 2500 BC. More importantly there is no solid Scandinavian proof of a migration during the "consensus period" between 300 BC and 300 AD. 1913 Wadham Peacock: The Wild Albanian Wadham Peacock read history at Cambridge University and worked ca. 1878-1880 as private secretary to the British Consul General in Shkodra, Sir William Kirby Greene. He is mentioned in 1880 by the Montenegrin traveller and writer Spiridion Gopcevic (1855-1936), whom he accompanied on a hike up Mount Maranaj and nearly lost his life in an avalanche. Peacock's decade of work in Albania gave him, at any rate, good insight into the country. Thirty years later, on the theshold of Albanian independence, he published the 256-page book "Albania: the Foundling State of Europe" (London 1914), as well as the following essay.

The Shkypetars were included in the Bulgarian Empire, but as before it was only the plains and not the mountains which were held by the conquerors. Simeon's rule, though he vauntingly took the title of Czar or Csar, was merely nominal in the west, and when he died in A.D. 927 his Empire fell to pieces. Shishman and his son Samuel, however, kept the west independent of Byzantium, with their capital at Ochrida, and probably the reign of the Czar Simeon was the period when the Shkypetars were most nearly subjugated by the Slav or Slavised intruders. But in 1018 the Empire of Simeon was utterly crushed by the Emperor Basil Bulgaroktonos, and Albania again passed under the nominal sway of Byzantium, while Bulgars and Serbs were ruled direct from the Imperial Court. In turn the spurt of energy from Constantinople died down, for, equally with the Bulgarian and Serbian hegemonies, it depended on the life of one man. A new leader arose in Bulgaria, John Asen, who claimed to be descended from Shishman. He rebelled successfully against the Empire, and, after his murder, under his successors, and especially John Asen II., Albania was contained in the second Bulgarian Empire. Nominally the Shkypetars passed from the Empire to the Bulgars, and from the Bulgars to the Serbs, and back again at every shifting of the

kaleidoscope, but the hold of all the Empires was too ephemeral to allow of a costly conquest of the barren mountains. When either the Emperor or the Slavs gained decidedly the upper hand, the plains and towns of Shkyperi fell under the conqueror, but in the feeble intervals the plains, and at all times the mountains, were in the hands of that unsubdued remnant of the ancient inhabitants - the Shkypetars. John Asen died in A.D. 1241, and the leadership of the Balkan Slavs began to pass to the Serbs under the Nemanja dynasty, who first called themselves Kings and afterwards Czars of Serbia. The Stefans of Serbia fought with the Palologi Emperors and with the Bulgarians, the Bulgarian army being crushed at the battle of Velbuzhd on June 28th, 1330. The North Albanians remained more or less independent while all these quarrels were going on around them, but in the time of the Czar Dushan, the Strangler, A.D. 1336, they were included in his Empire. After the break-up of Dushan's kingdom, North Albania was ruled from Scodra by the Princes of the Balsha family of Provence, who had taken service with the Serbian Czars. In 1368 the Prince became a Roman Catholic, and the North Albanian mountaineers have remained of that religion ever since. The Balshas greatly increased their dominions, but, in 1383, George Balsha I. was defeated and killed by the Turks near Berat, and George Balsha II. gave Scodra and Durazzo to the Venetians in return for their assistance against the Turks. But the Venetians did not afford Balsha help of any value, so the family retired to Montenegro, and were succeeded in North Albania by the Castriot family of Croja, who were pure-blooded Shkypetars and extended their rule over the whole of the country except the places held by Venice. South and Middle Albania were independent under the rule of the Despot of Epirus, Michael Angelus, who, though illegitimate, claimed to be the heir of the Emperors Isaac and Alexius Angelus. He raised the Albanian tribes, discomfited the Frankish Dukes of Thessalonica and Athens, and after his death his nephew, John Angelus, fought with John Dukas for the Empire of Byzantium, but was defeated in A.D. 1241. The heir of the Angeli then retired to the Albanian mountains, and as Despots of Epirus the family ruled the country in spite of the Emperor for several years. Meanwhile, the last of the conquerors of the Balkans was over-running the peninsula. In 1354 the Turks were invited over to Thrace by John Cantacuzenus to help him against the Palologi. They seized and settled at Gallipoli, and in 1361 Sultan Murad I. took Adrianople. Servia was invaded, and crushed at Kossovo-Polje in 1389, where some Albanians under their Prince Balsha fought in the army of the Czar Lazar. The Sultan Murad II. advanced against Albania in 1423, and took, among others, the four sons of John Castriot of Croja as hostages. The youngest of these sons was George Castriot, the famous Scanderbeg, who was educated at Constantinople by the Sultan. In 1443 he rose against the Turks and seized Croja, and though army after army was sent against him he defeated many Viziers and generals and the Sultan Murad himself.