Welcome to COGNIARCHAE

This is a blog dedicated to cognitive archaeology and ancient history.
We explore the ways in which ancient peoples thought and perceived the world around them.

Some of the topics covered on the website include:
- The symbolism of ancient art
- The role of religion in ancient societies
- The role of astronomy in ancient religions and mythology
- The spread of human culture around the world
- The undeciphered scripts and the development of Indo-European languages
and so much more...

Our mission is to create content that will be thought-provoking and challenging,
to encourage you to question the status quo and to consider new ways of thinking about the past.

However, please keep in mind that this is a blog, not a scientific paper.
We are always learning and evolving, and we welcome your feedback.

Latest Articles

Homolje and Homole: A Toponym Shared by Slavs and Ancient Greeks

Ancient Thessaly’s Mount Homole shares an exact linguistic and topographical match in Serbia’s Homolje.
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From Bassania to Bosnia: Did a Lost Illyrian City Give a Country Its Name?

Could Bosnia be the ghost footprint of a lost Illyrian city swallowed by a changing delta? A forgotten Roman measurement points to an intriguing trail of coastal refugees who may have cloned their entire homeland deep in the mountains.
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No, the Delmatae Were Not “Sheep People”

The name of the Delmatae is usually linked to Albanian dele (“sheep”). But Sheep-herding was hardly unusual in the mountainous western Balkans of antiquity. Nearly every tribal society in the region practiced some form of pastoralism, making such an ethnonym surprisingly generic for a dominant tribal confederation that resisted Rome for centuries. In the flooded karst landscape of ancient Dalmatia, Pre-Greek τέλμα (télma) — “marsh” or “inundated plain” — may be the more fitting comparison.
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The Napaei and the Palaei: Classical Ethnonyms and the Earliest Slavic Horizon

The article argues that tribes like the Napaei mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Ammianus Marcellinus were likely early Slavs. It links Napaei (“forest people”) to the Drevlians, and Palaei to the Polyans, suggesting their conflict reflects a known Slavic rivalry, while other tribal names also resemble Slavic forms.
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No, the Ancient Dardanians Were Not Albanian “Pear People”

Forget the “Pear People.” The name Dardania has nothing to do with Albanian dardhë (“pear”). It descends from the ancient Indo-Iranian root dard- / dardar-, meaning “high place,” “mountain,” or “ravine” — shared by the Dards of the Himalayas, the Udi “dardar,” and the Sanskrit “dardara.”
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No, Aphrodite Was Not an Ancient Albanian Goddess

Her cult came from the East, not the Balkans. Her name descends from the Avestan afri, meaning blessing and love, the same root behind friend and Freyja. Long before modern nations existed, she was already the word for desire itself.
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