CONCLUSION

The authors of contributions in the current Proceedings presented important new views, and also directed us to supportive evidence.

When using and evaluating written sources, it is important to recognize whether the source is a historical and ethnological description of old settlers, or whether it is the history written by foreign conquerors and rulers for their own purposes.

In regard to genetics, the age estimates of the haplogroups and their major sub-clusters in Slovenes and other populations of Europe, show that the Slovenian weighted average age is close to the European average. The 2,500-year-old skeletal remains from Adria, Italy, show the closest genetic relationship with the extant Slovenes. There is also a genetic similarity between 6,000 to 14,000-year-old skeletal remains from the eastern Alps and the present day Slovenes, indicating a degree of genealogical continuity from Neolithic to the present day.

In addition, the face of a Neolithic male subject belonging to the Square Mouth Pottery Culture was reconstructed. The subject was of European origin, and the reconstructed face appears to be very common in northern Italy and central Europe’s present-day male population.

The oldest evidence of the language used in central Europe lies in the numerous place-names, which survived to the present. Their ancient origin can be recognized through certain geographical demarcations. For the earliest residents, the body of water by which they lived was simply Water, and their river was River. This type of naming is in central Europe found most often in the Slovenian language area. They are therefore a testimony for the ancient origins of Slovenian language in Europe.

In today’s Slovenian territories, the roads have been present already since ancient times, suggesting good road-building skills of Slovenian ancestors long before the arrival of the Romans, who in the main improved the existing roads and built only a few new ones for military use.

The analysis of presumed Celtic Norican personal names based on etymological comparison with the contemporary names and toponyms found in present-day Slovenia and the neighbouring countries, revealing significant traces of ancient primeval onomastics. For about 60-70 of the presumed Celtic names, one can identify proto-Slavic linguistic roots, having the same meaning as the corresponding contemporary Slovenian names. Among the »Celtic« deities, the gods Belin (or Belenus), Belestis (Velestis), and most strikingly the god of fate Smert(ius), have obvious proto-Slavic linguistic roots. These results question the views held by historical sciences about the exclusively Celtic ethnicity of the ancient Noricans, especially when compared to the vocabularies of present-day Celtic languages.

Numerous place-names of uncertain etymology in western Slovenia, concentrated along the ancient Roman defense line, show a significant similarity and relatedness with natural environment in historical and also modern Celtic languages (Cornish, Welsh, Gaelic, and Breton). As linguistic developments in the extreme west of Europe and Slovenia are separated by at least 1,500 years, the above toponyms of unknown etymology through Slavic, Romance, and Teutonic languages may supply useful markers to locate prehistoric and/or early historic settlers in southeastern Alpine region.

These toponyms, however, exist in Slovenia in the area of some of the most archaic Slavic dialects where Celts never lived and do not exist in the areas where they did live. Consequently, these toponyms may be the remnant of primeval European word-stock from at least 3,300 if not 4,000 to 12,000 years ago.

Due to the non-standardized way of writing, and the small amount of data on the Venetic language, the calculated linguistic distances between the ancient Latin, Venetic, and Slovenian, which can be determined at present only on the basis of frequency of particular graphemes, indicate that the Venetic is closer to Slovenian than to Latin.

The consonant roots from the Ateste tablets, which show a clear separation between Slavic and other languages, were taken as the basis for comparative study of different languages. Using this criterion, the Slovenian language proved itself as exceptional, with best connections to the Vedic Sanskrit, and the most uniform connections with all Slavic languages. These results put Slavic languages farther back in time, and equalize their age with that of other languages. Some European languages, e.g., Finnish, Irish, Basque, Hungarian, Albanian, and Romany languages, have by this criterion no connection with the three main groups, and also don’t have connections among themselves.

The original values of jat (yat) are one of the most important structural and typological differentiating elements in Slovenian and other Slavic languages. Yat was just a letter, a sign or grapheme, one of the units of the Old Slavonic Glagolithic, Cyrillic and other Slavic alphabets. It was used to denote different phonetic and phonemic pronunciation values of the variable sound and phoneme j during the encounters, connections and relations with other sounds and phonemes, during which it transformed into other sounds and phonemes for the purpose of achieving higher mobility and elasticity within their linguistic systems.

Runica (a syllabic script) inscriptions have been observed for the first time in Slovenia: on a Bronze Age sickle found in Ljubljana, on two battle axes found in the Ljubljanica River and a place named Lokve respectively, and a (undated) stone found at Ratje, as well as on a spear from Serbia.

A division, translation, linguistic examination, and evaluation of the "Warrior" Stele from Lemnos indicate that the artefact's character was votive rather than military, serving as a plea for the passage of the deceased into paradise through enlightened belief.

The oldest Venetic inscription, ES 120 from the 6^th century BC, because of its age and length, inspired among Venetologists many attempts to read and understand it. Analyses of different readings clearly show, that so far the endeavours of acknowledged Italian, French and German scientists are not satisfactory; they do not meet any of the established criteria for understanding of the inscription. Their proposals of division of the continuous text into words, and reading and understanding it, remain on the level of unproved and implausible hypotheses. Their readings differ essentially from one another, and especially from reading based on Slavic languages, which meets the defined criteria, although it needs some corrections and improvements.

The Macedonian and other Slavic languages have retained the concepts and the vocabularies to provide an explanation when analyzed and interpreted correctly. The information contained in this study is a new look at classical mythology. It brings out alternative and practical meanings for the identities of the well-known classical mythological figures such as Demeter, Saturn, Pluto/Hades, Presefatta, and Zemele.

Logical explanations are given of how the very existence of the river, 'reka', contributed to the creation primary language religious and social concepts. Part of the Classical Mythology was associated with and created by the river. This study gives clear explanation of the classical relation of the Goddess Rea and supreme God Zeus. This is the most primary concept for establishing land division borders, control, ownership, and social structure. Over time the concept of land division and ownership evolved into the concept of kingdom and separate countries, as they are known today.

 The above observations indicate a continuous settlement of the indigenous Slavic populations in Slovenian territories as well as elsewhere in the Danubian area, on the Balkan Peninsula, and around the Adriatic See from the last Ice Age onwards. The conquerors of these territories - some of them were also Slavic - left behind mainly reports on their own right to rule these territories, and not the realty of the situation.

A. Perdih