Historical explanation of the quote by John Boardman (Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 3). This quote is of great value, because it comes from one of the most renowned authorities on classical British archaeology, John Boardman, professor at the University of Oxford and co-author of the famous series The Cambridge Ancient History.

Content of the quote:

“The lands inhabited by Albanians were first populated in the Stone Age, over 100,000 years ago.”

This statement does not speak of Albanians as an ethnic group formed in that period, but emphasizes the continuity of the population in the lands where Albanians live today, since the most ancient prehistory – the Upper Paleolithic.

Academic context

In Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 3: The Prehistory of the Balkans; the Middle East and the Aegean world, tenth to eighth centuries B.C. (Cambridge University Press, 1982, ed. John Boardman), the author presents: archaeological evidence showing that the Balkans, especially Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia, have been inhabited since the earliest Paleolithic period, the cultural and genetic continuity of the local population through the Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age periods, the fact that this autochthonous Balkan population created the basis for the formation of the Illyrian and Pelasgian cultures, which are later associated with today’s Albanians.

The scientific significance of this statement

Boardman, like many Western archaeologists, acknowledges that:
The Albanian land is among the oldest inhabited in Europe,
The early inhabitants of these areas have maintained an unbroken cultural and biological continuity, which supports the idea of ​​Albanian autochthonism, And that there is no evidence of any massive migration that has replaced the native population in these lands.

Boardman’s quote represents one of the strongest bases for the argument that Albanians are direct descendants of prehistoric populations of the Balkans, who have lived there since the Stone Age, over 100 thousand years ago.

Reference

The Prehistory of Albania. from PART I – THE PREHISTORY OF THE BALKANS TO 1000 B.C.