by Lulzim Osmanaj
Athens was not a Greek city, but rather a Pelasgian city called [KRANA(A)]. When Hellenic migrants arrived in the Attica region, this landscape was already populated and had a pre-Greek history. The Greeks called the people who, in pre-Greek times, were engaged in agriculture, olive harvesting, and winemaking in Attica and elsewhere, Pelasgoi (Pelasgians; literally, “those who live nearby; people in the neighborhood”, from pelas, “near”).
The immigrant Greeks adopted numerous place and landscape names from the Pelasgians. The name Attica (with variants such as Athika and Atthika) comes from the language of the native Pelasgians. Athens was not a Greek city. When the northerners climbed the citadel hill, the Acropolis, there was already an ancient settlement around the great rock.
The beginnings of Athens date back to the early European era and date back to the 4th millennium BC. The presence of the pre-Greek inhabitants of Athens continued to live on in the cultural memory of the Greeks, as well as in the nomenclature of place names. The fusion of cultures and languages is evident not only in the name of the region of Attica, but also in the name of the city of Athens, which has pre-Greek origins.
Traces of Pelasgian construction (remains of walls) in Athens have been found on the slopes of the Acropolis. Architectural relics on the Acropolis from pre-Greek times were called Pelasgikon by the ancient Greeks. However, history books do not mention that the Acropolis had already served as a cult center in pre-Greek times and that it was not known by this name from the beginning.
It was not until the 4th century BC that this name was established (Acropolis, high city – akros high, uppermost + polis, city). Before that, anotherAnother form of the name is in use, and this has its origins among the Pelasgians. The ancient name for the Acropolis was Krana(a).
The city of Athens was called Kranaapolis after its cult center. Appendix: But what the Albanian language brings out is that the word KRANA itself in Gegnishtë means KRENA, so in KRYE, KOKę is high, above. KRANAA =KRYE ANA
References
Beekes, R. S. P. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of Greek (2 vols.). Leiden: Brill.
Mazarakis Ainian, A. (1997). From Rulers’ Dwellings to Temples: Architecture, Religion and Society in Early Iron Age Greece (1100–700 B.C.). Jonsered: Paul Åströms Förlag.
Snodgrass, A. M. (1980). Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment. London: J.M. Dent & Sons.
Sakellariou, M. B. (ed.) (1977). The Prehistoric Aegean: Text and Archaeology. London: Methuen.
Chadwick, J. (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mylonas, G. E. (1961). Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
