Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area

First edition: East European Monographs, No. CCXLIX, 1988.
This work examines the ethnic and linguistic history of the various peoples in the Carpatho-Danubian area (Southeastern Europe) from ancient times until the early Middle Ages. The ultimate fate of these peoples is also taken into consideration, as well as some aspects of the current historiography of the area. The research for this book has required an eclectic approach, based on historical materials, archaeology, and philology; the scanty and fragmentary nature of written historical records (indeed, the often total lack of documentary evidence), together with the not always reliable archaeological data, has made scholarly research on this area extremely difficult. The most reliable knowledge has been gleaned from Balkan philology.
This book deals with the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people and the question of whether a Romanized population lived north of the lower Danube and has maintained continuity there, ethnically, linguistically, and in its settlements, since Roman times. This theme has been the subject of a spirited and long-standing controversy; and a great many of the works on the history of Southeastern Europe have been colored by political and ideological considerations.