About Bosnia

History of Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnia has been inhabited at least since Neolithic times. In the early Bronze Age, the Neolithic population was replaced by more warlike Indo-European tribes known as the Illyres or Illyrians. Celtic migrations in the fourth century BC and third century BC displaced many Illyrian tribes from their former lands, but some Celtic and Illyrian tribes mixed. Concrete historical evidence for this period is scarce, but overall it appears that the region was populated by a number of different peoples speaking distinct languages. Conflict between the Illyrians and Romans started in 229 BC, but Rome would not complete its annexation of the region until AD 9. In the Roman period, Latin-speaking settlers from all over the Roman empire settled among the Illyrians and Roman soldiers were encouraged to retire in the region.

Christianity arrived in the region by the end of the first century, and numerous artifacts and objects from the time testify to this. Following the split of the empire between 337 and 395, Dalmatia and Pannonia became parts of the Western Roman Empire. The region was conquered by the Ostrogoths in 455, and then changed hands between the Alans and Huns in the years to follow. By the sixth century, Emperor Justinian had reconquered the area for the Byzantine Empire. The Slavs, a migratory people from northeastern Europe, were conquered by the Avars in the sixth century. Together they invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the sixth and seventh centuries, settling in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina and surrounding lands.