_Ethnology._--Little can be learned from written sources of the origin and character of the Illyrians. The Greek legend that Cadmus and Harmonia settled in Illyria and became the parents of Illyrius, the eponymous ancestor of the whole Illyrian people, has been interpreted as an indication that the Greeks recognized some affinity between themselves and the Illyrians; but this inference is based on insufficient data. Herodotus and other Greek historians represent the Illyrians as a barbarous people, who resembled the ruder tribes of Thrace. Both are described as tattooing their persons and offering human sacrifices to their gods. The women of Illyria seem to have occupied a high position socially and even to have exercised political power. Queens are mentioned among their rulers. Fuller and more trustworthy information can be obtained from archaeological evidence. In Bosnia the lake-dwellings at Butmir, the cemeteries of Jezerine and Glasinac and other sites have yielded numerous stone and horn implements, iron and bronze ornaments, weapons, &c., and objects of more recent date fashioned in silver, tin, amber and even glass. These illustrate various stages in the development of primitive Illyrian civilization, from the neolithic age onward. The Hallstatt and La Tène cultures are especially well represented. (See W. Ridgeway, _The Early Age of Greece_, 1901; R. Munro, _Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia_, Edinburgh, 1900; and W. Radimský, _Die neolithische Station von Butmir_, Vienna, 1895-1898.) Similar discoveries have been made in Dalmatia, as among the tumuli on the Sabbioncello promontory, and in Croatia-Slavonia. H. Kiepert ("Über den Volkstamm der Leleges," in _Monatsber. Berl. Akad._, 1861, p. 114) sought to prove that the Illyrians were akin to the Leleges; his theory was supported by E. Schrader, but is not generally accepted. In Dalmatia there appears to have been a large Celtic element, and Celtic place-names are common. The ancient Illyrian languages fall into two groups, the northern, closely connected with Venetic, and the southern, perhaps allied to Messapian and now probably represented by Albanian. See K. Brugmann, _Kurze vergleichende Grammatik der Indogermanischen Sprachen_ (Strassburg, 1904); and his larger _Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik_ (2nd ed., Strassburg, 1897), with the authorities there quoted, especially P. Kretschmer, _Einleitung in die Geschichte der Griechischen Sprachen_ (Göttingen, 1896): see also ALBANIA.