In a previous post, we attempted to show how many various interpretations exist regarding national stock of Belarusians. Anuszka mentioned in her comment:

“So, who was Mickiewicz?? Polish, Lithuanian, or Belarussian?”. Because he was born in Belarus, wrote poems in Polish, and his most famous poem begins with: “Lithuania, my homeland!”.

And indeed, so much confusion and it does not stop there. Historians are still engaged in an intense discourse whether Belarusians have Baltic or Slavic roots. N.Vakar mentions in his book, “Belorussia: The Making of a Nation”:

“The Belorussians consider themselves the oldest and purest branch of the Slav family, tracing their origins to three ancient Slavic tribes: The Krivichi, Dregovichi and Radimichi…The question remains who these people were. Racial distinctions for that period are not clear. Herodotus refers to the Budini, a people dwelling in northern Scythia “in forests where there are large lakes”…

But what if there were some different civilizations on the territory of Belarus? Who could they be? In relation to these questions I stumbled across quiet unexpected article—“Remarkable discovery in Russia” published in “Gleason’s pictorial drawings – Room Companion” on September 24, 1853.

M.B. Larsky, the engineer, lately deceased, made a discovery of the greatest importance in White Russia—a discovery brought to light when his papers were examined after his decease. Being occupied in making a road in that province, he found it necessary to drain off the waters of a lake into another at a lower level, and in the course of the operation he discovered in a forest, several feet below the surface of the soil, a road paved in antique Roman or Mexican style, with traces of a stone bridge of peculiar construction. In Mr. Larsky’s opinion, 2000 or 3000 years must have elapsed before the face of the country has been transformed to such an extent as he observed, and if this supposition be well founded, the district must have been inhabited before the time of the Seythians (Scythians) by a more civilized nation. M. larsky’s discovery will doubtless not pass unnoticed, and may lead to important results.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any specific places mentioned but I don’t have any doubts that the place of discovery was somewhere in modern day Belarus. If someone has more information regarding it, please feel free to comment. It might be indeed “Remarkable discovery”…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 10th, 2006 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Free Belarus, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.