Origins of the Areth

Due to the ambiguity of archaeological evidence, the origins of the Areth are shrouded in doubt, and while the Marcasian Theory of Origin has gained widespread currency both in academic circles and among the general public, much of it relies on inference, deduction and intelligent hypothesis to fill in the gaps left by archaeology, or the deficiencies thereof. For that reason, a vocal minority prefers the alternative Arophanian Theory, which, while entirely based on solid archaeological evidence, suffers from its proponents' disregard of certain suggestive possibilities that are not as well-attested.

Common ground

Fossils unearthed in Eoris establish the time-frame of early habitation in present-day Audoria as approximately 1.2 million years ago, and mitochondrial DNA dating has conclusively affirmed that the first modern humans in Audoria lived approximately 67,000 years ago as hunter-gatherers. While the existence 10,000 years ago of several advanced sedentary, rice-growing cultures is not disputed due to the strength of the evidence (see Marija culture), those cultures are not considered distinctly Arithide. The oldest artefacts believed to indicate the emergence of a discrete Arithide identity are pottery shards found in northeastern Arophania dating back 6,000 years, which have left archaeologists confounded over their provenance, given the uniqueness and elaboration of their decoration (which precludes importation) and the refinement of the technique used in their making, which imply a certain degree of advancement.

Current archaeological excavations have unearthed numerous other settlements, mostly younger than 6,000 years and generally classifiable into four cultures, namely the Meia culture located near the border between Phithera and Sirrac provinces, and the Nuroi, Pisa and Duvai cultures in the southernmost parts of Marcasia. One group of settlements has, however, eluded inclusion into any of the above cultures, and while their wooden huts and refined, specialised stone tools have been immaculately preserved under a layer of volcanic ash and confirmed through carbon and soil-layer dating an age of more than 6,000 years—coinciding fortuitously with the enigma of the Arophanian pottery—no sign of habitation has been found contemporary to the supposed volcanic eruption that buried the hamlets as Vesuvius did Pompeii. Due to the similarity of the structures of the huts and types of tools, archaeologists have grouped them as the Erda culture, after Erdia, the narrow coastal region in which the settlements were discovered.

Marcasian Theory of Origin

While specific details of the theory may vary depending on the conservativeness of the source, proponents of this view generally believe that the Areth first arose as a distinctive ethnicity (Arithide: kyteos) as the sedentary, agricultural Erda culture in the narrow coastal region of Erdia, drained by the lower reaches and delta of the river Or, over six millenia ago. The Erda were in turn descended ultimately from the hunter-gatherers who had settled in southwest Marcasia approximately 67,000 years ago. Hemmed in by the Chisthian Sea and the Iryag, the Erda peoples faced, from the beginning, very visible limits to the the land and its fertility, and such persistent population and food pressures led to successive waves of emigration, some northwards over the Iryag into the Marcasian interior, but most were headed south across the Chisthian, the easier route by far for a fishing people. This so-called Southerly Movement, by which the Areth came to settle in northeastern Arophania, emptied their homeland in Erdia, but attritionally established a number of other settlements—notably the Nuroi, Pisa and Duvai cultures—along the way.

Arophanian Theory of Origin

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