Areth
The Areth are a people inhabiting the continents of Arophania and Marcasia, and whose country, Arithia, spans the two. While not all Areth live within the borders of modern-day Arithia and not all Arithians are ethnically Areth, the concept of Areth nationhood has always been closely tied to that of an Arithide state.
Terms
History
- Main article: History of Arithia
The Areth first arose as a distinctive ethnicity (Arithide: kyteos) as the sedentary, agricultural Erda culture along the lower reaches and delta of the river Or, more than 6,000 years ago. The Erda were in turn descended ultimately from the hunter-gatherers who had settled in southwest Marcasia approximately 1.2 million years ago. Other discovered settlements—notably the Nuroi, Pisa and Duvai cultures—have been linked to the Erda as successor cultures, and this theory of territorial expansion is backed up by the contemporary appearance in the more fertile north coast of Arophania of pottery similarly shaped and decorated to that made by the middle and late Erda.
