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 at the sites of the Calagian culture, 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 (3700 BCE - 2400 BCE) located near the border between Phithera and Sirrac provinces, and the Nuroi (3600 BCE - 3000 BCE), Pisa (3400 BCE - 2200 BCE) and Duvai (3300 BCE - 1800 BCE)) cultures in the southernmost parts of Marcasia; all four exhibit cultures substantially inferior to the society that would credibly have left behind the pottery shards found in Arophania, but the sites have yielded artefacts from over a long period. Other than those, one group of settlements remained that 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 volcanic eruption that buried the hamlets (now known to have been the work of Mount Itheis) 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, drained by the lower reaches and delta of the river Or, 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. 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 initially northwards over the Iryag into the Marcasian interior, but most were headed on the easier route south across the Chisthian via the narrow Issol A'i, itself a rich fishing ground.
This so-called Southerly Movement, by which the Areth came to settle in northeastern Arophania, eventually emptied their homeland in Erdia (which is purported to explain the uninhabited state of the Erda settlements at the time of Itheis' eruption), but attritionally established a number of other settlements along the way—notably the Pisa and Duvai cultures, both of which are proximate to the Issol A'i. Due to the nature of these new cultures, which were significantly more centred on fishery and seafaring given the lack of arable land, and which were also far less affluent than the Erda, Marcasian Theorists believe, attention turned away from the traditional craft of pottery, explaining the dramatic shift to simplistic patterns from the Erda to its successor cultures.
With the rise of the Areth on Arophania approximately 5,000 years
