User:Tourbillon/Testrange 3

Archaeological evidence of Paleolithic settlements on the territory of present-day Serbia are scarce. A fragment of a human jaw was found in Sićevo (Mala Balanica) and believed to be up to 525,000—397,000 years old. The earliest known local societies, the Starčevo and Vinča cultures, appeared in the region of modern-day Belgrade during the Neolithic, around 6,500 BC. Several valuable archeological sites from this era have been preserved on the banks of the Danube, including Lepenski Vir and Vinča-Belo Brdo.

After 5th century BC, during the Iron Age, the Ancient Greeks began a cultural and political expansion into the region, encountering the local tribes of Triballi, Dardani, and Autariatae. The Celtic tribe of Scordisci settled throughout the area in the 3rd century BC and formed a tribal state. They built several fortifications, including their capital at Singidunum (present-day Belgrade) and Naissos (present-day Niš).

The Romans conquered much of the territory in the 2nd century BC. In 167 BC the Roman province of Illyricum was established. The rest of modern-day Serbian territory was conquered around 75 BC, becoming part of the Roman province of Moesia Superior; the modern-day Srem region was conquered in 9 BC; and Bačka and Banat in 106 AD after the Dacian Wars. Contemporary Serbia thus extends fully or partially over several former Roman provinces, including Moesia, Pannonia, Praevalitana, Dalmatia, Dacia and Macedonia. Roman presence was extensive. Seventeen Roman emperors, including Constantine the Great, were born in Serbian territories, second only to contemporary Italy. Some of the major Roman cities in the region included Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (Stari Kostolac), Remesiana (Bela Palanka) and Naissos (Niš). Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica) became one of the capitals of the Tetrarchy under emperor Galerius.

Most of Serbia became part of the Byzantine Empire after the Roman state split in 395. South Slavs migrated into the Eastern provinces in large numbers by the 6th century AD. They merged with the local Romanized population and gradually assimilated it.

Slavic settlement and state formation
One of the Slavic tribes, the Serbs, settled in the Balkans in the 6th or early 7th century and established the Serbian Principality by the 8th century.[34] It was said in 822 that the Serbs inhabited the greater part of Roman Dalmatia, their territory spanning what is today southwestern Serbia and parts of neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Empire and Bulgarian Empire held other parts of the territory. Christianity was adopted by the Serbian rulers in ca. 870, and by the mid-10th-century the Serbian state stretched the Adriatic Sea by the Neretva, the Sava, the Morava, and Skadar. Between 1166 and 1371 Serbia was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty (whose legacy is especially cherished), under whom the state was elevated to a kingdom (and briefly an empire) and Serbian bishopric to an autocephalous archbishopric (through the effort of Sava, the country's patron saint). Monuments of the Nemanjić period survive in many monasteries (several being World Heritage sites) and fortifications. During these centuries the Serbian state (and influence) expanded significantly. The northern part, Vojvodina, was ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary. The period known as the Fall of the Serbian Empire saw the once-powerful state fragmented into duchies, culminating in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) against the rising Ottoman Empire. The Serbian Despotate was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1459. The Ottoman threat and eventual conquest saw large migrations of Serbs to the west and north.