Tomaschek’s seminal study on the Thracians has become a volume difficult to locate. This edition is the rarer first volume of his explorations of the ethnology of this poorly understood culture. In the region between Greece, the Balkans, and Asia Minor, this ancient people is first addressed in terms of an overview of the tribes, dividing the proto-Thracians into the Pannonian-Dardanian group and the Phrygian-Moesian group. Examining the tribes within the Thracian region, Tomaschek also looks at the traits of the Thracians in general. Consideration of the language is also given, including the names of gods and cultic terms. Personal names, regional and ethnic names, and the terms for mountains, hills, rivers, and seas are also part of the lexical study. Written in German, this historic study is now once again readily accessible to scholars.

Wilhelm Tomaschek (1841-1901) was a geographer from the region of Austria and the Czech Republic as well as an Orientalist. He taught at the Universities of Graz and Vienna.