Look at the very own name of Dardanians, they were considered as Illyrian in antuiquity but the name itself Dardanian is attested more among Thracians like placenames Dardapara, like Dacian soldier Diourdanos like a similar variant to Dardanos, another Dacian name Dardiolai. Dardanian king Monunious name is attested nowhere else among Illyrians, it's attested as a personal name of an Odrysian prince.
Now, we shall see how things wrap each other(maybe they were Illyrian, or non-Illyrian/non-Thracian or a mix of them all), but i am surprised how you always dodge and cherry-pick archaeological facts. Like the very own fact that Yugoslav archaeologist herself Draga Garasanin considered that the Mediana Culture where latter Dardanians thrived had very close ties to Psenicevo people.
I don't even have a disagreement with you on most issues. Also, I often wrote (just search for it) about:
- Stamped Pottery horizon
- Southern kantharoi zone
- Psenichevo-Basarabi
It is clear to me that after the unified Channelled Ware horizon was broken up, there were 3 block (Northern Late Gáva, Mezocsat-Gáva and Stamped Pottery).
Psenichevo and Basarabi are in the Southern block, but clearly they won't be the same, because the Psenichevo group had much closer ties to the Aegean-Anatolian sphere, even relatives over the Bosphorus, from which I think a lot moved-married back.
Look at the debate about Belegis II-Gáva: There is no author which denies the close relationship with Gáva, but how the relationship being interpreted, like how close Gáva-Holigrady and Belegis II-Gáva really were, is an ongoing debate.
Same for Knobbed Ware: Closer to Belegis or Gáva-Holigrady? Babadag - how do they fit in between Gáva-related and Noua-Coslogeni?
That's one of the big reasons I'm going for ancient DNA: I think that's the only way to really solve those issues. Archaeological interpreations and opinions are, while highly important to consider, not as reliable as ancient DNA in combination with archaeological results.
Close ties? Basarabi had close ties to Psenichevo too, even to Frög in Austria. They formed a network after the Channelled Ware expansion - its only because of the Cimmerians that the North wasn't fully integrated any more, because they formed like a wedge. Comparable to what Hungarians did to the Slavs: West-East Slavs vs. South Slavs would look, probably, quite different without Hungarians and Vlachs-Romanians obviously. The wedge caused a separation which would have been much less pronounced otherwise.
Same with the various steppe people which invaded the Carpathian basin after Channelled Ware.
