Early Slavs

The earliest, archaeological findings connected to the early Slavs are associated with the Zarubintsy, Chernyakhov and Przeworsk cultures from around the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. However, in many areas, archaeologists face difficulties in distinguishing between Slavic and non-Slavic findings, as in the case of Chernyakhov and Przeworsk, since the cultures were also attributed to Iranian or Germanic peoples and were not exclusively connected with a single ancient tribal or linguistic group.^[19] Later, beginning in the 6th century, Slavic material cultures included the Prague-Korchak, Penkovka, Ipotești–Cândești, and the Sukow-Dziedzice group cultures. With evidence ranging from fortified settlements (gords), ceramic pots, weapons, jewellery and open abodes.

Proto-Slavic homeland

The Proto-Slavic

Although Martin of Braga was the first western author to refer to a people known as "Sclavus" before 580, Jonas of Bobbio included the earliest lengthy record of the nearby Slavs in his Life of Saint Columbanus (written between 639 and 643).^[72] Jonas referred to the Slavs as "Veneti" and noted that they were also known as "Sclavi".^[73]

Western authors, including

Previously, the 2nd-to-5th-century Chernyakhov culture encompassed modern Ukraine, Moldova and Wallachia. Chernyakov finds include polished black-pottery vessels, fine metal ornaments and iron tools.^[83] Soviet scholars, such as Boris Rybakov, saw it as the archaeological reflection of the proto-Slavs.^[84] The Chernyakov zone is now seen as representing the cultural interaction of several peoples, one of which was rooted in Scytho-Sarmatian traditions, which were modified by Germanic elements that were introduced by the Goths.^[83][85] The semi-subterranean dwelling with a corner hearth later became typical of early Slavic sites,^[86] with Volodymir Baran calling it a Slavic "ethnic badge".^[86] In the Carpathian foothills of Podolia, at the northwestern fringes of the Chernyakov zone, the Slavs gradually became a culturally-unified people; the multiethnic environment of the Chernyakhov zone presented a "need for self-identification in order to manifest their differentiation from other groups".^[87]

The Przeworsk culture, northwest of the Chernyakov zone, extended from the Dniester to the Tisza valley and north to the Vistula and Oder.^[88] It was an amalgam of local cultures, most with roots in earlier traditions modified by influences from the (Celtic) La Tène culture, (Germanic) Jastorf culture beyond the Oder and the Bell-Grave culture of the Polish plain. The Venethi may have played a part; other groups included the Vandals, Burgundians and Sarmatians.^[88] East of the Przeworsk zone was the Zarubinets culture, which is sometimes considered part of the Przeworsk complex.^[89] Early Slavic hydronyms are found in the area occupied by the Zarubinets culture,^[89] and Irena Rusinova proposed that the most prototypical examples of Prague-type pottery later originated there.^[86] The Zarubinets culture is identified as proto-Slavic,^[90] or an ethnically mixed community that became Slavicized.^[81]

With increasing age, the confidence with which archaeological connections can be made to known historic groups lessens.^[91] The Chernoles culture has been seen as a stage in the evolution of the Slavs,^[89] and Marija Gimbutas identified it as the proto-Slavic homeland.^[92] According to many pre-historians, ethnic labels are inappropriate for European Iron Age peoples.^[93]

The

According to the mainstream and culture-historical viewpoint which emphasizes the primordial model of ethnogenesis, the Slavic homeland in the forests and wetlands enabled them to preserve their ethnic identity, language except for phonetic and some lexical constituents, and their patrilineal, agricultural customs.^[95] The origins of the early Slavs go back to the Zarubintsy and Chernyakov cultures, and the area between the Vistula and Dnieper rivers; centered on the Pripet Marshes of Polesia.^[96] Also, the Zarubintsy and Chernyakov cultures may explain a later division of early Slavs into separate groups during the migration period.^[97] After a millennium, when the Hunnic Empire collapsed and the Avars arrived shortly afterwards, the Slavs emerged and spread rapidly across central and south-eastern Europe, bringing along with them, their customs and language.^[81]

According to Marija Gimbutas, "[n]either Bulgars nor Avars colonized the Balkan Peninsula; after storming Thrace, Illyria, and Greece they went back to their territory north of the Danube. It was the Slavs who did the colonizing ... entire families or even whole tribes infiltrated lands. As an agricultural people, they constantly sought an outlet for the population surplus. Suppressed for over a millennium by foreign rule of Scythians, Sarmatians and Goths, they had been restricted to a small territory; now the barriers were down and they poured out".^[98]

Paul Barford suggested that Slavic groups might have existed in a wide area of central-eastern Europe (in the Chernyakov and Zarubintsy-Przeworsk cultural zones) before the documented Slavic migrations from the sixth to the ninth centuries. Serving as auxiliaries in the Sarmatian, Goth and Hun armies, small numbers of Slavic speakers might have reached the Balkans before the sixth century.^[99]

In addition to their demographic growth, the depopulation of central-eastern Europe due, in part, to Germanic emigration, the lack of Roman imperial defenses on the frontiers which were decimated after centuries of conflicts and especially the Plague of Justinian, and the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536–660 CE) encouraged Slavic expansion and settlement to the west and the south of the Carpathian Mountains.^{[81][100][101]} The migrationist model remains the most acceptable and logical explanation of the spread of Slavs and Slavic culture (including language).^{[102][103][104][105][106][80]}

Processual viewpoint

According to the

A concept related to elite dominance is the notion of system collapse, in which a power vacuum created by the fall of the Hun and Roman Empires allowed a minority group to impose their customs and language.^[117] A more extreme hypothesis is argued by Florin Curta who considers that the Slavs as an "ethno-political category" were invented by an external source – the Byzantines – through political instrumentation and interaction on the Roman frontiers where a barbarian elite culture flourished.^[118][119]

However, Michel Kazanski concludes that although both "the movement of the populations of the Slavic cultural model and the diffusion of this model amid non-Slavic populations [occurred] (...) a pure diffusion of the Slavic model would hardly be possible, in any case in which a long period of time when the populations of different cultural traditions lived close to one another is assumed. Moreover, archaeologists researching Slavic antiquities do not accept the ideas produced by the "diffusionists," because most of the champions of the diffusion model know the specific archaeological materials poorly, so their works leave room for a number of arbitrary interpretations".^[80]

Genetics

The latest attempt to identify the origin of Slavs and Slavic language includes study of the paternal and maternal genetic lineages, as well as autosomal DNA, of all existing modern Slavic populations. The variance and frequency of the Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and I2 subclades R-M558, R-M458, and I-CTS10228 correlate with the Slavic early medieval migration and spread of Slavic language from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine (within the area of the middle Dnieper basin) and Southeastern Poland.^{[120][121][122][123][124][125]} A 2010 study observed that "a significant part of the spread of Slavic culture should result from real population movements. If Slavic culture was spread by cultural exchange only (or in very large part) then there would be no chance of any significant mixing between peoples of Slavic and Germanic origin".^[126]

According to the 2013 autosomal IBD study "of recent genealogical ancestry over the past 3,000 years at a continental scale", there's a very high number of common ancestors between South Slavs and Poles. It is concluded to be caused by the Hunnic and Slavic expansion, which was a "relatively small population that expanded over a large geographic area", particularly "the expansion of the Slavic populations into regions of low population density beginning in the sixth century" and that it is "highly coincident with the modern distribution of Slavic languages".^[127] According to Kushniarevich et al. 2015, the Hellenthal et al. 2014 IBD analysis,^[128] also found "multi-directional admixture events among East Europeans (both Slavic and non-Slavic), dated to around 1,000–1,600 YBP" which coincides with "the proposed time-frame for the Slavic expansion".^[129] The Slavic influence is "dated to 500-900 CE or a bit later with over 40-50% among Bulgarians, Romanians, and Hungarians".^[127] The 2015 IBD analysis found that the South Slavs have lower proximity to Greeks than with East Slavs and West Slavs and that there's an "even patterns of IBD sharing among East-West Slavs–'inter-Slavic' populations (Hungarians, Romanians and Gagauz)–and South Slavs, i.e. across an area of assumed historic movements of people including Slavs". The slight peak of shared IBD segments between South and East-West Slavs suggests a shared "Slavonic-time ancestry".^[129] According to a recent admixture analysis of Western Balkan, the South Slavs show a genetic uniformity,^[130][131] with the modeled ancestral Balto-Slavic genetic component among contemporary South Slavs being between 55% and 70%,^[129] specifically 50–60% in the case of modern Serbs based on archaeogenetic data.^[132][133]

A 2022

Depiction of an early Slav as a personification of "Sclavinia", from Otto's Gospel Book, 990 AD

In the Chronica Slavorum, Helmold writes on the Wends "These men have blue eyes, ruddy faces, and long hair".^[139] Ibrahim ibn Yaqub mentioned the Slavs were bearded.^[140] Procopius wrote that the Slavs "are all tall and especially strong, their skin is not very white, and their hair is neither blond nor black, but all have reddish hair".^[141] Jordanes wrote "...all of them are tall and very strong... their skin and hair are neither very dark nor light, but are ruddy of face".^[142] Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub wrote: "They wear ample robes, although the ends of their sleeves are narrow".^[140] Procopious wrote that the men also wear a kind of breeches pulled up to the waist.^[143]

Early Slavic society was a typical decentralised tribal society of Iron Age Europe and was organised into local chiefdoms. A slow consolidation occurred between the 7th and the 9th, when the previously uniform Slavic cultural area evolved into discrete zones. Slavic groups were influenced by neighbouring cultures like Byzantium, the Khazars, the Vikings and the Carolingians and influenced their neighbours in return.^[145]

these nations, the

Antes, are not ruled by one man, but they have lived from of old under a democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or ill, is referred to the people.

— Procopius^[146]

Differences in status gradually developed in the chiefdoms, which led to the development of centralized socio-political organisations. The first centralized organisations may have been temporary pantribal warrior associations, the greatest evidence being in the Danubian area, where barbarian groups organised around military chiefs to raid Byzantine territory and to defend themselves against the Pannonian Avars.^[147] Social stratification gradually developed in the form of fortified, hereditary chiefdoms, which were first seen in the West Slavs areas. The chief was supported by a retinue of warriors, who owed their position to him. As chiefdoms became powerful and expanded, centres of subsidiary power ruled by lesser chiefs were created, and the line between powerful chiefdoms and centralised medieval states is blurred. By the mid-9th century, the Slavic elite had become sophisticated; they wore luxurious clothing, rode horses, hunted with falcons and travelled with retinues of soldiers.^[148] These chiefs were often at war with one another.^[149]

Tribal and territorial organisation

There is no indication of Slavic chiefs in any of the Slavic raids before AD 560, when Pseudo-Caesarius's writings mentioned their chiefs but described the Slavs as living by their own law and without the rule of anyone.^[150]

The

Settlements were not uniformly distributed but were in clusters separated by areas of lower settlement density.

Early Slavic settlements were no bigger than 0.5 to 2 hectares (1.2 to 4.9 acres). Settlements were often temporary, perhaps reflected their itinerant form of agriculture,^[157] and were often along rivers. They were characterised by sunken buildings, known as Grubenhäuser in German or poluzemlianki in Russian. Built over a rectangular pit, they varied from 4 to 20 m² (43 to 215 sq ft) in area and could accommodate a typical nuclear family. Each house had a stone or clay oven in a corner (a defining feature of Eastern European dwellings), and a settlement had a population of fifty to seventy.^[158] Settlements had a central, open area in which communal activities and ceremonies were conducted, and they were divided into production and settlement zones.^[159]

The Slavs also built underground shelters roofed with wood to keep out the cold during winter.^[160]

Log cabin saunas were also used as recorded by Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub: "They have no baths but they use log cabins in which gaps are stuffed with something that appears on their trees and looks like seaweed – they call it mech (original mh = moss)... In one corner they put up a stone stove and above it they open up a hole to let the smoke from the stove escape. When the stove is good and hot, they close up the opening and close the door of the hut. Inside are vessels with water and they pour out of them water onto the hot stove and steam comes from it. Each of them has in his hand a tuft of grass with which they make air circulate and draw it to themselves. Then their pores open up and the unneeded substances from their bodies come out..."^[140]

Fortified strongholds (gords) appeared in significant numbers during the 9th century, especially the Western Slavic territories, and were often found in the centre of a group of settlements.

The Slavs preferred to live in hard to reach places to avoid attack, as recorded in Maurice's Strategikon: "They live among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes, and have made the exits from their settlements branch [out in] many directions because of the dangers they might face."^[149]

Food and agriculture

The Slavs practiced hunting, farming, herding and beekeeping. They often settled in valley bottoms with rich soil, along rivers to provide water for livestock.^[161] The early Slavs also had knowledge of crop rotation and developed a new sort of plow known as the moldboard plow, this plough was very efficient in breaking up the clay full soil of northern Europe, and it helped drastically increase the Slavic population.^[162] Other tools, common throughout the rest of Europe were also used, such as iron hoes, sickles, wooden spades and others. Some were made from wood. Selective breeding was also done.

When crops were ripe they were cut with sickles and threshing was then done with a wooden flail. The grain was then milled by stone querns, which were very valuable and difficult to come by. Cereal crops, wheat, millet and barley were common as they could thrive in even poor soil. Vegetables such as onions, carrots, radishes, turnip, parsnip, cucumber, pumpkins, cabbage, pea and beans were all grown in gardens. Herbs were mostly garlic and parsnip, hops were also grown for making beer. Fruit trees were cultivated in orchards, including cherry, apple, pear, plums and peaches. Walnuts were also loved.

Animal were tended, not only for meat, leather or milk but also to fertilize the soil. Several breeds of cattle were bred and kept in large herds, as draught animals and for meat, female cattle provided milk. Pigs were prized for their meat. Goats and sheep were more rare but still bred. Horses were very rarely eaten, mostly used as draught or riding animals. Fowl were also kept, especially ducks and geese.

Animals in the forest were hunted, prey included boar, deer, hare, elk and occasionally bear. Beavers and marten were trapped for their fur.^[161]

"They sow during two seasons of the year, in summer and in spring, and harvest two crops. Their principal crop is millet... They refrain from eating chicken, asserting that it exacerbates erysipelas, but they eat beef and goose, both of which agree with them...Their drinks and wine are made out of honey."^[140] -Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub

"They have a sort of wooden box, provided with holes, in which bees live and make their honey; in their language they are called the ulishaj. They collect around ten jars of honey from each box. They herd pigs as if they were sheep...They drink mead"^[160] -Ibn Rusta

Medicine

The ancient Slavs knew human anatomy well, which is evident from the existence of numerous old names for body parts. Due to the lack of sources, we do not know for sure what they suffered from, but it is assumed that they were plague, malaria and dysentery. ^{[citation needed]}The medicines they used were mostly of animal and plant origin. Less commonly, minerals, sulfur and salt were used for medicinal purposes. ^{[citation needed]} The Slavs cleansed themselves in log cabin saunas^[140] and bathed in rivers.^[163] The early medieval Muslim traveller Ibrahim ibn Yaqub wrote: "The cold even when it is intense, is healthful to them, but the heat destroys them. They are unable to travel to the country of the Lombards because of the heat."^[140]

Craftsmanship

Wood, leather, metal and ceramic work were all skillfully practiced by the Early Slavs. Pottery was made by craftsmen, or women, possibly in domestic workshops. Clay was mixed with coarse material, such as sand, crushed rock, to improve the qualities. Clay was worked by hand and roughly smoothed after completion, clay vessels also made with assistance of pottery wheels. After they were dried they were baked at a low temperature in bone-fire kilns. Pottery was produced not only by craftsmen, but also ordinary people as it did not require extensive practice, other crafts however were produced by professional craftsmen.

Metalworking was very important, as it was required to make tools and weapons. Iron was needed by every tribe, and it was produced by smiths using local ore, which was primarily bog ore. Once the ore had been turned into usable iron and slag removed, it was made into bars. Smiths made many types of products such as knives, tools, decorative items as well as weapons, which were not always made by separate weapon smiths. Broken tools were reforged, as iron was a valuable resource.

Houses, as well as their inside fittings and everyday items were made from wood. Carved bowls, vessels and beautifully made dippers were common in most homes. Leather and textiles, made of both linen and wool were made into carpets, blankets, overcoats and other clothing. Spindlewhorls were used to make thread in the home. Glass beads were crafted, and were often used as trade goods.^{[164][page needed]}

Clothing

Most of the knowledge we have on Early Slavic clothing comes from iconographic sources and cemeteries. Although clothing differed according to region, season of year and social status, a general picture can be reconstructed.

Men wore long sleeved tunics made of linen or wool, extending to about the knee; under these, breeches were worn. Wool cloaks were sometimes worn over the tunic, fastened at the right shoulder leaving the right arm free. Cloaks were occasionally also made of leather and lined with fur or other material. Hats and mittens were worn for the winter, some trimmed with fur. Leather boots and shoes were also worn by both men and women, as well as a belt carrying a knife and whetstone for sharpening.

Some women wore long patterned dresses made from linen, sometimes with an apron tied over the dress. Dresses or tunics were sometimes made from one piece. Unmarried women wore their hair braided or loose, but covered it after they were wedded. Ornaments and jewelry such as beads and earrings and twisted wire bracelets were also worn, especially by wealthier women.^{[164][page needed]}

Musical instruments

The Slavs had many musical instruments as recorded in historical chronicles:

"They have different kinds of lutes, pan pipes and flutes a cubit long. Their lutes have eight strings. They drink mead. They play their instruments during the incineration of their dead and claim that their rejoicing attests the mercy of the Lord to the dead."^[160] -Ibn Rusta

"They have different kinds of wind and string instruments. They have a wind instrument more than two cubits long, and an eight-stringed instrument whose sounding board is flat, not convex."^[140] -Ibrahim Ibn Ya'qub

Theophylact Simocatta mentioned of Slavs bearing lyres: "Lyres were their baggage"^[165]

Burial practices

The Slavs burned their dead. Although the Slavic

"They burn their dead...The day after the funeral of a man, after he has been burned, they collect the ashes and put them in an urn, which is buried on a hill. After a year, they place twenty hives, more or less, on the hill. The family gathers and eats and drinks there and then everyone goes home."[160] -Ibn Rusta

Marriage

Capturing wives and

The Byzantine Emperor Maurice wrote: "Their women are more sensitive than any others in the world. When, for example, their husband dies, many look upon it as their own death and freely smother themselves, not wanting to continue their lives as widows."[149]

Law

Rus law was based on Early Slavic customary law, which was partially recorded in the Rus-Byzantine treaties. However the Early Slavs did not have written laws, but relied on customs that dictated what was acceptable and not. The East Slavs did not have written law until the rule of Yaroslav the Wise.^[168][169] One such customary law was the law of hospitality, which was very important to the tribal Slavs. If a tribe mistreated any guest, they would be attacked by a neighbouring tribe for their dishonour.^[170]

Ibn Rusta wrote of Slavic law in c 903–918: "The ruler levies fixed taxes every year. Every man must supply one of his daughter's gowns. If he has a son, his clothing must be offered. If he has no children, he gives one of his wife's robes. In this country thieves are strangled or exiled to Jira [Yura by the Urals?], the region most remote from this principality."^[171]

Warfare

Our understanding of Early Slavic warfare is based on both the writings of ancient authors and archeological discoveries.^[172]

Early barbarian warrior bands, typically numbering 200 or less, were intended for fast penetration into enemy territory and an equally-quick withdrawal.^[161] The Slavs favoured ambush and guerrilla tactics, preferring to fight in dense woodland or marsh.^[173] However, victories in the open, sieges and hand-to-hand fighting were also achieved.^[172] They often attacked their enemy's flank, and were cunning in devising stratagems.^[149] The Slavs also used siege engines, such as siege towers and ladders as described by Procopius and St. Demetrius.

Weapons were usually spears, javelins and bows and arrows. Swords and body armour were rare and reserved for chiefs and their inner circle of warriors. Shields were round in shape[161] with a central boss grip in the middle.^[174] Axes and slings were also in use.^[161]

Although the Slavs fought mostly on foot, they were also proficient cavalry fighters as historical sources mentioned. Procopius wrote that Slav and "Hun" horsemen were Byzantine mercenaries, serving as horsearchers.^[175] In their dealings with the Sarmatians and Huns, the Slavs may have become skilled horsemen, an explanation for their expansion.^[176]

The existence of writing among the Early Slavs is a disputed topic. The Slavs passed down their stories and legends orally like most other tribal peoples in Europe. But in addition to this, a runic script was used.^{[citation needed]}

The 9th-century Bulgarian writer ^[178]Chernorizets Hrabar, in his work "An Account of Letters", briefly mentions that, before becoming Christian, Slavs used a system of strokes and incisions or tallies and sketches: "Before, the Slavs did not have their own books, but counted and divined by means of strokes and incisions, being pagan. Having become Christian, they had to make do with the use of Roman and Greek letters without order [unsystematically], but how can one write [Slavic] well with Greek letters...^{[note 1]} and thus it was for many years."^[179]

Symbols

The Slavs and Balts had many symbols representing concepts, beliefs and Gods. They had many types of swastikas and similar symbols, such as the Kolovrat.(meaning spinning wheel) The kolovrat symbolized the sun, and the ever going cycle of life, death and birth. It was often carved on markers near the graves of fallen Slavs to represent eternal life.^[181]

Gromovitit Znaci, were symbols associated with Perun, the Slavic thunder and sky god. Early Slavic homes often had the symbols carved into a beam to protect them from lightning. The circular shape of the Gromoviti symbolize ball lightning. Such symbols were also found on Slavic pottery from the 4th century.^[180] Another symbol associated with Perun is the Perunika, which resmebles a six-petalled rose. Today, it is the name for a flower in some Slavic languages.

The hands of God were another ancient symbol, associated with the god Svarog.^[182]

Ancient symbols such as these are still sometimes shown on clothing and the like, especially Russia.^[183] Many samples are described on the instance of a women's folk costume at the Meshchera Lowlands.^[183] Modern Rodonovers have developed some new symbols, that were not used by the Early Slavs, but many were.

Religion

Little is known about Slavic religion before the Christianization of Bulgaria and of Kievan Rus. After Christianization, Slavic authorities destroyed many records of the old religion. Some evidence remains in apocryphal and devotional texts,^[184] the etymology of Slavic religious terms^[185] and the Primary Chronicle.^[186]

Ancestor worship was an important part of the pre-Christian Slavic religion.^[187]

Early Slavic religion was relatively uniform:

Although evidence of pre-Christian Slavic worship is scarce (suggesting that it was aniconic), religious sites and idols are most plentiful in Ukraine and Poland. Slavic temples and indoor places of worship are rare since outdoor places of worship are more common, especially in Kievan Rus'. The outdoor cultic sites were often on hills and included ringed ditches.^[202] Indoor shrines existed: "Early Russian sources... refer to pagan shrines or altars known as kapishcha" and were small, enclosed structures with an altar inside. One was found in Kiev, surrounded by the bones of sacrificed animals.^[203] Pagan temples were documented as destroyed during Christianization.^[204]

Records of pre-Christian Slavic priests, like the pagan temples, appeared later.^[204] Although no early evidence of Slavic pre-Christian priests has been found, the prevalence of sorcerers and magicians after Christianization suggests that the pre-Christian Slavs had religious leaders.^[205] Slavic pagan priests were believed to commune with the gods, to predict the future^[196] and to prepare for religious rituals. The pagan priests, or magicians (known as volkhvy by the Rus' people),^[186] resisted Christianity^[206] after Christianization. The Primary Chronicle describes a campaign against Christianity in 1071 during a famine. The volkhvy were well-received nearly 100 years after Christianization, which suggested that pagan priests had an esteemed position in 1071 and in pre-Christian times.^[207]

Later history

Christianization

After Christianisation, the Slavs established a number of kingdoms, or feudal principalities, which persisted throughout the

• Lech, Čech, and Rus
• Bibliography of the history of the Early Slavs and Rus'
• Slavic paganism
• Sclaveni
• Antes people
• Kievan Rus'
• The Origins of the Slavic Nations by Serhii Plokhy
• The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region by Florin Curta

Footnotes

References

Citations