AT THE SOURCE OF THE SLAVIC WORLD
Michał Parczewski
During the first half of the 6th century AD European history witnesses the advent "distinguished by their number" of Slav peoples - for the first time under their name proper. To Latin historian Jordanes (author of the Getica - summary of an extensive long lost "History of the Goths" by Cassiodorus) - we are indebted to the reference that the left slope of the Carpathian range "which slopes to the North bas been settled, starting from the sources of the river Viskla [Vistula] over vast lands by a large nation of the Veneti. And though their names are at present changing suitably to different tribes they are generally known as Sclavonians and Antians"
According to Procopius, contemporary of Jordanes, the seats of the eastern offshoot of the Slavs of the day must have reached beyond the left bank of the Dnepr.
The mouth of the Vistula was settled by the enigmatic Vidivarii, who had come together from different nations as if to a single place of refuge and formed a separate tribe". Apparently an ethnic conglomerate of its kind (with a Germanic-sounding name) was formed by fugitives from lands engulfed in the confusion of the great migration of peoples.
The region at the foot of the Carpathian range was settled by the Sclavonians, the Antians inhabiting lands lying farther to the East. Jordanes' identification of Slavs with Veneti bas given rise to a persisting heated debate among scholars anxious to establish on the basis of historical sources the geographical whereabouts of Proto-Slav territory before 600 AD.
One of the favored propositions is that Slav Veneti of Jordanes should be linked to Tacitus' Veneti whom he briefly described in the late 1st century AD in his Germania. he reported that they "build permanent dwellings, carry shields, delight in marching and in swiftness"
References to Slav-Veneti taken from earlier Gothic tradition by Jordanes likewise claim an eastern European location for this people.
It should be noted, that the 7th or 8th century anonymous Ravenna Geographer traced the Slavs from the lands of Scythia "where from generations of Sclavonians took their origin".
The western frontier of Scythia was considered by all to follow the line running from the Vistula to the lower Danube. Out of the highly fragmented information from the 6th-8th century only the Ravenna Geographer directly and without hesitation indicates the location of the original Slav homeland. During the latter half of the 6th and early in the next century Slav expansion swept in a wide wave over Central Europe and the Balkans.
Territories on the middle Elbe and Saale were colonized presumably even at the turn of the 6th and the 7th century: the so called Fredegar's chronicle notes that in the year 631: "Derwanus, prince of the Surbi [Polabian Serbians] of the Sclavonians tribe and long under the kingdom of the Franks, united himself and his people to the kingdom of Samo".
Still, the strongest drive of the Slavs was to the South. A narrow lowland corridor lying between the Carpathian range and the Black Sea carried the masses of Antians and Sclavonians to the Lower Danube. Their first incursion into imperial lands occurred during the reign of Justine (518-527), when according to Procopius, Antians, who dwell in the closest vicinity of the Sclavonians, crossed the Ister [Danube] in great numbers and descended onto the Roman [i.e. Byzantine] lands. During the first decade of the 7th century the weakened empire was unable to def end its Danubian frontier and under Heraclius (610-641) the peninsula was entirely overran by the Slavs.
The highly fragmentary, unclear and perplexing picture of the Slav world slowly fills out and becomes more legible.
The question of whether it is possible to identify the ethnic affiliation of human groups whose existence is evidenced in a fragmentary manner by archaeological cultures continues to be highly controversial. The exercise is not entirely futile as suggested by some opponents as the distribution of many peoples recorded in the written sources (e.g., Balts, Goths, Longobards, Gepids, various nomadic groups) corresponds relatively well to that indicated by archaeological sources. The same may be said of the Slavs.
The described border area between Central, South and East Europe registers a large number of assemblages having the character of early Slav remains. Finds from the north-western region of this zone represent the so-called Prague culture, those from the forest-steppe zone of the Ukraine and Moldavia to the Penkovka culture. Similarly, early Slav archaeological culture evidently falls into two segments - eastern and western -, which perfectly correspond, to the distribution of Antians and Sclavonians recorded in the written sources.
Both groups represent an identical culture model sharing the principal ethnographic features such as e.g.: 1. Character of settlement (open settlements with structures distributed in clusters along river valley margins; semi-sunken dwellings on a square plan with an internal heating device 2. Model of economy (livelihood based primarily on agriculture, cultivation of millet and wheat and animal husbandry dominated by cattle; lack of developed crafts; in production no use of inorganic material other than clay used in crude pottery; almost total absence of locally produced luxury objects; in general, very law standard of living 3.Lack of developed contacts with the outside world; traces of fairly one-sided external influences (probably resulting from the peripheral geographical position) are registered primarily in the Dnestr-Danubian zonee and in the borderland with the steppe. 4.The type of burial rite (flat cremation graves in urns or pits, with hardly any grave goods).
The foregoing suggests that with high degree of probability it is possible to identify Kolocin culture as another Slav group. Not only the model of these culture units (Kolocin culture in particular) is strikingly similar to that of indisputably early Slav assemblages but also mutual infiltration bas been observed in outlying ranges of the Prague culture and (even more sa, between the KoloCin and the Penkovka cultures).
Assuming that the tripartite division of early 6th Slav archaeological material is correct we have to go back to Jordanes' reference to Veneti who, "springing from one bloodline have now taken on three names, that is Veneti, Antians and Sclavonians". While the passage may be understood in more ways than one it may be interpreted nevertheless that the conjectured third - northern - Slavic offshoot represented by the Kolocin culture corresponds to the Veneti of Jordanes in a narrower sense.
Looking beyond the 6th century in search of earlier Slav entities we refocus on the definitely most archaic cultures, i.e., the Prague and Penkovka and include among ³bem the closely related KoloCin culture. Archaeological inquiry over the last three decades have increasingly narrow down the range of potential proto-sources of the Slav ethnic group to certain areas of East Europe. The most plausible evidence point to the upper and middle Dnepr area since the close of the 2nd until the middle of the 5th centuries settled by a large community represented by the Kiev Culture.
At present the Kiev Culture may be accepted with high probability as the oldest (end of the 2nd - mid 5th century) identifiable unit of earliest Slavs.
The Kiev circle generated new cultures, two of them, Prague and Penkovka, emerged late in the 4th and in the 5th century in fertile regions of the Ukraine and Moldavia vacated by the departure (presumably of not all) of previous inhabitants. Over more than a hundred ensuing years the wide area between the Carpathian range and the left bank of the Dnepr witnessed a true demographic explosion (accompanied by assimilation of remnants of earlier population, evident e.g., on the middle Dnestr) which generated a massive stare of human potential needed for settling vast regions of the continent.
Younger phases of the great Slav migration recorded in the written sources dated to the second half of the 6th century onwards are also reflected in archaeological evidence. It reflects the marked activity and strength of the Sclavonians who overran (mingling with the Antians) nearly the entire Balkan Peninsula occupying by themselves the territory of today's central and western Poland, Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia, outlying areas of today's Hungary and Lower Austria well as German lands east of the Elbe and the Saale river.
Early Slav culture bas no roots of its own in the basins of the Oder and the Vistula. So far not a single feature with early Slav affiliation bas been discovered in the area dated convincingly to the 5th century. In eastern Europe on the other hand assemblages of such type form quite a sizeable and significant series - in the environment of the Prague, Penkovka and Kolocin cultures.
One may presume that Polish lands were not settled by Slavs in a single act. At first - perhaps late in the 5th century they moved into Małopolska and, presumably, to the area on the right bank of the middle Vistula. The central part and the northwestern regions were gradually settled by new population during the 6th century. Last to be settled, apart from today's north-eastern Poland and then inhabited by Balts, were Eastern Pomerania, Upper Silesia and adjacent parts of Lower Silesia.
Many aspects of the transformation of early Slav world are still little understood. Actually this is not as unfortunate as it may seem - from a broad historical perspective of research into Slavic origins there is little doubt that the archaeological investigation bas only just begun.