Who are we? Where from? Where did our ancestors come from? These are far from idle questions and are interesting to everyone who is interested in history.
The chronicler Nestor, in his narrative, names not only the names of the Slavic tribes, but also indicates their location. Names the peoples bordering on the Slavs: Merya, Vse, Chud, Muroma and a number of other tribes.
Going deeper into the past of historical memory, we learn that in the 6th century there were three large associations of Slavs - Antes, Wends and Sklavens.
Gothic historian Jordan, who lived in the 6th century, indicates the location of these tribal associations.
“Starting from the birthplace of the Vistula River, a tribe of Venets has settled down in the vast expanses. … they are mainly called sklavens and antes.
Sklavens live from the city of Novietun and the lake called Mursiansky to Dunastra, and to the north - to Viskla; instead of cities, they have swamps and forests. The Antas - the strongest of both tribes - spread from Danastra, the one where the Pontic Sea forms a bend, these rivers are removed from one another at a distance of many crossings.
Jordan also does not forget to indicate “that the Veneti … come from one root and are now known under three names: Veneti, Antes, Sklavens”. Jordan, in citing this valuable testimony, gives a fairly accurate indication of when the division of the Veneti took place. The Veneti were a single people until the invasion of the Gothic king Germanarich in the 4th century. According to Jordan, a large kingdom was formed by Germanarich from the Danube to the Don and the Kuban. But his power did not last long, in 375 the hordes of the Huns filled the space between the Don and the Volga with their nomads, and at the same time overthrew the power of Germanarich, which had held up until that moment only thanks to the authority of the ruler himself. But the Huns had not many more ready to rule in this territory, at the beginning of the 6th century Avars appeared (obry - Russian chronicle).
The mention in "PVL" of the Avar invasion is perhaps the first reliable information of the chronicler. "PVL", describing the VI century, reports on two large East Slavic tribal associations. In one case, we are talking about the founding of Kiev. The second message tells about the conquest of the lands of the tribal union of the Dulebs by the Avars and the complete defeat of the Slavs. The specific indication of the chronicler and the allocation of the Dulebs to them allows us to say that the Dulebs and their prince headed a large tribal alliance at that time, therefore they were able to offer serious resistance to the Avars, for which they perpetrated a cruel reprisal against the Dulebs.
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In the messages of the Byzantine authors of the 6th century, the antas are referred to as a serious threat to the power of Byzantium. It is possible to draw a conclusion about antas as a powerful military group based on archaeological materials. The whole world knows the treasures of the Antic burial mounds of the Middle Dnieper region, rich in gold and silver (cups, jugs, dishes, bracelets) from Byzantium. Which, of course, speaks of the constant raids of the Antes on the lands of Byzantium. Another way to get so much wealth from the Eastern Roman Empire was very difficult.
As for the Sklavens, it is known that Jordan was the first to mention them, there is no news of this tribal union before him. And one more important detail, the term "Wends" after Jordan disappears from the pages of historical chronicles. Therefore, it is likely that the Sklavens are the direct successors of the Wends, as for the Antes and their correspondence with the Wends, then perhaps they separated from the Wends community much earlier. Byzantine authors of the 6th-7th centuries especially note the differences between the Antes and the Sklavens, but at the same time note that they speak the same language.
In the 6th century, the first mention of the people associated with the name "Ros" appears. The first to mention this people is Pseudo-Zechariah in the transcription "Hros" - yeros. A little later, the Arab chroniclers Masudi, Ibn Khordadbe, mention the dews and russes, there is news about the peoples associated with the root - ros - rus and in a number of European messages. However, the question of the etymology of the term "rus" is so complex and ambiguous that it requires a separate study. In the meantime, we note that the points of view of the origin of "Rus" - from the name of the river Ros and from the Varangian tribal name of Prince Rurik are far from perfect, very controversial and in many respects are unacceptable in historical and linguistic analysis.
Returning to the Wends, we note that Jordan reports that the Wends are the most ancient name for the Slavs. The correlation of the Wends with the Slavs is hardly in doubt, and therefore it seems quite natural to associate this name with the mention of the Wends, Enets, Aeneas and a number of other similar names by ancient authors: Polybius, Titus Livy, Strabo, Ptolemy, Tacitus. But at the same time, we must not forget about the Veneti of the Adriatic coast, the correlation of which with Slavism is doubtful, but possible.
However, all these assumptions are correct only if Jordan was mistaken once in the statement that the Wends are Germans.
In earlier sources, names of tribes that could be correlated with the Slavs are no longer found. As if such a people did not even exist or its role in the life of that period was so insignificant that it did not deserve a separate mention by the ancient authors.
Herodotus in his "History" listing the peoples of the Black Sea region and the course of the Dnieper indicates that this area was occupied by the Scythians.
Scythians in Herodotus are not represented as a homogeneous group of the population, but subdivided into six tribal unions. The most important are the royal Scythians. They are undoubtedly the rulers, it was they who were paid tribute by the conquered tribes on the territory they controlled, and in the event of an attack by enemies, they defended it.
Among the six unions of tribes, Herodotus mentions the Scythians-plowmen, whose main occupation was agriculture and providing the royal Scythians with grain reserves, as well as the production of grain for sale - primarily to the Hellenes. Cattle breeding, more precisely horse breeding, was also important in the economy of the Scythian plowmen. The horse was a cult animal of all Scythians, and the Scythians themselves could not imagine themselves without a horse. The horse was an extension of any Scythian's own "I" and only in the presence of a horse did the Scythians perceive themselves as a whole organism.
The highest flowering of the Scythian culture fell on the 6th - 4th centuries BC. And their culture has left a rich legacy for our time.
The self-designation of the Scythian plowmen Herodotus also indicates - chipped and cites the legend: “From Lipoksai originated those Scythians who are called the clan Avhats. From the middle Arpoxai came what are called Katiars and Traspia. From the youngest of them, Koloksai, are the kings who are called paralats. All together they are called "chipped" after the king's name; the Greeks called them Scythians."
The Skolot tribes Herodotus places: traspians on Tiras (Dniester), Katiars on the Upper Bug, Avhats on Hypanis and Visi, paralates on Borisfen (Dnieper). Chronicles chipped, their culture corresponds to the archaeological sites of the Chernyakhov culture. Anthropological studies have established the similarity in the external appearance of the population of the Scythian time, Chernyakhov culture and medieval Russia. Consequently, the chipped off in this territory, unlike the royal Scythians, are not an alien population. According to B. A. Rybakov, the Scythians-ploughmen were heirs on the Middle Dnieper of the Black Forest culture that preceded them in this territory.
It has long been known that the Chernyakhov culture is polyethnic and representatives of various tribes participated in its formation - Dacians, Goths, Scythians, and often Pro-Slavs are added here, which in principle is even very possible: if they already represented some kind of ethnic formation, which is not a fact. This formulation of the problem is quite logical due to the still unresolved issue of the origin of the Slavs and the place of their formation, i.e. their mother territory. The development of the Chernyakhov culture was interrupted by the invasion of the Huns. Therefore, it is quite possible, or rather even the case, that some of the representatives of the tribes of this culture participated in the formation of the Slavic ethnos at the last stage of their formation. Moreover, most likely the southern version of the Slavs.
The forest-steppe and steppe zones of the right-bank Ukraine and the forest-steppe zones of the left-bank, Moldova, part of South-Eastern Poland and partly Transylvania and Romania. Here is the territory of addition or the place of formation of one of the variants of the Slavs - the southern one. This is the territory of the spread of Chernyakhov culture. Why southern?
Historians of the first half of the 1st millennium AD: Eusebius, Socrates Scholastic and others in their writings report on frequent attacks on Byzantium by barbarian tribes and the resettlement of some of them to the Balkan Peninsula. Since the invasion of the Huns, this process has become even more intense. Many tribes and not only this region were forced to move under the onslaught of the Huns to the lands of the East Roman and West Roman empires. In their movement of conquest, the Huns conquered many peoples, and they conquered almost the entire territory of Germany.
The tribes who moved to new territories came into contact with the aboriginal descendants of the Illyrians, Retians and others, as a result of which the southern variant of the Slavs was formed, the basis of which was apparently still the remnants of the Goths (Ostrogoths) and Thracians. This conclusion was made on the basis of the work of the first Bulgarian historian Paisiy Hilendarski “Slavic-Bulgarian history. On the benefits of history”. Paisius's work is based on the legends of the Slavs and Turkic-speaking Bulgarians. It is a mixture of these legends, but apparently containing real facts of ancient history.
“… The Yafet tribe was divided into fifteen languages, all these peoples crossed the Black and White (Aegean) seas and settled in this land - Europe. Japheth had one son, his name was Moskhos. Our Slavic language fell on his tribe and clan, and they called him Moskhos clan and language. This genus and language went to the midnight, northern country, where the Moscow land is now … In the Moscow land there is a certain country called Scandavia. When … Muscovites settled there, they called the inhabitants of this country scandavians. These Scandavians, after many years, … found a new land at the edge of the sea-ocean. It was called the Baltic Sea and the Bulgarian Sea. And the Scandavians settled there, near Brandibur, and named their clan Slavs by the name of the Scandavians, and they are called so to this day. Those who remained there are called Slavs,…. They speak the most correct and pure Slavic language…. (Paisiy Hilendarsky. Slavic Bulgarian history. On the benefits of history // Golden jet spring: Monuments of Bulgarian literature of the 9th - 18th centuries: Collection. Moscow: Khud., Lit. 1990).
Paisius's story contains interesting facts: the country of Scandavia is hard not to compare with Scandinavia, from where the Goths moved to the future German lands; mention of Brandybur; the origin of the name of the Slavs from the Scandavians is most likely invented by Paisiy.
In his history, Paisius also reports that the Slavs then returned to the Moscow lands and from there came to Bulgaria. This fact is interesting because, perhaps under the Moscow lands, Paisiy had in mind the Dnieper region - where just before the invasion of the Huns there were the lands of the Chernyakhov culture founded by the Goths. Consequently, based on the history of Paisiy, the territories of the Northern Black Sea region and the Dnieper region are not lands of the Slavic ethnos, such was the territory of the Vistula-Oder interfluve, but here they are also a newcomer population. But such a statement is probably true for the southern branch of the Slavs. It is to this population that the tribal formations of the Ulitsy and Tiverts of the Russian Chronicle apparently belong, although the Iranian-speaking tribes of the Sarmatians, Roksalans and others, perhaps, participated in the addition of the Tivertsy.
Returning to the heyday of the Chornolis culture (X-VII centuries BC), we note that this is the time of the emergence of arable farming and the discovery of iron. The issue of the ethnicity of this culture is still debatable, some call it as Thracian, others as Proto-Slavic. She is considered the successor of the Belohrudov and Komarov cultures. If the Belohrudov culture is correlated with the Thracians with the great influence of the Scythian population, then the Komarov culture is correlated with the local version of the battle ax culture, despite the strong inexpressiveness of the battle ax culture, which later fell under the influence and was reborn into the Thracian culture.
B. A. Rybakov believes that it was this time that was reflected in the ancient Proto-Slavic epic about three kingdoms and heroes: Svetovik, Goryn and Usynya-Vernivode. Where heroes-blacksmiths forge a huge plow of forty pounds and defeat a fiery serpent that came from the south and demanded tribute in the form of girls. The fire serpent is an enduring symbol of the hordes of southern nomads. For the heyday of the Chornolis culture, the danger always came from the Cimmerians, who in VII BC. century were replaced by the Scythians. And the Black Forest culture is replaced by the Scythian, more precisely the Skolot culture, which is probably a local agricultural, in contrast to the alien Scythian culture of the nomads.
The defeat of the Scythian culture in the 3rd century BC The Sarmatians strongly influenced the development of the local population, the materially and exquisitely rich burials of the Scythian era were replaced by inexpressive, poor and primitive burials of the Zarubintsy archaeological culture. Quite close to the La Tene culture (Thracian). Many researchers consider the Zarubinets culture as a Proto-Slavic one, even despite such an essential fact as a burial ceremony without burial mounds, which is not typical for Slavic cultures. It is genetically related to the Przeworsk culture, which in turn is even more closely related to the Jastforsk culture. Is it possible, on the basis of this fact, to assume that the Zarubintsy culture has its roots in the environment of Germanic cultures? It is believed that the Przeworsk culture is quite comparable with the written Wends,then it is possible that Jordan did not make the mistake of calling the Wends Germans. In addition, the Prague culture of the 4th century is indisputably Slavic, has a minimum number of analogies with the Przeworsk culture, which has been considered Proto-Slavic for a very long time.
In this case, if the Zarubinets culture is close to the Przeworsk and Yastforsk culture, it can hardly be correlated with the Scythian plowmen, who, in turn, are obvious successors of the Chornolis (Thracian) culture. And what is important, with the arrival of the Sarmatians in the Dnieper region, a significant part of the Skolots moved to Thrace. Strabo reports that the Thracians ceded part of the land to the newcomers (Strabo. Geography. Book. 7. P. 284).
Although indirectly, this message confirms the existence of a possible relationship between the Skolots and the Thracians. In Lesser Scythia, this is how the area where the cleavers settled, apparently the most prosperous part left. With their arrival, seven cities appear in this area - Aphrodisias, Libist, Siegera, Rokoba, Eumenia, Parthenopolis and Gerania, they are mentioned by Pliny the Elder (VDI. 1949, No. 2, pp. 275 - 276).
Another part of the Scythian plowmen moved north and found themselves among the economically less developed Baltic tribes. The new economic growth of the lands of the Dnieper region occurred with the emergence of the already mentioned Chernyakhov culture, which B. A. Rybakov correlates with the annalistic antes. Starting from this time, II century, the region of the Middle Dnieper begins to stand out as a place of distribution of Slavic tribes. But, based on this brief study, there is no complete certainty that this particular region is the place where the Eastern Slavs took shape. Although part of the local population correlated with the Zarubintsy, Chernyakhov cultures, it is possible that they participated in the process of folding the Eastern Slavs.
Kudryashov Nikolay