Early Slavs

[2] The Slavs' original homeland is still a matter of debate due to a lack of historical records; however, scholars generally place it in Eastern Europe,[3] with Polesia being the most commonly accepted location.

[15] Possibly the oldest mention of Slavs in historical writing Slověne is attested in Ptolemy's Geography (2nd century) as Σταυανοί (Stavanoi) and Σουοβηνοί (Souobenoi/Sovobenoi, Suobeni, Suoweni), likely referring to early Slavic tribes in a close alliance with the nomadic Alanians, who may have migrated east of the Volga River.

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.

[28] The Danube basin hypothesis, postulated by Oleg Trubachyov[29] and supported by Florin Curta and Nestor's Chronicle, theorises that the Slavs originated in central and southeastern Europe.

[57][58] His claim was accepted more than a millennium later by Wawrzyniec Surowiecki, Pavel Jozef Šafárik and other historians,[59] who searched the Slavic Urheimat in the lands that the Venethi (a people named in Tacitus's Germania)[60] lived during the last decades of the 1st century AD.

[65][66] Each book contains detailed information on raids by Sclavenes and Antes on the Eastern Roman Empire,[67] and the History of the Wars has a comprehensive description of their beliefs, customs and dwellings.

[68] Agreeing with Jordanes's report, Procopius wrote that the Sclavenes and Antes spoke the same languages but traced their common origin not to the Venethi but to a people he called "Sporoi".

[70] Sporoi ("seeds" in Greek; compare "spores") is equivalent to the Latin semnones and germani ("germs" or "seedlings"), and the German linguist Jacob Grimm believed that Suebi meant "Slav".

[75] 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).

[78] The Franks (in the Life of Saint Martinus, the Chronicle of Fredegar and Gregory of Tours), Lombards (Paul the Deacon) and Anglo-Saxons (Widsith) referred to Slavs in the Elbe-Saale region and Pomerania as "Wenden" or "Winden" (see Wends).

[93] Early Slavic hydronyms are found in the area occupied by the Zarubinets culture,[93] and Irena Rusinova proposed that the most prototypical examples of Prague-type pottery later originated there.

[citation needed] 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.

[102] 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.

[104] 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, also the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536–660 CE) encouraged Slavic expansion and settlement to the west and the south of the Carpathian Mountains.

[104] 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.

[123] 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.

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".

[131] 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.

[139] A 2023 archaeogenetic IBD study found that the Slavs make a specific and recognizable genetic cluster which "was formed by admixture of a Baltic-related group with East Germanic people and Sarmatians or Scythians".

[151] Theophylact Simocatta wrote about the Slavs that "The Emperor was with great curiosity listening to stories about this tribe, he has welcomed these newcomers from the land of barbarians, and after being amazed by their height and mighty stature, he sent these men to Heraclea".

[157] al-Masudi, a 10th-century Muslim historian, geographer, and traveler, writes the following about the tribal organisation of the Slavs:"Among the different peoples who make up this pagan race, there is one that in ancient times held sovereign power.

[160][161] The 6th-century historian Procopius, who was in contact with Slavic mercenaries,[162] reported, "For these nations, the Sclaveni and the Antes, are not governed by one man, but from ancient times have lived in democracy, and consequently everything which involves their welfare, whether for good or for ill, is referred to the people" (in joint meetings[163]).

[172] The root of many tribal names denotes the territory in which they inhabited, such as the Milczanie (who lived in areas with měl – loess), Moravians (along the Morava), Diokletians (near the former Roman city of Doclea) and Severiani (northerners).

Then their pores open up and the unneeded substances from their bodies come out..."[146] Fortified strongholds (gords) appeared in significant numbers during the 9th century and were often found in the centre of a group of settlements.

They herd pigs as if they were sheep...They drink mead"[176] -Ibn Rusta The ancient Slavs knew human anatomy well, which is evident from the existence of numerous old names for body parts.

[182][page needed] The Slavs had many musical instruments as recorded in historical chronicles: "They have different kinds of lutes, pan pipes and flutes a cubit long.

[205] Byzantine writers mention several Slavic mercenaries who distinguished themselves as soldiers; Dabrageza (a Antae) and his subordinate Elmingiros (a Hun), Svarun (a Slav), and impostor of Chilbudius.

[214] Archaeological findings associated with professional warriors and military leaders were particularly found in Southeastern and Eastern Europe, and Slavic cultures (of Prague, Ipotești–Cândești, Penkovka and Kolochin).

Although the Slavic funeral pyre was seen as a means of freeing the soul from the body rapidly, visibly and publicly,[229][failed verification] archaeological evidence suggests that the South Slavs quickly adopted the burial practices of their post-Roman Balkan neighbours.

The Christianization of Bulgaria was made official in 864, during the reign of Knyaz Boris I during shifting political alliances both with the Byzantine Empire and the kingdom of the East Franks and the communication with the Pope.