Novgorod Slavs

[1] There is a belief among researchers that Novgorod is one of the regions which were the original home / Urheimat of the Russians and the Slavic tribes.

They settled in mostly Finnic areas in Northern Russia, moving along the major waterways, until they met the southward expansion of the Krivich in the modern-day Yaroslavl Oblast.

[3] They left a few archaeological monuments of the 6th–8th centuries, such as agricultural settlements, and tall cone-like kurgans with cremated bodies in the Ladoga region.

Numerous archaeological finds, such as a metal tip for a wooden plough, indicate that the Ilmen Slavs had a well-developed agriculture.

They were not a particularly warlike state, but evidence of their unique weaponry, dating back to the mid-8th century, has been found around the city of Novgorod.