White Croats

Other Croats who stayed in their Carpathian homeland continued to practise paganism and formed a tribal proto-state with the polis-like gords of Plisnesk, Stilsko, Revno, Halych, Terebovlia (among other) in Western Ukraine, which lasted until the very end of the 10th century.

[59][58] In a similar fashion, regardless of Iranian or Slavic etymology of their name, Henryk Łowmiański argued that the tribe was formed by the end of the 3rd and not later than the 5th century in Lesser Poland,[60] during the peak of the Huns and their leader Attila, but such localization is historiographically and archaeologically unproven and could only have been in Prykarpattia (Western Ukraine).

[68][70] However, the same ethnic name does not necessarily mean all the tribes had the same ancestry, as well the dating and supposed existence, separation and location of different tribal groups is a matter of much debate due to lack of evidence, historical sources and their interpretation.

From them split off a family, namely of five brothers, Kloukas and Lobelos and Kosentzis and Mouchlo and Chrobatos, and two sisters, Touga and Bouga, who came with their folk to Dalmatia and found this land under the rule of the Avars.

[107][108] A similar story to the 30th chapter is mentioned in the work by Thomas the Archdeacon, Historia Salonitana (13th century), where he recounts how seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he called Lingones, arrived from Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership.

[111] The reliability to the claim adds the recorded oral tradition of Michael of Zahumlje from DAI that his family originates from the unbaptized inhabitants of the river Vistula called as Litziki,[112] identified with Widukind's Licicaviki, also referring to the Lendians (Lyakhs).

These facts exclude the possibility of referring to Croats in Bohemia, placing them in Lesser Poland on the territory of Lendians and Vistulans (Kraków and Cherven Cities[165]),[166] or more probably the Revno complex on river Prut in Western Ukraine,[167] and generally in Prykarpattia.

[169] The list indicates that the closest tribal neighbours were Dulebes-Volhynians,[170][171] The fact no Lechitic tribe was part of Oleg's conquest it is more probable that those Croats were located on river Dniester rather than Vistula.

[174][75] It seems that Croatian tribes who lived in the area of Bukovina and Galicia got conquered because had too many large tribal capitals with local lords who probably didn't act in a centralized and nationalized manner (polycentric proto-state[175]),[176][177] were pressured by Bohemian, Polish and Hungarian principalities,[178] while were attacked by Kievan Rus' because inhibited Rus' free access to the Vistula valley trade route,[179] and did not want to submit to Kievan centralism and accept Christianity.

[190][191] Polish chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek in his Chronica Polonorum (12–13th century) recounted that Bolesław I the Brave conquered some "Hunnos seu Hungaros, Cravatios et Mardos, gentem validam, suo mancipavit imperio".

[193] In the Hebrew book Josippon (10th century) are listed four Slavic ethnic names from Venice to Saxony; Mwr.wh (Moravians), Krw.tj (Croats), Swrbjn (Sorbs), Lwcnj (Lučané or Lusatians), and also an East-West trade route Lwwmn (Lendians), Kr.

[205][206] There were also some attempts to relate with Croats an anonymous neighbor ruler (vicinus subregulus) who was unsuccessfully helped by Saxons and Thuringians at war against Boleslaus I, but the evidence is inconclusive.

[228] Dušan Třeštík noted that the chronicle tells Czech came with six brothers from Croatia which once again indicates seven chiefs/tribes like in the Croatian origo gentis legend from the 30th chapter of De Administrando Imperio.

[233] Near Kiev there's a stream where previously existed large homonymous village Horvatka or Hrovatka (destroyed in the time of Joseph Stalin), which flows into Stuhna River.

[26][95][272][273] There exist several hypotheses on the date and historical context of the migration to the Adriatic Sea in the Roman province of Dalmatia, most often being related to the Pannonian Avars activity in late 6th and early 7th century.

[288][289] As the Avars were enemies of the Byzantine Empire the involvement of Emperor Heraclius on the side of Croats, and organizing relations with "barbarians" from Roman cities perspective and tradition, cannot be entirely excluded.

[320] However, it's unclear whether some regional and chronological archaeological differences between Northern, Western and Southern Croatia in the end of 6th until early 8th century are result of two separate Slavic waves (via Moravian Gate and Podunavlje),[321] as well it is difficult, practically impossible,[322] to differentiate Croats from other Sclaveni and Antae.

[330][331] Another group of historians and archaeologists, like L. Margetić, A. Milošević, M. Ančić and V. Sokol argued late 8th-early 9th century migration of Croats as Frankish vassals during the Frank-Avar war,[332][333] but it does not have enough evidence and arguments,[302][334][335][336][337] it's not supported in written sources,[338][339][270][337] and is not usually accepted by mainstream scholarship.

[306][340][337][341] In the territory of present-day Croatia, it is considered as archaeologically certain that by the last-third of the 7th century disappear Roman late antiquity and Germanic cultural traces in most part of the region and that there's no obvious continuity between native settlements and cemeteries with newly arrived population and paganism.

[342][343] The data shows sudden change of native lifestyle, defensive use and desolation of villa rustica and other smaller cities, destruction of churches and else dated at the end of 6th until mid-7th century.

[391] UNESCO in its inclusion of Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine also mentions two large gords at the villages of Pidhoroddya and Lykovyshche near Rohatyn dated between 6th and 8th century and identified with the White Croats.

[263] To the Croats are attributed two Gords of unusually big dimensions and each of them could inhabit tens of thousands of people – Plisnesk with a surface of 450 ha, including a fortress with a pagan center, surrounded by seven long and complex lines of protection, several smaller settlements in the near vicinity, more than 142 burial mounds with both cremation and inhumation partly belonging to warriors and else,[392][393][394] located near village Pidhirtsi and since 2015 regionally protected as a Historic and Cultural Reserve "Ancient Plisnesk";[395] and Stilsko with a surface of 250 ha, including a fortress of 15 ha, defensive line of 10 km,[396][397] located on river Kolodnitsa (used for navigation of ships as was connected to most important river in the region, Dniester[398][399]) between current village Stilsko and Lviv.

[42][400] In the vicinity of Stilsko were also found some of the only examples of a pre-Christian period cult building among Slavs,[401][402] for one of which Korčinskij assumed a possible connection with the medieval descriptions of a temple dedicated to the deity Khors.

[409][410][411] It had a devastating effect on the administrative division and population of Eastern Galicia (Great Croatia), ultimately stopping their process of becoming a single unified and centralized state.

[407] However, the archaeological data, and 11th century revival of some capitals as East Slavic principalities (Peremyshl, Terebovlia, Zvenyhorod and Halych), show a high economic, demographic, military defense, administrative and political organization in the territory of White Croats.

[429][431] Stone sanctuaries, including of "great mother" (Mokosh), located in the territory of Hutsulshchyna in Western Ukrainian Carpathians are considered as expression of worship spanning since prehistory to the time of early Slavs (White Croats).

[434] According to Radoslav Katičić, Vitomir Belaj and others research, upon arrival to present-day Croatia, the pagan Slavic customs, folklore, and toponyms related to Perun, Veles, Mokosh among others were preserved much longer than previously thought although Adriatic Croats were Christianized by the 9th century.

[441] It is similar to other medieval origo gentis stories (see for e.g. Origo Gentis Langobardorum),[441] and some consider it has the same source as the story of Bulgars recorded by Theophanes the Confessor in which the Bulgars subjugated Seven Slavic tribes,[442] and similarly, Thomas the Archdeacon in his work Historia Salonitana mentions that seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he called Lingones, arrived from Lesser Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership,[109][229] as well parallels in Herodotus account about five men and two maidens of the Hyperboreans.

[451] According to Aleksei S. Shchavelev, they rather and most likely represent Karna and Zhelya, an ancient pair of symbolic and mythopoetic female characters of Slavic traditional ritual of lamentation for the dead ("grief and howl", "sorrow and hardship") found in Kievan chronicles.

Borrowing of foreign names was common practice between Sarmatians, Goths and Huns, and as such could indicate close sociocultural and political relations between White Croats and non-Slavic people in their ancestral and new homeland.