Because they were Russian
I am kind of baffled by the existence of this blank space. Western Slavs have some mythology about three brothers, Czech, Lech and Rus, giving the rise of Czechs, Polish and Russian people (strangely since Russians are not Western Slavs). From 6th century, we know existence about Samo's Empire, where Samo's is said to be Frankish trader, but that seems to be also disputed. Then there is Great Moravia and we know more about them from Franks. But before 6th century, I know nothing about my region.
But how did Czechs got into the lands of Boii (or Markomans)? What about the other Polabian Slavs in Pomerania and even as far as Meklenburg? Where did they come from? And when?
Is it even possible that Roman historians and geographers didn't see the diference between different barbarians and what we think were Germanic tribes were Slavs? (I have read some conspiracy theory regarding Suebi).
Slav military buildings give +5 pop space, same as a house. What is the earliest you could build a barracks instead of a house in order to begin building militia for a Drush? Slavs start with automatic Supplies, so could this begin even earlier than normal? It seems like it would just come down to the wood cost of a barracks as opposed to a house.
Very nice presentation/video.
I will paraphrase a little what I read from a book about early Slavs, who roughly inhabited modern day Eastern Germany to Russia to north modern day Greece.
Early Slav woman all wore some form of head scarves in some way or another, which is kinda true even today.
But here is the juicy part, all Slavs burned their dead! That was an absolute must, all dead had to be cremated or else they will rise and cause all sorts of trouble. I just thought this was an interesting and silly tidbit for Witcher fans, I can't stop imagining the Early Slavs trying to prevent ghoul outbreaks with their burial customs, and then some Christian priests come, start converting and well, sett of a chain of events... But seriously, I think that was one of the most difficult customs to eradicate for the Christian missionaries.
There was also mention of most of Slavs having a custom in the summer or spring, essentially young people gather and start large pyres. Then they get it on. Something like that happens in A Sword of Destiny short story if I'm not mistaken.
Now if somebody else has a more fresh memory of the book please correct my bumbling if I got something wrong.
Hej,
We're new in Stockholm and are looking for a group of Early Medieval reconstructors. We are from a Polish team "Stain" and we reconstruct Slavians. We're specialized in fighting with a melee weapons and archery. If there is anyone who would like new guys in the team, please do tell :D
Ewelina & Piotr
The Early Slavic People live here and were sometimes know as the Proto Balto-Slavs. For these people I plan to migrate down south into the Ukraine, west towards central Europe, and finally North to the Baltic sea. I'll travel along rivers to help me in my quest of conquest. If I am successful I might migrate into the Balkans. I'll keep my pagan Slavic religion and won't mix with the locals, you won't see some weird Germanic-Slavic hybrid. I am Sedentary.
I was wondering not just those people, but any of the groups of people who lived there from the BC times to the 1200s.
I've read that Native American tribes were more accepting of two- spirit people, and homosexual behaviour. Furthermore such individuals seem to be ascribed a different kind of spiritual dimension.
I have also encountered some contemporary Polish attempts at 'reviving' religious customs said to be slavic/polish ancient and pagan- there is even a Polish Native Church.
Such groups in Poland sometimes draw parallels between the violence of Christian colonisation of pagan Slavs, and and the violence inflicted upon Native Americans. Hence they sometimes talk about Native Americans as "our brothers".
But given how homophobic Poland is today, it made me wonder how far do the similarities between early Slavs and Native Americans go.
& I became interested in how early Slavs viewed family and homosexuality, and how were those aspects positioned in their religious views.
I've tried finding some information about it, but I struggled to find anything beyond basic information about names of gods/and some myths.
Can anyone maybe point me in the right direction for relevant resources? ( I also speak Polish and German- so not limited to English language resources.)
Thanks!
I found info about Vikings and Celts, but no Slavs. Is there any evidence regarding this topic?
I'm curious about the early history of Russia & Ukraine, particularly the Rurikids, the development of the kingdom of Rus', Muscovy, and so on up to the Romanovs. I've done some searches, but I'm struggling to find anything that doesn't seem to gloss over early history to get to Peter the Great and then on to 1917 as quickly as possible. For instance Verdansky's A History of Russia that I've seen recommended here appears to spend less than 100 pages on everything up to the 17th century, as does Hosking's Russia and the Russians and I'm really hoping there's a book out there that's more focused just on this earlier era in which I'm primarily interested.
I'm hoping for more depth but at the same time I have to admit that my interest in the subject is fairly casual, sparked by playing Crusader Kings II and realizing there's a lot going on in that region that I know nothing at all about. So while I have a background in medieval history and am not opposed to purely academic books, I am hoping for something that's decently readable. If there's nothing that approaches a "popular history" then some insight into which scholarly works are the least dense and dry would be great.
There are a couple I've seen mentioned on other lists that look like they may cover what I'm looking for, and I'd love to hear what people think of them, if they're outdated or dull or hard to follow.
- Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, 500-700 (2001)
- Franklin, Simon, and Jonathan Shepard. The Emergence of Rus, 750-1200 (1996)
- Martin, Janet L. Medieval Russia, 980-1584 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks) (2008)
Semi-related but less on-topic for this group, if you have any recs for Russian/Slavic folklore and mythology, that'd be cool too.
Thanks for your help!
I know this seems like a massive question but I'm interested in the change of opinions of the people. What changed to make the breakup of Yugoslavia so violent? They had been fighting the Austro-Hungarians for a unification of all the South Slavic people I understand many times. Ottoman Empire too maybe?
What I mean is, is an entity like the Zarubintsy culture supposed to be an accumulation of hunter-gathering family units who settled down in an area to farm, and became influenced by other peoples such as the Scythians? Are they a break-off from some prior civilization? Or is there just not enough information to ascertain their origins?
Here's where I read the claim that they were the ancestors of the Slavs (unless I misinterpreted it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_in_the_Early_Middle_Ages#Slavic_beginnings_in_Poland
