"How Slavic Europe Emerged" articles

[Peterski]

Articles (in Polish) about the emergence of Slavic Europe written by Polish historian Adam Sengebusch:

Part 1, Proto-Slavic homeland: Slavs part 1 Urheimat.pdf

Part 2, Southern Slavs - Slavs part 2 South.pdf

Part 3, Western Slavs - Slavs part 3 West.pdf

Part 4, Eastern Slavs - Slavs part 4 East.pdf

Part 5, other marginal areas - Slavs part 5 Marginalia.pdf

[Peterski]

^^^
Map from Part 5 of the article showing the extent of Slavic-inhabited areas after their great expansion, around year 850:

(red circles show areas with some Slavic presence according to sources and evidence discussed in part 5 "Marginalia")



^^^
Possibly the Slavic-inhabited area in Russia already extended further to the north-east at that time than this map shows.

[pulstar]

I remember interesting stories about early South Slavs, how Romans couldn't fight them in the ordinary way because they would use hit and run tactics, ransack some settlement, decapitate the head of the people and simply didn't had permanent settlements, so when the Romans burnt their settlements, they would just build new one on another location. The settlements were made completely out of stilt houses. They also were taking their whole families with them, wherever they would go, until the 8th-9th century when this kind of life finally stopped. Wonder if that's what the historians wrote for other Slavic tribes too?

[Peterski]

I remember interesting stories about early South Slavs, how Romans couldn't fight them in the ordinary way because they would use hit and run tactics, ransack some settlement, decapitate the head of the people and simply didn't had permanent settlements, so when the Romans burnt their settlements, they would just build new one on another location. The settlements were made completely out of stilt houses. They also were taking their whole families with them, wherever they would go, until the 8th-9th century when this kind of life finally stopped. Wonder if that's what the historians wrote for other Slavic tribes too?

I've never heard the part about stilt houses but it makes sense, as Slavs were good with building stuff on water (in Poland some impressive Early Medieval bridges like for example two very long wooden bridges on Lake Lednica connecting the town built on Ostrów Lednicki island with the mainland). As for fighting tactics against the Romans, check:

https://historum.com/threads/are-sou...h-slavs.99493/

[pulstar]

I've never heard the part about stilt houses but it makes sense, as Slavs were good with building stuff on water (in Poland some impressive Early Medieval bridges like for example two very long wooden bridges on Lake Lednica connecting the town built on Ostrów Lednicki island with the mainland). As for fighting tactics against the Romans, check:

https://historum.com/threads/are-sou...h-slavs.99493/

Perhaps it were pit-houses. I cannot recall now, it was long ago. Either way, they were built out of light material and weren't made for permanent settlement.

[Peterski]

When settling forested areas (and e.g. Early Medieval Poland was 90% forest; compared to 21% in 1946 and 30% now) 6th century Slavs practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, something that has been practiced by Forest Finns even in the 20th century:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Finns

Slash-and-burn agriculture (painting by Eero Järnefelt):

[Peterski]

Perhaps it were pit-houses.

This is how an Early Polish settlement (ca. 300 people lived there according to archaeologists) looked like in the 800s (before Poland emerged as a kingdom):



^^^ Located in Dąbrówka near Dopiewo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmina_Dopiewo

[Ayetooey]

Slav pride.