Dnieper Balts

Last updated
Baltic archaeological cultures in the Iron Age from 600 BC to 200 BC with Dnieper-Dvina culture (Q4163119) in brown Baltic cultures 600-200 BC SVG.svg
Baltic archaeological cultures in the Iron Age from 600 BC to 200 BC with Dnieper-Dvina culture (Q4163119) in brown

The Dnieper Balts were a subgroup of the Balts that lived in the Dnieper river basin for millennia until the Late Middle Ages, when they were partly destroyed and partly assimilated by the Slavs by the 13th century. [1] To the north and northeast of the Dnieper Balts were the Volga Finns, and to the southeast and south were the ancient Iranians, the Scythians. [1]

Contents

The Dnieper Balts have been studied by many researchers, such as the Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga, the German linguist Max Vasmer, and the Russian linguists Vladimir Toporov and Oleg Trubachyov. [1]

History

In the early 20th century, the Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga showed that essentially all names in the upper Nemunas and upper Dnieper basins were Baltic. [2] In 1962, the Russian linguists Vladimir Toporov and Oleg Trubachyov, in their work, the "Linguistic analysis of the hydronyms of the Upper Dnieper region" (Russian : Лингвистический анализ гидронимов Верхнего Поднепровья), demonstrated that more than a thousand names in the Dnieper basin were of Baltic origin, due to their morphology and etymology. [3]

The former ethnic Balticness of the Dnieper basin is evidenced by numerous archaeological finds, as well as hydronyms. [1] For example, the hydronyms Yauza, Khimka  [ ru ] and Moskva, are of Baltic origin according to Toporov. [4] In the late Bronze Age, the Balts lived in territories from what is now the western border of Poland to the Ural Mountains. [5] However, some propose a smaller territory of Baltic inhabitation from the Vistula in the west to at least as far as Moscow in the east and as far south as Kyiv. [6]

Ancient history

Baltic archeological cultures (in purple) at the end of 3rd century to beginning of 4th century between Slavic (in brown) and Finno-Ugric archeological cultures (in green) East europe 3-4cc.png
Baltic archeological cultures (in purple) at the end of 3rd century to beginning of 4th century between Slavic (in brown) and Finno-Ugric archeological cultures (in green)
Baltic archeological cultures (in purple) at the end of 5th century to 7th century between Slavic archeological cultures (in light brown) East europe 5-6cc.png
Baltic archeological cultures (in purple) at the end of 5th century to 7th century between Slavic archeological cultures (in light brown)

Various archeological monuments and the prevalence of Baltic hydronyms indicate that by the end of the Neolithic period (c. 3rd to 2nd millennium BC ), there were several closely related, at least hypothetically Baltic, cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, which were the Pamariai, (Late) Narva, and (Late) Nemunas cultures. [7] The earliest of them is the Pamariai culture, which covered only a narrow part of the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea. [8]

During the Bronze (c.2nd to 1st millennium BC ) and Iron (c.1st millennium BC to 1st millennium AD) Ages, in the lands to the east and south of modern-day Lithuania and Latvia, there were Baltic (Late) Narva and the Brushed Pottery cultures (the areas of these two cultures included the east of present-day Lithuania and Latvia), the Dnieper-Daugava culture  [ lt ], Milograd, Yukhniv  [ lt ] and the later Dyakovo cultures. [9]

In the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, the aforementioned Baltic cultures of the Dnieper, Daugava and Oka basins transformed into the Kolochin, Tushemlia  [ lt ] and Moshchiny cultures, which existed until the 8th–10th centuries. [9] This transformation was due to the strong influence of the culture of the Western Balts (of the Zarubintsy culture), which moved from the territory of what is now Poland deep into the Dnieper basin as early as the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. [10]

Moshchiny culture is considered to be the ancestor of the Eastern Galindians, who lived in the lands near Moscow and within the Protva river basin. [9]

Slavic invasion

Eastern Europe at the end of 9th century to beginning of 10th century with the last remaining Dnieper Baltic inhabited area around the modern-day Moscow cut off from the rest of the Baltic people by Krivichs Rus-10c-ethn.png
Eastern Europe at the end of 9th century to beginning of 10th century with the last remaining Dnieper Baltic inhabited area around the modern-day Moscow cut off from the rest of the Baltic people by Krivichs

In the middle of the 1st millennium, Slavs began to invade the Baltic territory of the Dnieper Balts along the Dnieper and its tributaries. [1] In the 7th century, the Slavs, that previously only lived in Right-bank Ukraine, started invading the Baltic lands in the eastern Dnieper basin. [4] Since the 7th and 8th centuries, the linguistic and cultural Slavicisation of Dnieper Balts was accelerated by the conversion of the multilingual tribes living in Ruthenia to Eastern Orthodoxy. [4] By the early 9th century, only small numbers of Slavs had gone into Upper Dnieper and the majority were still Balts, with the Slavs mostly settling near Gnezdovo. [11]

Some researchers believe that after the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988, part of the Dnieper Balts retreated westwards, eventually merging into Lithuanians and Latgalians. [4] In the 9th and 10th centuries, the majority of the Dnieper Balts were separated from the other Balts living in the west by Slavic migrants moving north on the Dnieper banks. [4] In the 11th and 12th centuries, out of the Dnieper Balts, only the Eastern Galindians remained undestroyed by the eastern Slavs. [2]

The Lithuanian professor Zigmas Zinkevičius writes that:

It is thought that the Dnieper Balts, just as the other Balts living to the east from present-day Lithuania and Latvia, had an important influence on the Slavs who moved to these lands and the formation of East Slavic as a separate linguistic group. [1]

Religion

According to some researchers, the pagan religion of the Dnieper Balts included the veneration of pillars with bear heads. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltic languages</span> Branch of the Indo-European language family

The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively or as a second language by a population of about 6.5–7.0 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Europe. Together with the Slavic languages, they form the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balts</span> Group of peoples in northern Europe

The Balts or Baltic peoples are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea who speak Baltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-day Lithuanians and Latvians — all East Balts — as well as the Old Prussians, Curonians, Sudovians, Skalvians, Yotvingians and Galindians — the West Balts — whose languages and cultures are now extinct.

Sudovian was a West Baltic language of Northeastern Europe. Sudovian was closely related to Old Prussian. It was formerly spoken southwest of the Neman river in what is now Lithuania, east of Galindia and in the north of Yotvingia, and by exiles in East Prussia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithuanian language</span> Baltic language spoken in Lithuania

Lithuanian is an East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1 million speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neris</span> River in Lithuania and Belarus

The river Neris or Vilija rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman) from the right bank, at Kaunas, as its main tributary. Its length is 510 km (320 mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yotvingians</span> Historical Baltic people

Yotvingians were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prussians. The linguist Petras Būtėnas asserts that they were closest to the Lithuanians. The Yotvingians contributed to the formation of the Lithuanian state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balto-Slavic languages</span> Branch of the Indo-European language family

The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branch, which points to a period of common development and origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radimichs</span> Medieval East Slavic tribe

The Radimichs were an East Slavic tribe of the last several centuries of the 1st millennium, which inhabited upper east parts of the Dnieper down the Sozh and its tributaries. The name probably derives from the name of the forefather of the tribe - Radim. According to Russian chronicle tradition, "... but there were Radimichs from the Lechites family, who came and settled here and paid tribute to Rus, and the wagon was carried to the present day". However, in the scientific literature, there is no consensus on the ethnicity of the Radimichs. Archaeological evidence indicates that this tribal association had a mixed Slavic-Baltic origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Baltic languages</span> Branch of Baltic languages

The East Baltic languages are a group of languages that along with the extinct West Baltic languages belong to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. The East Baltic branch primarily consists of two extant languages—Latvian and Lithuanian. Occasionally, Latgalian and Samogitian are viewed as distinct languages, though they are traditionally regarded as dialects. It also includes now-extinct Selonian, Semigallian, and possibly Old Curonian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galindians</span>

Galindians were two distinct, and now extinct, tribes of the Balts. Most commonly, Galindians refers to the Western Galindians who lived in the southeast part of Prussia. Less commonly, it is used for a tribe that lived in the area of what is today Moscow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadruvians</span> Ethnic group

The Nadruvians were a now-extinct Prussian tribe. They lived in Nadruvia, a large territory in northernmost Prussia. They bordered the Skalvians on the Neman (Nemunas) River just to the north, the Sudovians to the east, and other Prussian tribes to the south and west. Most information about the clan is provided in a chronicle by Peter von Dusburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zarubintsy culture</span> Iron Age culture in Eastern Europe

The Zarubintsy, Zarubyntsi or Zarubinets culture was a culture that, from the 3rd century BC until the 1st century AD, flourished in the area north of the Black Sea along the upper and middle Dnieper and Pripyat Rivers, stretching west towards the Southern Bug river. Zarubintsy sites were particularly dense between the Rivers Desna and Ros as well as along the Pripyat river. It was identified around 1899 by the Czech-Ukrainian archaeologist Vikentiy Khvoyka and is now attested by about 500 sites. The culture was named after finds of cremated remains in the village of Zarubyntsi on the Dnieper.

Proto-Baltic is the unattested, reconstructed ancestral proto-language of all Baltic languages. It is not attested in writing, but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method by gathering the collected data on attested Baltic and other Indo-European languages. It represents the common Baltic speech that approximately was spoken between the 3rd millennium BC and ca. 5th century BC, after which it began dividing into West and East Baltic languages. Proto-Baltic is thought to have been a fusional language and is associated with the Corded Ware and Trzciniec cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Name of Lithuania</span>

The first known record of the name of Lithuania recorded in the Quedlinburg Chronicle in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno. The Chronicle recorded in the form Litua. Although it is clear the name originated from a Baltic language, scholars still debate the meaning of the word.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Baltic culture</span> Prehistoric culture in northern Europe

The Western Baltic culture was the westernmost branch of the Balts, representing a distinct archaeological culture of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. It is a zone of several small archaeological cultures that were ethnically Baltic and had similar cultural features. They included tribes such as the Old Prussians, Galindians, Yotvingians and Skalvians, in addition to the little-known Pomeranian Balts or Western Balts proper, in the area now known as Pomerania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Baltic languages</span> Branch of Baltic languages

The West Baltic languages are a group of extinct Baltic languages that were spoken by West Baltic peoples. West Baltic is one of the two primary branches of Baltic languages, along with East Baltic. It includes Old Prussian, Sudovian, West Galindian, possibly Skalvian and Old Curonian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre</span>

The Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre is a Lithuanian publishing house that specializes in encyclopedias, reference works, and dictionaries. The Institute, headquartered in Vilnius, is supported by the Lithuanian Republic's Ministry of Education and Science.

Baltistics, also referred to as Baltic studies, is a multidisciplinary study of the language and culture of the Baltic nations. Baltistics by its subject splits into Lithuanistics, Latvistics, Prussistics, etc. Special attention is paid to the language studies, especially to the reconstruction of the Proto-Baltic language, which some linguists have argued is the same as the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, while others have believed that the Proto-Slavic language has formed out of from the Proto-Baltic peripheral-type dialects. Currently there are about 30 centres of Baltistics, most of them based in Europe, the University of Vilnius considered to be the most active centre.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Zinkevičius 2022.
  2. 1 2 Gimbutas 1963, p. 28.
  3. Gimbutas 1963, p. 29.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Toporov 1972.
  5. Fortson 2004, pp. 378–379.
  6. Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 49.
  7. Girininkas 2009, pp. 196–197.
  8. Girininkas 2009.
  9. 1 2 3 Vitkūnas & Zabiela 2017, p. 25.
  10. Vitkūnas & Zabiela 2017, p. 36.
  11. Franklin, Simon; Shepard, Jonathan (2014-06-06). The Emergence of Russia 750–1200. Routledge. p. 101. ISBN   978-1-317-87224-5.
  12. Tretyakov, P.N. (1970). Славяне и Балты в Верхнем Поднепровье в середине и третьей четверти I тыс. н.э. [Slavs and Balts in the Upper Dnieper region in the middle and third quarter of the 1st millennium AD] (in Russian). pp. 52–67. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014.

Sources

See also