The Neuri or Navari (Ancient Greek : Νευροὶ, romanized: Neuroi; Latin : Neuri) were an ancient Slavic or Baltic people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.
The Neuri or Navari (Ancient Greek : Νευροὶ, romanized: Neuroi; Latin : Neuri) were an ancient Slavic or Baltic people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.
The Neuri belonged to a group of northern European peoples of unknown origin, but most researches propose an ethnic group ancestral to the Slavic, Baltic or larger Balto-Slavic peoples. [1] [2]
The Neuri lived in the region corresponding to present-day Belarus, [3] in the territory including the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers. To the south, the territory of the Neuri reached the upper section of the Southern Buh river. [4]
The neighbours of the Neuri to the east of the Dnieper river were the Androphagi, the Melanchlaeni, [5] and the Budini as well as Finno-Ugric peoples. [6] Their neighbours were the Agathyrsi to the south-west, [4] and the Scythian [3] tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east. [4] [7]
The Neuri were independent of the Scythians. [5]
According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the Neuri once had to leave their country because of an invasion of snakes. [8]
When the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I attacked the Scythians in 513 BC, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned the kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a meeting to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The kings of the Budini, Gelonians and Sarmatians accepted to help the Scythians against the Persian attack, while the kings of the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, and Tauri refused to support the Scythians. [9]
During the campaign, the Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with the Persians pursuing them. [10] [9]
The Neuri may have left traces of their presence in the region of the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers in the form of Baltic-derived hydronyms and typonyms which pre-date the migration of Slavic peoples into this area. [4] However, the presumed etymology of the tribal name, as well as other linguistic evidence, suggests that their legacy may be continued in the Slavic zone. [11]
According to the Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the Neuri followed Scythian customs. This claim might have referred only to the southernmost sections of the Neuri, who were neighbours of the Scythian Aroteres tribe. [4]
Herodotus also claimed that the Neuri "seemed to be magicians," and that all members of their tribe would allegedly each year transform themselves into wolves for some days before being restored to their human form. [7] This might suggest that the Neuri performed cults in which they wore wolf skins and masks, and that the wolf might have been a totem animal of this tribe. [8]
The Neuri archaeologically correspond to the Milograd culture. [4] [7]
The southernmost of part of the Milograd culture, which adjoined the territory of the Scythian Aroteres, included many Scythian elements. [4]
The Androphagi were an ancient Scythian tribe whose existence was recorded by ancient Greco-Roman authors.
The Scythians or Scyths in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia, where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC.
The Cimmerians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe, part of whom subsequently migrated into West Asia. Although the Cimmerians were culturally Scythian, they formed an ethnic unit separate from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related and who displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.
The Agathyrsi were an ancient people belonging to the Scythian cultures who lived in the Transylvanian Plateau, in the region that later became Dacia. The Agathyrsi are largely known from Herodotus of Halicarnassus's description of them in the 5th century BC.
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.
The Massagetae or Massageteans, also known as Sakā tigraxaudā or Orthocorybantians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian Saka people who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia and were part of the wider Scythian cultures. The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they started a series of events with wide-reaching consequences by expelling the Scythians out of Central Asia and into the Caucasian and Pontic Steppes. The Massagetae are most famous for their queen Tomyris's alleged defeating and killing of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
The Spali was an ancient tribe mentioned in classical geography that inhabited the south of today's Ukraine.
The Melanchlaeni, also known as the Saudaratae, were an ancient Scythian tribe whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.
The Sigynnae were an obscure nomadic people of antiquity belonging to the Scythian cultures who lived in the region corresponding to parts of present-day Hungary.
Madyes was a Scythian king who ruled during the period of the Scythian presence in West Asia in the 7th century BCE.
The Budini were an ancient Scythian tribe whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.
The Gelonians or Geloni were an ancient Scythian people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.
Scythia or Scythica was a geographic region defined in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that encompassed the Pontic–Caspian steppe. It was inhabited by Scythians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people.
The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Scythian cultures, a collection of closely related ancient Iranian peoples who inhabited Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe throughout Classical Antiquity, spoke the Scythian language, and which included the Scythians proper, the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Sindi, the Massagetae and the Saka.
The Treres were a Thracian tribe, of whom a part invaded Anatolia in the 7th century BCE, while another part lived in Thrace and Illyria.
Bartatua or Protothyes was a Scythian king who ruled during the period of the Scythian presence in Western Asia in the 7th century BCE.
The Scythian campaign of Darius I was a military expedition into parts of European Scythia by Darius I, the king of the Achaemenid Empire, in 513 BC. The Scythians were an East Iranian-speaking people who had invaded Media, revolted against Darius and threatened to disrupt trade between Central Asia and the shores of the Black Sea as they lived between the Danube and Don Rivers and the Black Sea. The campaigns took place in parts of what is now the Balkans, Ukraine, and southern Russia.
The Scythian culture was an Iron Age archaeological culture which flourished on the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe from about 700 BC to 200 AD. It is associated with the Scythians, Cimmerians, and other peoples inhabiting the region of Scythia, and was part of the wider Scytho-Siberian world.
