Читать «Славяне в древности» онлайн - страница 299

The prehistory of Slavs is characterized in the chapter «Ancient Europeans» (p. 95). It begins with the timepoint of the 2nd millennium B.C. when the Central European community of Urnfleld cultures existed. It is identified with Ancient Europeans of H.Krahe — an ethnolinguistic community, which united a big group of tribes speaking similar ancient Indo- European dialects. In the late 2nd — first half of the 1st millennium B.C. Celts, Italics, Venets, lUirians, Germanians, Western Balts and Slavs appeared from this conglomeration.

The question of Slavs’ formation is considered in details in the next chapter (p. 136). Slavs as a separate ethnos were being formed about the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. on the basis of Lusatian (Lausitz) culture, which belonged to the Central European community of Umfield cultures. Podkloszove Burials cul¬ture (Middle and Upper Vistula with Right- bank Oder) was the first Slavonic one.

The 3rd and the 2nd centuries B.C. are the period of close contacts between Slavs and Celts («Slavs and Celts», p. 149). Celts, that migrated into the Slav territory in contempo¬rary Poiand, influenced upon the development of agriculture, crafts and culture of Slavs great¬ly. The pottery-making, metallurgy and metal¬working which reached the highest level in Southern Poland during Roman epoch, were the heritage of Celts. As a result of contacts between Slavs and Celts the Przeworsk culture appeared.«Slavs m Przeworsk culture» (p. 166). The territory of Slavs in the late La-Тёпе and Ro¬man time was not isolated. Several migrations of Germanians into the environment of Slavs are observed archaeologically. The territory of Przevorsk culture expands to the south-east (Upper Dniester, Volyn’) and to the south (northern-eastern Slovakia). The two regions of this culture are distinguished — the Vistula region (where Slavs dominated) and the Oder one (where Germanians were also numerous). The Slavonic language underwent some con¬siderable changes in the spheres of phonetics, grammar and vocabulary.«Zambintsy culture» (p. 201). As far as in the 3rd/2nd centuries B.C. a part .of the po¬pulation of the Podkloszove Burials culture and the Pomorye culture settled in the Pripyat’ basin, Mid die Dnieper and part of Upper Dnieper. As a result of their contacts with the local tribes of Milograd culture and Scythian Forest-Steppe cultures, the Zarybintsy culture was formed. The ethnic identity of its popula¬tion is not clear. Most probably, those people were close both to Slavs and to Western Balts by their language. Later the Zarubintsy popu¬lation moved to the northern regions, mostly to the Desna basin (Pochep culture) and Upper Oka (Moshchiny culture), and some separate groups in the south joined the Chemiakhov culture.

«Migration of Goths to the North Pontic Area» (p. 222). In the last decades of the 2nd century A.D. a movement of a great mass of population from the Lower Vistula region to¬wards south under the leadership of Goths took place. The most part of it settled in Mazovja, Podlasie and Volyn’ (Wielbark culture),, but a part moved further — to the western part of North Pontic Area, where the basis of future Gothia was laid. The second wave of migrants under the leadership of Goths dates back to the middle of the 3rd century. Some large groups of the migrants settled at those times between Dniester and Lower Dnieper, and some little ones — widely within the Chenn- akhov territory.