Dnepr-Balts

Eastern Europe 3rd – 4th Century. Baltic cultures (gray-purple) with the limits of frequent (double band) and sporadic (colon-dash band) occurrence of Baltic hydronyms . From west to east: West Baltic tumulus culture , line pottery culture , Dnepr-Dvina culture , Moschtschiny culture and Moscow culture (hatched). Green: Finno-Ugric cultures , ocher: Slavic early Prague-Korchak culture (lighter, according to recent research probably more widespread) and Kiev culture (darker ocher). Black writing: Iranian tribes , gray writing: other cultures and tribes with expansion of the Goths (gray) and Huns (brown arrow). Map of the Lomonosov University Linguarium project .

The Dnepr-Balts (English Dnieper Balts ) were Baltic tribes not known by name on the upper reaches of the Dnepr and in adjacent areas in today's Ukraine and Russia from about the 1st millennium BC. BC to 10th century AD

The name is hypothetical and goes back to studies in which a total of about 800 hydronyms of Baltic or Baltic-Slavic origin by the Russian scientists Vladimir Toporow and Oleg Trubachev were carried out on the upper reaches of the Dnepr in 1962 . could be determined. Studies by the Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Būga and the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas confirmed this.

The Dnepr Balts may have emerged from the Indo-European funnel beaker culture , which spread to the east into the Finno-Ugric region of the comb pottery culture and formed the Fatjanowo-Balanowo culture there .

The Baltic Dnepr-Dvina culture (8th century BC - 4th century AD), the subsequent Tuschemlja culture (4th - 7th century), the neighboring one to the east , were archaeologically identified on the upper Dnieper Juchino culture (7th century BC - 1st century AD) and the subsequent Moschtschiny culture (5th - 7th century) established.

Since the 8th century Slavic tribes invaded from the south ( Kolotschin culture , Vyatich ) and displaced or integrated the Baltic tribes. In the 10th century this process seems to have been largely completed. The possibly Baltic tribe of the Golyad (Eastern Galindians ) could be a remnant of the Dnieper Baltic tribes.

The Gothic names Danapir for the Dnepr and Danapirstadir (= Danapir city ) for Kiev are of Indo-European origin .

literature

• Marija Gimbutas : The Balts . Herbig, Munich 1983. ISBN 3-7766-1266-5 . on-line

Remarks

1. ↑ In a slightly enlarged and modified version to be found here on the Linguarium website .
2. ↑ WN Toporow, ON Trubachev: Лингвистический анализ гидронимов Верхнего Поднепровья ( Linguistic analysis of the hydronyms on the Upper Dnepr ). Moscow, 1962, 270 pp.