Jadowniki
29 Dec 2014
History / Origins of Polish Slavs [138]
In order to understand the origins of poles, one must break down the origins of the slavs. This is very hard, as slavs come into Roman sources only by the late date of 518 A.D. Slavs are a people of mystery.The most common theory is that the slavic people originated in the Northern Ukraine around the pripet marshes. This theory comes from the linguistic study, that shows that while many slavic words for Beech and oak trees are germanic loanwords, the word for hornbeam, the indigenous species of the area has a shared slavic origin. While this theory is very likely, and is backed by other studies, it has also met with difficulty. Baltic tribes are show to have inhabited the area, as shown by the place names of the area and river names. It is possible that slavs lived alongside baltic tribes, or the slavs formed from a mixture of Baltics from the north, and sarmations in the forest-steppe zone to the south. This zone of ethnic mixing would create a cultural identity that would soon become distnict, yet with certain similarities with Baltic and sarmation peoples.
The archeology shows that slavic migrations spread out from the western ukraine to other parts of europe, spreading the more eglatarian culture across eastern europe. Slavs spread down to the danube, south of the carpathians, and east into more central ukraine. The first slavic sub-culture to enter Poland north of the carpathians was called the Mogiła group. It spread across south eastern poland, replacing the scant remains of germanic populations that had left the area in the wake of the hun invasions. These slavs assimilated any remaining germans and formed a strong slavic presence in south east in what is know Małopolska and Podkarpackie. Slavic culture would also spread to central poland, while slavic expansion into North western poland was a bit slower, with scattered depopulated germanic tribes living in the area which would later be absorbed into slavic populations. North east poland, was at this time inhabited by western baltic cultures, but signs of mixing between slavic and baltic cultures would be seen in the following centuries.
As we see, Poland is a slavic nation, with distant germanic mixing in the north west (Pomerania), and Balts in the North east. The populations of South east poland and east central poland are the most slavonic, as shown by genetic testing, Where the highest groupings of r1a1 is found around krakow, rzeszow, Lublin and Warsaw regions. Thus is were the Mogiła group is present. Celtic influences exist in the south west. Thus we see through out early polish history, slavic tribes migrated to poland in the 6th century, assimilating smaller ethnic groups into their body resulting in some mixture. While this mixture occered ro an extent, it must be realized that the scattered germanic tribes living in poland were assimilated and became, in all sense of the word, slavs, by the overwhelming slavic ethnic population.
There is also a theory of the scythian sarmation origins of the polist nations. While I believe that this was exaggerated by the Polish szlachta, there is some truth to this. I do believe that slavs and sarmations in the earliest stage could have been related as well. This is shown by the similarities of sarmation cult symbols and polish coat of arms, and also by the settlemen of sarmations tribe in parts of east poland.
Throughout the centuries, Poland would be shown to be extremely multi-ethnic. Numerous populations would settle in poland and become polonized. The tatars from the central asian steppes would settle in polish lithuania, and soon 300,000 thousand would live in poland. Thus many poles have distant turkic heritage. Jews, armenians, germans and Scots also migrated to poland in large numbers, and in the earlier middle ages and during the deluge in the 1600s, northern poland was influenced by scandinavians. In addition, due to poland expansion to the east, many poles are mixed with ukrainians, belorussian and Lithuanian descent even if they are unaware. Eastern slav presence is very heavy in poles along the eastern borders. The carpathian region has seen mixture with vlachs and hungarians. Thus we see, from the most ancient of times, to more recent history, our people have been primarily unified by a cultural identity as poles, and not a exclusively ethnic one. Poland is slavic no question, but we have mixed alot. The reselt of being in a tolerant and exepting society like ours;)
Lech Czech and Rus. While this legend is a result of romantic myths, it has grains of truth. Actually the legend would support the historical evidence is archeology. It is possible that there could have been tribal divisions aamongst slavs, for example, lech could have been the name of a certain slavic tribal dynasty. The same for rus and czech.
In order to understand the origins of poles, one must break down the origins of the slavs. This is very hard, as slavs come into Roman sources only by the late date of 518 A.D. Slavs are a people of mystery.The most common theory is that the slavic people originated in the Northern Ukraine around the pripet marshes. This theory comes from the linguistic study, that shows that while many slavic words for Beech and oak trees are germanic loanwords, the word for hornbeam, the indigenous species of the area has a shared slavic origin. While this theory is very likely, and is backed by other studies, it has also met with difficulty. Baltic tribes are show to have inhabited the area, as shown by the place names of the area and river names. It is possible that slavs lived alongside baltic tribes, or the slavs formed from a mixture of Baltics from the north, and sarmations in the forest-steppe zone to the south. This zone of ethnic mixing would create a cultural identity that would soon become distnict, yet with certain similarities with Baltic and sarmation peoples.
The archeology shows that slavic migrations spread out from the western ukraine to other parts of europe, spreading the more eglatarian culture across eastern europe. Slavs spread down to the danube, south of the carpathians, and east into more central ukraine. The first slavic sub-culture to enter Poland north of the carpathians was called the Mogiła group. It spread across south eastern poland, replacing the scant remains of germanic populations that had left the area in the wake of the hun invasions. These slavs assimilated any remaining germans and formed a strong slavic presence in south east in what is know Małopolska and Podkarpackie. Slavic culture would also spread to central poland, while slavic expansion into North western poland was a bit slower, with scattered depopulated germanic tribes living in the area which would later be absorbed into slavic populations. North east poland, was at this time inhabited by western baltic cultures, but signs of mixing between slavic and baltic cultures would be seen in the following centuries.
As we see, Poland is a slavic nation, with distant germanic mixing in the north west (Pomerania), and Balts in the North east. The populations of South east poland and east central poland are the most slavonic, as shown by genetic testing, Where the highest groupings of r1a1 is found around krakow, rzeszow, Lublin and Warsaw regions. Thus is were the Mogiła group is present. Celtic influences exist in the south west. Thus we see through out early polish history, slavic tribes migrated to poland in the 6th century, assimilating smaller ethnic groups into their body resulting in some mixture. While this mixture occered ro an extent, it must be realized that the scattered germanic tribes living in poland were assimilated and became, in all sense of the word, slavs, by the overwhelming slavic ethnic population.
There is also a theory of the scythian sarmation origins of the polist nations. While I believe that this was exaggerated by the Polish szlachta, there is some truth to this. I do believe that slavs and sarmations in the earliest stage could have been related as well. This is shown by the similarities of sarmation cult symbols and polish coat of arms, and also by the settlemen of sarmations tribe in parts of east poland.
Throughout the centuries, Poland would be shown to be extremely multi-ethnic. Numerous populations would settle in poland and become polonized. The tatars from the central asian steppes would settle in polish lithuania, and soon 300,000 thousand would live in poland. Thus many poles have distant turkic heritage. Jews, armenians, germans and Scots also migrated to poland in large numbers, and in the earlier middle ages and during the deluge in the 1600s, northern poland was influenced by scandinavians. In addition, due to poland expansion to the east, many poles are mixed with ukrainians, belorussian and Lithuanian descent even if they are unaware. Eastern slav presence is very heavy in poles along the eastern borders. The carpathian region has seen mixture with vlachs and hungarians. Thus we see, from the most ancient of times, to more recent history, our people have been primarily unified by a cultural identity as poles, and not a exclusively ethnic one. Poland is slavic no question, but we have mixed alot. The reselt of being in a tolerant and exepting society like ours;)
Lech Czech and Rus. While this legend is a result of romantic myths, it has grains of truth. Actually the legend would support the historical evidence is archeology. It is possible that there could have been tribal divisions aamongst slavs, for example, lech could have been the name of a certain slavic tribal dynasty. The same for rus and czech.