Everything about Slavic Settlement Of Eastern Alps totally explained
Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps region is a theory which most historians said was a historic process that took place between the
6th and
9th century AD, having culminated in the final quarter of the
6th century. However, some other academics said that the
Slovenes were actually indigenous people of the
Eastern Alps; this is called the
Veneti Theory.
Slavic migrations
The migration of
Slavic peoples from their
homeland began in late
4th century, as
Germanic peoples started moving into the territory of the
Roman Empire, following the
Hunnic invasion into the Eastern Europe. Slavs originally followed the Germanic peoples and later settled in the empty territories which the Germanic peoples had deserted.
The archeological evidence of Slavic migrations is the Prague-Penkiv-Kolochina complex.
According to the prevailing views, the first phase of Slavic settlement in the Eastern Alps region is dated around the year
550 and originated in the area of modern
Moravia (for example, the West Slavic speaking branch). From there Slavs moved southward into the territory of the former Roman province of
Noricum (modern
Upper and
Lower Austria regions). Subsequently, they progressed along the valleys of Alpine rivers towards the
Karawanken range and towards the settlement of Poetovio (modern
Ptuj). An important evidence of Slavic advances is the progressive decline of ancient Christian dioceses in the respective areas. In Poetovio, the decline of the local diocese is recorded before
577.
The second phase of Slavic settlement came from the south and took place after the retreat of
Langobards into Northern Italy in
568. Slavs eventually settled the depopulated territory, advancing with the help of their
Avar overlords. In
588 they reached the area of the Upper
Sava river and in
591 they arrived to the Upper
Drava region where they soon fought with the Bavarians who were led by king
Tassilo I. In
592 the Bavarians won, but in
595 the Slavic-Avar army gained victory and thus consolidated the boundary between the
Frankish and
Avar territories.
From
600 to the
8th century Slavs settled the entire
Karst area up to the
Friulan plain, having thus formed an ethnic boundary between the Slavic and Romance territories which has largely remained into modern days.
The attempt by Slavs to penetrate westward into
Friuli probably ended after they'd been defeated by the
Langobards at Lauriana, in
720.
Relations among Slavic settlers and aboriginal population
After settling in the Eastern Alps region, Slavs subsequently subjugated the aboriginal Romanised population which had dwelt in the territory of the former
Noricum province and in its cities. In late antiquity, the aboriginal population evaded Slavic settlers by moving into remote and elevated places, usually hills, where they built fortifications (an example is the Rifnik hill near modern
Celje). However, recent archeological research shows that even certain well-fortified cities in the lower areas managed to protect themselves from the invaders. Part of the aboriginal population escaped into Italy and the cities along the
Adriatic coast. Many aborigines were enslaved by the Slavs (an old Slavic term for slaves was
krščenik, meaning
a Christian, as the aborigines were Christians), some, however, assimilated with Slavs and thus enriched their culture.
Slavs referred to the Romanised aborigines as
Vlahi or
Lahi. Certain place names in modern Slovenia, such as
Laško, Laški rovt, and others, bear witness to this. Also a number of river names in modern Slovenia, like
Sava,
Drava,
Soča, as well as the geographic name
Carniola (Slovenian
Kranjska) were adopted from the Romanised aborigines. In addition, Slavs learnt more advanced techniques of farming and metallurgy from the aboriginal population.
Disputed theories
In the
1980s, a group centred around three Slovenian, doctorate in socio economic Sciences
Jožko Šavli, the famous poet
Matej Bor and priest
Ivan Tomažič, developed an alternative theory on the origins of Slovenian
ethnogenesis, which became known as the
Venetic theory (Slovenian:
Venetska teorija). According to their views, the Slavic invasions of the 6th century never happened and the modern Slovenes were the direct descendants of an ancient pre-Roman Slavic-speaking people which according to their theory inhabited most of
Central Europe since at least the 13th century B.C. They called this people "Veneti", a supposedly common historical denominations for numerous peoples, such as the
Adriatic Veneti, the
Vistula Veneti, the
Rhaetians, and the
Pannonians. According to the Venetic theory, all these peoples were in fact Slavic speaking tribes of a common nation called
*Sloveneti (the term is a contrived combination of the ethnonym
Veneti and Slovenians' self-appellation
Slovenci), and whom the Latin and Greek sources abbreviated to simply Veneti. According to the theory, most of them eventually lost their original language, which was however kept by the modern Slovenians and
Western Slavs. In this view, there has been a basic continuity in the Central European rural settlement since 1300 B.C. to the present day. In the views of the authors of the Venetic theory, the notion of a Slavic invasion of the Eastern Alpine region in the 6th century was a fabrication, created by competing
romantic nationalist ideologies in the mid
19th century.
This theory was completely rejected by some academic historians. A number of Slovenian and foreign scholars insist that it's wrong. They believe that besides being factually unsustainable, it has been shown that it was based on faulty methodology (see Štih 1997, Skrbiš 2006), akin to various
Protochronist theories.
Differently from some claims advanced by the authors of the Venetic theory, the theory of the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps in the 6th century is the prevailing view in the academia. Despite the existence of some discrepancies and numerous opened issues, a firm consensus on the essential elements has been reached. The prevailing view on the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps is based mostly on evidence deduced from archeological remains (many of which have been discovered only recently due to the extensive highway constructions in Slovenia), ethnographic traces (patterns of rural settlement and land cultivation), as well as on the ascertainments of historical linguistics (including toponymy). Besides, it's fully confirmed by the relatively few available contemporary mentions and early historical sources (such as
Paulus Diaconus).
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