Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochin, c. 450–700

Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochin

In the 5th–7th centuries cultures of small villages with semi-sunken houses, hand-made pottery and cremation burials spread across the forest-steppe and Polesia — the first archaeological cultures whose Slavic character is generally accepted.

Date

c. 450 – c. 700year known, approximate · duration: ≈ 250 years

Place

Korchak on the Teterivtoday: Korchak, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine · Eastern Europe

Participants

Antes, East Slavs

Threads

Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)

Also known as

Prague culture; Korchak culture; Penkovka culture; Kolochin culture; Пражская культура; Пеньковская культура; Колочинская культура

Archaeologists distinguish three related groups. The Prague-Korchak culture, named after finds at Prague and at Korchak near Zhytomyr, stretched from the Elbe to the Middle Dnieper and is usually linked with the Sclaveni of Byzantine writers; the Penkovka culture of the forest-steppe from the Dniester to the Seversky Donets is identified with the Antes; the Kolochin culture of the upper Dnieper and the Desna grew out of the Desna variant of the Kyiv culture.

The Penkovka and Kolochin cultures took shape in the second quarter to the middle of the 5th century, after the Hunnic invasion had broken up the Chernyakhov and Kyiv cultures, while the Prague culture spread in the 5th century from its core in Polesia; all lasted into the 7th century. Villages of 8–20 households without fortifications or rich graves reflect a society of small farming communities, whose migrations spread the Slavs across much of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Some scholars (notably Florin Curta) warn against equating pottery types with peoples. The dates are archaeological.

Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochin

Connections

Causes and preconditions

Related events

Same participants

Meanwhile in the world

Western and Central Europe

Balkans and Anatolia

Africa

The same period

Sources