Novgorod Slavs

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Jewellery of Novgorod Slovenes

The Novgorod Slavs, Slovenes or Ilmen Slavs (Russian: Ильменские слове́не, Il'menskiye slovene) were the northernmost tribe of the Early East Slavs, which inhabited the shores of Lake Ilmen and the basin of the rivers of Volkhov, Lovat, Msta, and the upper stream of the Mologa River in the 8th to 10th centuries. The Slovenes were native to the region around Novgorod.^[1] There is a belief among researchers that Novgorod is one of the regions that are the original home / Urheimat of Russians and Slavic tribes.^[2]

Like all Eastern Slavs in Russian lands or in today's Russia the Ilmen Slavs had own characteristics. Ancestors of the Ilmen Slavs who settled in Finnic areas were coming from the Severians and the Polabian Slavs as evident by language and traditions (see old Novgorod dialect and Gostomysl for examples). They settled mostly Finnic areas in Northern Russia, moving along the major waterways, until they met the southward expansion of the Krivich in the modern-day Yaroslavl Oblast.^[3]

They left a few archaeological monuments of the 6th–8th centuries, such as agricultural settlements and tall cone-like kurgans with cremated bodies in the Ladoga region. The most ancient settlement is dated to the 7th or 8th century. Numerous archaeological finds, such as a metal tip for a wooden plough, indicate that the Ilmen Slavs had a well-developed agriculture.

They were not a particularly warlike state, but evidence of their unique weaponry, dated back to mid-8th century, has been found around the city of Novgorod. The weaponry consisted of spears, maces, swords, bows, javelins and even some war hammers. It appears that they fought aggressive warfare designed to push their enemies out of their lands, rather than destroy them utterly.^{[citation needed]}

The principal cities of the Ilmen Slavs were Staraya Russa and Novgorod, the center of the Novgorod Republic, which had developed in the 9th–10th centuries. The Ilmen Slavs eventually fell under the domain of the Kievan Rus'.^[3]

See also[]

• List of medieval Slavic tribes

References[]