This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic
ethnicity in south-eastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700,
from the perspective of current anthropological theories. The
conceptual emphasis here is on the relation between material
culture and ethnicity. The author demonstrates that the
history of the Sclavenes and the Antes begins only at around
500 AD. He also points to the significance of the
archaeological evidence, which suggests that specific
artifacts may have been used as identity markers. This
evidence also indicates the role of local leaders in building
group boundaries and in leading successful raids across the
Danube. Because of these military and political developments,
Byzantine authors began employing names such as Sclavines and
Antes in order to make sense of the process of group
identification that was taking place north of the Danube
frontier. Slavic ethnicity is therefore shown to be a
Byzantine invention.
http://titles.cambridge.org/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521802024