From: george knysh
Message: 64261
Date: 2009-06-25
--- On Thu, 6/25/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
How would you account for the movement of Croats from Tanais to Southern Slavland?
****GK: My view is that defensive set-ups ("croatias") were organized by th Avars along their northern borders (in the Carpathians and beyond) against the looming Turkic threat. The leading elements were imported from the east and settled among Slavs. Their ethnicity is open to debate: you can try etymologizing the names of the rulers' ancestors from the account in Constantine Porphyrogenitus. After the crisis of the 630's some of these "Croats" moved south. Many however remained north and subsequently fused with Czechs, Poles, and Ukrainians.****
When? The communis opinio of Slavic infiltration in the 6th-7th centuries has no archaelogical match-up.
****GK: I haven't studied the archaeology except for Bulgaria and Greece, which is ample. But the historical documentation seems sufficient.****