Severians

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Severians

The Severians or Severyans or Siverians were a tribe or tribal union of Early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper river

Dnieper River

The Dnieper River , is one of the major rivers in Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea. Its total length is , of which lie within Russia, within Belarus, and within Ukraine....
around the rivers Desna, Sejm

Seym River

Seym is a river in Russia and Ukraine. Its length is 748 km and its basin area about 27,500 km?. It is the largest tributary of the Desna .Towns located on the river: Kursk, Rylsk, Putyvl, Kurchatov, Russia....
and Sula

Sula River

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The Severians or Severyans or Siverians were a tribe or tribal union of Early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper river

Dnieper River

Seym River

Sula River

The Sula River is a left tributary of the Dnieper River with a total length of 365 km and a drainage basin of 19,600 km?.The river flows into the Dnieper through the Kremenchuk Reservoir, with which it forms a large river delta with numerous islands, on which rare kinds of birds live....
on the territory of the archaeological Romny culture.

The Etymology of the name of Severians is controversial. Though it is similar to the Russian word for "north" (sever), the severians never were the northernmost tribe of Slavs. More probable is that the name is of Iranian (sarmathian tribe of "Seuer", from Iranian "seu" = black) or Turkic origin (a part of Huns). Alternatively, the name may be derived from a Proto-Slavic word for "family member", compare serbs
Serbs

Serbs are a South Slavs people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia....
. The modern names are ?i?????? in Ukrainian

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic languages of the Slavic languages. It is the official language of Ukraine. In some areas of Russia there are dialects, Balachka or Surzhyk, which are the Ukrainianized versions of the Russian language....
and ???????? in Russian

Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
.

Their neighbours were the tribes of Viatich

Vyatichs

The Vyatichs or more properly Vyatichi or Viatichi were a tribe of Early East Slavs who inhabited a part of the Oka River drainage basin....
and Radimich

Radimichs

The Radimichs , were a tribe of Early East Slavs of the last few centuries of the 1st millennium, which inhabited upper east parts of the Dnieper down the Sozh River and its tributaries....
in the north, and the Derevlian and Polian

Polans

In the Early Middle Ages there were two separate Slavs tribes bearing the name of Polans:* Polans , living in the area of Dnieper river* Polans , living in the area of Warta....
tribes in the west. The eastern and southern borders of the tribe's habitat were never permanent and would sometimes reach the upper reaches of the Seversky Donets

Seversky Donets

The river Seversky Donets , tributary the Don River, Russia. It originates in Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine and then into Russia again to join the Don River, Russia in the Rostov Oblast below Konstantinovsk, about 100 km from the Sea of Azov....
.

Their existence as a political unit can be proven for the 8th to 11th century and thought to be sprang from the Krivichi

Krivich

The Krivichi was one of the tribe unions of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 12th centuries. They inhabited the upper reaches of the Volga, Dnieper, Western Dvina, areas south of the lower reaches of river Velikaya and parts of the Neman River drainage basin....
. They had to pay tribute to the Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th to the 10th century CE. The name 'Khazar' seems to be tied to a Turkic languages verb form meaning "wandering"....
in the 8th and 9th century, were annexed by Oleg of Novgorod

Oleg of Novgorod

Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus during the early tenth century. He is credited with moving the capital of Kievan Rus' from Novgorod the Great to Kiev and, in doing so, laid the foundation for the powerful state of Kievan Rus....
to the Kiev state together with the Polans

Polans (eastern)

The Polans were a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 9th century, which inhabited both sides of the Dnieper river from Liubech to Rodnia and also down the lower streams of the rivers Ros' River, Sula River, Stuhna, Teteriv River, Irpin' River, Desna and Pripyat River....
in the late 9th century, and participated in Oleg's campaign

Rus'-Byzantine War (907)

The Rus'-Byzantine War of 907 is associated in the Primary Chronicle with the name of Oleg of Novgorod. The chronicle implies that it was the most successful military operation of the Rus against the Byzantine Empire....
against Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
in 907. Finally they became part of the Grand Principality of Chernigov. The last reference to them stems from 1024. For subsequent history of the region, see Severia

Severia

Severia is a historical region in present-day northern Ukraine and southwestern Russia, centered around the city of Novhorod-Siverskyi , located on the border of Russia and Ukraine....
(whose name is derived from "Severians").

They are mentioned especially by Geographus Bavarus (9th century, "Zeriuani"), by Constantine VII

Constantine VII

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" , was the son of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise and his fourth wife Zoe Karbonopsina....
Porphyrogennetos, by the khazar

Khazars

Khagan

Khagan or Great Khan , is a title of empire rank in the Turkic languages and Mongolian language languages equal to the status of emperor and someone who rules a Khaganate ....
Joseph (c. 960) and by the Primary Chronicle

Primary Chronicle

The Primary Chronicle , or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113....
.

The principal cities of the Severians were Chernigov (modern Chernihiv), Kursk

Kursk

Kursk is a city in the western part of Central Russia, at the confluence of the Kur River , Tuskar River, and Seym River rivers. It is the administrative center of Kursk Oblast....
, Novgorod-Seversky (modern Novhorod-Siverskyi) and others. Archaeologists also found numerous rural settlements of the 8th - 10th centuries, inhabited by the Severians, and burial mounds with cremated

Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic Chemical element in the form of bone fragments through flame, heat, and vaporization....
bodies. The Severians were mostly engaged in agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
, cattle breeding and different handicraft

Handicraft

Handicraft, also known as craftwork or simply craft, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or using only simple tools....
s.

Part of the Severians also migrated to the south-west and settled in the areas of the southern Pannonian plain

Pannonian Plain

The Pannonian Plain is a large plain in Central Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried out. It is a geomorphology subsystem of the Alpide belt....
(the Banat

Banat

The Banat is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in Romania , the western part in Serbia , and a small northern part in Hungary ....
region) and southern Carpathians

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc of roughly 1,500 km across Central Europe and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe....
. The Severin region of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary , which existed from 1000 to 1918, and then from 1920 to 1946, was a considerable state in Central Europe....
situated in south-eastern Banat was named after Severians. Another branch of Severians also settled in the territory of present-day north-eastern Bulgaria

Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
.