Dregoviches

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Iron axe and a fire striker attributed to the Dregoviches. Also a variety of male and female costume accessories: belt buckles, bracelets, beads and other jewelry. State Historical Museum of Russia

File:Slavic peoples 9c map.jpg

The Slavs in the 9th century

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European territory inhabited by East Slavic tribes in 8th and 9th centuries.

The Dregoviches, also called the Dregovichi,Template:Efn were an East Slavic tribal union.<ref name="Skutsch">Template:Cite book</ref> They inhabited the territories along the lower Pripyat River and the northern parts of the right bank of the Dnieper River (more exact extents of the tribe's domain are still unknown).

EtymologyEdit

The name of the tribe most probably derives from the Proto-Slavic word "*drъgъva" (found only in Southern Belarusian as "dregva" and Northern Ukrainian as "dragva, dryagva", which is a loanword from Baltic languages "dreguva" meaning 'swamp'), because the Dregoviches used to live in the marshlands.<ref name="Komatina2019">Template:Cite book</ref> Linguists consider that they are "undoubtedly" related to a South Slavic tribe with a similar name, Drougoubitai.<ref name="Komatina2019"/><ref>Трубачев О. Н. Ранние славянские этнонимы — свидетели миграции славян // Вопр. языкознания. 1974. № 6. С. 52-53</ref>

HistoryEdit

The first known reference to the Dregoviches is in the Primary Chronicle, where they are listed among the 12 tribes. However, there is a reference in the De Administrando Imperio of Constantine Porphyrogenitus to "δρουγουβίται", "Drougoubitai".<ref name=efron>Template:Cite Efron</ref> Since the reference appears in a passage describing the "Druguvitai" as one of the Slavic peoples who pay tribute to the princes of Kievan Rus', and they are named alongside the Severians and Krivichians, it was suggested these are the same people as the Dregoviches. By the 12th century, they were assimilated into the main East Slavic peoples.

The chronicles do not tell historians much about the Dregoviches. We only know that they had their own princely rule in the city of Turov. In the 10th century, the lands of the Dregoviches became a part of Kievan Rus and later the Turov Principality. The northwestern part of the land of the Dregoviches became a part of the Polotsk Principality.

NotesEdit

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SourcesEdit

De Administrando Imperio of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, ed. R.J. Jenkins, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies (1967)

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist Template:Slavic ethnic groups (VII-XII century)

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