Antes (people)

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The Antes were an ancient tribal union in Eastern Europe who lived north of the lower Danube and the Black Sea in the 6th and 7th century AD and who are associated with the archaeological Pen'kovo culture.

[edit] Historiography

Procopius and Jordannes mention the Antes as one of three major groups of Slavic people, who inhabited the left (north) bank of the lower Danube. He remarked that they looked and sounded 'identical' (ie very similar) to the Sclavanoi, who dwelt along the middle Danube.

The word Antes is considered by some linguists to be an Iranic name. They suggest that the Antes were one of the Sarmatio-Alanic tribes that inhabited the region between the Caucasus and Ukrainian steppes, perhaps between the Prut and lower Dneister rivers. As they moved north from the open steppe to the forest steppe, they encountered Slavic tribes. They organised Slavic tribes under their control and the name Antes came to be used for the mixed Slavo-Alanic body. Eventually they were completely absorbed by the Slavs, but the name was preserved. A comparative theory exists for other Slavic tribes, namely Serbs and Croats.

By the 4th century, the Antes had evolved into a powerful tribal unit. Jordannes described them as the “bravest of these people dwelling in the curve of the Sea of Pontus (Black Sea), spread from the Dneister to the Dneiper”. An Antean "King" called Boz is mentioned. The Antes were involved in conflicts with the Goths, who had migrated to the Ukrainian steppe from Scandinavia. Possibly subject to the Goths, they provided the Slavic elements found in the multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture. The apogee of Antean power occurred in the 5th century. As the Goths were defeated by the Huns, and the Huns subsequently shifted to the Pannonian basin, the Antes filled the resulting power vacuum.

A sedentary settlement consisting of numerous villages came into being, with cattle breeding and agriculture being the primary occupation, living in typical semi-subterranean dwellings. They practiced bi-ritual flat burials. They were involved in trade on a local scales, but also at an 'international' level- reaching Roman and Byzantine markets. They established several hillforts, known as horodyshcha, where artisans produced pottery and metalwares. Remnants of their settlements have been found by archaeologists, who have attributed the Pen’Kovka culture to the Antes. Some scholars, such as Francis Dvornik, suggest that the Antean tribal league evolved into the first Slavic state; or even an empire stretching from to the Oder river in the west to the Donets in the east. On the western extent of the Antean territory, they mingled with the Romanized autochthons on the Danube and Prut basins (in southern and eastern Romania and nirthern Bulgaria), forming the Ipoteşti-Cândeşti culture characterized by a fusion of Slavic and Byzantine elements. From here, they occupied much of the Balkans.

The Antes are last mentioned in 602. Their territory was 'devastated' by Avar attacks. Some tribes became allied to the Avars or subjugated directly by the Avars, whilst others pushed across the Danube into the Byzantine Empire. In Pannonia and Transylvania, there is evidence of extensive symbiosis of Avaro-Slavic cultures. The component tribes of the Antean union thus dispersed over much of central and eastern Europe. They mixed with other peoples in their area, contributing to the ethnogenesis of South Slavs, Czechs and Slovaks, as well as Hungarians and Romanians. Those who remained on the steppes north evolved into the Volyntsevo culture - a successor of the Penkovo culture, out of which arose the of southern East Slavs - the Uliches, Teverians and Severians tribal unions of the 8th century.

[edit] References

• Magosci, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-7820-6. 
• Sedov, Valentin (1995). Slavs in the early middle ages. Arecheological institue of Russian Academy of Sciences. 
• Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250.. Cambridge Medieval Textbooks. ISBN 0-521-81539-8. 
• Fine, Jr, John V.A (1991). The early Medieval Balkans; A critical survery from the sixth to the late twelfth century. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08149-7.