The Zeriuani or Zeruiani was an unknown Slavic tribe mentioned by the 9th-century
Bavarian Geographer The epithet "Bavarian Geographer" () is the conventional name for the anonymous author of a short Latin medieval text containing a list of the tribes in Central and Eastern Europe, headed .
The name "Bavarian Geographer" was first bestowed (in its ...
(). It states that the Zeruiani "which is so great a realm that from it, as their tradition relates, all the tribes of the Slavs are sprung and trace their origin". It was the first Latin source to claim that all Slavs have originated from the same homeland.
Quote
Etymology
The tribe and its territory has not been identified and localized yet.
While 19th century scholars assumed to have been connected to early
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...
(although they are already mentioned in the same source as ''Surbi''), Czech anthropologist
Lubor Niederle
Lubor Niederle (September 20, 1865 – June 14, 1944) was a Czechs, Czech archeologist, anthropologist and ethnographer. He is seen as one of the founders of modern archeology in Czech lands.
He was born in Klatovy. He studied at the Charles Univ ...
and Polish historian
Kazimierz Tymieniecki also considered it as a corruption of either
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; ; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic–Caspian steppe, Pontic steppe from about the 5th century BCE to the 4t ...
or
Severians
The Severians, also Severyans, Siverians, or Siverianians (; ; ; ) were a tribe or tribal confederation of early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper River and southeast of the Danube River. They are mentioned by the Bav ...
.
Modern Polish scholars like
Henryk Łowmiański argued it as a corrupted form of the name of the Severians. It is argued that the connections with the Serbs is impossible because the Northern Serbs lived on other part of Europe which also doesn't fit with the list,
[ Henryk Łowmiański, ]
O identyfikacji nazw Geografa bawarskiego
', Studia Źródłoznawcze, t. III: 1958, s. 1–22; reed: w: ''Studia nad dziejami Słowiańszczyzny, Polski i Rusi w wiekach średnich'', Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza, Poznań 1986, s. 151–181, and the Serbian ethnonym was never written with the Slavic suffix ''-jane'' (''-eani''), while the tribal name of the Severians was written in both collective ''Sever'' and plural ''Severjane'' form, etymologically implying Severian tribes.
Gerard Labuda
Gerard Labuda (; 28 December 1916 – 1 October 2010) was a Polish historian whose main fields of interest were the Middle Ages and the Western Slavs. He was born in Kashubia. He lived and died in Poznań, Poland.
Life
Labuda was born in N ...
considered those tribes arrived from the
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...
and western Ukraine, while Ryszard Kiersnowski assumed the Zeriuani were a relic of a large group which lived along the river
Oder
The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through wes ...
, but as there was no recorded tribe with such a name in those parts it also indicates the Ruthenian and Balkan Severians. A more probable etymological derivation of both ''Zeriuani'' and ''Zuierani'', although their mutual connection is doubtful,
is proposed by
Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński and many others, relating them to
Cherven Cities
The Cherven Cities (), Czerwień Cities or Cherven Gords ( Ukrainian: Червенські Городи), often literally translated as Red Cities, Red Forts or Red Boroughs, was a point of dispute between the Kingdom of Poland and Kievan Rus' a ...
and hydronym ''*Czerwia''.
However, based on the location of other tribes and phenomenological reasons, it is also possible to be a corruption of the name of
Drevlians
The Drevlians, Derevlians or Derevlianians ( or , ) were a tribe of East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries, which inhabited the territories of Polesia and right-bank Ukraine, west of the Polans (eastern), eastern Polans and along the ...
.
See also
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Sporoi, mentioned by Procopius
References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{Slavic ethnic groups (VII-XII century)
Ancient Slavic peoples