Drevlians

The Drevlians or Derevlianians (Drevliany or Derevliany, Drevlyane) were a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries, which inhabited the territories of Polesia and right-bank Ukraine, west of the eastern Polans and along the lower reaches of the rivers Teteriv, Uzh, Ubort, and Stsviha. To the west, the Drevlians' territories reached the Sluch River, where the Volynians (related to the territory of Volynia) and Buzhans (related to the name of Southern Bug river) lived. To the north, the Drevlians' neighbors were the Dregovichs. Their name is derived from Slavic drevo/древо or derevo/дерево, meaning "wood" and "tree", because they lived in the forests. Their name may be rendered "the dwellers in the forest". They possibly were mentioned as Forsderen-Liudi by Bavarian Geographer in the 9th century. Nestor the Chronicler (1056–1114) mentioned that those Slavs who settled in open fields had been called Polyani (after the Slavic pole/поле, meaning "field"), and those in forest areas Drevlyani. The Drevlians left many archaeological traces, such as agricultural settlements with semi-dugouts (or earth-houses), moundless burial grounds and barrows, fortified towns like Vruchiy (present-day Ovruch), Horodske, site of an ancient settlement near Malyn (supposedly, a residence of the Drevlian prince Mal), and others. The principal city of the Drevlians was Iskorosten (today's Korosten), where one can still see a group of compact ancient settlements. After the Kievan Rus' conquered the Drevlians, Iskorosten was burned to the ground and the capital transferred to Ovruch. By the end of the first millennium, the Drevlians already had well-developed farming and handicrafts. The Drevlians initially fervently opposed the Kievan Rus'. According to a number of chronicles, in the times of Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv (supposedly, founders of Kiev) the Drevlians had their own princely rule and were frequently at war with the Polyani. In 883, Prince Oleg of Novgorod made the Drevlians pay tribute to Kiev.