Tracing roots of Slavs: Historian explains three theories - BELTA
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Where did the Slavs actually come from? Three competing origin theories — backed by archaeologists, linguists, and historians — clash over one of history's most consequential migrations.
Ethnogenesis TheoryHistorical LinguisticsCultural DiffusionArchaeological Culture Theory
Theory Briefing
- The Vistula-Oder theory, pinpointing Slavic origins between two major rivers, drew broad support from Soviet-era scholars across multiple disciplines.
- Historian Igor Marzalyuk outlines how competing frameworks — archaeological, linguistic, and historical — each produce a different ancestral homeland for the Slavs.
- The debate illustrates how ethnic and national origin stories are constructed through rival methodologies, not simply discovered as fixed historical fact.