page_title: White Croats
section_title: Archeology
hierarchical_section_title: White Croats / Archeology
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Городище давньоруське, с. Стільсько, на високому березі р. Колодниці This is a photo of a monument in Ukraine, number: 46-230-0059
context_page_description: White Croats, or simply known as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other West and East Slavic tribes in the area of modern-day Lesser Poland, Galicia, Western Ukraine, and Northeastern Bohemia. They were documented primarily by foreign medieval authors and managed to preserve their ethnic name until the early 20th century, primarily in Lesser Poland. It is considered that they were assimilated into Czech, Polish and Ukrainian ethnos, and are one of the predecessors of the Rusyn people. In the 7th century, some White Croats migrated from their homeland, White Croatia, to the territory of modern-day Croatia in Southeast Europe along the Adriatic Sea, forming the ancestors of the South Slavic ethnic group of Croats.
context_section_description: According to research by Sedov in 1979, all early mentions of Croatian ethnonym are in the areas where ceramics of Prague-Penkovka culture were found. It originated in the area between Dniester and Dnieper, and later expanded to the West, and its bearers were the Antes tribes. A. V. Majorov criticized Sedov's consideration, who almost exclusively related the Croats with Penkovka culture and the Antes, because the territory the Croats inhabited in the middle and upper Dniester and the upper Vistula was part of Prague-Korchak culture related to Sclaveni which was characteristic for the Kurgan-type of burial which was also found in the upper Elbe territory where presumably lived the Czech Croats. They were representatives of both these archaeological cultures and possibly formed before them at the least late 4th or during the 5th century in the area of the intertwining of these cultures around the Dniester basin. It is considered that the Carpathian Croats later between 7th and 10th century were part of the Luka-Raikovets culture, which developed from Prague-Korchak culture, and was characteristic for East Slavic tribes, besides Croats, including Buzhans, Drevlians, Polans, Tivertsi, Ulichs and Volhynians.
  By the 7th century the Croats had established and fortified Horods (Gord), which became a commerce and trade centers. Galicia was an important geographical location because it connected via an overland route Kiev in the East with Kraków, Buda, Prague and other cities in the West, as well as northwest to the Baltic Sea and southeast to the Black Sea. Along these routes were founded the settlements of Przemyśl, Zvenyhorod, Terebovlia, Halych, and Uzhhorod, of which the last was ruled by a mythical ruler Laborec.
  Archaeological excavations held between 1981-1995 by Ukrainian archaeologist and historian Orest Korčinski and others who researched Early Middle Age Gords in Prykarpattia and Western Podolia dated between 9th-11th century found that fortified Gords with a range of 0.2 ha made 65%, those of 2 ha 20%, and more than 2 ha 15% in that region. There were 35 Gords, including big Gords like Revno, Stilsko, Zhydachiv, Kotorin complex, Klyuchi, Stuponica, Krylos, Pidhorodyshche, Terebovlia, Ganachivka, Solonsko among others. Only 12 of them survived until the 14th century. UNESCO in its inclusion of Wooden tserkvas of the Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine also mentions two large gords at the villages of Pidhoroddya and Lykovyshche near Rohatyn dated between 6th and 8th century and identified with the White Croats. Korčinski's excavation revealed a Gord (since 2008 dated in between 8th-9th century) of unusually big dimension with a surface of 250 ha, including a fortress of 15 ha, defensive line of 10 km, located on river Kolodnitsa (connected to most important river in the region, Dniester) between current village Stilsko and Lviv which Ukrainian archaeologists attribute to the White Croats. In its vicinity were also found some of the only examples of a pre-Christian period cult building among Slavs, for one of which Korčinski assumed a possible connection with the medieval descriptions of a temple dedicated to the deity Hors. Until 2008 near Stilsko have been found more than 50 settlements of open type dated between 8th-10th century, as well around 200 burial mounds. It indicates a high economic, demographic, defense and political organization, and is argued to have been a capital of Eastern (Carpathian) Croats. According to archaeological material, by the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th century it ceased to exist for now unknown reasons and the fire traces of possible enemy invasion are not considered as sufficient consequence.
  Excavations of many Slavic Kurgans and tombs in the Carpathian Mountains in the 1930s and 1960s were also attributed to the White Croats. Compared to other East Slavic tribes, the area of the Croats stands out because of very present tiled tombs, and in the 11th and 13th century their appearance in Western Dnieper region is attributed to the Croats, and sometimes also Tivertsi, and U
caption: Mound of the gord Stilsko.
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