As I explore the history of Poland, I am always drawn to look further back. This leads to a pre-christian Poland led by local princes, which leads to loosely organized tribes inhabiting the Wisla river area. Past that it becomes a question of slavic rather than Polish identity, and most of the research i've done points to the fact that they were originally a fairly cohesive group confined to a small geographical area, though what we know of them is what the Romans wrote. But my question is about where did they come from before that? Before they were Slavs, they must have separated from an earlier culture. What do we know about this?
There are two leading theories in how Slavs came to be.
The common theme is as follows:
Between 5 and 6th century AD, the territory of what now would be Western Belarus, Poland, Bulgaria, and North-Western Balkans, became largely desserted, due to the combination of worsenning weather, and the fall of inter-european trade routes.
Existing cultures (Goths, remnants of the Vandals, Saxons, Magyars etc) migrated away from the area, leaving it free for the taking.
NOW, what happens now is a theme of two conflicting theories:
Autochtchonic theory: Remnants of the germanic, pomeranian (and to some extent nomad-Asian) cultures in the region bloomed in the absence of competition, linked together, and formed a kind of a cultural "patchwork" along the path from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. It is assumed that the Lusatian Culture and the Trzciniec Culture were the forefathers of the greater Slavic culture. This theory seems realistic when it comes to sheer size and dramatic expansion of the new Slavic culture. However, it seems poorly supported by archeological and linguistic evidence.
Allochtchonic theory: Remnants of the germanic, pomeranian (and to some extent nomad-Asian) cultures in the relatively small region of (depending on which study you consider more valid) Middle Danube, or Middle Dnieper rivers coalesced into a proto-Slavic culture under the influence of Goths (migrating Wielbarian culture) and Scythians (some theories even assume influence of Sarmatians). This "Craddle of the Slavs" produced a robust, and technologically simplistic culture that quickly spread all over the unused wastelands of Eastern Europe. This theory is well suported by archeological evidence (similar evolution of pottery) DNA evidence (both the Danubian and Dnieprian origin), and linguistic evidence (coherent and sufficiently homogenous nature of the Slavic family of languages).
Both theories have their proponents, and arguments about which one is true and should be taught in college were heated enough to cause international scandals, fed into nationalistic an racist narrative of both Soviets and the Nazis, and lead to actual fistfights in the academic circles.
further reading:
Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński, O pochodzeniu i praojczyźnie Słowian,
*Gołąb, Zbigniew (1992). The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist’s view. *