View source for Novgorod Slavs

{{Short description|Tribe in the Early Slavs}}
{{Refimprove|date=September 2007}} {{Expand Russian|Словене|date=April 2015}}
{{Distinguish|Slovenes{{!}}Slovenes of Slovenia}}
[[File:Jewellery Novgorod Slovenes GIM.jpg |thumb |Jewelry of the Novgorod Slovenes]]
The '''Novgorod Slavs''', '''Ilmen Slavs''' ({{langx|ru|Ильменские словене}}, ''Il'menskiye slovene''), or '''Slovenes''' were the northernmost [[tribe]] of the [[Early Slavs]], and inhabited the shores of [[Lake Ilmen]], and the river [[drainage basin |basins]] of the [[Volkhov River |Volkhov]], [[Lovat River (Russia) |Lovat]], [[Msta]], and the upper stream of the [[Mologa River |Mologa]] in the 8th to 10th centuries.  The Slovenes were native to the region around [[Novgorod]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The emergence of Rus, 750-1200 |last1=Franklin |first1=Simon |last2=Shepard |first2=Jonathan |date=1996 |publisher=Longman |isbn=0582490901 |location=London |pages=38 |oclc=33665124}}</ref>  There is a belief among researchers that Novgorod is one of the regions which were the original home / [[Urheimat]] of the [[Russians]] and the Slavic tribes.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Streitberg |editor-first=Wilhelm |last1=Bopp |first1=Franz |last2=Brückner |first2=A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/811390127 |title=Slavisch-Litauisch, Albanisch |date=1917 |publisher=Karl J. Trübner |isbn=3111446808 |page=42 |oclc=811390127}}</ref>

Like all Eastern Slavs in Russian lands, the Ilmen Slavs had unique characteristics.  Ancestors of the Ilmen Slavs who settled in [[Baltic Finnic peoples |Finnic]] areas descended from the [[Severians]] and the [[Polabian Slavs]], as evidenced by language and traditions (see [[old Novgorod dialect]] and [[Gostomysl]] for examples).  They settled in mostly Finnic areas in Northern Russia, moving along the major waterways, until they met the southward expansion of the [[Krivich]] in the modern-day [[Yaroslavl Oblast]].<ref name="WaldmanMason2006">{{cite book |first1=Carl |last1=Waldman |first2=Catherine |last2=Mason |title=Encyclopedia of European Peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kfv6HKXErqAC&pg=PA415 |year=2006 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-2918-1 |pages=415–}}</ref>

They left a few [[archaeological]] monuments of the 6th–8th centuries, such as [[agricultural]] [[town |settlements]], and tall cone-like [[kurgan]]s with [[cremation |cremated]] bodies in the [[Lake Ladoga|Ladoga]] region.  The most [[ancient]] settlement is dated to the 7th or 8th centuries.  Numerous archaeological finds, such as a metal tip for a wooden [[plough]], indicate that the Ilmen Slavs had a well-developed agriculture. 

They were not a particularly warlike state, but evidence of their unique weaponry, dating back to the mid-8th century, has been found around the city of Novgorod.  The weaponry consisted of [[spear]]s, [[mace (bludgeon) |maces]], [[sword]]s, [[Bow and arrow |bows]], [[javelin]]s, and [[war hammer]]s.

The principal cities of the Ilmen Slavs were [[Staraya Russa]] and [[Novgorod]], the center of the [[Novgorod Republic]], which had developed in the 9th–10th centuries.<ref name="WaldmanMason2006"/>

==See also==
* [[List of early Slavic peoples]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Slavic ethnic groups (VII-XII century)}}

[[Category:East Slavic tribes|Ilmen Slavs]]