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[[File:East Slavic tribes peoples 8th 9th century.jpg|thumb|200px|European territory inhabited by East Slavic in 8th and 9th century.]]
The '''Tivertsi''' ({{langx|uk|Ти́верці}}; {{langx|ru|Ти́верцы}}; {{langx|ro|Tiverți}} or {{lang|ro|Tiverieni}}), were a tribe of [[early East Slavs]] which lived in the lands near the [[Dniester]], and probably the lower [[Danube]], that is in modern-day [[western Ukraine]] and the [[Moldova|Republic of Moldova]] and possibly in eastern [[Romania]] and the southern [[Odesa oblast]] of [[Ukraine]]. The Tivertsi were one of the tribes that formed the [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] ethnicity, namely the sub-ethnic and historic region of [[Podolia]]. The Tivertsis' cultural inheritors, the [[Podolia]]ns, are a distinct group of Ukrainians.

==Ethnonym==
Other spellings include the anglicized form ''Tivertsians'' and the Slavic transliterated ''Tivertsy''. [[George Vernadsky]] suggests that the name Tivertsi possibly originates from the fortress Turris of [[Justinian I]], pointing out that the letter "u" was commonly rendered as "v" (or, rather, [[ypsilon]]), suggesting the common root "tvr" of Iranian origin, meaning "fast".<ref>Vernadsky, G. ''Ancient Rus'', [http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/VGV/vgv181.htm Chapter VIII]</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Valentin Vasilyevich |last=Sedov |year=2013 |orig-year=1995 |title=Славяне в раннем Средневековье |trans-title=Sloveni u ranom srednjem veku (Slavs in Early Middle Ages) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HD4oAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Akademska knjiga |location=Novi Sad |isbn=978-86-6263-026-1 |page=501}}</ref> According to another theory is related with Turkic forms ''tyvar'' and ''tavar'' ("cattle", "property", "riches", "goods"), which is seemingly related with the Slavic ''*stado'' ("cluster (group) of cattle"), which supposedly stands in the name of ''Stadici'' described by [[Bavarian Geographer]] as "countless people" who had 516 settlements, while the neighbour ''Unlizi'' ([[Ulichs]]) as "populus multus", thus relating the Tivertsi with Stadici "can be interpreted as Turkic – Slavic tracing, serving to designate a large tribe in the southwestern
part of present Ukraine." (some also related the [[White Croats]] with ''Stadici''),<ref name="Koncha">{{cite journal |last=Koncha |first=S. |title=Bavarian Geographer On Slavic Tribes From Ukraine |url=http://ukrbulletin.univ.kiev.ua/Visnyk-16-en/Koncha.pdf |journal=Ukrainian Studies |year=2012 |volume=12 |publisher=Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv |pages=15–21}}</ref> or they could have been mentioned as ''Attorozi''.<ref name="Koncha"/>

==History==
The original information about the tribe is scarce. Tivertsi and [[Ulichs]] are briefly mentioned in early [[Ruthenia]]n manuscripts, 863 being the earliest reference, 944 being the latest. The ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' from the ''[[Laurentian Codex]]'' (the oldest copy) mentions that they lived by the Dniester and Danube down to the sea (evidently, the [[Black Sea]]). The ''[[Hypatian Codex]]'' (later re-copy) replaces the Dniester with the [[Dnieper]]. The ''[[Tver Chronicle]]'' mentions them in the year 883, mentioning their fight against [[Askold and Dir]]. A number of manuscripts mention in the year 885 that they fought with [[Oleg of Novgorod]]. They are mentioned as taking part in Oleg's expeditions in 907 and in [[Igor, Grand Prince of Kiev|Igor]]'s expeditions in 944, the latter year being the last reference to Tivertsi in early East Slavic manuscripts.<ref>{{Efron|Тиверцы}}, article "Tivertsy"</ref>

At the beginning of the 10th century, the tribe became part of the [[Kievan Rus]]. Starting in the mid-10th century, the Tivertsi frequently fought against the neighbouring [[Pechenegs]] and [[Cumans]]. In 12th and 13th centuries, some lands of the Tivertsi were part of the [[Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia|Kingdom of Galicia]] and later the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]]. 

==Settlements==
Several settlements of Tivertsi are now [[archaeological site]]s in Ukraine and Republic of Moldova ([[Alcedar]], [[Echimăuţi]], [[Rudi, Soroca|Rudi]] and others). According to Romanian and Moldovan researchers, Tivertsi were a Romanic-Slavic population dwelling along the Dniester river.<ref>Gheorghe Postică (2007) Civilizația medievală timpurie din spațiul pruto-nistrean (secolele V-XIII), Editura Academiei Române, București, 2007, p. 64</ref><ref>Victor Spinei, ''The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century'', Leiden: Brill, 2009, pp. 84-87</ref>

Some scholars agree that the name of the town of [[Tyvriv]] (on the right bank of [[Southern Buh]] river) in [[Ukraine]]´s [[Vinnytsia oblast]] stems from the tribe of Tivertsi, who lived in that very area. Likewise, the name of west Ukraine's town of [[Kivertsi]] is also associated with this tribe. It is also presumed that [[Kamyanets-Podilsky]] on the [[Dniester]] was the tribal center of Tyvertsi.

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

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Expand Ukrainian|Тиверці|date=April 2015}}

{{Slavic ethnic groups (VII-XII century)}}

[[Category:Tivertsi| ]]
[[Category:East Slavic tribes]]