The world of the ancient Slavs   Zdeněk Váňa   Translated by Till Gottheiner Orbis Publishing, London, 1983   Scans in .pdf format (50 Mb)

Contents

        Foreword

1. Searching for the origin of the Slavs

    The Oldest Written Records  —  What Philology Can Prove  —  What Archeology Has Revealed  —  When Did the Emergence of the Slavs Take Place?

 

2. The great expansion begins

    The Settlement of Central Europe  —  The Advance into the Balkans  —  Slav Colonization of Eastern Europe

 

3. Between the Frankish and Byzantine empires and the nomads

    The Slavs and the Nomad Tribes  —  The Pressure of the Great Powers and the First Organized States

 

4. Gods, demons and shrines

    The Religious Ideas of the Slavs  —  Temples, Idols and Cults

 

5. A major milestone in development

    The Great Moravian Empire and its Centres  —  Pribina's Principality at Nitra and Mosapurc  —  The Croats and Serbs, their Political and Cultural Emergence  —  The First Bulgarian Empire  —  The Early History of Kievan Russia

 

6. Peasants, craftsmen, merchants and warriors

    Peasants  —  Crafts and Trade  —  Warriors

 

7. The Czechs and the Poles – orientation towards the West

    The Bohemian State of the Přemyslids — the Heir to the Great Moravian Empire  —  The Piast State in Poland

 

8. The tragedy of the north-western Slavs

    The Lusatian Centre at Tornow  —  Timber Fortresses in Mecklenburg  —  Seafarers and Pirates in the Baltic Sea

 

    Conclusion

 

Bibliography  —  Index

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