"Goths" and "Gepids" of the Slavdom

The text aims at re-conceptualization of the history of the Western Slavdom in order to achieve a more nuanced view of the ethno- and socio-political structures existing there in the 9th–10th centuries AD. An attempt was made to create a consonant vision based upon written records and material evidence, in which both territorial variety and chronological sequence of local developments would be taken into account. With the help of the metaphor of Goths and Gepids two main zones of the Western Slavdom were discerned: the peri-limital areas early organized in ethnic manner, and the interior, where more elaborate political structures appeared as late as in the mid-ninth/early tenth century.