A Hypothesis on ‘Barbarian Kingdoms’ in the Forest Zone of Eastern Europe in the 5th Century AD (Upper Dnieper — Volga-Oka Interfluve — Northwest Region)

<jats:p>This article examines antiquities from the mid-1st millennium AD in the forest zone of the western half of Eastern Europe. The aim was to identify correlations between the social structures of Eastern Europe and trends in historical development in Central and Western Europe during the Migration Period. Rich burials and hoards, settlement structures and a dichotomy between wealthy settlements with residences and poor, unfortified settlements are considered indicators of the presence of “kingdoms.” The article hypothesizes that early state associations of the “small kingdom” type may have existed in the western part of the region — on the Sambia Peninsula, in Lithuania, in the western Smolensk region, and in the lower Oka River valley — in the mid-1st millennium AD. Such social structures were not observed in the neighboring territories to the north and east, and they were particularly vulnerable to external influences.</jats:p>