Early Medieval Serbs in the Balkans

Abstract

This paper discusses the problem of the appearance of the Serb ethnonym in the Balkans, as evidenced in the ninth-century Frankish Royal Annals and the mid-tenth-century Byzantine treaty De Administrando Imperio. Written evidence is analysed together with available archaeological information in order to criticize currently dominating ideas concerning the Serb migration in the seventh century, as well as to offer different perspectives on the origins of the early medieval Serb ethnonym in the Balkans.