ABSTRACT
The Germanic tribes disappeared likewise from the future Bohemia during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire; and darkness descended once more on central Europe for a few hundred years. When, however, the curtain rose again on the stage of central Europe in Carolingian times, the land had already changed hands once more; and the former Germanic tribes of Markomanni. Langobards disappeared once more without obvious trace to make room for Slavic tribes whom the last migration of nations brought over from the east to Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries. The Bohemian basin is, however, encircled by mountains which were then covered by impenetrable forests, and which offered its population a sufficient protection even from the armies of Charlemagne or from the nomadic Avars who invaded central Europe from the Asiatic steppes in the sixth century. Unlike in England, timber was still plentiful in central Europe at that time, and continued to offer cheap material for building.
