ABSTRACT
The geography of Eastern Europe provides excellent conditions for increased connectivity and population movements, and it is not at all surprising that the distant past of the region was significantly affected by migrations. Migratory movements are attested in prehistory (e.g., the Urnfielders), protohistory (e.g., La Tène/Celtic population movements) and Late Antiquity (Huns, Goths, etc.), so medieval migrations should not be seen as an exception, but rather as a continuation of a historical pattern. They impacted the ethnic configuration and the political architecture, but also triggered deeper changes of cultural and social patterns, especially if the local population for this or that reason adopted certain material cultures or models of social organization brought by the migrants. However, in comparison with earlier migrations, medieval migrations were assigned much more importance in modern historiography, largely because they are (much like in Western or Northern Europe) often incorporated into “national biographies” of modern nations during the building of national discourses in the 19th and 20th centuries. That is why they remain sensitive topics of discussion.
