It is generally agreed that ancient Roman writers referred to the ancestors of Slavs as Venedi. The first written use of the name "Slavs" dates to the 6th century, when the Slavic tribes inhabited a large portion of Central and Eastern Europe. Between the sixth and seventh centuries, large parts of Europe came to be controlled or occupied by Slavs, a process less understood and documented than that of the Germanic ethnogenesis in the west.
Yet the effects of Slavicization were far more profound. Beginning in the 7th century, the Slavs were gradually Christianized by the Orthodox Catholic Church both western and eastern parts, before the Great Schism of The oldest known Slavic principality in history was Carantania , established in the 7th century by the Eastern Alpine Slavs, the ancestors of present-day Slovenes. Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps comprised modern-day Slovenia , Eastern Friul and large parts of present-day Austria.
The early Slavs were known to the Roman writers of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD under the name of Veneti. Later, having split into three groups during the migration period , the early Slavs were known to the Byzantine writers as Veneti, Antes and Sclaveni. The 6th century historian Jordanes referred to the Slavs Sclaveni in his work Getica , noting that "although they derive from one nation, now they are known under three names, the Veneti, Antes and Sclaveni" ab una stirpe exorti, tria nomina ediderunt, id est Veneti, Antes, Sclaveni.
Procopius wrote that "the Sclaveni and the Ante actually had a single name in the remote past; for they were both called Sporoi in olden times". The earliest, archaeological findings connected to the early Slavs are associated with the Zarubintsy , Chernyakhov and Przeworsk cultures from around the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. However, in many areas, archaeologists face difficulties in distinguishing between Slavic and non-Slavic findings, as in the case of Chernyakhov and Przeworsk, since the cultures were also attributed to Iranian or Germanic peoples and were not exclusively connected with a single ancient tribal or linguistic group.
With evidence ranging from fortified settlements gords , ceramic pots, weapons, jewellery and open abodes. The Proto-Slavic homeland is the area of Slavic settlement in Central and Eastern Europe during the first millennium AD, with its precise location debated by archaeologists, ethnographers and historians. According to historical records, the Slavic homeland would have been somewhere in Central-Eastern Europe. The Prague - Penkova - Kolochin complex of cultures of the 6th and the 7th centuries AD is generally accepted to reflect the expansion of Slavic-speakers at the time.
