Neuri

The Neuri, or Navari (Ancient Greek: Νευροί, romanized: Neuroí; Latin: Neuri, also known as Neurians^[1]) were an ancient people whose existence was recorded by ancient Graeco-Roman authors.

They were first mentioned by Herodotus (5th century BC), who left the most detailed description of them in his “History”.

The Neuri belonged to a group of northern European peoples of unknown origin, but most researches propose an ethnic group ancestral to the Slavic, Baltic or larger Balto-Slavic peoples.^[2][3]

The Neuri lived in the region corresponding to present-day Belarus,^[4] in the territory including the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers. To the south, the territory of the Neuri reached the upper section of the Southern Buh river.^[5]

The neighbours of the Neuri to the east of the Dnieper river were the Androphagi, the Melanchlaeni,^[6] and the Budini as well as Finno-Ugric peoples.^[7] Their neighbours were the Agathyrsi to the south-west,^[5] and the Scythian^[4] tribe of the Aroteres to the south-east.^[5][8]

Ideas about lycanthropy among the Balts are also recorded in medieval sources. Over time, archaeological data on Baltic culture led to assumptions about the East Baltic^[9] affiliation of the Neuri. A Baltic etymology of the ethnonyms "Neuri" and "Budini" was proposed. The resettlement of the Neurs to the lands of the Budzins, described by Herodotus, may indicate the mutual kinship of these tribes. The Neurs' belief in werewolves also has its parallels in Baltic ethnographic material. Beliefs about werewolves among the population of Belarus and northern Ukraine can be explained by the recent Slavicization of the Dnieper Balts.

Academician Baltist V. Toporov agreed with the connection of the name Neuri with the name Narov, but interpreted the ethnic attribution of the Neuri differently:

"There were claims that the ancestors of the Neurs could be the Baltic-Slavic tribes, but this assumption itself concealed a significant inaccuracy of the chronological order: in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, it was the Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic group from which the future Slavic tribes began to emerge much later, which were initially localized on the southern (mostly) outskirts of the Baltic space."

He linked the Neurs with the territory where the Jotvingians are later known in written sources, alongside those mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. the Western Baltic tribes of the Galinds and the Sudins (Prussian and Jatvegian tribes, respectively). In addition to geographical coherence (in the extreme northwest of the eikumene known to the Greeks), the name of the Neuri is plausibly compared to the Jotvingian name of the Narew River - "Naura", attested in the "Jotvingian Dictionary". Also located in the old Prussian territory, to the west of the Jatvegian territory, Lake Kikity was called "Naury" (< Naurai), and above it is known "Naury Mountain"^[10]. Among the Balts, including the Jotvingians, tribal names often came from river names.

Belarusian ethnographer and local historian Pavel Shpilevsky believed that the Neuri inhabited the territory of future Belarus, since ideas about werewolves were most widespread here.

Some Belarusian ethnologists believe that the evidence of the location of the Neuri on the territory of Belarus is the widespread existence of hydronyms with the root Nar-. It is also worth mentioning the testimony of Herodotus that the Neurs supposedly turned into wolves for several days every year, as well as the fact that they changed their place of residence because of the snakes, which bred a lot there. Scientists, as evidence of this, began to cite Belarusian legends about werewolf wolves and snakes, as well as the "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", which mentions Prince Usiaslau of Polotsk, who supposedly could turn into a wolf^[11].

When determining the ethnolinguistic affiliation of the Neurs, a fragment about their werewolf behavior is often taken into account. Beliefs about werewolf wolves are characteristic of the Slavs, Celts and Germans, especially in the folklore of the Eastern Slavs^[12], Belarusians and Northern Ukrainians^[13]. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Pavel Shafaryk and Lubar Niederle tried to identify the Neurians as the ancestors of the Slavs, localizing them on the lands of modern Volhynia and Podolia.

In modern times, the Swedish historian Olaf von Dalin (18th century) defined the Neurs as a "mixture of races" and localized their location as far as Scandinavia.

According to some marginal interpretations, the Hephthalite Huns and Neuri were descendants of the Naphtali tribe^[14]. Supporters of this version claim that one of the sons of Naphtali was named Hun. The name "Neuri" supposedly comes from the Hebrew "Naar", which means "youth". The Norwegians were called "youthful" by their own rulers and neighbors. According to this version, the name Norway comes from the name of the Neuri.

The 18th century Swedish historian Olof von Dalin wrote that the Neuri were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and were ethnically a mixture of Scythians, Greeks and Jews^[15] who accompanied the Budini or "Scythian shepherds" to the Swedish islands around 400 BC during an exodus said to have been caused by the Macedonian invasions of Phillipe and Alexander. From the Neuri, in his interpretation, came the ancient Finns, the Sami and the Estonians^[16].

The Neuri seem to be the remnants of the Ten Tribes of Israel whom Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, carried away as captives from Canaan… (If we understand that) the language of the ancient Finns, Sami and Estonians is similar to Hebrew and even that these people in ancient times counted the beginning of their new year from the first of March, and Saturday was their Sabbath, then it is clear that the Neuri in all likelihood had this origin^[17]

Oleg Trubachyov interpreted the fragment about the Neuri's transformation to werewolfs as evidence of their belonging to the Celts, based on the existence of a similarly named tribe of Nevrii in Gaul and the cult of the wolf in Celtic circles^[18].

It is quite possible that the elite of Neuri could have been of Celtic-Germanic origin^[19], while the overwhelming majority were local peoples

According to Vadim Deruzunsky [be], several centuries later, after the climate warmed, some of the Neuri moved to Pomorie on the Baltic. They retained the image of werewolf warriors, fighting in wolf skins, and for a long time served as mercenaries for the Celts, who called them "lyuty", "lyutichi" or "lyutva" (from the Celtic word for "wolf")

The Neuri were independent of the Scythians.^[6]

The Neuri are first mentioned in Book 4 of Herodotus's "Histories" as a people living "above the Scythians":

The Neurs have Scythian customs. A generation before the campaign of Darius they had to leave their country because of snakes. For not only did their own land give birth to many snakes, but even more of them attacked from the desert from within the country. Therefore the Neurs were forced to leave their land and settle among the Budini. These people are perhaps magicians. For the Scythians and the Hellenes who live among them claim that every Neur turns into a wolf for a few days every year, and then takes on human form again. These fables, of course, cannot convince me; but they say so and even swear to it. When the Scythians turned to the Neurs for help against the Persian king Darius, they refused and explained that they had no quarrel with the Persians and would not help the Scythians, who themselves caused the war.

The earliest events in the history of the Neuri as described by Herodotus date back to a time several decades before the Scythian campaign of Darius I (513 BC). Describing the area inhabited by the Neuri in the upper reaches of the Hypanis, Herodotus makes a digression and points out the migration of the Neuri to the Budini because of snakes:

…One generation before Darius’s campaign they abandoned their country entirely because of the snakes. The fact is that many snakes appeared in their country, and others more numerous rushed down to them from above from the deserts, until finally the Neuri, pressed by them, settled together with the Budinians, leaving their land

This fragment has repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers, who have hypothesized that it does not refer to real snakes, but to mythical enemies, perhaps to a people with a snake totem who attacked the Neuri and forced them to leave their lands. There are different opinions about which ethnic group of Eastern Europe could have served as the historical basis for this story. Thus, B. A. Rybakov interpreted the "snakes" as the Balts, known for their ancient snake cult^[20]. Based on an analysis of the areas of Baltic and Slavic hydronymy, he assumed that the mention of the invasion of "snakes" from the "desert in the interior of the country" reflects the migration of the Balts from the northern shore of the marshy floodplain of the Pripyat River to the southern shore, occupied by the Neuri. As an archaeological confirmation of this migration, Rybakov considered the Volyn group of monuments of the Scythian period, located in the Sluch River basin, where it alternates with settlements of the Milograd culture, which he associated with the Neuri. A version of the Thracian origin of the plot about snakes was also proposed, since snakes played a significant role in the religious beliefs of the Thracians, being a symbol of the most important Thraco-Phrygian deity Sabazius.

Archaeological data interpreted by B. N. Grakov seem to confirm the migration of the Neuri to the lands of the Budins: a number of monuments on the Vorskla are related to the synchronous Chernoles culture of the right bank of the Dnieper, which he identified with the Neuri^[21]. However, the story about the "snakes" contradicts the chronology set out by Herodotus: although the migration of the Neuri is mentioned as preceding the campaign of Darius, in the description of the campaign itself they and their territory are still in the same place - between the lands of the Agathyrsi and Androphagi. According to B.D. Grakov, either Herodotus' informants transferred a more ancient event closer to their time, or the described migration, which ended up in the second chapter of the fourth book, was the last episode in a series of similar migrations.

When the Persian Achaemenid king Darius I attacked the Scythians in 513 BC, the Scythian king Idanthyrsus summoned the kings of the peoples surrounding his kingdom to a meeting to decide how to deal with the Persian invasion. The kings of the Budini, Gelonians and Sarmatians accepted to help the Scythians against the Persian attack, while the kings of the Agathyrsi, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Neuri, and Tauri refused to support the Scythians.^[22]

During the campaign, the Scythians and the Persian army pursuing them passed through the territories of the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri, before they reached the borders of the Agathyrsi, who refused to let the Scythian divisions to pass into their territories and find refuge there, thus forcing the Scythians to return to Scythia with the Persians pursuing them.^[23][22]

The historian Philostorgius, in his Ecclesiastical History, written between 425 and 433, identified the brutal Huns with the Scythian werewolves, the Neuri^[24]. The most probable explanation of this belief is the location of the Neuri. They were the northernmost people, the Huns came from the far north, therefore the Huns are Neuri.

The Scythians who lived beyond the Ister were driven from their native lands by the Huns who attacked them and, having shown friendly intentions, came under the rule of the Romans. These Huns are obviously the same ones whom the ancients called Neuri, who lived at the foot of the Riphean Mountains, from where the Tanais originates, pouring its waters into the Maeotian swamp^[25].

Thanks to Philostorgius, we can see how the literary legend was finally formed. The Neuri turned into the Huns, Borysthenes into Tanais. Too great a distance separates this legend from Herodotus's "History" - one of the main sources of information about the Neuri, Borysthenes and Tanais. The Neuri, Geloni, Hypemolges and other characters of such legends could not have been real contemporaries of the Romans Marcian of Heraclea Pontica (Southern Black Sea region) around 400 AD wrote:

Along the river Khesin live the Agathyrsi, the people of European Sarmatia. The rivers Khesin and Turunt flow (from the mountains of Rip, which) lie inside the continent between the Meotian (Azov) lake and the Sarmatian ocean (Baltic). The river Rudon flows from the Alan mountain (the southern district of the Valdai hills); near this mountain and in general in this region live in a wide space the people of the Alans-Sarmatians (proto-Slavs and neighbors), in whose land are the sources of the river Borysthenes (Dnieper), flowing into the Pontus. The land beyond the Borysthenes, beyond the Alans, is inhabited by the so-called European Huns (Huns, who were then considered close to the Neuri)"^[26]

Starting with K. Shirren (1852), scholars have proposed an etymological connection between Herodotus’s Neuri and the ethnonym “neroma,” known from Old Rus' chronicles^[27]. The term first appears in Nestor’s “Tale of Bygone Years” (in the form “norova”); it is also mentioned in the Pereyaslav-Suzdal Chronicle (as “neroma”) and in the Hypatian Chronicle (as “noroma”^[27]). In the Pereyaslav-Suzdal Chronicle, neroma is described as “sirech Zhomoyt,” which corresponds to the Old Rus' designation for the Eastern Baltic tribe of the Samogitians. According to another version, nerova refers to the Eastern Baltic tribe of the Latgalians, who lived in the eastern part of present-day Latvia^[9]. In the 20th century, M. Gimbutas, firmly identifying the Neuri with the Balts and their neighbors with the Slavs (Scythian farmers) and the Mordvins (Androphagi), suggested that the neroma of Rus chronicles and Herodotus’s Neuri might have been one and the same people.

The Neuri may have left traces of their presence in the region of the Desna, Pripyat, and middle Dnieper rivers in the form of Baltic-derived hydronyms and typonyms which pre-date the migration of Slavic peoples into this area.^[5] However, the presumed etymology of the tribal name, as well as other linguistic evidence, suggests that their legacy may be continued in the Slavic zone. ^[28]

According to the Greek author Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the Neuri followed Scythian customs. This claim might have referred only to the southernmost sections of the Neuri, who were neighbours of the Scythian Aroteres tribe.^[5]

Herodotus also claimed that the Neuri "seemed to be magicians," and that all members of their tribe would allegedly each year transform themselves into wolves for some days before being restored to their human form.^[8] This might suggest that the Neuri performed cults in which they wore wolf skins and masks, and that the wolf might have been a totem animal of this tribe.^[29]

Archaeologists believe that the Neuri protected themselves from enemy attacks with wooden shields covered with various types of skins of the forest game that was more abundant or that was more suitable for camouflage. And their torsos were covered with armor made of dressed aurochs skin^[30].

As a powerful two-handed weapon, the iron axe was in special demand, which was used not only for close combat, but also in everyday life. But due to the poorly developed metallurgy, it was in great shortage (although there are reports of its successful and destructive use by the Neuri^[30]). But there were plenty of stone axes, wooden maces and clubs, copper hammers, flint spears, darts, iron and bone arrows.

The enemy was always subject to a surprise attack by a small group of local "natives". And only after the enemy discovered the settlement of the Neuri, axes, maces and battle-axes were used.

• Targitaius, according to some modern interpretations^[31], the forefather of Targitai was a Neurian, a native of Polesia^[32], and led his people to the Middle Dnieper. From him came the Black Forest tribes, who boldly moved from the forest thickets to the south and mastered the fertile forest-steppe of Eastern Europe. Soon the Skolot "kingdoms" arose there. Simultaneously with the advance to the southern countries, another part of the tribes continued to settle towards the sunset from Polesia. And eventually reached the Amber Coast^[33].
• Neur, unnamed Neurian king who refused to help Scythians in war with Darius^[12].
• Luthas, mythological prince of the Neuri in Belarusian mythology. It so happened that, Luthas, fell in love with the daughter of one of the leaders of Scythia. And when the marshal of the Neuri came to negotiate a ransom with the Scythians, he and his guards were given overseas wine to drink, and later they tied him up and set fire to the tent in which they were staying^[34][35]. Having learned about this, the elders of the tribe took him somewhere in East Prussia, so that the warriors would have less reason to take revenge on the people around them. Only the brothers of Prince Luthas remained in the forests - werewolves, who swore to find the murderers on their own and punish their family for 14 generations. In the lands of present-day Ukraine, werewolves are considered one of the most terrible characters of legends. And this is not surprising, because Prince Luthas was killed, according to legend, somewhere in the territory of the Kyiv or Chernihiv regions^[36].

The Neuri archaeologically correspond to the Milograd culture.^[5][8]

The southernmost of part of the Milograd culture, which adjoined the territory of the Scythian Aroteres, included many Scythian elements.^[5]

• 513-512: Herodotus records Darius I’s campaign against the Scythians, which unsettles neighboring tribes in Eastern Europe. The Neuri, Androphagi, Melanchlaeni, Budini, and others are mentioned as living north of Scythia, beyond the Pripet marshes in areas now part of Belarus and Ukraine^[37]. The Scythians seek allies among these tribes, but only the Budini agree—and suffer for it when their city is burned by the Persians. As the Scythians retreat, Persian forces push into tribal lands, causing the Melanchlaeni, Androphagi, and Neuri to flee north. The Agathyrsi resist, threatening both armies and halting further advance.
• 4th century AD: Roman sources from the fourth century AD place the Neuri at the headwaters of the Dnieper River (Danapris), in what is now Belarus. Despite earlier upheaval from the Persian invasion, the Neuri appear to have regrouped and reestablished themselves in the region^[37].
• 11th Century AD: The Primary Chronicle of Kievan Rus, written by Nestor in the 11th century, refers to "Neroma"—likely a Baltic province paying tribute to the Rus, possibly corresponding to Latgallia or eastern Latvia. The name may derive from the Finno-Ugric term "Neromaa" ("land of the Neroma"). Archaeological evidence from Baltic enclaves between the upper Dnieper and upper Oka rivers shows strong cultural ties to eastern Latvia, supporting a link between Herodotus’s Neuri and Nestor’s Neroma^[37].