The Migration History of the Savirs

Abstract

The history of the Chuvash people during ancient times and the early Middle Ages is still not well-known or thoroughly understood. The Bulgars were most often named as the historical ancestors of the Chuvash in research from the 18th to the 20th centuries. In the 21st century, a view is beginning to take shape that the Savirs, not the Bulgars, were the predecessors of the Chuvash. The primary sources for this view are the works of Claudius Ptolemy, Aelius Herodianus, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others. Modern archaeological excavations support these historical facts. In this article, the author analyzes material that refutes the theory of the origins of the Savars/Savirs/Suvars in Siberia and confirms their habitation in the Caucasus. The focus of this study is the migration history of the ancestors of the Chuvash from the 2nd to the 10th centuries. The arguments laid out in the study are accompanied by explanatory illustrations.

Keywords

• history
• geography
• maps
• anthropology
• caucasus
• volga region
• savirs
• chuvash
• migration
• frontier study