The main event that took place within the lands of
Poland in the Early Middle Ages, as well as other parts of
central-
eastern Europe, was the arrival, and subsequent permanent settlement, of the
Slavic peoples. The Slavic
migrations in the area of contemporary Poland started in the second half of the 5th century
CE, some half century after these territories were vacated by
Germanic tribes, their previous inhabitants. The first waves of the incoming Slavs settled the vicinity of the upper
Vistula River and elsewhere in the lands of present southeastern
Poland and southern
Masovia. Coming from the east, from the upper and middle regions of the
Dnieper River, the immigrants would have had come primarily from the western branch of the early Slavs known as
Sclaveni, and since their arrival are classified as
West Slavs. Their early
archeological traces belong to the
Prague-Korchak culture, which is similar to the earlier
Kiev culture.