3. Identities Before The Slavs
In order to understand the process which would lead to the appearance of medieval Slavic identities, it is of crucial importance to see it, not as a sudden process which occurred in the post-Roman period, but as part of a larger process of transformations in the late antique world in which Illyricum and its parts belonged. Post-Kossina scholarly methodology which deals with pre-Roman identities rests on the methodological tripod made up of: the archaeology of regional Iron Age cultures, onomastics, and the interpretation of the reports on Illyricum and its population in Greek and Roman written sources. The written sources do not reveal much about the indigenous population in Illyricum in Late Antiquity - the archaeological sources will be examined in this chapter.Keywords: Illyricum; medieval Slavic identities; post-Roman period