Everything about Merya totally explained
The
Meri people (; also
Meryas or
Merä) were an ancient
Finno Ugrian tribe who lived in the region of modern Russian cities of
Moscow,
Rostov,
Kostroma,
Jaroslavl and
Vladimir. They probably spoke a
Finnic language related to the languages spoken by other tribes in the surrounding larger region, such as the
Mari, the
Mordvins, the
Meshchera and the
Veps who were their neighbours. They were an old and important culture which is shown in the numerous archaeological finds in those areas.
They are mentioned by the 6th century
Gothic scholar
Jordanes as the
Merens and later by the Russian chronicles. Soviet archaeologists believed that the capital of the Merya was the site of
Sarskoe Gorodishche to the south of Rostov.
According to recent Finnish and Estonian estimates, based to the population figures of the Baltic area (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), roughly a similar area of size than Merja, by the end of 12th century the number of Meri population was as high as more than 800.000 peoples. They were one of the five peoples who took part of the founding of Novgorod and thus played important role in creating the modern Russian state. Their role has been neglected in Russian history, but now, after 1998, when a closed archive was located and opened to public, a lot of new (old) Russian information have come to light and provides fascinating facts, even written Meri language including transliteration of Biblial Old Testament to Meri language in 11th century. It was also proven that Meri language was still widely used in the countryside as late as the time of Alexander I, after the Napoleon War against the Russia in 1812.
They were assimiliated by the Slavs. However, the Merya culture was also assimilated in those regions that were initially inhabited by Merya. Sacred woods and stones, worshipped by Merya, were part of local traditional feasts for much longer than the similar Slavic sacred places in the west regions of modern Russia.
Also, the name Merya (in some cases spoken like 'Nerya') is still kept in a lot of local toponyms, and was preserved later in a much more vast number of them. The examples are:
Nero Lake near
Rostov the Great,
Nerskaya River near
Kurovskoe in
Moscow Oblast,
Nerskoe Lake in
Solnechnogorsky region of Moscow Oblast, villages 'Nerya' etc.
Further Information
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