Early Slavic Settlement in the Balkans
The arrival and gradual settlement of South Slavic tribes — including the ancestors of the Serbs — in the Balkan peninsula during the 6th and 7th centuries.
The earliest documented evidence of the Serbs places them among the South Slavic tribes that crossed the Danube in the late 6th and 7th centuries and gradually settled across the western Balkans. The Byzantine emperor and historian Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, writing in the mid-10th century in De Administrando Imperio, describes the migration of the Serbs from a homeland he calls "White Serbia" — somewhere north of the Carpathians — into the lands they would inhabit.
What the sources say
Constantine's account remains the principal narrative source, supplemented by archaeological finds of early Slavic material culture across the region. By the 9th century, Serbian polities are mentioned alongside other Slavic groups in Frankish and Byzantine documents.
What remains debated
The precise route, timing, and degree of continuity with earlier populations of the region are still discussed by historians. Genetic, linguistic, and archaeological evidence is brought to bear on each side.