'The Dregovichs' or more correctly ''Dregovichi'' (
Belarusian: Дрыгавічы, ''Dryhavičy''; ; ) were one of the
tribal unions of
Early East Slavs, and inhabited the territories down the stream of the
Pripyat River and northern parts of the Right-bank
Dnieper river (the borders of the tribe's domain are still not eastablished to this day). The name of the tribe probably derives from the
Old Ruthenian word ''дрегва'' or ''дрягва'' (drehva, or dryahva, which means "swamp") due to the fact that the Dregovichs used to live in the
marshlands.
The first known reference to ''Dregovichi'' is in the
Primary Chronicle where they are listed among the twelve nations. By the
12th century they were assimilated into the main
East Slavic peoples.
The Dregovichs left some archaeological monuments of the
9th and the
10th century along the Pripyat, such as the remnants of
agricultural settlements and
kurgans with
incinerated bodies (unlike the kurgans of
11th–
12th century with intact bones). One could find
sepulchral structures that look like small wooden houses with span roofs.
The principal city of the Dregovichs was
Turaw. Other cities included
Slutsk,
Kletsk and
Drutsk, all in the territory of the modern
Belarus.
The
chronicles do not tell historians much about the Dregovichs. We only know that they had their own
princely rule in the city of Turov. In the
10th century, the lands of the Dregovichs became a part of the
Kievan Rus and later—the
Turaw Principality. The northwestern part of the land of the Dregovichs became a part of the
Polotsk Principality.