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Their name is derived from Slavic drevo/древо or derevo/дерево, meaning "wood"[2] and "tree",[3] because they lived in the forests.[2] Their name may be rendered "the dwellers in the forest".[3] They possibly were mentioned as Forsderen-Liudi by Bavarian Geographer in the 9th century.[4]Nestor the Chronicler (1056–1114) mentioned that those Slavs who settled in open fields had been called Polyani (after the Slavic pole/поле, meaning "field"), and those in forest areas Drevlyani.[5]
Settlements
The Drevlians left many archaeological traces, such as agricultural settlements with semi-dugouts (or earth-houses), moundless burial grounds and barrows, fortified towns like Vruchiy (present-day Ovruch), Horodske, site of an ancient settlement near Malyn (supposedly, a residence of the Drevlian princeMal), and others. The principal city of the Drevlians was Iskorosten (today's Korosten), where one can still see a group of compact ancient settlements. After the Kievan Rus' conquered the Drevlians, Iskorosten was burned to the ground and the capital transferred to Ovruch. By the end of the first millennium, the Drevlians already had well-developed farming and handicrafts.
Olga's revenge for the assassination of her husband
After Oleg's death in 912 the Drevlians stopped paying tribute. The Varangian warlord Sveneld made them pay tribute to himself. Oleg's successor Igor attempted to levy the tribute after Sveneld, but the Drevlians revolted and killed him in 945. Igor's widow Olga avenged her husband's death in an extremely harsh manner, killing Drevlian ambassadors and nobility, burning their capital of Iskorosten to the ground and leveling other towns. After having subjugated the Drevlians, Olga transformed their territories into a Kievan appanage with the center in Vruchiy.
The last contemporary mention of the Drevlians occurred in a chronicle of 1136, when Grand Prince Yaropolk Vladimirovich of Kiev gave their lands to the Church of the Tithes.
