The main event that took place within the lands of Poland in the Early Middle Ages, as well as other parts of central-eastern Europe, was the arrival, and subsequent permanent settlement, of the Slavic peoples. The Slavic migrations in the area of contemporary Poland started in the second half of the 5th century CE, some half century after these territories were vacated by Germanic tribes, their previous inhabitants. The first waves of the incoming Slavs settled the vicinity of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in the lands of present southeastern Poland and southern Masovia. Coming from the east, from the upper and middle regions of the Dnieper River, the immigrants would have had come primarily from the western branch of the early Slavs known as Sclaveni, and since their arrival are classified as West Slavs. Their early archeological traces belong to the Prague-Korchak culture, which is similar to the earlier Kiev culture.