a tribe that inhabited the region between the Volga and Oka rivers from the end of the first millennium B.C. until the end of the first millennium A.D. The Meria are first mentioned in the sixth century by the Gothic historian Jordanes, who called them Merens. The Russian Primary Chronicle describes the Meria as living around Lakes Nero and Kleshchina. The Meria language belonged to the Finno-Ugric family. The clan social structure was disintegrating among the Meria in the first millennium A.D. Their main occupations were herding, hunting, fishing, and handicrafts. The Meria were gradually absorbed by the Slavs who penetrated the Volga region at the end of the first millennium A.D.