 | Wielbark Culture: Encyclopedia II - Wielbark Culture - The Goths
Wielbark Culture - The Goths
The Wielbark culture is associated with Jordanes' account of the Goths leaving Scandza (Scandinavia) and their settlement in Gothiscandza. According to Jordanes they pushed away the local Rugians and Vandals when settling in the area.
Gothiscandza was located at the mouth of the Vistula, and this area was given as the land of the Gutones (Pliny the Elder) or Gothones (Tacitus):
Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a king; and thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty. Immediately adjoining are the Rugians and Lemovians upon the coast of the ocean, and of these several nations the characteristics are a round shield, a short sword and kingly government.
The names given by Pliny and Tacitus appear to be identical to *Gutoniz, the reconstructed Proto-Germanic form of Gutans, the Goths' name for themselves.
Some have suggested that the three ships of Goths arriving at the Vistula is merely symbolic whereas others have ascribed the ships to the Gepids the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. A third interpretion is that the ships only contained the Norse clan of Amal's royal family.
However, archaeologists are wary of ascribing ethnicities to archaeological cultures, and it is considered to be an extremely difficult matter.
The latest tendency is to doubt the equation between the Wielbark Culture and the Goths, and it has been established that the Wielbark culture did not appear solely through immigration from Scandinavia. Instead it appears to have evolved from the Oksywie culture and possibly through Scandinavian influence.
This theory is based on the fact that the Wielbark Culture shared the same geographical extent as the Oksywie Culture and even continued to use many of the Oksywie cemeteries. The settlements consisted both of the original inhabitants and of groups of Scandinavians.
The present view is that the direct settlements of Goths in Poland are those characterised by barrow cemeteries by which there are raised stone circles and solitary stelae (Scandinavian burial customs with a concentration in Götaland). This type is found between the Vistula and the Kashubian and Krajenskian lakelands reaching into the Koszalin region. These burial grounds appeared in the second half of the 1st century.
The Wielbark Culture seems to have been a mixed society composed of both Goths and Gepids from Scandinavia as well as the previous inhabitants. In the 3rd century, the Wielbark community left their settlements and reached their new homeland, Oium, in Ukraine, where they would found a new empire.
Other related archives1st century, 3rd century, Amal, Ancient peoples, Archaeological cultures, Archaeology of Poland, Baltic Sea, Chernyakhov culture, Chełmno, Gdańsk, Gepids, Gothiscandza, Goths, Götaland, History of the Germanic peoples, Iron Age, Jordanes, Kashubian, Lemovians, Lygians, Mazovia, Norse clan, Oium, Oksywie Culture, Ostrogoths, Pliny the Elder, Poznań, Proto-Germanic, Przeworsk culture, Rugians, Scandinavia, Scandza, Tacitus, Ukraine, Vandals, Visigoths, Vistula, barrow, cremation, inhumation, spurs, stelae, stone circles
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Goths", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
