[gothic-l] Re: The Goths in Poland...

[Francisc Czobor]

Hails, Dirk

I have heard about the Wielbark culture, which is attributed to an
East Germanic people (if I remember correctly, some authors attribute
it rather to the Vandals, but I'm not sure).
The last supposition of that article seems to me a little dubious:
how could the Goths who returned to North Poland become the Baltic
tribe of the Prussians? The old Prussians spoke a Baltic language,
related to Latvian and Lithuanian, but with distinct features, which
are not due to a Gothic influence. Thus, the Prussians can not be
regarded as balticized descendants of the Goths (in the best case, it
could be assumed that the Goths who returned in North Poland were
assimilated by the local Prussians).

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, dirk at s... wrote:
> Did anybody read the article "The Goths in Poland - Where did they
> come from and when did they leave" by Przemyslaw Urbanczyk in
> European
>  Journal of Archaelogy (Vol. 1, Issue 3, 1 Dec. 1998)?
> I only read a short summary, but found the arguments quite
> interesting
> and would be interested to hear from anyone who knows the article,
if
> it is worth getting.
>
> The author's argumentation seem to be based on the Wielbark cultur
as
> a fairly stable group of people in modern North Poland. He regards
> the
> departure of the Goths to the Black Sea at the end of the 2nd
century
> as only one episode in the history of the Wielbark culture, where
> probably an elite group that represented the 'Gothic identity'
> decided
> to leave the area, while most people actually stayed behind. Those
> people who stayed behind developed a new elite, which later decided
> to
> follow the emigrants to the Black Sea. This second group became the
> Gepids. The author cites archaelogical evidence to argue that parts
> of
> the Goths from the Black Sea later moved back to the Baltic Sea and
> in
> the 9th century 'became more and more Prussian' (i.e. forming the
> Baltic tribe of the Prussen).
>
> I have never read this before. So if anybody knows more about this
> kind of interpretation, I would be interested to hear about it.
>
> Dirk


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