Hundreds of visigothic slate stones (whiteboards) in Western Castilla (Spain).

[o_cossue]

Hi, friend. No, I'm no scholar, but a learned reader and a hobbyist. My main interest are the Suevi (after all, I'm Galician), and the Romance-Germanic toponymy in Galicia (mostly personal names expressed as genitives, at places such as Mondariz, Guitiriz, Gondomar < Gundemarii, Vila Santar, Allariz, Forcarei < Fulkaredi, Gomesende, Baltar, Sandiás < Sindilanis and the like). Of course, the Germanic, Suevi, and most notably Visigothic, patrimony is probably underrated, if compared with other contribution to Iberia's cultures. Francoism, and in general nationalism, is probably guilty on this, for having used and abused the Goths and the Suevi for their ideology.

On researchers going into new evidences... Well, I really appreciate the works by Aragonese scholar Javier Arce (briefly, ISBN 84-206-2347-4, ISBN 9788496467576, and the brand new "Esperando a los árabes. Los visigodos en Hispania", which I haven't had the opportunity to read, yet). He has been extracting all the juice of letters, fragments, and snippets not previously really taken into consideration... Is not that you must agree with everything he deduces (he sometimes make silly mistakes in marginal assertions) but he is really chopping the material into new views. Anyway, the subjects of his research are not the Goths, per se, but their era.

On the names of the bishops, in the Suevic kingdom of Galicia 5 of 12 Catholic bishops were Suevi in 570, 6 Roman (one a Pannonian) and 1 Briton. The Visigothic kingdom shows the same tendency after the conversion under king Reccared; according to Thompson (The Goths in Spain, XII.2), the percentile of Germanic/Total bishops assisting to the councils of Toledo were:
Tarraconense 30,25% 
Cartaginense 30,75%
Lusitania    43,75%
Betica       27,25%
Galicia      41% 
Galia        28,5%

Last but not least, a link to an academic work you may find REALLY interesting, on Visigothic necropolis in Castille. It's a little old, but fascinating: http://tdx.cat/handle/10803/2607

Cheers,
O'Cossue.

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ertydfh110" <ertydfh110 at ...> wrote:
>
> Hi again o_cossue, I´ve been reading everything in the link you gave to me. It is really interesting. 
> 
> It´s a pity that in Spain we don´t study at schools about other different legacies than the hispano-roman or muslim. We also have had many other cultural contributions from other cultures. For example nobody knows much about the visigoths and they ruled Spain for more than 2 centuries. It is just a pity, it´s also our culture, our past.  Do you know if there is any new research about visigothic Spain at this moment?. I mean, researchers reading new manuscripts and trying to find new ideas about Visigothic Spain?. 
> 
> Are you just an amateur in History (like me) or you are a researching as a proffesional?. What got you to learn about the goths?.
> 
> I´ve read somewhere the list of the bishops who went to the different christian Conciliums in that era. The majority of them had gothic names.
> 
> BTW I think it is not just fantasizing about the possibility that the people close to old visigothic villages to have some ancestors from there. After all, these people would probably have end up living in the closest rural communities when there was no threat that compelled them to live in fortified castros.
> 
> Greetings.
> 
> 
> 
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "o_cossue" <o.cossue@> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > @Gotenfreud: I'm glad to help :-)
> > 
> > Hi, ertydfh110. 
> > 
> > On some of the Visigoths acquiring Latin or Christian names, that's for sure, but maybe only when they got involved as churchmen. The chronicler John of Biclara (Béjar) was himself a Goth, while St. Fructuosus, archbishop of Braga in the VIIth century, was son of dux Dogila of Galicia, himself either a Goth or a Suevi. Anyway, most Goths or Suevi retained their names even after being made clergymen. On some of those people mentioned in the stones being your own ancestors, well, why not? If I remember correctly, some years ago a research carried out in the UK led to find that a local teacher was a direct descendant of a x-millenniums (bog?) body, so..
> > 
> > The full series of articles by Isabel Velázquez Soriano on the Visigothic slate stones can be found here:
> > 
> > http://revistas.um.es/ayc/search/authors/view?firstName=Isabel&middleName=&lastName=Vel%C3%A1zquez%20Soriano&affiliation=&country=
> >
>


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