[gothic-l] The Gothic and Eruli Proto-Vikings

[bertil]

Frank,

This is a good question. The Goths and the Eruli
seemed initially to have used ships offered by
the Bosporanians, who likely joined the
fray. Later, if the huge number of raiding ships in
the Roman sources really existed, there must
have been quite some shipbuilding going on.

The Ostrogoths had extensive fleets both in the
Adriatic and the western Mediterranean. BTW, the
Vandal fleets were also large. The problem
is that these fleets have not been suffiently
explored. In my forthcoming article I hope to
solve some of those questions. My heart lifted
when recently a ship wreck was found in the
Black Sea, but it was too young to be an Eruli/
Gothic war ship, and, if the reports are to be
believed, it was a trading ship. Of course Slavic
language sources in this field would be of interest.

Would like to return to this, in my opinion,
very interesting subject. If I don't, and you are
interested, please remind me.

Erulically

Bertil


> Just out of curiosity, what evidence is there of the Goths and Heruli using
> their own ships, rather than commandeering Black Sea fleets from the areas
> they were using as bases?  There were some extensive land campaigns before
> these, establishing the territories used in their seaborne attacks.  From
> the literary sources alone, I cannot tell if they were using native
> technology or simply ships built (and crewed?) by the indigenious people . .
> .
>
> Just something that's always puzzled me.  After all, the Goths that appear
> from the mid-fourth century on are definitely _not_ a seafaring people, from
> what I can tell, (c.f. Alaric's unrealized goal of North Africa).


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