[gothic-l] Heruls and Archaeology

[george knysh]

--- dirk at smra.co.uk wrote:
>
> Prof. Berthold Schmidt found (Studien zur
> Sachsenforschung No. 13,
> 1999) that in the aftermath of the arrival of the
> Huns in south
> eastern Europe, carriers of the Gothic Chernyahkovsk
> culture and the
> Sintana de Mures Culture moved into Middle-Germany.
> According to
> Schmidt, this constituted a migration that is not
> attested in the
> historical sources, but which was nonetheless of
> substantial size. It
> led in the last quarter of the 4th century to the
> creation of the so
> called 'Niemberger Gruppe' and 'Grossbadegaster
> Gruppe' in middle
> Germany, which is a direct continuation of the
> Sintana de Mures and
> western Chernyakhovsk cultures.

******GK: Thank you very much for this information. I
have been a long time student of the Chernyakhivs'ka
kultura (as it is known in Ukraine, from the village
of Chernyakhiv south of Kyiv/Kiev), and can place this
in perspective. This culture was not an "ethnic"
phenomenon, and came to be associated with many
different groups, including the Goths. It emerged at
the beginning of the 1rst c. AD, after the Roman limes
was moved across the Danube with the conquest of
Dacia, and developed under the strong influence of the
Roman provincial culture. The earliest group
evidencing "Chernyakhiv" traits were actually the
Geto-Dacians and Bastarnae of contemporary Moldavia.
Then it spread to the Scytho-Sarmatians of the Black
Sea coastline, and the Slavs of the upper Dnister.
When the Goths and other Germanic peoples arrived on
the territory of contemporary Ukraine (the influx
began in the last years of the 2nd c. AD and
accelerated in the 3rd c. as group after group pressed
southeastward along the Bug and Boh rivers) they had
their own culture, the so-called Welbark culture,
which survived for generations, producing many
intermediary "Welbark-Chernyakhiv" sites. By the 4th
c. the Germanic peoples as well as the Alans settled
further east beyond the Dnipro/Dnepr were fully
integrated into "Chernyakhiv". As one can imagine
there was a great deal of cross-cultural borrowing and
influence. When the Goths arrived, for instance, they
practised the rite of cremating their dead with little
exception. Under the influence of the Sarmatian and
Alans some of them began to switch to the rite of
inhumation. It would be interesting to know the
proportion of cremation-inhumation sites in Thuringia
after 376 AD. Another custom which this population
seems to have adopted is that of skull deformations.
This originated among the Alans and was subsequently
practised by some Huns (and now, we are told, by some
Germans too). One further caveat about ethnicity. The
political system which existed in the eastern
territories where the Goths settled led to increasing
clout by Gothic (and Gepidic) clans. Under the impact
of the Huns the outflow was not exclusively Gothic,
but included many other subordinated elements (esp.
Scytho-Sarmatian, Dacian and Alanic: cf. Alatheus and
Saphrax of the 376 story), which were progressively
integrated into Gothic and other Germanic groups but
may have retained their distinct identity in very
early post-migration times. In similar fashion, the
Goths who remained in the East["Reithgotaland"]
(except those of the Crimea, though they too were
hellenized and turkicised later) were absorbed by the
locals esp. the Slavs. Again this information about
Chernyakhiv-Sintana de Mures in Thuringia is
fascinating. I had always wondered if any evidence
existed of Chernyakhiv outflow westward with Goths and
others. Now it seems this is proved.******
>
> Apart from decorations etc. one of the
> characteristics of this culture
> are the way in which bodies were placed in the
> graves. Thus, one way
> was to place them on their face. This influx of East
> Germanic people
> may have been significant in the Thuringian
> ethnogenesis. The
> Thuringians are first mentioned in 400AD. From the
> 420s/30s actual
> conflict with Huns is demonstrated by the grave
> material in Thuringia.
> Burials of the Niemberger Gruppe show frequent
> battle wounds including
> nomadic arrowheads in the wounds. From 430AD the
> area came under
> Hunnic domination, with nomadic weaponry and
> decorations appearing in
> rich graves. Also, the custom of artificial skull
> deformations becomes
> very widespread in Thuringia. Some 50% of the
> artificially deformed
> skull show 'mongolic' features. The dating was made
> possible by the
> discovery of a 20-year old Germanic woman, who died
> in about 450AD and
> who's skull had been deformed in early childhood.
> The Hunnic influence
> starts to fade after the battle at the Nedao, but
> artificial skull
> deformations remain in custom until the first third
> of the 6th
> century.
>


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