[gothic-l] Re: Gothic Identity, was: Heyerdahl searching for Odin

[Tore Gannholm]

Dirk,
I agree with you what regards Västergötland and Östergötland.

However when you look at Gotland the situation is completely different.
200-300 BC there is an emigration from Gotland with similarities in the
Wielbark culture from the same time.
>From that time and up to the 6th century the Gothic culture pures back to
Gotland and makes Gotland the great cultural centre in the Baltic.
As far as I know the god Gaut is unkown in Gotland. There the moon and the
sun were worshipped. Gotland was a great astronomical centre. The oldest
dated astronomical calendars in Gotland are dated to 3300 BC. The
caleandars can be found all over the island.

Gotland keeps this positiion until the 14th century when the German hanse
is formed and the Hanseatics takes over.

Are there any indications that the Goths worshipped a god Gaut?

We very often confuse Gotland with Scandinavia. When people talk about
Scandinavia they normally mean mainland Sweden. The Gotlandic culture and
the Swedish culture is very different. We know that the Gotlanders had
colonies (trading posts) all around the Baltic including the Swedish
mainland from the Bronze age up to the Middle ages.
Tore

>
>I certainly agree with the view that tribes/peoples, at times, split
>up and seperated; but the problem with the continental Gothones and
>the Scandinavian 'Goths' seems to be that archaeologists have a hard
>time finding any similarity in their respective material cultures. A
>Polish archaeologist recently underscored Hachmann's findings, namely
>that comparing archaeological assemblages from the Masovia group and
>those from Vaestergotland etc. showed practically no similarity,
>leading to belief that the contact between these groups can at best
>have been minimal... while it remains uncertain if this contact was
>from North to South or South to North.... In fact, the Wilbark culture
>is basically an indigenous culture of the Pommerania/Masovia area
>developed from the earlier Oxthoefe (forgotten the Polish name)
>culture.
>
>On the other hand, to pick up your exampe, Crimean Gothic artefacts of
>the 6th/7th century are clearly related to other East Germanic
>artefacts from Central/Eastern Europe and are related to the Wilbark
>culture via the Chernyakhov culture.

>
>cheers,
>Dirk
>
>



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