[gothic-l] Re: Gaut, Gapt & the Gepids

[Ingemar Nordgren]

Hi Dirk,

You wrote:


> Hello Ingemar,
>
> If I remember correctly, you have done a lot of research on Germanic
> mythology etc. Can you expand a little about what the nature of this
> god Gaut is please. How does he relate to Odin/Wodan? Does he have the
>  same sort of attributes? Gaut seems to be some sort of ancestral god
> for many Germanic people. Gaut was apparently the ancestral God of the
> Goths, while the Saxons called their ancestral god/founding father
> Hatha-Gaut and Hathu-Gaut. The Thuringians worshiped a devine family
> called the Gausen as their ancestral gods.
>
> cheers
> Dirk

According to my opinion he is a predecessor of Wodan/Óðinn but with
decidedly more fertility impact. He is odinistic in the sense of
schamanism but seems also related to the old fertility-cult. The Goths
seem to have followed a sacral king quite a time before the open cult of
Óðinn and have had a  sacrifice cycle of 19 years - meton cycle - and
about 475 at least the eight year cycle  breaks through in the Mälar
valley area - the last Swedish bastion of the fertility cult. This shows
the cult dedicated to a god by name of Óðinn comes as import and I see
Gaut as an ancient Nordic variant of the later cult, which has been
influenced by the Romans concerning the sacrificial cycle and more.
Dumezil sees two ruler god but he also means they could in some cultures
be just one. I think he was regarded merely as a creator god from the
beginning and was lifted to the rampart light by the gautic tribes in
opposition to the traditional  sacral kings when conditions for
agriculture in the traditional settlementareas grew worse. If you write
Gaut,Gaus,Gausus,Geat et c. is less important - it is the same entity.
His origin lies in Scandinavia and Northern Germany in the old Bronze
Age high-culture but he starts to grow more visible  during the decline
of this culture and begins to grow in importance as a consequense of the
withering away of the old cultic fertility league. He may have had a
female counterpart also because in Germany the goddess "Frau Gauden"is
known and she is indeed schamanistic and "tobt" over the fields. Maybe
the name originally just meant "the God" and "the Goddess" but the
normally accepted translation is in any case "Gießer", he  who pours out
the humans who are the outpoured - in short humans. His connection with
Óðinn is in any way evident because Óðinn  is later called
Óðinn-gaut.The Saxon Hatha-Gaut and Hathu-Gaut might stand for "high" I
reckon - the high Gaut or the high God - both translations might be
possible. Maybe he was the former nameless Óðinn? Because all we have is
genealogies and indications toward  ring-cult and stone-circles we can
only suppose.


> Hello again Ingemar,
>
> can you give some details, how this prof. Okulicz-Kozaryn showed that
> the Gepids fromed out of people from all over Scandinavia? Is that
> based on archaeological finds? When is this migration supposed to have
> occured? In the 2nd/3rd century when the Gepids are thought to have
> formed? Most authors seem to belief that the Gepids formed out of
> remainders of (Pomeranian) Gutones who did not move to the south-East
> in the late 2nd century.

<snip>

> In short, Makiewicz and his team of Polish archaeologist think that
> the Wielbark culture is mainly the extention of an earlier local
> culture and developed in the Pomeranian/West Prussian area with the
> possible influence from groups from Scandinavia. This Wielbark culture
> dissappeared in the late 2nd century from Pommerania, apart from the
> Vistula region, where the remaining carriers of this culture formed
> into Gepids, who later also moved southwards.
>
> cheers
> Dirk

In an article in Götiska Minnen, Lidköping 1992, pp.83-106, edited by
myself, Okulicz states that the grave-field at e.g. Weklice indicates
the formation of a multiochtonous culture  being formed from both local
people and Scandinavian immigrants from all over Scandinavia. Small
groups from many origins mixing and forming a tribe. The article is
called " A cultural centre at the mouth of Vistula" but written in
Swedish. I give you the english summary. I can also refer to some of his
publications of interest:
1991: Das Gräberfeld von Weklice. Zur Besiedlungsgeschichte des
Weichselraums in der römischen Kaiserzeit" from Archeologia, Vol.XL,
pp.115-127.
1989: "Les aspects demographiques des migrations de la population de la
civilisation de Wielbark en Mazurie, en Mazowie et en Podlasie" in
Peregrinatio Gothica, Archaeologica Baltica, Vol. VIII,Lodz, pp.135-158.
1986: "Einige Aspekte der Ethnogenese der Balten und Slaven im Lichte
archäologischer und  sprachwissenschaftlicher Forschungen"in Questiones
Medii Aevi, Vol.III, pp.7-34.
Okulicz, J, Bursche, A 1987: "Badania birytualnego cmentaryska kultury
wielbarskiej w Krósnie, na stanowisku , 1, w woj.elblaskim" in Badania
p. 207-232.
Okulicz,J, Jagodzi´nski, M, 1987: "Dotychczasowe wyniki zdjecia
archeologicznego województwa elblaskiego oraz wnioski badawcze i
konserwatorskie z nich plynace" in Badania pp. 7-26.

Kind greetings
Ingemar

Okulicz summary: (I had trouble scanning all letters proper!)

Jerzy Okulicz:

A cultural Center at the Mouth of Vistula

Summary

For a diversity of objective and subjective reasons it so happened, that
no archaeological investigations had been conducted for over 4 decades
on cemeteries and settlements from the period of Roman influence in the
region of Elblag. This area important for the study of the history of a
culture centre at the mouth of the Vistual remained of necessity away
from the mainstream of research into the question of amber routes and
migrations of populations from the Baltic region to the south-east of
Europe. Without new archaeological finds, important artifacts discovered
in the past were forgotten, overshadowed by the spectacular research
conducted to the west of the Vistula on cemeteries with stone circles
(zone B described above) or the rescue excavations on flat grave fields
in the vicinity of Gdansk, Pruszcz and Malbork (zone A,). Only in the
1966 when H.J. Eggers published his photographs taken in 1939 of
materials from the cemetery at Polowite, extremely rich in Roman
imports; subsequently lost during the war, questions concerning this
area once again drew the attention of scholars. The next step was
initiating a modern registration of sites in the Elblag voivodship (J.
Okulicz, M. Jagodzinski 1987, pp. 7 - 26) and ultimately, excavating the
cemeteries at Krosno (J. Okulicz, A. Bursche 1987, pp. 207 - 232) and
Weklice. Thc preliminary discussion of research results from the Weklice
cemetery presented here, with an attempt to present them in a broader
historical context shows that we are not dealing here with a marginal
and minor area of the Wielbark Culture but with one of the centres of
the amber coast, crucial for understanding the far-reaching ties between
the Baltic region and various areas of the Roman Empire and European
Barbaricum. Moreover, without the knowledge of cemeteries in the Elblag
Heights it would be difficult to understand the issues related to the
migration of populations from the Baltic area to the South.
While in the period between the middle of the 1st c. and the late 2nd c.
AD the Elblag group was distinguished by a relatively rich equipment of
female graves, it did not differ much from situation on cemeteries in
zones A and B described earlier. Only at the close of the 2nd c., the
time when cemeteries in zone B and, partially inzone A3, were abandoned,
and the population departed to the South, the group in question gained
in importance. In comparison to the burial grounds continuing to be used
in zone A, near Pruszcz and Malbork, grave goods from the late 2nd and
the 3rd c. (cemetery phases III-V) at Weklice, PoFowite and other nearby
sites are unmatched intheir richness featuring an accumulation of
impressive Roman imports and a largest number of locally produced silver
and gold items. New cemeteries of the Wielbark Culture which began to be
set up starting from the end of the 2nd and throughout the 3rd c. in
Mazowsze, Podlasie, Bug river basin and Volhynia appear very modest in
comparison. All of the foregoing goes to show that the centre
functioning the in the Elblag Heights at this time had been the cultural
hub of the entire Wielbark Culture. It transmitted cultural stimuli to
far off Ukraine, Moldavia and Rumania, injecting the then nascent
Cerniachov-Sintana-de Mures culture with features particular to the
Baltic region. The culture centre flourishing in Denmark at the close of
the 2nd and throughout the 3rd c. and its counterpart in the Elblag
Heights were linked in various ways, as we set out to prove here (Fig. 6
and 10). Such a situation is readily understood if we bear in mind the
importance of amber workshops on the lower Vistula turning out vast
quantities of ornaments for the "markets" in the Barbaricum. The
economic profits were high indeed,
It is difficult not to associate such a strong economical position of
the group in question with the organization of the southward migrations
of population. It is surprising that no existing publications concerning
the migration of Goths and Gepidae engaged in such a basic comprehensive
confrontation of sources.
In the late 3rd c. the population of the Elblag Group migrated to the
South, at least, less sweepingly, it abandoned its former seats. This is
evidenced by the discontinued use of all cemeteries investigated to
date, and presumably, settlements, as well. We know too little to
formulate solid hypotheses as to what spurred this migration. This is
also true of other obscure root causes of the great exodus of northern
Barbarian peoples to the South.
The role of the mouth of the Vistula region as a major culture centre on
the Baltic continued later, in the 4th and 5th c. At this time zone A1,
on the left bank of the Vistula, still with a stable settlement, gained
in importance. It took over the role of the main outlet for the Baltic
peoples. This is borne out by rich grave goods in the burials from
phases C2-D on cemeteries at Pruszcz and those near Malbork, which bear
the mark of strong ties with Scandinavia and the
Cerniachov-Sintana-de-Mures Culture.

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