[gothic-l] Gothic and Gotlandic Sailing

[Bertil Haggman]

For some the issue of sailing of Goths, Eruls and Vandals
is very sensitive. Very early migration would have involved
sailing ships. The pre-viking raids of the Goths and the
Eruli on the Black Sea involved skilful sailing also into
the eastern Mediterranean. The Vandals operated war fleets
of sailing ships in the western Mediterranean long before the
Vikings. 

The Vandals were notable as a seagoing nation. Many have 
expressed surprise that a nation with a long history
of overland migration developed such an aptitude with
sails. The Goths also developed those techniques. It most
likely antedates the late Roman era and harks back to 
the coasts around southern Scandinavia around the Baltic Sea
and elsewhere.

On an island,  travel on water would have developed
very early on Gotland. Wonder if Tore could recommend
any of Nylén's writing that deals with early sailing and
shipping near Gotland.

What about "Bygden, Skeppen och Havet" in Antikvariskt
Arkiv 1973 or _Bildstenar_ 1978? or the German language
"Voelker und Kulturen-Schiffe und Meere" in Archaelogia
Baltica 1974. There must be later works. This is a very
interesting subject to reject the hypothesis that the cultures
along the coasts of Scandinavia were backward. That the
the Viking era sailing skill and shipbuilding quality was
just a accident of history, as some seem to suggest.

Gothically

Bertil


Erik Nylén says that the oldest dating of a picture stone with sails in 
Gotland is about 600 or somewhat earlier.
That shows that the Gutnish people used sails at least in the 6th century.

As we have no earlier pictures of sailing ships in the Baltic does 
not mean that they did not use sails earlier. 


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