[gothic-l] Gothic Archaeology was Re: Whence the Eruli

[faltin2001]

> But now appears another problem: if not from Gotland or
Scandinavia,
> then where came the Goths from? If I remember correctly, the Polish
> scholars are presenting the Wielbark culture as autochthonous. This
> would mean that the territory of this culture represents the
> Proto-Germanic homeland? (probably in fact they moved here from the
> homeland that was situated westwards, following the land route
rather
> than sailing on the Baltic Sea).
>
> Francisc

Dear Francisc,

I think the problem which you perceive does not really exist. The
Wielbark culture is authochonous to the area and developed from an
earlier iron age culture, called the Oxthoefte or Oksywie (?)
culture. There is no doubt about that anymore and no archaeologist
working in that area would object. Yet, the Germanic Jastorf culture
of Lower Saxony is also authochonous to its area. I think what that
shows is that an older model, which had all Germanic people
developing from one geographic area is not entirely accurate. Hence,
while this may be accurate with regards to the language, it is not
accurate with regards to material cultures. Instead, a series of
early iron age cultures, including the Przeworsk culture (from about
300BC) the Wielbark culture (from around 50BC) and the Jastorf
culture (from around 600BC) became what we would call Germanic. A
development, which was possibly started, but most likely enforced by
the contact with the Celts and later the Romans.

The predessor of the Wielbark culture, the Oxthoefte culture was
strongly influenced by the early Przeworsk culture of the Oder Warthe
region, and the two cultures are closely related. Later this contact
diminished and the two cultures became separated by corridors of
unsettled territory. In this situation  the Oxthoefte culture
developed its own traits, allowing it to be classified as a separate
culture, named after the cemetary of Wielbark/Willenberg. The
relationship between the Przeworsk culture and the Jastorf culture is
somewhat more complicated and not really subject for this list.



cheers,
Dirk




------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck
Monitoring Service trial
http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/wWMplB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/