Using DNA to find Goths

[Francisc Czobor]

Dirk is right, since the Goths have absorbed and assimilated many 
people of other origins, such a DNA research could be misleading.
Beside Jordanes and Theoderic, another famous example is bishop 
Wulfila: although he was born among  the Visigoths, both his parents 
were Cappadocian Greeks, so his DNA would be linked to that of the 
Hellenized populations of Asia Minor, not to that of the North-
Europeans...

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "faltin2001" <d.faltin at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> Hi Sturla,
> 
> could you explain this project in a bit more detail please?
> 
> I think one big problem that you need to bear in mind is that Goths 
> are not a biological grouping, but a political grouping. We know, 
for 
> example, that the Visigoths who arrived in Gaul and Spain included 
> many Roman provincials, runaway slaves and disgruntled miners. 
> 
> If you look back at Gothic individuals about whom we know a little 
> bit about their family background it is striking that most of them 
> had mixed ethnic backgrounds. Jordanes was apprently partly of 
Alanic 
> origin, Theoderic´s mother seems to have been a Roman woman. For a 
> migrant group like the Goths this was probably a typical feature. 
> When the Goths appeared first in the wars agains Philip I Arabs, 
they 
> seemed to have been allies of the Carpi, a people that then 
> disappeared from the records. The Carpi, an Illyrian or Thrakian 
> people were like absorbed into the Goths and there are probably 
more 
> small non-Germanic groups that were absorbed by the Goths. 
> 
> In fact, historians believe if the Goths hadn't had the ability and 
> the attraction to absorbe other ethnic and political groups they 
> would have vanished long before the 5th century. 
> 
> In this sense, I would be interested to know what exactly Gothic 
DNA 
> should be like? Even if you extracted DNA from a skeleton that was 
> buried with Gothic or East Germanic grave goods, how can you know 
> what political identity this person once had. It would be fantastic 
> if what you propose is possible, but so far I have my doubts.
> 
> Cheers
> Dirk
> 
> 






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

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    gothic-l-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

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