Hundreds of visigothic slate stones (whiteboards) in Western Castilla (Spain

[Tore Gannholm]

The Gotlanders had wide trading connections

The Gold Ring from Havor and the great silver kettle from Gundestrup

It was in 1961 as one of the most remarkable archaeological finds, ever found in the Baltic area, came to light in the Havor ancient castle-fort in the south of Gotland. But not only is this find scientifically important, but it was also a genuine fairy-treasure of everything that one associates with it. The large bronze vessel, with its richly ornate fittings covered with a flat stone, under which there was a huge, richly decorated ring of shiny gold.

In the vessel was also a set of drinking vessels, and two bells made of bronze.

Most of the found objects were fairly easy to date, among other things through punched stamps and likeness with the things previously found in the rich Italian finding sites Pompeii and Herculaneum. The time for the manufacturing of the big bronze vessel and drinking vessels was the first century of our era and the origin of the Roman Empire, probably Italy.

The most puzzling object was, however, the large gold ring. Only four close relatives of this was previously known, one from Denmark, where it remained alone in a bog, and three from South Russia. Two were from a treasure find in Kiev and one from a tomb in Olbia on the Black Sea coast, each with uncertain dating. What keeps this group of rings together is the rich, in detail similar filigran ornamentation and the design of the end buttons.

However, none of the four can compete with the Havor ring in size and rich ornamentation. It is even so large that it would probably not be worn by a man, but should have been sitting on a image of a god.

Otherwise there are among Scandinavian gold discoveries only a few double-conical pearls with likely dating to the early centuries CE and some charms probably from earlier production. This indicates that the choice of motifs and ornamentation are related to the ring.  

Insights into the culture-historical prerequisites for the Havor find can be obtained by linking the dating of the bronze vessels, their production sites (including master stamps), and their distribution, both within and beyond the Roman Empire.
 
The Havor situla and its parallels within the Roman Empire are dated to Pre-Augustan times (before 27 BCE) or at the latest from the beginning of the Augustan Period (27 BCE-CE 14) until the end of the reigns of Emperors Claudius (CE 41- 54) and Nero (CE 54-68).
 

Thus it can be concluded, with regard to the Havor hoard of Roman bronze vessels, that the situla, ladle, strainer and saucepans are all Early Roman products from workshops which were active in the period from around the birth of Christ until a little into the second half of the 1st century CE.
 
The situla is probably the earliest of the bronze vessels to have been produced, i.e. in the first half of the 1st century CE. The ladle and strainer set were produced at the earliest just before the middle of the 1st century CE though such sets continued to be made right through to the end of the 1st century CE. The three saucepans share approximately the same production period as the ladle and strainer set.
 

It cannot be ascertained whether the situla, ladle, strainer and saucepans were combined together into a drinking set on the Continent south of Denmark, in Denmark or in Gotland. It is however certain that the bronze vessels in the Havor hoard comprise a classic drinking service of Roman inspiration. Drinking sets in Earlier Roman times comprised vessels for containing wine and maybe also water (such as situlae and Ostland-type kettles), vessels for taking up the wine (for example, saucepans), vessels for ladling out and filtering the wine (ladle and strainer sets) and vessels for drinking the often watered wine (such as silver cups or glass beakers). Drinking sets and their high-status function were adopted around the birth of Christ by the Germanic peoples outside the Roman Provinces and almost always constitute standard equipment in their rich graves, both male and female.

 

The Havor set is thus a classic example of an Early Roman drinking set with a situla for carrying the wine, strainer for filtering it and ladle for pouring out both the wine and the water into a saucepan (or other vessel), from which the wine was then served out into drinking beakers of silver or glass - the latter however being absent from the Havor hoard.
 
The products in the Havor hoard are quality wares. This corresponds with the gold neckring and the - rare for Barbaricum - Roman bronze bells.



A Roman knight visited Gotland?
 

 
Gamla hamn (old port) at Lauters on Fårö was at the Viking Age a lagoon harbour. In the bay, which had a length of 90 meters, they have found traces of ballast stones from the Baltics and bricks and other remains of ancient seafaring. The harbor was probably already in ancient times an important port. We have here found a bronze head from a Roman ship from Roman Imperial time (see page 47). The bronze head is now in Fornsalen in Visby. Nowadays, the old port is completely full of mud and a large gravel bank has cut it off. This may have occurred in the early 1300's, when heavy storms raged in the Baltic and North Sea. At the same time much of Helgoland and Rügen were washed away in storm tides. Painting by Erik Olsson
 

The Roman writer Pliny, who died in the destruction of Pompeii in 79 relates in his 37th book about a Roman knight who during Emperor Nero visited the amber coast on the Baltic Sea and brought home large quantities of amber. He talks about "commercia", venues where the amber was gathered and where commerce was conducted. We can assume that those venues for the most part were located at the estuary of the Vistula. During the 1st century BCE and the second half of the 2nd century CE these trading centers were visited by merchants from the Danube provinces and Quadiis country, who came to buy raw amber. This amber raw material was transported along a well-organized trade route over the Vistula and the Oder outlet areas through the Moravian gateway to Carnuntum at the middle Danube and on to Aquileia, which was famous for its amber workshops. The Amber Knight as he is called in the literature, according to Pliny also visited the major venues in the Baltic Sea.

Erland Hjärne has in a doctoral thesis in 1938, "Bernstensriddaren och Tacitus", addressed this very subject and he writes: "Commercis ea et litora peragravit - 'he traveled to the trading venues and coasts there. With these words Pliny mention the Knight's movements after arriving in the amber country. The expression "litora peragrare" is used in the Latin literature, not infrequently about voyages by sea along a coast. How far the Baltic trip by the Amber Knight has been extended, we have no definite opinion from Plinii words. This journey along the coasts of the Baltic Sea can not have been too short as it has even been considered worthy of special mention. Hardly has it only been a minor excursion between two points on the very small coastline of the amber area. Nothing seems to prevent the adoption, the trip extends to the the Gotlandic communities out there in the ocean, although Pliny specifically mentions only the coastal voyage. If we study Pliny and Tacitus descriptions of the Baltic Sea area, it appears that these authors appear to have had access to the same source and that source has personally visited these places. Both Pliny and Tacitus' description of the island in the Baltic Sea is so rich in detail that the travel narrator himself must have seen the place.

 

Bronze head from a Roman ship found in Gamla hamn at Lauters on Fårö. The dating is about the birth of Christ. A Roman ship which reached Scandinavia, but never returned? Source: Erik Nylén.


The reason for such an extent of the trip may have been curiosity, egged on by the opportunity to learn about a strange and distant world for the Roman people. It is to this time we can, according to Peter Manneke trace the oldest Gotlandic picture stones carved with Roman tools. Even the Havor treasure is from this period.

Pliny's note shows, however, undoubtedly, that at least in one case, a Roman himself reached the amber coast, probably the Prussian, and thus Tacitus information about conditions there and in adjacent areas not required to have passed through Germanic intermediaries. Analysis of the specific details in the narrative of the Gotlanders also give the impression that they reflect direct observations from a particular trip and that the observer was not a Germanic, but a Roman.

If we now go to Tacitus 'Germania', you can right from the start establish that the source for this part of Germania is oriented from the Vistula estuary and that it is linked to the amber trade, and especially that it is of commercial origin. If the source is of commercial origin, it is likely that the selection of the facts, that incurs its author's attention and that of him after his return related to others, to some extent is determined by the trading interest. On a trip, undertaken for trading purpose, one will of course above all have the opportunity to both observe, and get information from the people with whom one comes into contact as well as hearing about such events and conditions that are related to trade. A conspicuous example of that now said is the lengthy description of amber and thus what is related, which occupies a large part of 'Germanias' forty-fifth chapter.

If this Roman makes a trip to the commercial sites on the Baltic Sea, he obviously does not avoid visiting the trade center Gotland, which already at that time was considered to have been the center for trade in the Baltic Sea. Tacitus description is quite clear here. He says you go straight out from the Vistula estuary to meet the powerful people of the Baltic Sea. From there it is due east and you come to the Baltic coast. Already in the early Iron Age, we know that the Gotlanders had trading colonies there and Prof. Birger Nerman believes that the Gotlanders were the mediators of culture and commerce to the rest of the Nordic tribes.

The great attention Tacitus devotes the Gotlanders becomes fully understandable if one imagines that his relation reflects a single specific travel trip by one person who says what he himself observed. This trip, from which the information about the Gotlanders originated, would not have had its end point on the amber coast. After a longer or shorter pause, and it seems that the traveller himself continued the journey by sea to the north, the Gotlandic areas.

If the Knight has been a member of the Roman equestrian order, it would with regard to its traditions not be surprising that his business interests stretched beyond the temporary assignment, which brought him to the amber coast. Fur is a commodity, that may have been the subject of export from the Baltic region. Luxary furs of the ancient cultural world has strongly strenghtened during the end of the Imperial Age, probably due to increased contact with northern European nations and even oriental influence. There is a vague hint of its presence even during past centuries.

The trading history from Late Antiquity has a long history throughout the past and the widening to new, from the Mediterranean countries to far remote areas with which the growing extent followed the import of new goods and the appearance of new luxaries. That an enterprising Roman businessman in the time of Nero, who had already reached important commercial centers, it should therefore not be unreasonable to suppose that he has wished to avail himsef with the opportunity to visit other venues. It is interesting to note that at Lauters habour on Fårö has been found a bronze head from a Roman ship from this period.

Excavations in Poland show that there was a cultural center at the mouth of the Vistula in the first centuries of our era.

The Vistula estuary played a special role in the whole Baltic Sea area as it did as a port for relations with the southern and southeastern Europe. This was the exact center for the Amber Coast. Amber was extracted in large quantities from the rocks on the Sambian peninsula and collected on the beaches of Livonia and Courland, and became part of the trade. Throughout the region during the first decades of our era we experience significant changes in building structure and cultural development in the Wielbark culture, formerly known as the Goto-Gepidic civilization. The basic archaeological detectable characteristics of this culture remained unchanged throughout its existence until the early 5th century.

You can not help but associate these inter-regional economic relations with emigration of Scandinavian peoples, known from the written sources, who joined the Baltic south coast and went to Ukraine.
Amber was not the only product that was attractive to the barbaric market for traders from far and wide.
There were other items that are not as easy to spot. It is such as skins of Arctic animals, which were valued very highly, imported from Scandinavia through the center on Gotland (UE Hagberg 2, 1967, p. 109-125, figs 56-57.)

Based on information from Jordanes the Goths coming from Scandinavia to the Baltic Sea's southern coast is estimated to the first century CE. (H. Lowmianski I, 1963, p. 259-261). The meeting between such a estimation and the chronology of the oldest cemeteries of the Scandinavian type, after the middle of the same century, is striking. All cemeteries in zone B, as well as the western group, in Area A (Fig. I A3) was abandoned in the late second or early third century CE. (R. Wolagiewicz 1981 p. 85). This would be consistent with our assumption that the Goths moved south just at this time (in the year 238 is their attendance noted at the Roman Limes on the Danube).



11 okt 2011 kl. 18.57 skrev ertydfh110:

> Ok. But how can be explained the Roman influx in Gotland?. I didn´t know they reached up there. Or did they borrow it from the celts-romans in other locations and then use it in Gotland later?. 
> 
> Greetings
> 
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Ingemar Nordgren" <ingemar at ...> wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "ertydfh110" <ertydfh110@> wrote:
> > >
> > 
> > > BTW, I didn´t know that there were Roman influx in Gotland. How can Gotlandic stones were related to the Celto-Roman stelae?. 
> > > Do you know if there is anything similar in Gotland to these visigothic slate stones?:
> > > http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/piedravisigoda.jpg/
> > > http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/visigothicwhiteboard.jpg/
> > > 
> > > Greetings.
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > No, nothing such. The pattern on the Gotlandic stones more reminds of the Celto-Roman stelae you showed in the first mail and who also are treated by Cumont. It shows rather on Celtic influence than Roman.
> > 
> > Ingemar
> >
> 
> 



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