Щукин М.Б. Готский путь
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ГОТСКИЙ ПУТЬ (ГОТЫ, РИМ И ЧЕРНЯХОВСКАЯ КУЛЬТУРА)
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Приложение 4
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ГОТСКИЙ ПУТЬ (ГОТЫ, РИМ И ЧЕРНЯХОВСКАЯ КУЛЬТУРА)
ДРЕ1
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ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ 5
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М. В. SHCHUK1N
THE GOTHIC WAY
GOTHS, ROME, AND THE CULTURE
OF THE CHERMJAKHOV/SINTANA DE MURES
ABSTRACT
This scientific work features yet another attempt to reconstruct the paths and
circumstances of the prolonged movements of the Goths throughout Europe. This
group of people, which has since disappeared, received its name "Goths" in ancient
times. The given scientific work traces the Goths from their birthplace as a people in
Scandinavia on their movements southwards and to the last blown testimonies of
the Goths - in Spain and the Crimea. The author, who is also an archaeologist, saw
his goal for this book as being to trace the way in which events from the history of
the Goths are revealed by archaeological findings. Events known to us to one extent
or another from written works are explored in the book from an archaeological point
of view, that is to say by analyzing material changes in Gothic culture as shown by
remnants found on the Gothic path.
The structure of the text is reflected by the detailed chapter organization, and
there is no need in this abstract to retell the entire contents of the book. We will just
mention those places where the ideas and observations of the author are unique and
untraditional, or perhaps even arguable.
In order to make a comparison between historical events and changes in material
(archaeological) culture, we must first determine, where possible, the absolute
(calendar) dates of these changes. But both during typological and correlative methods
of archaeological research we receive only comparative (relative) dates. These relative
dates still need to be transferred into absolute (calendar) dates. It would be possible
to expect that changes in the material culture of the Goths are connected with changes
in the political situation in Europe; for example the invasion of the Huns around
375 AD, the advancement of Ostrogoths into Italy in 488, the resettlement of Visigoths
to Spain after the battle at Vouille in 507, and of the Goths-Tetraxits to the Caucuses
after the battle in Nedao in 454, etc. But as Hans-Jurgcn Eggers explained in 1955:
"Sie konnen es, musscn cs aber nicht". Time and again discrepancies arise between
historically and archaeologically established dates. Upon closer look, the borders of
phases and stages that were defined for centuries by the work of numerous
archaeologists have turned out to be "fluid" or "imprecise" within the limits of one
or another time interval. It turns out that these stages and phases overlap one another,
and that the borders between them arc very floating, depending as they do either on
historical foundations or on the intuition of the researcher.
In order to come to a more objective portrayal of the processes of change in
material culture of the Goths, the author suggests changing the actual paradigm of
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ABSTRACT
our chronological thought. This change in thought should go from a "square"
conception of time, in which there are clear borders between stages and phases, to
"rhombic" time, where the stages and phases become partially parallel to one another.
It's natural that any new phenomenon (fashion) happens in the majority of cases
within the borders of the previous phenomenon, and that as the most active, new
generation becomes its carrier, that this phenomenon becomes more wide-spread,
and then begins to die out, being replaced by yet newer cultural phenomena. These
processes can be traced in modern life as well. In such a case new possibilities arise
to make a different comparison between written sources and archaeology then was
done earlier.
The idea of a "rhombic approach" goes through the entire book like a "red thread".
The idea is best expressed in the third chapter entitled "The Problem of Absolute
Chronology" (fig. 27-28) and in the part on the later date of Chernjakhov culture in
the fifth chapter (fig. 86-87). It is also demonstrated in the series of tables in the
appendices N 2-4.
As far as the long-debated question of the exodus of the Goths from Scandinavia
goes, the author of this book is not so skeptical as some researchers (such as Hachmann
1970). There probably wasn't a massive emigration of people from Scandinavia, but
the penetration of various groups into the Polish Pomeranian region could obviously
have had its place. The monuments constructed here in the first century AD almost
completely changed their appearance, while the Wiclbark culture was formed (fig. 1),
several parts of which could have come from Scandinavia, such as, for example,
concentric stone lay-outs on burial mounds (fig. 2-4).
One of the main signs of a new culture in distinction to the prior Oksywie and the
neighboring Przeworsk cultures is the complete absence of weapons in burial graves.
In such a case the main region from which Scandinavian emigrants could come from
would most likely be Western Sweden, in the current-day province of Westergitfaland
and Boguslan, where burial graves with weapons are rare and stone constructions on
burial mounds are common. Since the inhabitants of the Baltic in the 1
SI
century AD
didn't have sails, and transportation could be most easily undertaken using coastal
courses along the shore, the Swedish regions named seem to be the most likely starting
point for the Goths to come to current-day Polish regions (fig. 12).
Movement took place in this way not once, but obviously many times, and
constantly, starting at the beginning of the 1
st
century AD. In the lower reaches of the
Oder River, and the adjoining bank with the island Rugen, even a little earlier than
the Wielbark culture was formed, a group of sites named the Gustov group was
formed (fig. 7-8). The author is inclined to include these sites in Wielbark culture. In
that case the contradiction between the accounts of Tacitus (Tac. Ann. II. 62, 63)
about the activities in the 19 year AD of the "young Goth Carualda" and a little later
of the formation of the Wielbark culture in Polish Pomerania can be dismissed.
The information derived by Jordanes (lord. Get. 25, 95) from Gothic «historical
songs» about the three boats of King Berig can reflect only one of the episodes of a
more long-lasting and wide process of emigration.
In the 1
st
century AD the first contact between the inhabitants of Central and
Northern Europe with the Sarmatians of the Northern Black Sea region took place.
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