T';:«'Mlo~tflPoJAwo ~WHefIEm»~COMB PROMANDWH!NDU) THEY LEAVB?

Przemyslaw UrbanczykInstitute of Archaeology and Ethnology, PAN, Warsaw

Abstract: Recent archaeological discoveries and reinterpretations of written sources supported by theconcepts of historical anthropology allow the creation of a new picture about the Goths. Most of thearchaeologists studying the cultural situation in northern Poland during the Roman period admittoday that the roots of the Wielbark culture commonly identified with the early Goths are to besought in local traditions. The results of that process, which can be explained in terms of changein symbolic consciousness rather than by a demographic expansion, became archaeologically visiblein the mid-first century AD. The decision to leave the Baltic zone could have been taken by a Gothicsocial elite endangered by tensions resulting from unstable trade relations with the Roman Empireand climatic deterioration. However, a substantial part of the agricultural Wielbark populationstayed behind, preferring well-known circumstances than risks of an unpredictable fate in distantlands. Among those people, aiter some time, the hier.archization process was repeated, leading tothe emergence of a new elite, which decided to follow their predece&'Sorsby migrating to thesouth east. They are identified by the sources as the Gepids. There are strong archaeological indica-tions that some part of the Wielbark population must have again stayed behind in Poland maintain-ing close contacts with their southern 'cousins'. Archaeologists today suggest that some 'Gothic'groups from the Pontic steppes returned to the Baltic. The merging of Germanic and Baltic traditionsresulted in a new cultural formation. In the ninth century AD, its material culture became more andmore Pru$sian but there is evidence for lively contacts with western Europe, Scandinavia and theAbbassid Khalifate. A specific tradition recorded in the oldest Polish chronicles and in the twelfthcentury epitaph of the first Polish king Boleslav the Brave raises the serious possibility that somememo.ry of the presence of Goths east of the Vistula somehow survived over centuries and it wasused for construction of the Piasts' dynastic tradition.

ethnicity, Goths, migration, Poland, Roman Age

INTRODUCTION

The Goths have been the subject of numerous studies. Scholarly interest was stimu-lated by the unquestionable role they played in the transformation of the Romanworld into the geopolitical structure of early medieval Europe. Interpretations oftheir origin and early history were strongly influenced by the tradition recorded in551 AD by Jordanes in 'Getica'. Also archaeological data have often been used inthis discussion since the so-called Wielbark culture· finds discovered in northernPoland have been identified with early Goths.

Europell$ JOllrn1l1OfArchaeology Vol. 1(3):397-"-415Copyri(5ht.© 1998 Sage Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and,New Delhi) and

the European Association of Archaeologists [1461~9571(199812)1:3;397-415;006628]

from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

398 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 1(3)

Recent ~rchaeqlogi~aldiscoverie~ and reil1te:pretations of written sources changethe pidure thatprevailed'formanYdecades. Aprecise~hro~ology of.archaeologicalfin~~';~l1d,~~it,¥plt~;q~£1:1~~e$itof,th~ihjJ~t()ricqltjvidencem~l<ejtpo.~sible to,draw a newB~cturethat is supporte~ by available data. It offers different interpret~tion of bothth~}),~i~lfr~bft1J:~';<+iotb);~'~f\lP)t~eilf~igrqti~t:l;tothe' Rehticarefj,.,However, archaeol-ogy and history themselves cannot answer all questions and there is a need for sup-port from the theoretical concepts of cultural anthropology. This paper offers anattempt at cornhining the methods of all these three sciences in order to sketch aprltipbsit10hlafragm.e1Afof>~bthichistory.

In the f0M0Mi:n8t€xtIsh~ll ccm<;(1nttate,firstof all, on anthropological aspects ofGothic ethnicityusing archaeologi<;aland historical data to support some arguments.It is not, then, a typical archaeological text with description of finds and distributionmaps hut ranher.an attempt at new interpretation of data.that are already available. Itis an.at.tem..pfat.·stud....•Y1.•.'.··.n.....g.a frAgment.of.t.he.Eur.o.rean. pa..stusing various types .0.f dataancl c()rnPlningconcepts tak~n,from vario1,l$disciplines. Using recent publications, Ishall focus this discussion on some important questions, i.e. the originsof the Goths,their departure towards the BlackSea, ahd their later contacts with the Baltic'home-laha',

ORIGINS

According to.their own tribal tradition, the Goths came by sea from Scandinavia andsettledi~(thesouth-eastern Baltic area.,Tacitus (Germania: 43-4) reported the pre-sence ofsqrne Gutonesspmewhere in the north at the end of the first century. Atthe end oUhe first halfofthe .seCondcentUry, Ptolemy (Geographica: 3.5.8) locatedtl-iemeast of the lower VistUla..S~ch chronology is su~ported by the appearance inflqrthernPolCW9 q£ the so-called Wielbark culture that has. been identified byarchaeologists with the Goths. It took shape sometime in the, mid-first centuryAD, i.e. at a time when cemeteries with specific traits (stone stellae and rings, co-e~istence of cremqtion and il;1-humationl;mrial rites, poorly equipped male graveswith no weapons, characteristic artefacts, etc.) appeared in eastern Pomerania.

This clear picture has been recently subject to questioning by some historians andarchaeologists. After an analysis of Jordanes, Herwig Wolfram suggested that 'theScandinavia.ofanorigogentis isa literary motif that may, but need not, reflect anykind. of past reality' (Wolfr<tm1994:28). This myth might have appeared in theGothic tradition duripg their journey to the Pontic area, i.e. duringthe reign ofking Filimer who.prdered 'to move the army of Goths and their families' (Getica,25~$). Such a dt~matic de,C!;jsion,.wasprobably accompanied by equally dramaticchanges relating,toth.eideologyrepre$.entedin an origin. myth. This could haveeven resulted in a 'fundamental transformation, the transition from the old to thenew origo etreligio' (d. Wolfram 1994:22ff.).Crossing the Baltic played the role ofa 'primordial dE:\M' necessary to give the tribe a feeling of ancient unity.

YflBAiICZYK: THE {JOO'HBIN PQ\JUIID 399

Recently Peter Heather (1996:11-50) again analysed the available evidence.He'pointed out that Jordanes (Getica, 38) himself mentions other versions ofGothiC origins that have been ignored. There is also clear evidence of contactsbetween Theodoric's Italy and the southern and northern shores of the Baltic.There was even a Scandinavian king Rodulf seeking refuge at the Ostrogothiccourt (Getica, 24). Thus, there was no problem in acquiring information that couldhave been included into the story that was being written by Cassiodorus. Therefore,a Scandinavian origin might have been chosen from available alternatives or eveninven.ted at the Italian court of Theodoric the Great.

Long ago, the Polish archaeologist Jerzy Kmiecinski suggested that the ethnicroots of the Goths should be sought on the southern shore of the Baltic. Heargued that most of the elements considered to be typically 'Gothic' apeared earlierin Pomerania than in Scandinavia (Kmiecinski 1962,1964). For many years, he wasisolated in this opinion. However, with the passage of time, other archaeologists alsoadmitted that the roots of Wielbark culture should be sought in local traditions (e.g.Seukin 1994: 245ff.).

Recent results of the interdisciplinary project' Adafbertus', operating east of thelower Vistula in 1995~1997, furnished new arguments fat this discussion (Urbanczyk1999b). A 1200m long earth~and-wood trackway rediscovered in the Dzierzgoti(fonner Sorge) river valley.after the first excavations in 1896has been dendrochrono-logicallydated to the mid-first century BCto the early third century AD (Fig.1). Sucha chronology, combined with Roman written. sources, leaves no doubt that thislaborious construction (c. 1500 m3 of cut oak) was the last missing fragment ofthe famous Amber Route that led from Italy to Sambia (J. Wielowiejski 1984;Kolendo 1993) (Fig.2).

The Amber Route which became well established in Roman times emerged fromlong-la::;tingrelations, as a result of which Baltic amber had reached the Mediter-raw:~anas early as the Bronze Age. Ever-increasing, stabilized, and concentrateddemand prompted inhabitants of the Baltic southern shore to construct an easilycontrollable and shorter route through the swamps of the Dzierzgon river (nearthe current village Swi~ty Gaj) and to maintain it for about 300 years. The gradualwidening of the trackway (from about 1.5 m to about 4 m) corresponded to anincreasing intensity of traffic. Traces of cart wheel rails (c. 110 em wide) observedin several places prove the presence of heavy traffic. Pieces of raw amber foundbetween the logs leave no doubt as to the main commodity transported there.

Most important for this discussion is that the 300-year-long continuous history ofthe functioning of the Dzierzgon trackway does not show any break that could beused as a reference for the sudden appearance of the Goths in the mid-first centuryAD. Similar continuity has been lately confirmed for some Wielbark culturecemeteries that were started as early as the end of the second century BC (Pietrzak1996) or in the first century BC (P. Wielowiejski 1998:118), i.e. during the timeswhen the lower Vistula region was settled by the Oksywie culture populations.

400

12m

SWII;TYGAJ

11m 27.07.1995

9m

. 4m. Om

. BUROPBANJ,OURNAL oFARCHAEOLot;y 1(3)

7m

Figure 1. The plan of the upper level of the trackway in SWi€ty Gaj dated to the early thirdcentury AD (dra<l)n by]. Mialdun).

Fig~r~.Z, .Ther6ute of the amber procurement expedition of a. Roman.equitussentbytheemperor Nero in AP 63, with some important sites (based on Baranowski, Nowicki and Wielo"wiejski1993: Fig, 1),

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1£weaddthe$e.llJ'(":haeolOf:Roal,dl1,tasuggesting ll'?,0alpri&insofthe Wielbark cul-ture to: thenewinterpretaticms of the writteneWgenoe, we may suppose thatGothicethniCity took shape inJ,b~ilower Vist~la itt.theqQl1t~?<tof long-term, inten-sive trade relations wit,hthe externalworld. The s~lecHonari&imposition of specificritual and material cultl,lrecodes took place sometin\~inthe first century AD, whenthere appeared an elit,:!1Jconsciousofthenee(i forsymboliclegitimization of its socialposition. It was a tr~n~:formElti9naJprooe~~ofthel?S.a.kpqpulations of the Oksywieculture ,into a new cultUr;a}gryit,takin?place~nq~rR()ma,.n and Scandinavian influ-ences. Its results became~rchae()logicallyyj.$ible as the Wi.elbark culture in thesecond half of the first cent~ry AD (d. Bierbrauer 1994).

We may assume that contro}over the lucrative ambertrade was both the source ofsubstantial income and, the r~.ason for fierce competition. A need for a symbolicexpression of identify played an important role in the formation of Gothic ethnicity(Urbanczyk 1996:9). For 'politioal applications of symbolis!Uare per~aps revealedmost cleadyifwe examine situ~tionsofconflict' when 'differenc~s ?f culture, some-times s,eemingly minor, are s1i!lizedupon and made a focus of contestation in thecourse of ethnic conflicts' (B8;arrison1995:255 and 257) as confirmed by ethno-archae6logical observations '$!odder 1982). Thus, ~~riou~";elements, mostly ofRoman origin, were used to create ~pecificmate:rialeulturetraced by archaeologistsalong the migration route ofG.ottW;~qp},t~~JBBtlticto the Black Sea.

AnotJ"lerpossibility inc~BAe,sthe~eizure of profitable contrql over the northernpart of.the already e,xistirxgAml;lerRoute by.,a slllall but determined and well-organi~ed'gJ;'?upof immi~antsJromSS~1.").dinqvia,w~orequired: a material.manifes-tation of loyabty towards~heir domina~ee"It was surely not the result·of a singledecision, but ';'~proce~s i~whkh the materi9-L01..lltwenot only refleqted the socialstructure, but,alsoipq~e~ted it, by the sha~ingofetr~ic distinctiveness. The co-existence qf Y~l1'h:J)llls'traditions may be indi<;ate,dby the' co-existence' of cremationand inhum.ation burials typical for all\-'Vielbark c1.l1tUreoemeteries. This cultureexpanded not only towards the south~east butalsg'towards the south-west, as istestified by a typical cemetery "XifJ;r420grayes that has been' reoently. discoveredin central Poland (Skorupka~published) ..Despite its.ratherun,iform material cul-ture, Wielbark populatigl1sMpt close contacts with the, neighbours which is indi-cated by the technologicalsimilaritie,s in the produCtion of bronze. objects found atthe sites of the Przewo~sk,Zarul:>inc:yandWest-Balticcu1tures (cf.k{ensel 1998:44ff).

In any case, an ·inv~sjOlL.l:>yawhole nati9n;is excluded. Changes observed byarchaeologists should:b~rxpl~ilLed by 8~ange in symbolicsonsciousness ratherthan a demog:raphice)(pal;l~on..Eyen i£'ol;ternigh~'suspect' the. arrival of some aris-tocratic dan from Scandinavia, it does not change P.Hea:ther's (1996:30)conclusionthat 'the mutually confirmatory information of ancient sources and the archeologicalrecord l:>othsuggest that Goths cannrst be identified beside the lower Vistula'. Thisis the hard evidence!

This situation is similar to studies of the origins of the Slavs which raisedquestions that were subject to long discussion. Despite evolutionistic speculations

U,S8AIl0Z¥K:TIfE GOTtISIN POLAND 403

looking for their roots even in the Bronze Age, serious historical, archaeological andlinguistic data univocally point to the sixth century AD as the period from which wecan 'suddenly' trace their presence on the European stage. The historical context ofthe turbulent Migration Period triggered a process that made this peripheral popu-lation very active and its cultural/heritage' very attractive to people settled in thevast areas of Europe (d. Urbanczyk 1998a).

ORGANiZATION

Understanding the social organization the Goths may be crucial for explainingtheir fascinating history. It seems that a chiefdom-like structure of social organiza-tion prevailed in the northern part of central Europe during Roman times. Richgraves from that period prove a clear stratification of populations inhabiting vastareas of Poland. The most developed theory explaining such a power structureincludes a functionalist concept of economic anthropology referring to non-market societies, i.e. the so-called chiefdom redistributional systems (Polanyi1968). It was based on data referring to Germanic tribes as they were recorded byantique and early medieval sources. Although the use of often oversimplified chief-dom models is frequently subject to criticism (e.g. Spencer 1987; Champion 1989:1),no better concept has been proposed so far.

The power of the leaders in such societies was based mainly on conditionalauthority, i.e. on a collective authorization to use it for collective purposes. Therank-holders had a high status, they took decisions, and used material resourcesin the name of the whole group. They could not, however, coerce its membersand they could not tum material resources of the group into their own /private prop-erty' (Mann 1986:37). Respect for· such an authority depended on the number ofsubject persons who accepted its legitimacy.

It was relatively weak power because it could be taken away. It was executed inthe name of the whole group. The leaders had only status and prestige. They couldhardly deprive their fellows of rare, precious resources, and they could not removetheir subsistence from them arbitrarily. They could solve conflicts, but largelythrough their status and prestige. They did not make the law and were not aboveit. They could not force other people to work for them. Thus they were not toorich because, although they could redistribute gathered property among membersof their group, they did not accumulate wealth. They were rich from what they dis-tribwed and not from what they collected (Fried 1967:118) but they had at theirdisposal imported luxury objects used to demonstrate their high social status andstaples used to consume collectively during ritual meetings. This redistributaon,and not actual possession, confirmed their social status.

Such a picture of the pre-state societies was confirmed by analyses of the old-Scandinavian sagas confronted with archaeological data (Odner 1973). Ethno-historical studies (e.g. Earle 1987) have also shown their generalvalue in explainingthe situation in the European Barbaricum. Therefore, there is no reason to doubt that

404 EUROPE4~,iJOl:JlINAL{()FA1ICHAf;QLOGY ,1(3)

the Goths had the sameorg,anization whenthey:firs:t entered the European stage inthe first century AD. Their,histeryrecorded by Gassiodorus forTheodoric the Greatin the first quarter of thtesi~h century AD was a construct serving the political atnbi-tions of the Ostrogothic king who 'gave up wearipg the costume ofnis tribe/ (Getica,2.95)and wanted to legitimize his rule in Italy by showing the long tradition oUheArnals family, whose ancient deeds were comparable with those of the Romans.Gassiodorus' 12.-volume work did not survive but we know its summary made byJordanes in the mid-sixth century. There are also other sources (e.g. Ennodius,Panegyricus) that show how Theodoric aimed at combining the ethnic militarystatus of, the rex Gothorurn, earned as thevict'Grious war commander, with aRoman imperial 'tradition that would legitimize his ambition to be recognized asproper ruler of the western part of the Empire (cf;'.Rohr1998).

Even if]ordanes notoriol.uilymixed up chronologies, geographies and ethnicities,his work contains some genel5alinformationsuggesting.chiefdom-like organizationof the early Goths who could not much differ from other central~ and east-European'barbar,ians/.Thus, every success is connected to the wisdom, good luckand/or cour-age of some,'named leader usually bearing the title of,H<ing'.Thetnost famous ofthose /kings/ would even be worshipped posthumously (Getica; 48). These 'kings'were elected from amongtheJ;1oble elites (Getica, 40r 146; ,174). Sometimes theycould have been foreigners who kept their ethnic names (Getica, 58). Their para-mount leadership, however, depended on acceptance of local leaders (Getica, 190).Their charisma, organizational Cj.bilitiesand good luck in pillaging expeditionsattra.cted more and more supporters who were faithful as lorigas there were suc-cesses(Getica,2.82.,-:3) .OPPol5tunistic marriages were applied to regulate the geopo-litical balance of power (Getica, 63; 2.49;2.96--9).

Such a picture' of:thepolitiQal organization of the Goths' supports the idea thathierarchical pre-state societies often had a poly-ethnic origin. Thus the Goths, aswell as Gepids or Longo bards, cannot be equated with 'nations'. They Were oppor-tunistic,agglomerations unified by ideologies,legitimizing the domination of politicalelites who created their ownrnythofa common past. The need to manipulateideol6gybecamecruciaHntimes of migratiohswhen reference to recognizable geo-graphical space had to be abandoned;

M{GRA'I'IONs

ArchaeologicaLdata and .anthropologic;aLconcepts help. to, trace and to understandthe depart1.ireof Goths from·theBaltic,zonetowardstheBlack Sea. Analyses offiRds,fretn;both, areas, show. that 'pottery of the "Cherniakhov 'culture should belooked upon as a development ,of theWielbark pottery~making tradition(Magotnedov1998:1417)However, the crisis of theWielbark culture observed firstin Eomerania'atthe end of the :s~l'pndcentury'AD, and !then in,the.Elblftghighlandsatthe ,end of the third:eenturyi cannot be.interpretedonlyasthe: result of an emi-gratibn:of whole peoples. Adec;isiQnitO: rnigrate, could have' been, taken by a.social

405

elite limited in numbers, conscious of the tensions resulting from deepening difficul-ties in maiFl.tainingthe long-distance trade relations which underpinned their status.This elite seemed to choose an uncertain fate in areas located nearer to the attractivePontic lands rather than to lose its position due to the failure of obtaining the sur-pluses necessary to maintain it. Such an elite could have attracted a group of loyalsupporters and transformed· them into the military organization of a migratingarmy. Jordanes seems to support such an interpretation when saying that 'king Fili-mer ... decided that the army of Goths with families shOuld go further' (Getica, 26).

Leaders were not restricted to attracting supporters from the same tribe only. Theattractiveness of a political and economic centre resulted mainly from its capacity tofulfil expectations and not from actual common past experiences even though amythical past WaS actively created. The driving force of ethnogenesis was the successof victorious chiefs or 'kings' who managed to sustain power positions within theirlineages for a longer period by efficientlymanipulating ideology. Only the winnershad the potential capacity to move large populations. But the Gothic elites who leftthe Baltic gained no such victories. Thus it is doubtful that they could persuade thewhole of the local population to. move. Those who joined were organized into anarmy migrating towards the Black Sea where their ethnicity further developed fol-lowing stabilization of the ruling dynasty's position. In these new circumstances,the tribe split into the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, each ruled by their own dynas-ties. This division was given a symbolic explanation recorded in the myth of troublesencountered whilst crossing a big river (Getica, 27).

I suppose that, as in most cases of recorded migrations, the written evidencereports only the story of the dynasty and its close followers. They were an identifi-able core of ancient peoples that could be traced in their wandering through thecontinent. In our case, where there was no sudden threat,it means that a substantialpart of the agricultural Wielbark population stayed behind, preferring well-knowncircumstances than the risks of an unpredictable fate in distant lands.

Such was, surely, the reality of all alleged migrations recorded by late antiquesources. It was the dynasties with their multi-ethnic followers that crossed the con-tinent looking for better chances to seek their fortunes. It was their tradition that wasremembered and recorded and not any history of some 'peoples'. It was their claimssuggesting effective control of large populations which moved from region to region,their battles, and their diplomacies that made 'national' traditions of Goths, Vandals,Gepids, Longobards,ete. Thus, studying ethnogenetic processes should concentrateon politieal rather than demographic perspective. The migration of a political-mili-tary core did not mean the movement of all inhabitants of the territory controlledby such a centre. I would even suggest that most of the local agricultural populationsstayed behind. Those masses of inhabitants engaged in unspecialized agriculturehad no ethnic consciousness which required a more or less voluntary dominationby the stable political centre.

The same was the case with the alleged departure of the Goths from the Balticzone, when some of the Wielbark population stayed in the region of the lower

406

Vistula.i.A;mang·thase people, after same time, the hierarchizatian process wasrepeated"leading'totheemergence of a new elitewhich saughtthe means to.sustaintheir dominatian. These new leaders also. decided to. follow theirpredecessars bymigrating. tcdhe sauth-east. They are identified by the ;sources as the Gepids.Recarded tradition suggested their early split fram the Goths as a result af beinglate in crossing the Baltic, althaugh Jordar\.es realized that they 'with no. daubtaiigin;ate from the Gaths' (Getica, 95). I thinkthat;ance again, this stary is ana.ttempt to'·praject in the distantrriythicpast the facts that were quite recent. Wecannat discriminate between 'Gothic' and'Gepidic' finds in Paland, which meansthat theirethnicities were nof manifestedm material culture. Therefare, the canclu-sian shauldbe that there were :na real difference&,no. separate traditians and no.separate interests. The ethnicity afthe! Gepids must have farmed as a result afthedecisian taken by the nextgeneratian af 10.cal leaders, who. also. decided to.migrate with their dasesupparters. Theyaccupied their new territary in DaciaTraiana, with which Wielbark culture had trade cantacts (Stawiarska 1998:154).

The.]ieasan:.for thisdramaticdedsianrnay have been changing environmentalcanditiarts. Recentpaleo·cliinatalagicaLstudies (pers. camm., Dr Jerzy Nitycharuk)shaw a shart-livedbut ,decisive deteriaratian 0.£ the climate in narth centralEUf0pesametimeduring the third century AD. Facing bath a prolanged crisis intheR'oman Empire (235,..284AD)andW:orsening cortditians far agriculture, theelite that called itself 'Gepids'decidedta leave their land in search of better eca-namic circumstances.

Again! I do. nat believe thafthe regian af the lawer Vistula was emptied evenat'that time. Same part afthe papulatian must again have stayed behind. Thereare strong archaeolagicalim:dicatians supporting such aconclusian. One such isthecantin;uaus useafsorne' of' the Wielbark cemeteries until the faurth century(e.g. P. Wielowiejski1998(118) areven into. the early fifth century (Pietrzak 1996).Anather is the apparent cantinuity af the technalogicaL tradition in pattery-making that maybe traced fr<>Il1,.theWielbarkculture to. the West-Baltic culturethat expanded towards the lawer Vistula in the end af the fifth century (Jagadzinski1998). Results of petrographical analyses of pottery samples made far the 'Adalber-tus'project suggest vlitryhigh similarity infa.brics af up to.73 per cent (Moszczynski1998: Table>$).. Recent settlement studies suggest the survival of the Wielbarktraditiar\.that merged with new influertd~sarriving from the narth-east ..Same Wiel-bark elements survived as long as intarthe sixth .century.(Jagadzinski 1998:166).Thenielting-patsituation issomel.1tdwreflected by Jordanes, who located in the lowerVistulairegion.a certain Vidivarii, who were'a cang10merate0f various tribes'(Getlca,36;. 96). i

Ithpar~ant argumen;ts,fordiscussing the character and chronalogy of the migrationofthe Goths,and Gepids'arepra¥ided by archaeological discaveries in south -easternPoland. Of special interest shauld be the Wielbark culture cemetery in Maslom~czthat has been ,excavated since 1978.Over 300 graves discovered there, in additionto.more than 160;graves fouhdin, Gr6dekNadbuzny and other sites (see Kokowski

URBANCZYK: THE GOTHS IN POLAND 407

1995), offer a good basis to discuss the situation in an area half-way between Gothicterritories in the Baltic zone and in the Black Sea region.

First, it is clear that the alleged rapid invasion of the Baltic Goths into the Ponticarea should be questioned, for the Maslom~c;'z group of the Wielbark culture lastedover 200 years. Throughout this period, lively, though changing, connections withboth seas are recorded in grave finds (Kokowski 1995:35-65). There are, also, indi-cations of the multi-ethnicity of local populations because some graves are of a dis-tinct Sarmatian type and because there was still a substantial number of cremationgraves dug in the same cemeteries with inhumation burials. Such poly-ethnicitymight have been partly due to the custom of the'kidnapping of women by neigh-bouring tribes, as reported by Jordanes (Getica, 49).

These data allow the conclusion that the organized Gothic migration led bykingFilimer was just a myth that summarized a slow penetration of Wielbark populationstowards the south-east. There were surely some military expeditions preceding set-tlement activity but there is no evidence of any rapid, effective and massive resettle-ment of large populations. Rapid migration of a whole population could be verydangerous for agricultural societies, as Jordanes made very clear when he wrotethat catastrophic famines were the typical fate of people who did not manage tosettle down (Getica, 134). Rather, we should envisage a slow expansion of 'Gothic'cultural codes along the networks joining their Baltic seats with the Pontic areawhich, after the crisis of the early third century, became the main source of luxuryitems. Another, possibly more important, advantage of such expansion was accessto loess and chernozem soils, which were much more fertile than north-Polishsands. Anyway, such was Jordanes' explanation of the migration of Gepids 'tobetter soils' (Getica, 96).

It was a process in which demographic expansion co-occurred with the diffusionof a set of cultural codes promoted by Gothic elites. Rapid movements of militarizedgroups contrasted with the background of slow processes that involved the socialreproduction of long-standing cultural traditions .. And contact between Baltic andBlack Sea zones never(?) broke, which resulted in the formation of a huge areainhabited by populations observing similar cultural codes manifested by archaeolo-gi<:al finds - especially metal artefacts (d. distribution maps 19-93 in Kokowski1995). Also coeval pottery assemblages, which are very culture-sensitive products,indicate direct contacts between the two regions. Elegant wheel-turned pottery ofthe Sintana de Mure~ type not only found its way to Pomerania but also inspiredlocal potters there (Kokowski 1988; Machajewski 1998:137; Magomedov1998:147). Contacts between both regions did not stop even after the invasion ofHuns in 375, though they changed character. Jordanes seemed to be aware ofsuch contacts when he wrote that the famous Visigothic king Ermeneric subordi-nated also the }£stii who lived by the Baltic coast (Getica, 120).

In 1950, Eduard Sturms suggested that a part of the multi-ethnic 'Gothic' popula-tion returned to the Baltic zone at the end of the fifth century. They would be theGalindai mentioned by Ptolemy (Nowakowski 1995:21-2). However, I doubt that

40.8

we.can proPQs.esopredse an etbnicidentification. Atthis stage it should be enoughto say that those people woulqform part of those Ostrogoths who atfirst /acceptedthe superiority 0£Hl,1ns'(@"etica, 246),butlaterleft the Pontic zone and returned tothe Baltic Zone. This resulted in the revival of dose contacts withthe Black Sea, asattested by an inflpwoLgoldcoirlS and. ornaments.I<ing.Theodoric's letter to thel£st.ii wntteninthe early :§ixthcentury{Cassiodorus,Vqriae V, 2) andreferring tothe Saltio amber also indicates the importance of trading contacts between Italyand the:?outh~€ast.ernB;alticcoast.

East of thelower Vistl,1la,at the turn oUhe sixth century AD there 'suddenly'a,ppeared nume.t:ous indh:ations of wide andmultHaceted relations with westernEurope, Scandinavia, the Danube zone, and the circum-Pontic area, which is con-firmed byimport~(.tnd <!influencesvisible in ornaments, For this reason, authorssuchasOl<uliczH<.ozaryn(19$9:89fO·suggested that the soccalled Olsztyn groupof t\1ePr\J.ssian oulture (earlier . called 'masurgermanis.che kultur) had a poly-etJ:mio·13altOcGermanic~SIavicorigin.Qne may also mention that some evidenceo£nomadictraditionS'liPpeared.there 'in the .•.$ixth and seventh centuries. Burials ofrichly-equipped ,horses and so-<;;aUedstone 'babasr (characteristic .half-statuesbeing the notlhc€.asternmost .part o£achain leading to the Asiatic steppe zone)lihk tnisarea.withthe culture o£thenomads.

Theseidata ,strom.glysupPQrtthe hypothesis suggesting a' returnDf some 'Gothic'gr0upsfrom thePontiG steppes along the routes that connected the CherniakhovandWielbark<;;ult!1res .•.That ret;u:rfi.1l,1igration.happened' under circumstances ofpolitiCal:idi$orderi,caused by the sudden disintegration of the Hunnie overlordshipthat.m¢iintainedthe status quo along the· northern border of the Roman Empire.Endangered by the constant pressure of the nomadic tribes moving from Asiaalongthe~steppe belt,· groups ofCherniakhov.·'Goths' returned to their ancienthomeland,joiningthose. 'Goths' who had. never lett the Ba1tiozone' and followedthere the Wielbark tradition. This period is well dOQumetttedby the concentrationin the;lower Vistula.·ofgold¢Iilisolidilssued'in 455-518.

Under theimpa<;;t.of such neW.arrivals and as a result of. the expansion' of theWest-Baltic. culture, the Wielbarlu:ulture fprmed anew 'conglomerate of varioustribes'that Jordanes<;;alled<Vidivarii(Getira,36iand 96),Ho:wever, it was anothername of l£stii (Getica, 120) that seemed to ,be generally accepted and was in usefor the next four centuries. Syncreti~m of these various traditions resulted in aneW cultural .formation, a society organised according to. the Germanic model,withm.01,tetialcultureshowingstroingnomadk influences and probably(?) speaking~0me<Baltk(early.Prussian) Gl.ialect.Its 'Gotli:ic' roots explain why Theodoric both-ered to write them a letter (Cassiodorus, Variae¥,2). Being interested in sustainingthe impor,t of amher, be proiwably.knew.that those'distant JEstiiwere'his 'cousins'.

In the second half of the seventh century,' anarcha.eologically visible Set of mate-rialsymb01s;.of sociaLsfra.tifica.tionwas created, incl1.ldingone-edged swords andknivesk;e,pt .in riCh sheaths made. ,of decorated pressed silver sheets. They showthe mixture of;decorativernoti£s adopted from the steppe people (Huns and

UR13ANCZYK: T"SOOTHS INPOLAN'D 409

Avars) traditions with developed version of the Germanic construction of thesheaths. These remarkable artefacts were ' ... a conscious creation of people whocompiled elements of ornaments and construction [traditions] in order to make aneW whole for a specific reason' (Urbanczyk 1978:128). I consider these exceptionalitems·to be a typical example of the creation of material accessories by the dominantsocial elite, who controlled large-scale profits from the resumed multi-directionaltrade. It is an example of the use of material culture to create a feeling of an'ethnic' identity and showing symbolic solidarity with the Avar 'civilization' thatdominated central Europe at that time.

A further development in this area, indicated by the substantial inflow of silver,can be also related to continental circumstances. The flourishing of the region inthe seventh and eighth centuries resulted, among other reasons, from the turningof western Europe towards the North and Baltic Seas, which offered more reliableconnections to the Byzantine and Asiatic markets than did the MediterraneanSea, then controlled by the Arabs. The lowerVistula became a key area for maintain~ingcontacts between Byzantium and northern Europe. Thus, control over such astrategic region offered attractive possibilities for the social elites who developed aspecific code of material symbols.

In the ninth century AD, the area still functioned as a key point in the continentaltrade network. Its material culture became more and more Prussian but there isevidence of lively contacts with western Europe, Scandinavia and the AbbassideKhalifate. An old ethnonym still survived as a reminder of the earlier situationj itwas ..the name of the Estian Gulf reported by Wulfstan to King Alfred the Greatc.'880 (King Alfred's Orosius) but a new tribal name gradually prevailed. It wasrecorded by the so-called Bavarian Geographer (c. 848) and by Arab sources asBurus (= Pruss).

CONCLUSIONS

We may conclude that, at the beginning of our era, an energetic political and eco-nomic organization of chiefdom type formed in northern Poland under advanta-geous circumstances stimulated by developing trans-continental trade connectionsbased on the export of amber to the Empire. At some moment, these elites calledthemselves 'Goths' and as such were recorded by Roman historians and geogra-phers. Their economic success was based on control over long-distance communica-tion routes leading from the lower Vistula to the Roman Empire. Struggles to controlthe inflow of the wealth acquired that way and its distribution within local popula-tions stimulated the hierarchization of power relations. The duration of such orga-nization was conditioned by the stability of the contacts, which supplied preciousobjects used for conspicuous display and consumption. Roman products played animportant role in shaping social and political structures, just as in other barbarianterritories. Thus structUres of power were highly dependent on exchange networkswith the Empire and on the control of the nodes of these networks.

410 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ARCHABOLOGY 1(3)

Control over the circulation of prestige objects was a condition for the reproduc-tion of hierarchical social relations and for sustaining high positions in the powerstructure. 'The Roman artefacts became a physical part of the language of power'(Hedeager 1992:286). The rich Wielbark culture cemetery in Weklice near Elbl<}g(Okulicz-Kozaryn 1997) is an excellent example of such a development. The main-tenance of the social order was manifested by the standardization of material sym-bols consciously created as an important part of the 'symbolic capital' of the society(d. Bourdieu 1990:112f£.). The presence of such symbols over a larger territoryresulted from the expression of political solidarity between the leading elites.

Such a system required constant supplies from outside because the leaders had tospend their resources to maintain their position, and could not invest them or accu-mulate wealth. Thus they could not widen the economic bases of their authority oreven stabilize them. Periodical control over the production surplus offered only atemporary concentration of power, which was under the control of the wholesociety. Members of the society could cancel their loyalty towards a leader whowas not lucky enough in war, or was unable to 'ensure' good crops, or could notafford to give substantial recompense for the support given to him. Relying onwar gains and/or on casual supplies of traded imports introduced into such apolitical organization functioned under the ever-present threat of crisis that couldundermine the whole power structure.

That was why the worsening 'terms of trade', possibly coinciding with a deteriora-tion of climatic conditions, pushed at first the Gothic, and later the Gepid leaders totake dramatic decisions of emigration towards the rich. and warm marches of theEmpire. That was the only wayfor them to sustain their social position. The war-like mobilization of the migrating population had an additional effect of uniting'peoples' around their leaders who took responsibility for the prosperity of theirpeople. Success in subordinating fertile lands laying close to the limes and Ponticcolonies reinforced their position and led to the formation of the ruling dynastieslegitimizing their right to domination by recording the deeds o£ their ancestors inverbal tradition that was written down and adapted by Cassiodorus in the sixthcentury.

Those who did not join those migratory armies and stayed in the north mergedwith immigrating populations during the sixth and seventh centuries, whetherSlavs expanding from the south-east or Balts moving from the north-east. In north-eastern Poland a mixture of various traditions with the possible addition of returningmigrants from the Pontic area gave rise to the rich material culture of the so-calledOlsztyn group, flourishing in the eighth century within thePrussian area.

A simplistic answer to the question asked in the title of this paper would be, then,that the Goths never came to northern Poland because they originated from thisarea and they have never really left the Baltic coast because some of their populationstayed there and there were also some return migrations. However, the aim of thisarticle was to show that ethnic processes were very complex and there are noanswers to such questions because there were different 'histories' of the Goths.

UtlBANCZYK: THl>GOTHS IN POLAND 411

One, recorded in written sources, is the dynastic tradition; another, quite differentand recorded in archaeological finds, is the history of people(s) who more or lessvoluntarily and more or less permanently accepted leadership of. those elites andmanifested this in their material culture. Two such different, though parallel visionsmay be combined using the concepts of historical anthropology.

Deserving of close study is the specific tradition recorded in the· oldest Polishchronicles. At the beginning of the twelfth century, Gallus Anonymous listed eastof Poland 'Sarmatians who are also called Gets' (Gallus Anonymous, introductionto book I). C. 80 years later, Master Vincent identified Prussians as 'Gets'. Weknow that, since Jordanes, Byzantine authors have used the names of Gets andGoths interchangeably. Evidence for the longue duree of that mistake is to befound in Chronicon of Frutolf of Michelsberg who wrote: Gethae vel Gothi dicti Bunt(MGH Scriptores, vol. VI, p. 43). Could we then seriously consider that somememory of the presence of Goths east of the Vistula somehow survived in Polandover centuries and it was used for the construction of the Piasts' dynastic tradition?This idea might be supported by the now lost epitaph of the first Polish king Boleslavthe Brave (992-1025) composed sometime in the eleventh to the twelfth centuries(Kurbis 1990: 123). It contained a mysterious line: Regnum Slavorum Gothorum seuPolonorum.

However tempting such an idea could be, I am inclined to think that a memoryof'Goths that once lived east of Polish lands was an element of the general earlymedieval historical knowledge that was based on circulating copies of Roman andByzantine descriptions of the world. One of the most famous versions was preparedat King Alfred's court in the late ninth century. This manuscript contains informationthat' east of Moravia is Vistula land, and east of these there is Dacia where the Gothslived before' (King Alfred's Orosius 12). Even though the geographical accuracy of thisnote may be questioned, in this way a vague memory of the 'homeland' of the Gothssurvived centuries when they were not recognizable as a distinct ethnos, but theywere often referred to by the early medieval royal houses.

ORIGINAL SOURCES

Anonymous called Gallus. Edited by K. Maleczyriski in Monumenta Poloniae Historicasn, vol. 2. Krakow. 1952.

Cassiodorus, Variae.Ennodius, Panegyricus.MGH Scriptores.Jordanes, Getica, edited by E. Zwolski in. Kasjodor i Jordanes. Historia Gocka czyli

scytyjska Europa. Lublin. 1984:91-146.King Alfred's Orosius. Edited by H. Sweet in Part I: Old English text and Latin original.

London.Master Vincent, Chronica Polonorum, in Monumenta Poloniae Historica, vol. 2.

Warszawa. 1961: 249-447.Ptolemy, Geographica.Tacitus, Germania.

412 EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 1(3)

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Przemyslaw Urbanczyk is Associate Professor and the head of the Department ofMedieval Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, PolishAcademy of Sciences.

Address: Institute. of Archaeology and Ethnology, PAN, Al. Solidarnosci 105,00-140 Warszawa, Poland. [email: uprzemek@iaepan.edu.pl]

ABSTRACTS

Die Goten in Polen - woher kamen sie und wann gingen sie?Przemysfaw Urbanczyk

Neue archaologische Entdeckungen und Neuinterpretationen schriftlicher Quellen unterstiitztdurch die Konzepte historischer Anthropologie erlauben es ein neues Bi!d der Goten zu entwerfen.Die meisten der Archaologen, welche die kulturelle Situation im nordlichen Polen wahrend derromischen Kaiserzeit untersuchen, geben heute zu, daISdie Wurzeln der Wielbark Kultur, die allge-mein mit den friihen Goten gleichgesetzt wird, in lokalen Traditionen gesucht werden mulS. DieErgebnisse dieses Prozesses, der eher in Form einer Verandenmg im SymbolbewulStsein, als inForm einer demographischen Expansion erklart werden kann, ist zur Mitte des ersten Jahrhundertsn. Chr. archaologisch sichtbar.

Die Entscheidung die Gegend urn das Baltikum zu verlassen, konnte von einer sozialen Elite derGoten getroffen worden sein, die gefahrdet wurde durch die Spannungen, welche sich aus instabi-len Handelsbeziehungen mit dem r6mischen Reich und einer klimatischen Verschlechterung erga-ben. Dennoch blieb ein betrachtlicher Tei! der bauerlichen Wielbark-Bev61kerung zuriick, wobeiwohlbekannte heimatliche Verhaltnisse den Risiken eines nicht vorhersehbarenSchicksals infernen Landen bevorzugt wurden. Unter diesen Leuten wiederholte sich der ProzelS der Hierarch-isierung nach einiger Zeit und fiihrte zur Entstehung einer neuen Elite, die sich entschlolS ihren Vor-gangern nachzufolgen und in .den Siidwesten zu emigrieren. In den Quellen wird dieses neue Volkals Gepiden bezeichnet.

Archaologische Anhaltspunkte deuten stark darauf hin, daIS ein bestimmter Tei! der WielbarkBev6lkerung wiederum in Polen zuriickgeblieben sein mulSund enge Kontakte mit ihren siidlichen'Vettern' aufrechterhielt. Archaologen nehmen heute an, daIS einige 'gotische' Gruppen aus denpontischen Steppen ins Baltikum zuriickkehrten. Das Verschmelzen germanischer und baltischerTraditionen hatte die Entstehung eines neuen kulturellen Verbandes zur Folge. 1m neunten Jahr-hundert wurde dessen materielle Kultur mehr und mehr ostdeutsch, es gibt jedoch Anzeichen fiirlebhafte Kontakte mit Westeuropa, Skandinavien und dem Kalifat der Abbassiden. Eine eigentiim-liche Uberlieferung wirdin den altesten polnischen Chroniken und aufdem aus dem 12. Jahrhun-dert stammenden Epitaph des ersten polnischen Konigs Boleslav des Tapferen bezeugt. Es ergibtsich somit mit grolSer Wahrscheinlichkeit die M6g1ichkeit, daISdie Erinnerung an die Anwesenheitder Goten 6stlich der Vistula in irgendeiner Form iiber die Jahrhunderte hinweg Bestand hatte undfur die Konstruktionder Dynastie - Tradition der Piasten benutzt wurde.

Les Goths en Pologne: d'ou venaient-its? Quand en sont-its partis?PrzemysTaw Urbanczyk

De nicentes decouvertes archeologiques et la reinterpretation de sources ecrites a l'aide des conceptsde l'anthropologie historique nous permettent d'avoir une nouvelle image des Goths. La plupart desarcheologues qui etudient Ie contexte culturel du nord de la Pologne pendant la periode romaine,admettent aujourd'hui qu'i! faut chercher les sources de la culture de Wielbark, que l'on identifiegeneralement avec les premiers Goths, dans les traditions locales. Les resultats de ce processus

~U_8_BA_N_C_Z_Y~~'f_HE_G_OT.~H~S_IN_P_O_LAN_D ~~ _ 415

d'immigration, qui peuvent s'expliquer plut6t en termes de changement dans la conscience symbo-lique qu'en termes d'expansion demographique, sont devenus visibles, d'un point de vue archeolo-gique, au milieu du premier siecle ap. J.-c.

C'est probablement 1'elite sociale des Goths. qj1ia pris la decision de ql1itter la zone baltique,en proie a des tensions resultant de relations commerciales instables avec l'empire T~main et a dedeteriorations climatiques. Cependant, une grande partie de la population rurale de Wielbarkn'est pas partie, preferant rester dans un cadre de vie bien connu plut6t que de courir des risquesimprevisibles dans des pays lointains. Peu apres, Ie processus de hierarchisation s'est repete ausein de cette population, ce qui a mene a l'emergence d'une nouvelle elite, qui decida de suivreses predecesseurs dans leurs migrations vers Ie sud-est. D'apres les sources dont on dispose, onidentifierait cette population comme etant celIe des Gepides.

Du point de vue archeologiqwo, tout porte a croire qu'une partie de la population de Widbark estrestee en Pologne, et qu'elle entretenait d'etroites relations avec leurs 'cousins' du sud~Aujourd'hui,les archeologues suggerent que des groupes de 'Goths' venant des steppes de Tont sont retournesvers la 13altique.Le melange des traditions germaniques et baltiques a donnenaissancea une nou-velle forme culturelle. Au IX siecle ap. J.-c. cette culture materi~lle prit un caractere .de plus en plusprussien, mais ilexiste des preuves de contacts actifs avec l'Europe de l'ouest, la Scandinavie et Iekhalifate des Abbassides. D' apres une tradition bien specifique decrite dans des chroniques polo-naises tres anciennes et dans 1'epitaphe du premier roi de Pologne, 1301eslavIe Brave, tout sembleporter a croire que certaines traces marquantJa presence des Goths a!' est de la Vistule aient traverseles siecles et aient servi it construire la tradition dynastiqlle des Piastes.