Wielbark culture

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Wielbark culture
Age : Iron age
Absolutely : approx. end of 1st century BC BC to 5th century AD

expansion
Oksywie Wielbark Przeworsk.gif
Legend :
Roman Iron Age

Early Wielbark culture (red)
Spread of the Wielbark culture (salmon red)
Spread in the area of ​​the Przeworsk culture (orange)
Spread in the area of ​​the Jastorf culture (purple)
Jastorf culture (blue)
Spread of the Jastorf culture (light blue)
Przeworsk -Culture (yellow and orange, later only yellow)
(representation according to Beck)

Leitforms

Ceramic with meanders

Stone circle of the Wielbark culture (here in the Pomeranian Węsiory west of Gdansk )
Reconstruction of a gothic long farmer's house near Masłomęcz on Hrubieszów (2nd / 3rd century)
Equipment of a Gothic tomb of the Wielbark culture in Odry
Ceramics from the Wielbark culture, exhibited in the Odry Museum

The Wielbark culture , Willenberg culture or Braunswalde-Willenberg culture was an archaeological culture from the 1st BC to the 4th century on both sides of the Vistula in what is now Poland . It is named after the location between Braunswalde (near Stuhm) ( Gościszewo in Polish ) and Willenberg (Prussia) , ( Wielbark in Gmina Malbork in Polish ). Presumably it forms an early settlement area for the Goths .

Discovery and Name

Wielbark (Willenberg) and Gościszewo (Braunswalde) (yellow) in the Vistula Delta

In 1874 an Iron Age burial ground with 3,000 graves was discovered east of the Nogat , an estuary of the Vistula, between the Prussian villages Braunswalde (near Stuhm) and Willenberg (near Marienburg) between the towns of Marienburg ( Malbork ) and Stuhm ( Sztum ) . The following year it was reported in the correspondence sheet of the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory . The Willenberg culture was previously classified as the "Gothic-gepidic culture".

In Poland, the term “East Pomeranian-Mazovian culture” was preferred. The archaeologist Ryszard Woła̜giewicz (1933–1994), who researched and described several sites, introduced the term kultura wielbarska . Herwig Wolfram and other scientists adopted this name . Its advantage is that it is “neutral” in so far as it only relates to the location and avoids ethnic determinations.

Characteristics

The Wielbark culture replaced the Oxhöft culture on the Vistula below Thorn ( Toruń ) and further west to Persante ( Parsęta ) in the last century before the turn of the times . It is characteristic of the beginning of the culture that cemeteries of the Oksywie culture continued to be used with a fundamental change in burial customs.

In contrast to previous and neighboring cultures, the dead were not given weapons, but only clothing and jewelry as well as a few spurs into the grave. In a later phase, the culture expanded west of the Vistula with stone circles similar to Scandinavian cultures of that time. The people of the Willenberg culture built stone-covered mounds of earth, building stones and paved areas. Typical of the use of metal by the Wielbark people: utensils and jewelry were often made of bronze , less often of silver , only very rarely of gold and iron .

In 2000 a grave was discovered in Czarnówko near Lębork (until 1945 Scharnhorst Kreis Lauenburg ) in East Pomerania, which contained, among other things, a bronze cauldron on which men are depicted with Suebi knots . Most of the sites of the first phase are located in the vicinity of rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea, i.e. north of the Pomeranian watershed Baltic Sea / Netze. Over time, the culture expanded in a south-westerly direction to the Greater Poland region , stone setting not as far as the funeral rites. The Przeworsk culture that existed elsewhere was literally displaced. The decisive factor, however, was the expansion to the southeast.

Spread of culture

Around 200 AD, the Wielbark culture reached today's Ukraine , while its traces on the lower Vistula decrease significantly in the 3rd century and cease completely in the fourth century, which suggests a complete emigration of the corresponding population within three generations . At the same time, the Chernyakhov culture spread north-west of the Black Sea , which in its forms of expression was very similar to the Wielbark culture, but also had links to the Zarubincy culture .

interpretation

The beginning of the culture, the testimony of Jordanes question, the Goths were a total of immigrants from Scandinavia to the south coast of the Baltic Sea ( gothiscandza ). In detail, however, researchers draw different conclusions. In recent research, it is often assumed that the culture developed without local immigration and that the immigration of Goths from Scandinavia is just a myth. Other researchers believe a small group of Scandinavians (in the Getica mentioned Amali , Amali though are unsure testified before the 4th century) had migrated and had mixed with the local population.

In any case, there is no archaeological evidence of immigration from Scandinavia, which, among other points, speaks against the history of origin ( Origo gentis ) of the Jordanes.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wielbark culture  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Heinrich Beck , Heiko Steuer , Dieter Timpe (Red.): Die Germanen. Germania, Germanische Altertumskunde ( Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). De Gruyter, Berlin 1998, p. 145, ISBN 3-11-016383-7 , hatching of the original replaced by colors
  2. ↑ Braunswalde on map 1896, east of the Nogat .
  3. ↑ Ryszard Wołągiewicz: Pole Orne ludności kultury wielbarskiej for okresu wczesnorzymskiego w Gronowie na Pomorzu. In: Wiadomości Archeologiczne. Jg. 42, 1977, ISSN  0043-5082 , pp. 227-244;
    Ryszard Wołągiewicz: The Goths in the area of ​​the Wielbark culture. In: Archaeologia Baltica. Jg. 7, 1986, ZDB -ID 350669-1 , pp. 63-98;
    Ryszard Wołągiewicz: Ceramika kultury wielbarskiej mie̜dzy Bałtykiem a Morzem Czarnym = The clay pots of the Wielbark culture in the area between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. Muzeum Narodowe, Stettin 1993, ISBN 83-86136-00-6 .
  4. ↑ Herwig Wolfram: The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the sixth century. Draft of a historical ethnography. 2nd, revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-406-04027-6 .
    Herwig Wolfram: The Goths and their history (= Beck'sche series. Bd. 2179). CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-44779-1 .
  5. ↑ Magdalena Mączyńska, Dorota Rudnicka: A grave with Roman imports from Czarnówko, Kr. Lębork (Pomerania). In: Germania . Vol. 82, 2004, pp. 397-429, abstract (PDF; 110 KB) ( Memento from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , article on Goths , Oksywie culture , Przeworsk culture and Wielbark culture .
  7. ^ In summary, Walter Pohl: The Germanic peoples. 2004, p. 24. Even Herwig Wolfram , who is not always critical of early Gothic history, has to admit that there is no archaeological evidence of immigration from Scandinavia, cf. Herwig Wolfram: The Goths and their history. 2005, pp. 23-24.