Editing Goths (section)

===Prehistory===
{{See also|Origin stories of the Goths}}
[[File:Chernyakhov.PNG|right|upright=1.35|thumb|
{{legend|#0f0|[[Götaland]]}}
{{legend|#FF00FF|The island of [[Gotland]]}}
{{legend|#f00|[[Wielbark culture]] in the early 3rd century}}
{{legend|#FF8040|[[Chernyakhov culture]], in the early 4th century}}
{{legend|#8000FF|[[Roman Empire]]}}]]
A crucial source on Gothic history is the ''[[Getica]]'' of the 6th-century historian [[Jordanes]], who may have been of Gothic descent.<ref name="Heather_1994_3">{{harvnb|Heather|1994|p=3}}. "[T]he Getica of Jordanes has nevertheless played a crucial role. Written in the mid-sixth century, it is the only source which purports to provide an overview of Gothic history in our period, and has decisively influenced all modern historians of the Goths.</ref><ref name="Heather_1998_9">{{harvnb|Heather|1998|pp=9–10}}. "Modern approaches to the history of the Goths have been decisively shaped by the survival of one particular text: the Origins and Acts of the Goths or Getica of Jordanes. Written in Constantinople in about AD 550, it is a unique document. Although its author wrote in Latin, he was of Gothic descent, and drew upon Gothic oral traditions... [T]he Getic's consolidated account has exercised enormous influence on the overall "shape" of modern reconstructions of Gothic history... Thanks to [archaeology]... it is now possible to exercise at least some kind of control of Jordanes' account of even this earliest period of Gothic history."</ref> Jordanes claims to have based the ''Getica'' on an earlier lost work by [[Cassiodorus]], but also cites material from fifteen other classical sources, including an otherwise unknown writer, [[Ablabius (historian)|Ablabius]].{{sfn|Heather|1994|p=5}}{{sfn|Jordanes|1915|pp=19–22}}{{sfn|Gillett|2000|pp=479–500}} Many scholars accept that Jordanes' account on Gothic origins is at least partially derived from Gothic tribal tradition and accurate on certain details, and as a result the Goths are often identified as originating from south-central Sweden.<ref name="Fulk_2018_21">{{harvnb|Fulk|2018|pp=21–22}}. "How the Goths arrived at the Black Sea, and where they originated, are matters of debate. The usual assumption, and the one still credited by the considerable majority of scholars, has been that the account given in the sixth-century Getica of Jordanes is trustworthy at least in general outline: according to this account, the Goths migrated, perhaps about 100 BCE, from Scandinavia (Scandza) to the banks of the Vistula. Their area of settlement on the southern coast of the Baltic is called by Jordanes Gothiscandza... In accordance with the account of Jordanes, the Goths have usually been identified with the Gutones first mentioned by Pliny the Elder ca. 65 CE as living on the shore of (apparently) the Baltic Sea. On this reasoning the Goths have also commonly been associated with the island of Gotland and with the region of south-central Sweden called Götaland (named after the ON Gautar, OE Gēatas), from which areas they are assumed to have migrated originally... In more recent times the account of Jordanes, recorded so many centuries after the purported departure from Scandinavia, has been called into question, in part on archaeological grounds... [T]he presence of Goths in Scandinavia is not to be doubted... At all events, the name of the Goths is so common in place-names in Sweden{{snd}}and place-names are often among the most archaic evidence{{snd}}that it is difficult to believe that the Gothic presence in Scandinavia could have been a late development."</ref><ref name="Robinson_2005_36">{{harvnb|Robinson|2005|p=36}}. "Greek and Roman sources of the first and second centuries A.D. are the earliest written evidence we have for the Goths, under the names Guthones, Gothones, and Gothi. The sources agree in placing these people along the Vistula river, although whether they were on the coast or a bit inland is unclear. Also not totally clear is the connection between these people and other tribal groupings of similar names found at that time and later in parts of south central Sweden (now Västergötland and Östergötland) and on the island of Gotland. If the legend recorded by the sixth-century Gothic historian Jordanes is accurate, the Goths came to the mouth of the Vistula from across the sea, displacing a number of Germanic tribes who were there before them, including the Vandals. The weight of scholarship appears to support this story, with (mainland) Götland being seen as the likely point of origin, and the early first century B.C. as the likely time. Owing perhaps partially to population pressure, a large number of Goths subsequently left the Vistula in the mid-second century A.D. Around 170 they reached an area north of the Black Sea, where they settled between the Don and the Dniester rivers."</ref><ref name="Kasperski_2015_33">{{harvnb|Kasperski|2015|at=abstract}}. "The story by Jordanes about the migration of Goths from Scandza is a matter of a vivid and long standing discussion between historians. Most scholars argue that it is a part of the Gothic tribal tradition... Historians have long wondered how Jordanes learned about the migration. Some researchers claim that the source of his inspiration was an original Gothic tribal saga. It is even believed that the story about the origin (origo) of the Goths in Scandza is one of the most important parts of the Gothic tribal tradition, passed orally from generation to generation, a pillar sustaining the ethnicity of this people. However, not all scholars share this belief"</ref><ref name="Goffart_2010_56">{{harvnb|Goffart|2010|pp=56–57}}. "The report that the earliest Goths departed from Scandinavia for the Continent at some undetermined moment in the distant past still commands an impressive body of believers.... Experts in Germanic literature who instantly discount reports of Trojan or Scythian or Noachic origins as being fabulous, solemnly assent: emigration from Scandinavia is an authentic "tribal memory:' the one kernel of historicity to be plucked from an unholy stew of misconceptions and fabrications.</ref>

According to Jordanes, the Goths originated on an island called ''[[Scandza]]'' (Scandinavia), from where they emigrated by sea to an area called ''[[Gothiscandza]]'' under their king [[Berig]].{{sfn|Jordanes|1915|p=iv (25)}} Historians are not in agreement on the authenticity and accuracy of this account.<ref name="Hedeager_2000_27">{{harvnb|Hedeager|2000|p=27}}. "Nevertheless, that these explanations cannot be used to confirm the historicity of the origin myth does not mean that the Goths and many others did not originate from Scandinavia. Several independent, unrelated, pieces of evidence, both philological and archaeological, indicate that there might be a grain of historical truth in these stories. If Scandza is a literary motif, it might also reflect some long-gone historical reality, at least for the Goths, the Lombards, and the Anglo-Saxons, and perhaps even for groups like the Heruli, the Vandals and the Burgundians too."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Heather|1994|pp=6, 66}}. Some sections of narrative may also derive from oral tradition. We hear of King Berig, for instance, who led the Goths' migration from Scandinavia (4. 25), and of King Filimer guiding them into lands above the Black Sea (4. 28). Both are events of the distant past, and Gothic oral history seems the most likely source of these stories.... "[T]he Scandinavian origin of the Goths would seem to have been one sixth-century guess among several... The myths themselves perhaps referred only to an unnamed, mysterious island... The Scandinavian origin-tale would thus be similar to much else in the Getica, depending upon a complex mixture of material from Gothic oral and Graeco-Roman literary sources."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Goffart|2005|p=391}}. "[I]t takes a weird conception of any Gothic oral tradition to imagine that it would have supplied Jordanes or his source with ''Scandinavia'' in the same garb as Ptolemy, Pliny, and Pomponius Mela and would have added to it, besides, circumstantial recollections of the Goths' one-time neighbors when they emigrated 2,030 years ago."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Christensen|2002|p=346}}. "[Cassiodorus] had found out about this island [of Scandza] by reading works by Ptolemy and by listening to reports from people who had come to Ravenna from those regions... [He] knew... that this island was home to a people whose name was strongly reminiscent of the name of the Goths. They were called Gauts, however, and had nothing at all to do with the Goths.".</ref><ref name="Christensen_2002_349">{{harvnb|Christensen|2002|p=349}}. "Today we are able to conclude that this narrative is fictitious, a fabrication in which the omnipotent author himself has created both the framework and the content of the story. But in spite of all this, it is never justifiable to completely discard a relic of the past. If it cannot tell us something about the past it claims to describe; then at least it speaks volumes about the period in which it was conceived – contingent of course upon our own ability to precisely date the source. Parting is a painful process, as in this case, where we must relinquish something we have grown accustomed to regarding as Gothic history."</ref> Most scholars agree that Gothic migration from Scandinavia is reflected in the archaeological record,<ref name="Olędzki_2004_279">{{harvnb|Olędzki|2004|p=279}}. "Most scholars agree that contents of Jordanes' text... concerning the arrival of the Goths and Gepidae from Scandinavia to Pomerania is fully reflected in archaeological sources."</ref> but the evidence is not entirely clear.<ref name="Heather_OCD"/><ref name="Heather_1998_25">{{harvnb|Heather|1998|pp=25–29}}. "The archaeogical evidence would seem at least partly to confirm Jordanes' account of Filimer's migration; the movement of Goths from the European mainland opposite Scandinavia to the hinterland of the Black Sea. Given that the events occurred some 300–400 years before the Getica was composed, at a time when the Goths were not themselves literate, Jordanes' account is more correct, it seems to me, than we have any right ro expect... It is certainly possible... that Scandinavia was explicitly mentioned in Gothic tales of the past... The story of Berig as told by Goths might have said Scandinavia... I think it likely... that the story of Berig and his migration genuinely reflect Gothic story telling in some way, but I am less sure that the original Gothic stories mentioned Scandinavia."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Oxenstierna|1948|p=73}} claimed to have found archaeological evidence of a Gothic origin in [[Östergötland]]. [[Rolf Hachmann|Hachmann]] 1970 claimed there was no archaeological evidence for a Scandinavian origin of the Goths. {{harvnb|Kokowski|1999}} and {{harvnb|Kaliff|2008|p=236}} believe there is archaeological evidence for a partial Gothic origin in Scandinavia.</ref> Rather than a single mass migration of an entire people, scholars open to hypothetical Scandinavian origins envision a process of gradual migration in the 1st centuries BC and AD, which was probably preceded by long-term contacts and perhaps limited to a few elite clans from Scandinavia.<ref>{{harvnb|Kazanski|1991|pp=15–18}}. "[[Ryszard Wołągiewicz|R. Wolagiewicz]] who has studied the chronology of the Gothic kings provided by Jordanes, rightly estimates, in our opinion, that Berig, the king that led the Goths to the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, would have lived at this time… Wolagiewicz' point of view requires some remarks, though. First of all, why did the first Scandinavian settlers seem so few? Would the first Gothic migration not have been that of a people or of a big tribe, but of a more restricted group? That is also what Jordanes seems to tell us, since he reports that the Goths arrived from Scandinavia on only three ships. How can we then justify that this author attached enough importance to this migration that he mentioned it several times? The political role played by these new arrivals, and the presence among them of their king Berig are without a doubt significant for this. Polish historian [[Jerzy Kolendo|J. Kolendo]] has interpreted the history of the Goths as that of the Gothic royal dynasty of the Amales that would reign until the VIth c. and of which Berig was the first king. Taking into account the archaeological data that we have just mentioned, this hypothesis seems likely to us. We can suppose that the king of the Goths and his closest followers, once they had disembarked on the continent, began to dominate the local tribes. We know similar cases in the history of ancient peoples that held in high regard the kings that descended from illustrious families, often made sacred... [O]nly the royal dynasty and their followers could have had a Scandinavian origin. We add also that the Scandinavian parallels of the sites in Pomerania are, as we have seen, very scattered. We also find them in the south of Norway as well as in Sweden and on the islands of the Baltic Sea. This observation could show the heterogeneous origins of the migrants."</ref>{{sfn|Wolfram|1990|pp=39–40}}{{sfn|Heather|1998|pp=24–26}}<ref name="Kaliff_2008_223">{{harvnb|Kaliff|2008|pp=223, 235–36}}. "The archaeological record indicates that Jordanes' history concerning the origin of the Goths was based on an oral tradition with a real background... In modern research, the theory of a massive migration has generally been abandoned... Limited migration is likely to have taken place."</ref>

Similarities between the [[name of the Goths]], some Swedish [[place name]]s and the names of the Gutes and Geats have been cited as evidence that the Goths originated in [[Gotland]] or [[Götaland]].{{sfn|Brink|2008|pp=90, 103–04}}{{sfn|Strid|2011|p=43}}<ref>{{harvnb|Wolfram|1990|p=23}}. "The similarity of the name of the Gothic people and that of the island of Gotland seems to support the migration legend of the Origo Gothica. This area was also the home of the medieval Gutasaga."</ref> The Goths, Geats and Gutes may all have descended from an early community of seafarers active on both sides of the Baltic.{{sfn|Rübekeil|2002|pp=603–04}}{{sfn|Kaliff|2008|p=236}}<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Andersson|1998b|p=283}}. "Die drei Stämme der Gauten, Goten und gutar scheinen sich im s. Ostseeraum aus einem *gautōz/*gutaniz-Volk entwickelt zu haben. Wo und wie deren Ethnogenese vor sich gegangen ist, bleibt zwar ungewiß, aber in der fortgesetzten Diskussion über die geogr. Herkunft der Stämme ist auf jeden Fall die sprachliche Analyse der Stammesbezeichnungen von wesentlichem Gewicht." English translation: "The three tribes of the Gautes, Goths and Gutar appear to have developed from a *gautōz/*gutaniz people in the southern Baltic region. Where and how their ethnogenesis took place remains uncertain, but in the ongoing discussion about the geographical origin of the tribes, the linguistic analysis of the tribal names is of considerable importance."</ref> Similarities and dissimilarities between the Gothic language and [[Scandinavian languages]] (particularly [[Gutnish]]) have been cited as evidence both for and against a Scandinavian origin.<ref>{{harvnb|Kortlandt|2001|pp=21–25}} "Witold Mańczak has argued that... the original homeland of the Goths must therefore be located in the southernmost part of the Germanic territories... I think that his argument is correct..."</ref>{{sfn|Peel|2015|pp=272, 290}}

Scholars generally locate ''Gothiscandza'' in the area of the [[Wielbark culture]].{{sfn|Kaliff|2008|p=228}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1990|p=38}}{{sfn|Liebeschuetz|2015|p=106}} This culture emerged in the lower Vistula and along the [[Pomerania]]n coast in the 1st century AD, replacing the preceding [[Oksywie culture]].{{sfn|Kaliff|2008|p=232}} It is primarily distinguished from the Oksywie by the practice of inhumation, the absence of weapons in graves, and the presence of [[stone circle]]s.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=103}}{{sfn|Kokowski|2011|pp=72–73}} This area had been intimately connected with Scandinavia since the time of the [[Nordic Bronze Age]] and the [[Lusatian culture]].{{sfn|Kaliff|2008|p=236}} Its inhabitants in the Wielbark period are usually thought to have been Germanic peoples, such as the Goths and Rugii.<ref name="Heather_OCD"/><ref name="Wolfram_Wielbark">{{harvnb|Wolfram|1990|p=12}}. "Archaeologists equate the earliest history of the Goths with the artifacts of a culture named after the East Prussian town Willenberg-Wielbark."</ref><ref name="Heather_104">{{harvnb|Heather|2010|p=104}}. "[I]s now generally accepted that the Wielbark culture incorporated areas that, in the first two centuries AD, were dominated by Goths, Rugi and other Germani."</ref><ref name="Heather_679">{{harvnb|Heather|2010|p=679}}. "[T]he Wielbark and Przeworsk systems have come to be understood as thoroughly dominated by Germanic-speakers, with earlier archaeological 'proofs' that the latter comprised just a very few migrants from southern Scandinavia being overturned."</ref><ref name="Heather_1998_XIV">{{harvnb|Heather|1998|pp=xiv, 2, 21, 30}}. "[The] Goths are met in historical sources... [in] northern Poland in the first and second centuries... Goths are first mentioned occupying territory in what is now Poland in the first century AD... The history of people labelled "Goths" thus spans 700 years, and huge tracts of Europe from northern Poland to the Atlantic ocean... [T]he Wielbark culture.... took shape in the middle of the first century AD... in Pomerania and lands either side of the lower Vistula... [T]his is the broad area where our few literary sources place a group called Goths at this time... Tacitus Germania 43–4 places them not quite on the Baltic coast; Ptolemy Geography 3.5.8 locates them east of the Vistula; Strabo Geography 7.1.3 (if Butones should be emended to Gutones) broadly agrees with Tacitus... The mutually confirmatory information of ancient sources and the archaeological record both suggest that Goths can first be identified beside the Vistula. It is here that this attempt to write their history will begin."</ref> Jordanes writes that the Goths, soon after settling ''Gothiscandza'', seized the lands of the [[Ulmerugi]] (Rugii).{{sfn|Jordanes|1915|pp=iv (26)}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1990|pp=36–42}}

[[Image:Wesiory.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Stone circle (Iron Age)|stone circle]] in the area of northern [[Poland]] occupied by the [[Wielbark culture]], which is associated with the Goths]]