Editing Vandals (section)

===Origins===
[[File:Origins 300BC.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Germanic and Proto-Slavic tribes of Central Europe around 3rd century BC.]]
[[File:Europa Germanen 50 n Chr.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Tribes of Central Europe in the mid-1st century AD. The Vandals/[[Lugii]] are depicted in green, in the area of modern Poland.]]

====Early classical sources====
The earliest mention of the Vandals is from [[Pliny the Elder]], who used the term ''Vandili'' in a broad way to define one of the major groupings of all [[Germanic peoples]]. Tribes within this category whom he mentions are the [[Burgundiones]], [[Varini]], [[Carini (Germanic tribe)|Carini]] (otherwise unknown), and the [[Gutones]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D28 |title=Natural History 4.28 |access-date=2014-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530161627/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D28 |archive-date=2013-05-30 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Tacitus mentioned the ''Vandilii'', but only in a passage explaining legends about the origins of the Germanic peoples. He names them as one of the groups sometimes thought to be one of the oldest divisions of these peoples, along with the [[Marsi (Germanic)|Marsi]], [[Gambrivii]], [[Suebi]] but does not say where they live, or which peoples are within this category. On the other hand, Tacitus and Ptolemy give information about the position of Varini, Burgundians, and Gutones in this period, and these indications suggest that the Vandals in this period lived between the Oder and Vistula rivers.{{sfn|Berndt|2010|p=549}}

Ptolemy furthermore mentioned the [[Silingi]] who were later counted as Vandals, as living south of the [[Semnones]], who were Suebians living on the Elbe, and stretching to the Oder.<ref>"The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy", Book II, Chapter 10: "Greater Germany"". [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10.html transcript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102001414/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10.html |date=2022-11-02 }}</ref>

The Hasdingi, who later led the invasion of Carthage, do not appear in written records until the 2nd century and the time of the Marcomannic wars.<ref>Walter Goffart, ''Barbarian Tides'', p. 85.</ref> The Lacringi appear in 3rd century records.<ref>Walter Pohl, ''Die Germanen'', p. 23</ref>

====Lugii====
{{Main|Lugii}}
The Lugii, who were also mentioned in early classical sources in the same region, are likely to have been the same people as the Vandals.<ref name= Anderson>{{harvnb|Anderson|1938|p=198}}</ref><ref name= Wolfram>{{harvnb|Wolfram|1997|p=42}}</ref> The Lugii are mentioned by [[Strabo]], [[Tacitus]] and [[Ptolemy]] as a large group of tribes between the Vistula and the Oder. Strabo and Ptolemy do not mention the Vandals at all, only the Lugii, Tacitus mentions them in a passage about the ancestry of the Germanic peoples without saying where they lived, and Pliny the Elder in contrast mentions the Vandals but not the Lugii.{{sfn|Berndt|2010|p=549}} [[Walter Pohl]] and [[Walter Goffart]] have noted that Ptolemy seems to distinguish the Silingi from the Lugii, and in the 2nd century the Hasdings, when they appear in the Roman record, are also distinguished from the Lugii.<ref>Pohl, ''Die Germanen'', p. 23; Goffart, ''Barbarian Tides'', p. 298, footnote 47.</ref> [[Herwig Wolfram]] notes that "In all likelihood the Lugians and the Vandals were one cultic community that lived in the same region of the Oder in Silesia, where it was first under [[Celts|Celtic]] and then under Germanic domination."<ref name= Wolfram/> This may account for the differentiation between the Celtic Lugii and their more Germanic successors the Vandals.

====Przeworsk culture====
{{Main|Przeworsk culture}}
In archaeology, the Vandals are associated with the Przeworsk culture, but the culture probably extended over several central and eastern European peoples. Their origin, ethnicity and linguistic affiliation are heavily debated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/1405117141/Todd_sample%20chapter_The%20early%20germans.pdf |title=Land and People, p. 25 |access-date=July 30, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926222716/http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapter/1405117141/Todd_sample%20chapter_The%20early%20germans.pdf |archive-date=September 26, 2007 }}</ref><ref name= Merrils>{{harvnb|Merrills|2004|pp=32–33}}</ref><ref name= Todd>{{harvnb|Todd|2009|p=25}}</ref> The bearers of the Przeworsk culture mainly practiced [[cremation]] and occasionally inhumation.<ref name= Todd/>

====Language====
{{main|Vandalic language}}
Very little is known about the [[Vandalic language]] itself, but it is believed to be of the extinct [[East Germanic languages|East Germanic]] linguistic branch, like Gothic. The Goths left behind the only text corpus of the East Germanic language type, especially a [[Gothic Bible|4th-century translation of the Gospels.]]<ref>{{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=217, 301}}</ref>