Editing Bastarnae (section)

== Material culture ==
[[File:Rekonstruktionsversuch bastarnischer Trachten (eine Gruppe aus Pomoranischer Kultur) von dem Aussere Karpatensenke und Westbeskiden, 2 bis 3 Jh. PR DSC 1317.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Attempt to reconstruct Bastarnae costumes at the [[Archaeological Museum of Kraków]]. Such clothing and weapons were commonplace among peoples on the Roman Empire's borders.]]
[[File:Rome and the Barbarians in Eastern and Central Europe around 100 AD by Shchukin.png|thumb|right|275px|Archaeological cultures in the early Roman period, c. 100 AD]]

According to [[Malcolm Todd]], traditional archaeology has not been able to construct a typology of Bastarnae material culture, and thus to ascribe particular archaeological sites to the Bastarnae.<ref name="Todd 2004 23-4">Todd (2004) 23-4</ref> A complicating factor is that the regions where Bastarnae are attested contained a patchwork of peoples and cultures (Sarmatians, Scythians, Dacians, Thracians, Celts, Germans and others), some [[sedentism|sedentary]], some [[nomad]]ic. In any event, post-1960s archaeological theory has questioned the validity of equating material "cultures", as defined by archaeologists, with distinct ethnic groups. In this view, it is impossible to attribute a "culture" to a particular ethnic group: it is likely that the material cultures discerned in the region belonged to several, if not all, of the groups inhabiting it. These cultures probably represent relatively large-scale socio-economic interactions between disparate communities of the broad region, possibly including mutually antagonistic groups.<ref name="Todd 2004 23-4"/>

It is not even certain whether the Bastarnae were sedentary, nomadic or semi-nomadic. Tacitus' statement that they were "German in their way of life and types of dwelling" implies a sedentary bias, but their close relations with the Sarmatians, who were nomadic, may indicate a more nomadic lifestyle for some Bastarnae, as does their attested wide geographical range.<ref name="Todd 2004 23">Todd (2004) 23</ref> If the Bastarnae were nomadic, then the sedentary "cultures" identified by archaeologists in their ''lebensraum'' would not represent them. Nomadic peoples generally leave scant traces, due to the impermanent materials and foundations used in the construction of their dwellings.

Scholars have identified two closely related sedentary "cultures" as possible candidates to represent the Bastarnae (among other peoples) as their locations broadly correspond to where ancient sources placed the Basternae: the [[Zarubintsy culture]] lying in the forest-steppe zone in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus, and the [[Poieneşti-Lukashevka culture]] ([[Lucăşeuca]]) in northern Moldavia.<ref name="Batty 2008 237"/><ref>{{harvtxt|Shchukin|1989|p=10}}</ref> These cultures were characterised by agriculture, documented by numerous finds of sickles. Dwellings were either of surface or semi-subterranean types, with posts supporting the walls, a hearth in the middle and large conical pits located nearby. Some sites were defended by ditches and banks, structures thought to have been built to defend against nomadic tribes from the steppe.<ref>Mallory. EIEC. Page 657</ref> Inhabitants practiced cremation. Cremated remains were either placed in large, hand-made ceramic urns, or were placed in a large pit and surrounded by food and ornaments such as spiral bracelets and Middle to Late [[La Tène culture|La Tène]]-type ''fibulae'' (attesting the continuing strength of Celtic influence in this region).

A major problem with associating the Poieneşti-Lukashevka and Zarubintsy cultures with the Bastarnae is that both cultures had disappeared by the early first century AD, while the Bastarnae continue to be attested in those regions throughout the Roman [[Principate]].<ref>Batty (2008) 237-9</ref> Another issue is that the Poieneşti-Lukashevka culture has also been attributed to the [[Costoboci]], a people considered ethnically [[Dacians|Dacian]] by mainstream scholarship, who inhabited northern Moldavia, according to Ptolemy (ca. 140 AD). Indeed, [[Mircea Babeş]] and [[Silvia Theodor]], the two [[Romanian archaeologists]] who identified Lukashevka as Bastarnic, nevertheless insisted that the majority of the population in the Lukashevka sphere (in northern Moldavia) was "Geto-Dacian".<ref name="Batty 2008 238"/> A further problem is that neither of these cultures were present in the Danube Delta region, where a major concentration of Bastarnae are attested by the ancient sources.<ref name="Batty 2008 237"/>

Starting in about 200 AD, the [[Chernyakhov culture]] became established in the modern-day western Ukraine and Moldova region inhabited by the Bastarnae. The culture is characterised by a high degree of sophistication in the production of metal and ceramic artefacts, as well as of uniformity over a vast area. Although this culture has conventionally been identified with the migration of the [[Goths|Gothic]] ''ethnos'' into the region from the northwest, Todd argues that its most important origin is Scytho-Sarmatian. Although the Goths certainly contributed to it, so probably did other peoples of the region such as the Dacians, [[Early Slavs|proto-Slavs]], [[Carpi (people)|Carpi]] and possibly the Bastarnae.<ref>Todd (2004) 26</ref>