Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Contents

The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Gothic people of the Black Sea steppes in the third and fourth centuries. The Goths ( Gothic: Gothic usvg|14px|u]]Gothic asvg|14px|a]]Gothic s The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey In physical Geography, a steppe ( German, from степь - "a flat and arid land" степ - /stɛp/ тал - tal дала - /dɑlɑ/ pronounced They had close contacts with the Thervingi, another Gothic people from west of the river Dnestr. The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised "Tervings" or "Thervings" were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west The Dniester (Дністер translit Dnister; Nistru is a river in Eastern Europe. They may be the same people as the later Ostrogoths. The Ostrogoths (Ostrogothi or Austrogothi were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late

Etymology

"Greuthungi" may mean "steppe dwellers" or "people of the pebbly coasts". [1] The root greut- is probably related to the Old English greot, meaning "gravel, grit, earth". [2] This is supported by evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea both before and after Gothic settlement there and by the lack of evidence for an earlier date for the name pair Tervingi-Greuthungi than the late third century. [3] It is also possible that the name "Greuthungi" has pre-Pontic Scandinavian origins. [3] It may mean "rock people", to distinguish the Ostrogoths from the Gauts (in what is today Sweden). Geats, Geatas, Gautar, Goths, Gotar, Gøtar, Götar were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting Götaland [3] Jordanes does refer to an Evagreotingi (Greuthung island) in Scandza, but this may be legend. Scandza was the name given to Scandinavia by Jordanes, in his work Getica. It has also been suggested that it may be related to certain place names in Poland, but this has met with little support. [3]

History

Jordanes, a mid 6th Century historian identifies the 4th Century Greuthungi with the 5th-6th Century Ostrogothi. The Ostrogoths (Ostrogothi or Austrogothi were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late Jordanes also describes a large Greuthung kingdom in the late 4th century, but Ammianus Marcellinus, a late 4th Century historian, does not record this. Many modern historians, including Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, doubt that it was ever particularly extensive (and suggest one or more smaller kingdoms). Peter Heather is an historian of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Michael Kulikowski is an American historian tenured at the University of Tennessee, who is a specialist in the history of the western Mediterranean world of Late Antiquity [4][5]

Archaeology

Main article: Chernyakhov Culture
     traditional Götaland      the island of Gotland      Wielbark Culture in the early 3rd century      Chernyakhov Culture, in the early 4th century      Roman Empire
     traditional Götaland      the island of Gotland      Wielbark Culture in the early 3rd century      Chernyakhov Culture, in the early 4th century      Roman Empire

In time and geographical area, the Greutungi and their neighbors the Thervingi correspond to the archaeological Chernyakhov Culture. The Chernyakhiv culture (also known as Cherniakhov culture or Cherniakhovo culture) ( Second century to Fifth century) was found in Ukraine Götaland ( Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland, Gotland, Gautland, Geatland is one of three lands of Sweden is a county, province and municipality of Sweden and the largest Island in the Baltic Sea. Wielbark culture also known as Willenberg culture (Wielbark/Willenberg-Kultur Kultura wielbarska Вельбарська культура ( Vel’bars’ka kul’tura The 3rd century is the period from 201 to 300 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The Chernyakhiv culture (also known as Cherniakhov culture or Cherniakhovo culture) ( Second century to Fifth century) was found in Ukraine As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 4th century (per the Julian calendar and Anno Domini / Common era) was that Century The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi (sometimes pluralised "Tervings" or "Thervings" were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west

Settlement Pattern

Chernyakhov settlements cluster in open ground in river valleys. The houses include sunken-floored dwellings, surface dwellings, and stall-houses. The largest known settlement (Budesty) is 35 hectares. [6] Most settlements are open and unfortified; some forts are also known.

Burial Practices

Chernyakhov cemeteries include both cremation and inhumation burials; among the latter the head is to the north. Cremation is the act of reducing a Corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground Some graves were left empty. Grave goods often include pottery, bone combs, and iron tools, but almost never any weapons. [7]

Relationship with the Ostrogoths

The division of the Goths is first attested in 291. [8] The Greuthungi are first named by Ammianus Marcellinus, writing no earlier than 392 and perhaps later than 395, and basing his account of the words of a Tervingian chieftain who is attested as early as 376. Amiricanus Gambilinus (325/330-after 391 was a fourth-century Roman historian. [8] The Ostrogoths are first named in a document dated September 392 from Milan. Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. [8] Claudian mentions that they together with the Gruthungi inhabit Phrygia. Claudian (lat Claudius Claudianus) was a court Poet to the Emperor Honorius and Stilicho. In antiquity Phrygia (Φρυγία was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. [9] According to Herwig Wolfram, the primary sources either use the terminology of Tervingi/Greuthungi or Vesi/Ostrogothi and never mix the pairs. The Visigoths (Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, or Wisi were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East [8] All four names were used together, but the pairing was always preserved, as in Gruthungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi. [1]

Both Herwig Wolfram and Thomas Burns conclude that the term Greuthungi was a geographical identifier used by the Tervingi to describe a people that described itself as the Ostrogoths. [1][10] This terminology therefore dropped out of use after the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. Hunnic Empire, the empire of the Huns.The Huns were a confederation of Eurasian tribes especially Turkic ones from the Steppes of In support of this, Wolfram cites Zosimus as referring to a group of "Scythians" north of the Danube who were called "Greuthungi" by the barbarians north of the Ister. Zosimus ( ''fl'' 490s-510s was a Byzantine historian who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius The Danube (In Donau from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow run" Slovak and Polish Dunaj [11] Wolfram concludes that this people was the Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest. [11] On this understanding, the Greuthungi and Ostrogothi were more or less the same people. [10]

That the Greuthungi were the Ostrogothi is also supported by Jordanes. Jordanes (also Jordanis or even Iornandes) was a 6th century Roman Bureaucrat, who turned his hand to History later in life [12] He identified the Ostrogothic kings from Theodoric the Great to Theodahad as the heirs of the Greuthungian king Ermanaric. Theodoric the Great (454 – August 30, 526) known to the Romans as Flavius Theodoricus, was king of the Ostrogoths (471-526 ruler of Theodahad (d 536 was the King of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536 and a nephew of Theodoric the Great through his sister Ermanaric (died 376 was a king of the Gothic Greuthungi at the eve of the Migration Period. This interpretation, however, though very common among scholars today, is not universal. The nomenclature of Greuthungi and Tervingi fell out of use shortly after 400. [8] In general, the terminology of a divided Gothic people disappeared gradually after they entered the Roman Empire. [1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths, trans. T. J. Dunlop (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988), p. 25.
  2. ^ Thomas S. Burns, A History of the Ostrogoths (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), p. 30.
  3. ^ a b c d Wolfram387–388 n58.
  4. ^ Heather, Peter, 1998, The Goths, Blackwell, Malden, pp. 53-55.
  5. ^ Kulikowski, Michael, 2007, Rome's Gothic Wars, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, pp. 54-56, 111-112.
  6. ^ Heather, Peter and Matthews, John, 1991, The Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp. 52-54.
  7. ^ Heather, Peter and Matthews, John, 1991, Goths in the Fourth Century, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, pp. 54-56.
  8. ^ a b c d e Wolfram, 24.
  9. ^ Wolfram, 387 n52.
  10. ^ a b Burns, 44.
  11. ^ a b Wolfram, 387 n57.
  12. ^ Heather, 52–57, 300–301.
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic