Готланд Эрманариха: остроготы в Восточной Европе на рубеже Древности и Средневековья

Paragraph 3 contains the analysis of works by Soviet archaeologists and historians of the 2^nd half of 1950s—1980s, who touched upon the Gothic problematics anyway. Mitigation of ideological pressing with the beginning of a ‘thaw period’ altogether had a positive influence upon studying of Gothic problematics in Russia (discussion concerning problems of Chernyakhov culture in 1957 and further numerous archaeological studies of antiquities dating back to the second quarter of the 1^st millennium AD, publishing of Jordanes’ “Getica” by E.C. Skrzinskaya, etc.). It was that time when the accent in studying of the subject of our interest started to shift to the area of archaeological research (works of M.A. Tikhanova, P.N. Tretyakov, E.A. Rikman, VV. Kropotkin, V.D. Baran, Y.V. Kukharenko, etc.). By 1980s, under pressure of continuously multiplying archaeological facts, the number of advocates of the Gothic attribution of Chernyakhov culture has increased (M.A. Tikhanova, M.B. Shchukin, Y.V. Kukharenko). This idea was developed by the most prominent Russian linguist V.N. Toporov. His work immediately induced an incisive criticism on the part of academic B.A. Rybakov and V.P. Budanova. Some years later Budanova’s own book was published — it was the first monographic work concerning the Gothic problematics in Soviet historical studies. The final conclusion of the author was that a traditional concept of‘Ermanaric state’ could not be considered as adequate to a set of ancient written evidence about this ‘state’. The book by V.P. Budanova showed that it was impossible to study the Gothic problematics further being limited only to analysis of traditional literary sources. By that time it was evident that information allowing scholars to have a new look on the old problem was confined not in written, but in archaeological sources.

Paragraphs 4 analyze results achieved by contemporary Russian scholars in studying of Ermanaric’s kingdom. At the turn of XX—XXI^st centuries there appeared new approaches to historical estimation of anciejit societies, including Chernyakhov, which had been previously considered as late primitive one. At this time fundamental monographic studies concerning the history of Goths and Chernyakhov culture were created by M.B. Shchukin, A.M. Oblomski, M.M. Kazanski. They testify that priority in studying of Ermanaric’s kingdom and its culture has transferred to archaeologists. Meanwhile, all the enormous corpus of archaeological sources is still far from being completely used for studying of the phenomenon of our interest.

Chapter IV “Goths and Chernyakhov culture” is dedicated to studying of historical, geographical, socio-economical and cultural aspects of the problem in the light of comparative analysis of data from narrative, linguistic and archaeological sources. Paragraph 1 considers stages of the Ostrogothic history in context of Chernyakhov culture evolution. Special attention is paid to the ‘age of Ermanaric’ (333—375 AD), which was marked with a heyday of classic Chernyakhov culture in Phase C3. Paragraph 2 defines the territory of Ermanaric’s kingdom. In IV^th century AD the enormous area occupied by Chernyakhov culture was a scene of complex processes marked by spreading of uniform items, homebuilding traditions, funeral rituals, and also information, experience and innovations. The Ostrogothic society of IV^th century AD was characterized by the quick synthesis of achievements of late ancient civilization and local barbarian culture.

Paragraph 3 throws light on a contemporary approach to the problem of Goths in the south of Eastern Europe. Today no one of the scholars is doubtful that linguistically Goths belong to East German group (vocabulary of Ulfila’s Bible, runic inscriptions, etc.). But all that complex conglomerate united under the reign of Gothic kings was perceived by Greeks and Romans as ‘Scythians called Goths’ (Dexipp., Chron., 16). It is not impossible that such a definition masks a wish of Greek and Roman authors to emphasize some special, non-Germanic features of Goths, which had to emerge in the process of‘finding of native land’ in Black-Sea Scythia.