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

Paragraph 4 deals with a question about the area of Oium and a pre-Gothic substrate in connection with the problem of Spali. Paragraph 5 analyzes the basic ethnic components of Chernyakhov culture to the east from the Dniester. Now we reveal more and more distinctive archaeological ethnic indicators of the presence of Eastern Germans in the south of Eastern Europe in III—IV^th centuries AD: long houses, inhumations with northern orientation and cremations in urns, hand-made ceramics of Wielbartype, arms, many details of clothing, first of all fibulae, decorations, as well as horn combs. Certainly, one of the most definitive Germanic elements was represented by the runic script. Anthropological research testifies that Chernyakhov population also included ethnic groups close to the population of Northern and Central Europe of the Roman age. A late Scythian tradition in Chernyakhov culture shows itself in stone homebuilding in the Black sea region, some pottery shapes, partly — in anthropology; Sarmatian elements are perceptible in the spread of circular yurt-shaped dwellings, in some types of burial structures (pits with fillets, cuttings, catacombs), as well as in a custom of artificial deformation of skulls. ‘Sarmatian’ features serve not as a heritage of the pre-Gothic substrate, but as an evidence of the presence of scattered groups of Sarmatians and Alans among the population of already formed Chernyakhov culture.

Despite the intense search performed by several generations of Russian and Ukrainian scholars, a Slavic component in Chernyakhov culture is feebler. It finds its most distinct manifestation in a Trans-Dniester group of Cherepin-Teremci sites. It is represented by dwellings deepened in the ground — predecessors of early Slavic half-dugouts with stone stoves, some shapes of plastic pottery finding analogs in Praga culture of V—VII^th centuries AD, etc. Another, eastern group of sites, which was probably connected with a Slavic ethnos within Chernyakhov culture, is known in a forest-steppe area between the Dnieper and the Don rivers — these are the settlements of so-called Kiev tradition in Chernyakhov culture. Recently, a new type of sites has been discovered on the left bank of the Dnieper — it is so-called ‘Boromlya horizon’. They are associated with a forced migration of some population (Venetae) from Middle and Upper Dniester region under the pressure of Goths.

Chapter V “Social organization” analyzes the data of narrative and archaeological sources about the level of social development of Chernyakhov culture carriers. Types of settlements, absence of any testimonies for their growth into urban structures is completely consistent with traditional Gothic lifestyle, which remained mainly rural (Goth, haims, weihs) during the whole their history. Traces of fences around some Chernyakhov manors, findings of keys and locks may be considered as the evidence for emergence of village community and private ownership among Ostrogoths. Presence of a term ‘land ownership’ (Goth, haimojfii) in the Gothic Bible allows us to consider it as an institute close to a Germanic ôdal. Coexistence of different homebuild-ing traditions (long above-ground houses, half dugouts, etc.) in the same settlements denotes the development of social inequality among their dwellers. Materials from Chernyakhov burial sites and numerous hoards of Roman coins may be considered as markers of considerable property differentiation among the population of Ostrogothic kingdom. A question about its social stratification is more difficult. According to the archaeological data, in IV^th century AD its main body was represented by free people (Goth, freis), there is also a small series of burials being close to Central European ‘princely’ tombs as well as warrior cremations in urns and inhumations. A special group of population was represented by persons, who left western-oriented burials. However, in general Chernyakhovo necropolises of IV^th century AD still demonstrate a social equality of most society members.