The Origins of the Goths of History

The Origins of the Goths
by Frank Schaefer

Much of the origins of the Gothic people is shrouded in mystery. The view offered here favors what many call the “primary written accounts” i.e. Getica (by Jordanis) and the Gutasaga as well archeological date from the Wilbark dig. The picture that emerges about the Goths from these sources describes a truly unique and distinct people group consisting of indigenous Europeans from the Norteast European Gdansk basin and Indo-European, mostly Scandinavian immigrants to that area. While the influence of the Scandinavian immigrants is undeniable, in the process of merging with their new homeland’s pre-Germanic population, the Goths emerged as a unique tribe unified around a distinct tribal order (the “reik”), culture and language.

Original Indo-European Migration to Scandinavia
At around 2500 BCE, the Indo-Europeans arrived in Scandinavia, in modern-day southern Sweden. We can be reasonably sure that this area is the original home of the Indo-Europeans, since this is the only area where no pre-Germanic place names, such as rivers, water basins and mountains have been discovered (Bell-Fialkoff, p 117ff). At around 750 BCE these new inhabitants spoke what scholars call the “Proto-Germanic language” from which all modern Indo-European languages evolved.

Meet the Goths - A New Tribe Appears
According to the Gutasaga (the recorded oral traditions by the Swedish Gotlanders) as well as the work Gettica by Jordanis (the only native Goth historian) a substantial migration of people from “Goteland” or “Skanzia” marked the beginning stages of the Gothic people in Northern Europe. They settled first in the Gdanks area neat the Baltic Sea in Norther Europe. It should be pointed out that the term Scandza is considered a semi-legendary area with roots somewhere in Scandinavia—most likely corresponding modern-day Götaland, Sweden.

The archaeological Wielbark (Willenberg) culture of the Gdansk basin where these immigrants settled is indeed associated with the original Gothic people. Although some scholars do not see strong archaeological evidence to support exclusive relations between southern Scandinavian culture and the Wielbark culture of the Goths (Heather, p. 26.), there are nonetheless some strong characteristics both cultures have in common.

Archeological excavations disclose that in both regions cremations and inhumations were common burial practices. Perhaps the strongest characteristic the Gothic culture had in common with southern Scandinavia, is the raising of stone covered mounds, stone circles, individual grave stones or cobble cladding. However, a distinctive burial feature of the Gothic culture is the fact that it was not customary to bury warriors with any kind of weaponry. Instead objects such as pottery and ornaments were used.

A strong argument can be made with regard to the predominance of the Scandinavian influence within the Gothic population. With regard to etymology, for instance, the mainstream of scholarship agrees that the name Goth derived from a single prehistoric ethnonym owned by a uniform culture of south Scandinavia in the middle 1st millennium BCE. People with a modern form of that name (the Gotlanders still reside in southern Scandinavia (Wolfram, 1988 pp. 19-35).

[Bibliography]