Article
Article name Antiquities of the Vidivarii
Authors Kulakov V.I.Doctor of History drkulakov@mail.ru
Bibliographic description Kulakov V. I. Antiquities of the Vidivarii // Humanitarian Vector. 2023. Vol. 18, no. 1. P. 20–31. DOI: 10.21209/1996-7853-2023-18-1-20-31.
Section
DOI 10.21209/1996-7853-2023-18-1-20-31
UDK 902/904
Article type Original article
Annotation No attempts have been previously made to discover the antiquities of the Vidivarii. Their discovery is the purpose of this article. The relevance of this work is that the discovery of these antiquities will be the key to understanding the history of the southeastern Baltic on the threshold of the Middle Ages. The methodology for searching for correspondence between historical and archeological data has been developed in European archeology in identifying the regions of the Germanic tribes of the era of Roman influence. The research method was search for correspondence between the features of the archaeological material and the data of a written source that tells about the Vidivarii. First of all, it is necessary to consider the funerary monuments of the “island” of Gepedoyos and its environs in the first half of the 5th century AD. They are represented mainly by urnless cremations (fragments of calcined bones are scattered in the remains of a funeral pyre) under stonework. Artifacts that can be associated with the activity of the Vidivarii are massive hryvnias mainly with receding, expanding ends, coin and clothing hoards of the first half of the 5th century AD, three-beam brooches and plate clasps, biconical bowls and circular ceramics, knife-daggers. We draw a conclusion that the zone of settlement of German soldiers was initially located on the “island of Gepedoyos”, which is evidenced by the location of a large number of coin and clothing treasures on this hill. Archaeological material shows the connections of the Vidivarii both with the west of the Baltic and with the Middle Danube. There is an evidence of the origin of the Vidivarii from the array of Germanic tribes on the western coast of the Baltic and the way in which groups of Germanic warriors in the era of Attila fell to the ground in the delta of the river Vistula. Traces of activity of the Vidivarii in the archaeological material of the coast of the Vistula/Kaliningrad Bay are represented by finds of Late Roman multiplis, solidi, and gold hryvnias of the R300 type. The process of participation of the Vidivarii (in the form of a kind of catalyst) in the formation of Prussian archaeological culture at its early stage is represented by animalheaded brooches, clasps with a star-shaped stem, and other items characteristic of the late 5th-6th centuries only for the Witland region. Thus, discrete archaeological materials have been identified that are confidently associated with the Vidivarii.
Key words Chrono Halibo, Witland, the Vidivarii, Prussians, hoards
Article information
References 1. Jordan. On the origin and deeds of the Getae. St. Petersburg: “Aletheia”, 1997. (In Rus.) 2. Vinogradov, A. E., On the question of the origin of the ethnonyms Varangians and the Vidivarii. Via in tempore. History. Political science, vol. 48, pp. 123–131, 2021. (In Rus.) 3. Sevin, H., Die Gepiden. München, 1955. (In German). 4. Ehrlich B., Elbing, Benkenstein und Meislatein. Mannus, Bd. 24, H. 1–3, Leipzig: Mannus-Verlag. 1932. S. 399–420. (In German) 5. Curta F., Bliujenė A., Exotic Lands, Quxotic Friends, Eastern Lithuania and the Carpatian Basin in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (ca. 380 bis ca. 620 n. Chr.). Medieval Archaeology, vol. 55, Oxford: Maney Publishing. 2011: 29–65. (In Engl.) 6. Kulakov, V. I. Estii and the Vidivarii. Balto-Slavic studies 1988–1996. M: “Indrik”. 1997: 359–372. (In Rus.) 7. Kulakov, V. I. Gods of Videvut. Letonica, vol. 10, Riga: Zinātne., 2004. P. 36–64. (In Rus.) 8. Kulakov, V. I. Amber coast in the era of Attila. Bulletin of the Bryansk State University, no. 4 (54), pp. 69– 78, 2022. (In Rus.) 9. Lincke, B., Eine baltische Halsringform der Völkerwanderungszeit. Prähistorischen Zeitschrift, Bd. 28–29, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter Verlag. 1938: 80–157. (In German) 10. Wyszomirska-Werbart B., Scandinavia and the Eastern Baltic during the Migration Period. The Cultural Interpretations. Contacts across the Baltic Sea, Lund: University of Lund. 1992: 58–73. (In Engl.) 11. Grunau, S. Preussische Chronik. Bd. I, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot., 1876. (In German) 12. Godłowski, K. Okres wędrówek ludów na Pomorzu. Pomorania Antiqua, T. X, Gdańsk: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. 1981:101–119. (In Polish.) 13. Åberg, N. Ostpreußen in der Völkerwanderungszeit, Uppsala-Leipzig: Almqvist, Wiksells Boktryckeri- A.-D. 1919. (In German) 14. Bursze, A. Złote medaliony rzymskie w Barbaricum. Symbolika prestiźu i wladzy spoleczeństw barbarzyńskich u schyłku staroźytnosci, Światowit, Supplementum ser. A, vol. II, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytuta Archeologii UW. 1998: 218–231. (In Polish) 15. Schulze-Dörrlamm, M., Romanisch oder germanisch? Untersuchungen zu den Armbrust- und Bügelknopffibeln des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. aus den Gebieten westlich des Rheins und südlich der Donau. Jahrbuch der Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, Bd. 33/2, Mainz: RGZM. 1986: 593–720. (In German) 16. Matuzova, V. I., English medieval sources of the IX–XIII centuries. M: Science. 1979. (In Rus.) 17. Andersson, K. Romartida guldsmide i Norden III. Övriga smycken, teknisk analys och verstadsgrupper, Aun 21, Uppsala: Societas archaeologica Upsaliensis. 1995. (In Swed.) 18. Bursze, A., Najstarsze złote medaliony rzymskie z Barbaricum. Studia Gothica, Bd. I, In memoria Ryszard Wolągiewicz, Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej. 1996: 85–95. (In Polish) 19. Peiser, F. E., Kemke, H. Der Depotfund von Frauenburg. Prussia, Bd. 23/1, Königsberg: in Komission bei Gräfe und Unzer. 1914: 58–79. (In German). 20. Bitner-Wróblewska, A. From Samland to Rogaland. East-West connections in the Baltic basin during the Early Migration Period, Warszawa: Państwowe Muzeum Archeologiczne. 2001. (In Engl.)
Full articleAntiquities of the Vidivarii