Rise and Fall of the Goths
by Frank Schaefer


When the Goths left their home region of the Gdansk basin in the 2nd century CE to embark on a fantastic journey that took them as far as the Eastern stretches of Eurasia and even into Southern Italy and Spain, they did so as barbarians with a penchant for war and plundering.

By the time Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great became ruler of Italy (493–526), the Goths had reinvented themselves into a cultural force that was controlling most of the Western Roman Empire.

The Gothic people’s migration patterns are unrivaled in Europe; they settled in areas ranging between Northern Europe, Spain and even North Africa (Vandals). One could say they were the “Nomads” of Europe.

Their journey started in the middle of the 2nd century CE marks the first Migration Period in central Europe. Many Goths moved south-east, leaving the lands that had been home for two centuries. They started moving along the River Vistula, and found a new home in a corner of Scythia (modern-day Romania/Moldovia/Crimea) in the Black Sea region, establishing a Confederation of tribes.

Archeological finds at the Chernyakhov cemeteries in this region show a consistency with the Wilbark culture digs, confirming that these were the same Goths that had first appeared in the Gdanks basin. They too featured both cremation and ihumation burials; and here too grave goods often contained pottery, jewelry but hardly ever weapons (The Goths in the Fourth Century).


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