Germanic peoples

The names “Germanic”, “Germanic”, “Germany” come from the Latin language: Germanicus – Germanic; Germani – Germans, numerous tribes living between the Rhine, Danube, the Vistula and the North Sea; Germania – Germany, a territory east of the Rhine, inhabited by Germanic tribes. Which, in turn, going back to such Latin words as: germane – frankly, sincerely; germanitas (germanus) – brotherhood, close kinship, kinship; germanus (germen) – native, real, genuine; germen – kidney, sprout, germ, descendant; germino (germen) – let sprouts grow.

The self-name of the Germans comes from the ancient German word “people” – Thiuda. Almost all neighbors call Germans not by name, but according to one of the Germanic tribes: Italians – tedesco (from the “Teutons”), French – allemagne (from the “Alemans”), Finns – Saksa (from the “Saxons”), Slavs call Germans Germans, according to the well-known version of the word “dumb”.

The Austrians occurred as a result of the Germanization of the Slavs. The Slavs created the state of Samo around 623. After its collapse, the Slavs created a principality in Carinthia (Horutania), the inhabitants of which lived on farms. In the middle of the 8th century, the Slavs who fought against the Avars became dependent on the Bavarians, then the Franks, and after the collapse of the Carolingian empire in 843, these lands, together with Bavaria, were transferred to the kingdom of the East Franks, the future Germany, which, apparently, and they called these territories “Austria” – “eastern empire”, from Ost – “east” and Reich – “empire”.

The ancestral home of Germanic and Romance languages was attributed to the west of Russia. An international team of scientists (including specialists from St. Petersburg and Samara) has found new genetic confirmation of the mound hypothesis of the emergence of Indo-European languages. The authors published the results of their research in the journal Nature, and briefly can be found on the University of Adelaide website. In their work, scientists report that at least some of the Indo-European languages in Europe arose as a result of mass migration of proto-language speakers from the European territory of modern Russia. In particular, as a result of such migration, the Baltic-Slavic, Germanic and Romance languages most likely arose. Experts came to this conclusion by analyzing the genomes of 94 people who lived 3—8 thousand years ago in Europe. Genetics have found that, starting from 4.5 thousand years ago, approximately 75 percent of people in Central Europe had ancestors from the steppes of Russia. These representatives of the culture of string ceramics turned out to be the ancestors of people of another culture – the pit, who lived on the territory between the Dnieper and the Volga. This may mean confirmation of the hypothesis that the culture of string ceramics arose either under the influence of the pit, or its representatives were strongly influenced by the previous one. Scientists also note that people of the pit culture could spread to Europe the most relevant technology for that time, in particular, movement with the wheel.

This, in particular, is indicated by the fact that wheeled vehicles and domesticated horses appeared in Europe about 5—6 thousand years ago. It is believed that the first people came to Europe from Africa about 45 thousand years ago. About eight thousand years ago, there was a second wave of migration, and Europe was populated by farmers from the Middle East. The third stage of migration, described by scientists, occurred 5—6 thousand years ago from the territories of the European part of modern Russia and Ukraine, and it is with him, according to scientists, that the origin of a number of languages of modern Europe should be associated. The work of scientists confirms the so-called mound hypothesis of the origin of Indo-European languages. Archaeologists and linguists who adhere to it believe that the speakers of the Indo-European proto-language lived on the territory of modern Russia and Ukraine between the Volga and the Dnieper. Supporters of the second most popular hypothesis, the Anatolian, connect the emergence of the Indo-European language family with the migration of people from the territory of modern Turkey (ancient Anatolia) eight thousand years ago. Scientists note that their study allows us to understand how the main Indo-European languages were distributed in Europe 5—6 thousand years ago. However, it does not say anything about the origin of the southern languages of this family, in particular Greek. Now scientists are hoping to understand how the migration of the speakers of the proto-language (proto-languages) and its connection with the Indo-European languages of the Caucasus, Iran and India were organized.

Most characteristic of the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. – the first half of the first millennium A.D. e. archaeological sites in the form of large burial-free burial grounds with various rites of burials: corpses and corpses. The remains after the burning were enclosed in an urn, the corpses were laid in the ground without an urn. So cemeteries were formed, which, as already mentioned above, have been called by archaeologists the name of “fields of burial urns”, or “fields of burials”. In the XIX century. scientists argued about who owned the burial fields discovered in Central Europe – Slavs, Germans, Thracians, or Celts (Indo-Europeans). Such a statement of the question was in itself incorrect, since the rite of burial in the fields of burial urns belonged not only to the tribe, but to all of the tribal masses listed above.

The Czech archaeologist and historian Lubor Niederle, supporting the opinion of P. Schafarik and other Czech and Polish archaeologists, indicated that we can speak of Slavic affiliation only of those monuments of burial fields that are within the limits of the settlement of the ancient Slavic tribes supposed by written sources.

This point of view of L. Niederle regarding the ethnicity of carriers of the culture of the burial fields of Central Europe was confirmed in subsequent works by archaeologists. Polish scholars who studied the culture of the living areas on the territory of Poland, came to the conclusion that the archaeological culture was carried by the Wends, since its territory basically coincides with the territory allotted to the western group of these tribes Pliny, Tacitus and Ptolemy.

Burial fields east of the upper reaches of the Dniester were discovered only at the end of the 19th century. by the famous Russian archaeologist V.V. Khvoika, who examined them in the territory of the Middle Dnieper. The study of the very first monuments of this culture allowed V.V. Khvoika to claim that they belong to the ancient Slavs. The work of V.V. Khvoika was continued by Soviet archaeologists who unearthed and studied many new settlements and burial grounds for the culture of burial fields, which are now known to more than 400. These excavations showed that not only the Middle, but also the Upper Dnieper in the first half of the 1st millennium was settled by Slavic tribes that buried their dead in burial fields and significantly different lifestyles from neighboring tribes – Celts, Thracians and others who had a similar custom of burial. At the same time, it became known that the Slavic tribes of the Dnieper are very close to the Slavic tribes of Hanging. Inside this single massif of Slavic tribes, some local differences are observed, which gave archaeologists the basis to talk about several archaeological cultures. This is the Oksyv culture in the Lower Hanging, the Przeworsk culture in the basin of the Middle and Upper Vistula. The latter is close to the Zarubinets culture of the Slavic tribes of the Middle and Upper Dnieper.

After leaving the steppes of the Southern Urals – Black Sea region, the ancient Germans lived on the territory located mainly between the North Sea, the Rhine, Danube and Laba (Elba), as well as in the south of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The original residence of the Germans in Europe was South Scandinavia, Jutland and the coast of the Baltic and North Seas between Weser and Oder.

Germanic peoples, like other nationalities, evolved by the gradual unification of small tribes into tribal unions and later by the merger of the latter in the nationality. During the VI – I centuries. BC e., gradually moving south, they occupied the territory of modern Germany right up to the Rhine; some tribes, of which the Trevers subsequently played the largest role, crossed the Rhine and established themselves on its left bank. In South Germany, the Sueva, Markomannians and Quads settled most closely in contact with the Celts, with whom they partially mixed.

The Germans formed as a result of the mixing of several races and later mixed with various ethnic groups (Slavs, Celts, Finno-Ugrians, Romanesque peoples, etc.). Until the middle of the 1st century the information of the Greeks and Romans about the Germans was rather scarce. The very name of the Germans, who was originally called the Tungra tribe and which was then appropriated by the Celts to all German tribes, was unknown to ancient authors for a long time. The Germans were divided around the beginning of our era into the Eastern (Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, etc.), Western (Suevs, Hutts, Cherusks, Angles, Saxons, Batavs, Killings, Markomanes, etc.) and Northern (Svions, etc.). Sources for the study of the social system of the Germans are, on the one hand, the data of archeology, comparative linguistics, ethnography, and on the other, the works of ancient authors, especially the Notes on the Gallic War (mid 1 century BC) Julius Caesar, who was directly confronted with the Germans during the conquest of Gaul, and the works of the Roman historian Tacitus – “Germany” (98 AD, the manuscripts called “On the origin and habitat of the Germans”), “Annals” (c. 116 AD) and “Stories” (between 104 and 109 gg.). The Germans of Caesar’s time were already sedentary farmers, but from time to time they abandoned the lands occupied by them and transferred to others. Agricultural machinery was at a low level – a shift agriculture system dominated, requiring large areas of land, arable land was rapidly depleted and changed every 1—2 years. The Germans cultivated rye, oats, barley, and wheat. A large role in economic life was played by cattle breeding and hunting. The Germans at that time did not have private ownership of land: the villages were inhabited by clans, jointly owning the land and collectively cultivating it. By this time, the patriarchal clan had already been replaced by the previously prevailing matriarchal one.

In the 6th century BC e. the merchants of Massalia knew the Tilangian tribe living on the Upper Rhone, later known as the German Tulling tribe. In the middle of the 4th century The massali traveler Pithaeus, in search of the most convenient route to Britain, where lead was mined, and to the Baltic states, from where amber was exported, visited some areas inhabited by the Germans. According to him, north of Britain was land, which he considered an island and called Thule, but which, invisibly, was the west coast of Norway. Pythaeus said that it was inhabited by people engaged in agriculture and collecting honey, from which he made a special drink. Pithaeus also wrote about the island of Abal off the coast of the North Sea, possibly modern Helgoland, and about the Teutons living in the vicinity of this island, in Western Jutland, also one of the Germanic tribes. In the III century. BC e. German Gesat, which means spearmen, served as mercenaries from the Italian Celts, and then from the Romans.

The leaders, elders, and officials mentioned by Caesar were in fact constituted of elected military leaders and the clan nobility. Independent tribes occasionally united into short-lived unions for common military enterprises, during which military leaders were elected; they led a squad that disintegrated at the end of the war. At this time, wars were a frequent occurrence among the Germans, since the extensive farming system and the significant role of cattle breeding created a constant need for new arable land and pastures, which led to the struggle for land between individual tribes. The supreme power in the tribe belonged to an irregularly convened popular assembly. In peacetime, the tribe did not have common leaders, there were only elders of certain divisions of the tribe, who sent mainly judicial functions.

Judging by archaeological data, the Germans at that time stood at a much lower level of development than the Celts. Until the beginning of the 4th century they obtained iron products from the Celtic regions, and only later did they develop their own metallurgy. Only from the 1st century BC e. Roman goods began to penetrate into them, mainly wine and expensive dishes, but very few representatives of the clan nobility acquired them. The Germans finally move to settled agriculture, although cattle breeding still played a major role. Roughly built of stone and tiled houses replaced the former temporary huts. Hunting began to play a smaller role in the economy. The clan community that cultivated the land together during the time of Caesar is being replaced by family communities living in separate settlements. Such a community plowed a new plot every year, leaving the old one under steam. Pastures, pastures and other lands were the common property of several settlements.

Agriculture among the Germans was rather primitive and played a much smaller role than cattle breeding. The Germans easily left their places of residence and set off to seek new lands for settlement. So, for example, about 120 BC. e. the Teutons and their neighboring Cimbries left Jutland due to the great flood that devastated their lands. They went to Spain, Gaul and the Danube region, entered into an alliance with the Scordisk fought with Rome and marched on Italy, but were defeated by the Romans. Their remains settled in Gaul on the rivers Meuse, Main and Neckar. During the resettlement, the Germans, like the Celts, went through clans and tribes, who fought together and together occupied the part of the seized land allotted to them by the elders.

Many Germans served as mercenaries in the troops of other nations. Quite early the leaders among the Germans stood out, recruiting squads and going to conquer new lands or offering their services to those who needed them. In 72 BC. e. such a leader of the Suev squad, Ariovist, came to Gaul with 15 thousand people at the invitation of the Celtic tribes of the Arverns and Sequans who fought with the Aedu. Having smashed the Edues and established himself in the north of Gaul, Ariovist began to expand his possessions. Numerous representatives of various Germanic tribes settled on the lands of the same sequans captured by the Ariovista squad.

By the time of Tacitus, the Germans were already at a higher stage of development. They mined (although in small quantities) and processed iron, gold, copper, silver, tin, lead, were engaged in weaving, pottery. The Germans appeared more durable settled. The farming technique has improved. Arable lands were cultivated by a plow drawn by one or two pairs of oxen. Land cultivation was carried out by large families, or house communities, usually consisting of several generations. The ownership of the territory of the village still belonged to the whole community, which from the clan began to turn into a neighbor, since the kinship between the house communities inhabiting the village, gradually weakened. Residents of the village shared communal lands – pastures, etc.