The Aestii. The Western Balts

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos istorija; Baltai; Aisčiai; Archeologija; Archeologiniai radiniai; Gentys; Kultūros; The Lithuanian history; Balts; Aestii; Archaeology; Archaeological finds; Tribes; Cultures.

ENSo who those Aestii are? The very title of the book calls for the answer and the author of it agrees with those, who consider the Aestii to be the union of Western Baltic tribes. A convincing localisation of the Aestii of the times of Tacitus (1st century AD) could be the mouth of the Vistula, Sambia-Natangia and the Lithuanian seacoast stretching above the mouth of the Nemunas. The aforementioned areas could be regarded as the original lands of the Aestii. The area inhabited by the Western Balts/Aestii in the Old Iron Age could be divided into three parts: northern (people of the Barrow culture), central (people of the flat grave burials of Western Lithuania, Central Lithuania and Lower Nemunas) and southern (people of Wielbark, Sambia-Natangia, Galindia (Bogaczewo) and Sudovia-Yotvingia) parts. In the first half of the 20th century the westernmost part of the Western Baltic Barrow culture, i.e. Face urn culture, was declared Germanic. Its territory, as the legend of Jordanes tells, was inhabited by the Goths in the first centuries AD, and their journey to the south of Europe was modelled. Through the efforts of Polish, German and Russian archaeologists, the "Baltic Goths" acquired the shape of the Wielbark culture, which set off towards the Black Sea acquiring features of the Chernyakhov culture until it reached the true stage of the history of the Goths "in the land of Scythia near Lake Maeotis". At this point, a helping hand to the authors of the "history of the Baltic Goths" was extended by ancient historians, who wrote a true history of the Goths and had no knowledge of the Baltic Goths. Such scheme.This is the absolutely prevailing scheme of the history of the Wielbark Goths in the archaeology of the majority of countries: researchers endeavour to track down the original homeland of the Baltic and Vistula Goths in southern Scandinavia and the island of Gotland, to trace back the locations of their disembarking in the mouth of the Vistula and Oder rivers and to assemble the common traits between the Germanic part of the Chernyakhov culture and the Wielbark culture in order to substantiate its Germanic origins. However, the development of the thought of archaeology and history is still an ongoing process. A number of works have been published since the second half of the previous century the authors of which fail to find arguments to ground the origin of the Goths from Scandinavia or Gotland. The reliability of Jordanes and the history of the Goths tracing them from the north are also an object of doubt. The Wielbark culture established in the Baltic linguistic area has never been studied in the general context of the development of the cultures of Western Balts. As the investigations of this book show, the world of Western Balts faced the transformation processes, which can be described as the Great Expansion of migration type of Western Balts. The so-called Wielbark Goths or, to be more precise, the westernmost tribe of the Aestian union, constituted an integral part and a certain driving force of this process. The contradictory assertions drive to the inevitable investigation of the problems from the perspective of Lithuanian historiography by taking a close look around the world and trying to grasp the message rendered by a new historical, archaeological and linguistic thought on the history of Western Balts/Aestii and their neighbours. [From the publication]