Where Are We Now

The crap that archeologists and historians write (with taxpayer money) is sometimes astounding. With regard to Polish territories, some of the conclusions drawn are based on nothing more, what appears to be, wishful thinking. Here are some thoughts that ought to be uncontroversial:

• It is not correct to simply write Lugii as the spellings differ: Lougii, Legii and perhaps Longiones and Lupiones
• There is no proof whatsoever who these people were genetically (that is ethnically) or, certainly, linguistically
• There is no proof whatsoever that the Lugii were Celtic linguistically
• There is zero proof of there being a Lugian “union” or polity or “Kultuverband“; this is simply something that was pulled out of someone’s ass (probably because there are different Lugii tribes though no one in ancient times suggested that they formed any kind of union – cultural or political “union” any more than any of the other “peoples” who lived in those areas formed a union)
• Pliny does not identify a people named Vandals – he speaks of Vindili or Vindilici
• Tacitus mentions Vandals as an old name of some peoples but does not say which peoples in his Germania would be Vandals
• About the only thing that suggests the existence of Vandals in Poland is the legend of Queen Wanda… except that her alleged suicidal or sacrificial drowning also suggests a connection to water which, if anything, conjures up a Baltic – not Norse connection
• There is nothing to proves that Vandals had anything whatsoever to do with Lugii
• There is nothing that proves the existence of “live” Vandals anywhere before they first appear somewhere in Romania where they live for quite a few years
• There is no reason whatsoever to believe that any Vandal embassy (known from Procopius) to the African Vandalic kingdom came from any Suavic country (as opposed to Spain, France or Romania)
• the many finds of the “Przeworsk” culture may well be “Sarmatian” in origin rather than “Germanic”
• There is no reason to believe that the vast majority of the barbarians identified as Vandals, Goths or Gepids spoke a “Gothic” language – given the number of people conquered by the Goths (if true) and the purported speed of that conquest it would be astounding if Gothic were a language other than of the Gothic elites (which does, however, raise the question whether there was some other lingua franca in the Gothic polity)
• One of the oldest peoples mentioned as present in Central and Eastern Europe are the Veneti
  • they are present north of Greece as mentioned by Herodotus
  • they are present in the area of Venice as mentioned by a number of ancient authors
  • they are present in Pliny in connection with the Vistula
  • they are present in Tacitus “where Suevia ends” though where that is, Tacitus does not say
  • they are present in Ptolemy as a great people and seemingly separate from tribes later identified as Baltic
  • they may be present in Strabo if Vindilici can be identified with them
• The Veneti are unequivocally identified with Suavs by Jordanes
• The name Windr has been used to describe Suavs by the Norse and their offshoot, the Franks
• The name Venaaja is still used to describe Suavs by Finnic peoples
• A late medieval Saxon source describes the Wends of Windau as Wends and as different from their surrounding Baltic neighbors
• There is no evidence whatsoever what language was spoken by the Suevi of Ariovistus but:
  • of the very few names that we have, at least one appears a thousand years later in Poland (Nasua)
  • the –mir endings of some of the leaders are reminiscent of East Germanic names (for example Gothic), as opposed to the West Germanic suffixes such as -mer or -mar.
  • the name Suevi can easily be explained with Suoi (Polish swoi), that is “our own” (though to be fair, perhaps also linked with Suomi)
  • the name Suevi or, for that matter, Słowianie can be derived from the hydronym Soława (that is the Saale) which, incidentally, appears close to where the ancient authors located the river Suevus
  • a Baltic connection appears possible
• the peoples of Schwabia, even in later times, apparently used the name –suav as a prefix or suffix – something that the Suavs do to this day obviously
• It appears that, whatever the situation was in continental Europe before the rise of the Roman Empire, the area suffered from invasions from the North – those would have been Norse tribes who were described as “Germanic” but, earlier, the same Scandinavia may have produced Northern invasions of peoples later called Gallic

Note too that I have no problem with someone demonstrating that Teutonic (that is Norse) Vandals lived for years and created the Przeworsk culture – after all people move all the time – but this has to be based on facts not idle speculation about similarities among jugs or pots.

Moreover, it is silly to suggest that a land take over by an invading group will result in total extermination or assimilation of the existing groups present there before the arrival of the newcomers (though women have a higher chance of survival obviously). This did not even happen with the Romans right away and the Romans had a real administration and ruled their conquered lands for hundreds of years.

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