Late Przeworsk and post-Przeworsk, Elbian and Danubian. Vandals, Suebi and the dissemination of Central European elements of material culture in the Western Provinces
Abstract
Archaeological finds of the turn of the Late Roman and Early Migration Period in the central European Barbaricum offer an overall picture of dynamical developments, wide exchange of material culture and status symbols. Numerous innovations regarding mainly the metal and antler industry of likely (post-) Černjahov origin are widespread in the late Przeworsk culture, and especially within the sites with cremation layers of the so called Dobrodzień group.
Late Przeworsk culture itself is found to be expanded southwards and to the south-east, to the Carpathians and also to the Carpathian Basin. Typical Late Przeworsk assemblages (shieldbosses, brooches A 158 and A 162, storage vessels of type Kraussengefässe, etc.) are recorded in wide areas of northern Slovakia (North Carpathian group), but also in Hungary, and partly also in Transylvania.
As an innovation we find numerous late Przeworsk imports (both metal objects and ceramics) also in Moravia and Bohemia, "homeland" to populations of the Elbe-Germanic circle, and a certain process of uniformization and "internationalization" of some aspects of material culture. In such a backdrop, it seems that the area of provenance of the migrants of the 406-Rhine crossing was connected not only to the territory of the Przeworsk culture, but also to the territories of North Carpathian group, central Slovakia, the Carpathian Basin and, possibly, northernmost Pannonia.
As for the origin of the "new Suebi", not only the traditional "core" in Moravia and south-western Slovakia are considered, but also Bohemia and the territories of the Main valley. The later territories seem to play a particularly relevant role during the events of 401/402 AD and especially for the Rhine crossing itself.
These processes probably played a key-role for the essential structural changes which have taken place within a substantial part of the Elbe-Germanic circle. The repertoire of portable finds recorded in the western provinces of the Roman Empire seem to confirm that the composition of the 406-Rhine crossers included representatives of all these territories.
That is best shown by the so-called "post-Przeworsk" regional clusters in eastern Gaul (Bourgogne and Rheinhessen), south-western Hispania and North Africa, stretching from the D1/D2 to the D2/D3 periods. Besides confirming their connections with multiple territories of Central Europe, the comparison of the typological repertoires of these clusters enable to outline the main tendencies of development: gradual integration of post-Černjahov (Alan?) tradition, increasing use of Mediterranean jewellery and disappearance of weapon graves.
The tendency towards the full "Mediterranization" of the portable objects can be followed up to the latest clothed graves recorded in Vandal Africa, corresponding to the late D3 - early E1 period. Outside these regional clusters, similar processes are perceptible in other territories of the West such as south-western Gaul, north-eastern Italy, Raetia, the upper Rhine valley and northernmost Pannonia.
It is not clear yet, to which extent these finds were connected to the post-Przeworsk horizon in the West, although in some particular cases (especially northern Pannonia) a participation in the movements of Vandals, Suebi and Alans seems likely.