Raiders, federates and settlers: parallel processes and direct contacts between Bohemia and the Western Mediterranean (Late 4th-early 6th Century)
Abstract
typological evolution and continuity of production, are the clothing accessories. An eloquent example of this phenomenon is conveyed by glass vessels: characteristic Chernyakhov productions, for example the conical beakers decorated with regular honeycomb patterns of the Cherom type, are unusual in the West.
It has to be assumed that, instead of this glassware, the migrating groups quickly adopted the products of local glassworking in the Balkans and Pannonia and, later, in the Western Mediterranean provinces. Archaeological evidence of parallel processes taking place in Bohemia and the Visigothic area during the first half of the 5th century AD should not be assumed in any case simply as a proof of direct contact.
It rather shows the nature of spatial distribution of particular material elements in literature described in general as a "federate" culture. On the other hand it also shows that different groups of "Barbarians" shared cultural features, which have "common" roots in (post-) Chernyakhov and provincial interactions in Imperial Danube territories in the turn of the 4th - early 5th century AD.
We can thus presuppose that from the environment of "federate" material culture not only the followers of Athaulf or Alaric, but also of the Goths Sarus, Gainas and others were recruited. Furthermore it is not possible to exclude, as suggested, that the "federate" culture became even more "international", shared thus not only by the "Gothic peoples", but also a portion of Alans, Huns and other groups like the Sueves and Vandals settled in Spain.
The displacements of particular groups out of Pannonia and Noricum (Sarus in Gaul, Athaulf and Walias in Italy, southern Gaul and Hispania, Vinarice group, etc.) during the first third of the 5th century AD left some traces in the material record and are consequently detectable by the archaeological research. The occurrence of the features connected with "federate" culture out their original "homeland" in the Middle Danube provinces, however, does not simply mean an import of isolated objects to the West and to the central European "Barbaricum".
Instead it implies the adoption of certain aspects of a different life-style, comprising a complex set of cultural innovations connected to the wearing of new types of costume (fibulae, belt sets), headdress (perhaps combs in hair), cooking and dinning standards (glass vessels and certain types of ceramics such like pitchers and mortaria), and burial practices (W-E oriented inhumations, frequently accompanied by clothing items that reflected faithfully the social status of the dead). Regarding the nature of the spread of these features, one could judge that migrations would have played an important role.
On the other hand, also a cultural diffusion (perhaps with religious background?, i. e. Arianism?, especially in certain areas of the "Barbaricum") may explain certain aspects of the phenomenon.
In some regions (for example Vinarice group?) both above mentioned processes joined together would bring a kind of "standardization" thus forming the local cultural habitus. Regarding the later imports from the Visigothic West to Bohemia, the general typological repertory displayed by this small collection of objects enable to attribute them, yet with caution, to central Spanish production centers more than to southern French ones.
The later Bohemian assemblages suggest that their final deposition should have taken place not long after their production, so a straightforward contact between both regions seems to be recognizable. On behalf of this suggestion witness the Bohemian find spots, concentrated in relatively small area (within a radius of less than 50km) in north-western Bohemia.
The Bohemian contexts being disturbed, it is difficult to get an insight on the way and the circumstances in which these objects reached Bohemia in the late 5th century AD, early 6th century AD. So far we have no sure evidence that these objects were used in the same way in the Visigothic area and in Bohemia, and thus it is not possible to determine whether they travelled from the western Mediterranean together with their wearers or whether they reached Bohemia as objects of long distance trade - which seems rather unlikely if considering their dissemination pattern - or exotic goods.