Istvaeones
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Istvaeones or Istaevones were a Germanic tribe living near the banks of the Rhine during the Roman Empire which reportedly shared a common culture and origin. The Istaevones were contrasted to neighbouring groups, the Ingaevones on the North Sea coast, and the Herminones, living inland of these groups.
Variants
Jat clans
Name
The term Istvaeonic is derived from a culturo-linguistic grouping of Germanic tribes mentioned by Tacitus, who used the spelling "Istæuones" in his Germania,[1]and Pliny the Elder, who used the spelling "Istuaeones". Pliny further specified its meaning by claiming that the Istævones lived near the Rhine.[2] Jacob Grimm in the book Deutsche Mythologie argued that Iscaevones was the correct form, partly because it would connect the name to an ancestor figure in Norse mythology named Ask and partly because in Pseudo-Nennius where the name Mannus is corrupted as Alanus, the ancestor of the Istaevones appears as Escio or Hisicion. Pseudo-Nennius derives his information from the Frankish Table of Nations (c. 520), which names the Franks, Romans, Bretons and Alamanni as descendants of Istio, one of the three sons of Mannus. (Other spellings of this name that appear in the manuscripts include Estio, Escio, Hostius, Ostius, Hisisio, Hissitio, Hisitio, Hessitio and Scius.)[3]
Archeological culture
Finds assigned to the Istvaeones are characterized by a greater heterogeneity than can be found in the other Germanic archaeological groupings. Their predominant burial type is the pyre grave. There are no richly equipped princely graves or weapons as grave goods to be found as, for example, occur with the neighboring Elbe Germanic groups.[4] Scholars have speculated about whether weapons were used as "immaterial" grave goods instead. In other words, weapons made of metal were placed on the pyre of a warrior, for example, but only his ashes were buried in the pyre grave. This is, however, a controversial thesis. Weapons as grave goods first appear in northern Gaul, i.e. on the Roman side of the Rhine, in burial graves, and are not found to the east of the Rhine until the Merovingian period.[5]
External links
See also
References
- ↑ Tac. Ger. 2
- ↑ Plin. Nat. 4.28
- ↑ Walter Goffart (1983), "The Supposedly 'Frankish' Table of Nations: An Edition and Study", Frühmittelalterliche Studien, 17 (1): 98–130, doi:10.1515/9783110242164.98.
- ↑ Walter Pohl: Walter Pohl: Die Germanen, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2004, ISBN 9783486567557 (p. 20/21).
- ↑ Sebastian Brather: Zwischen Spätantike und Frühmittelalter: Archäologie des 4. bis 7. Jahrhunderts im Westen, Walter de Gruyter, 2008, ISBN 9783110200492 (pp. 81–89)