Finds from the Bude?ti Necropolis in Raionul Criuleni, Moldova, III/IV century.

Chernyakhiv culture is shown in orange, the third-century Wielbark Culture in red. Gotland is dark pink and the traditional extent of Götaland is in green. The Roman Empire is purple.

Formation

The archaeological record shows that the population of the Wielbark culture had settled in the area and mixed with the previous populations of the Zarubintsy culture. This cultural movement is interpreted as the migration of the Goths from Gothiscandza to Oium, under the leadership of Filimer, of which the Goth scholar Jordanes wrote in the sixth century.

Polities in Eastern Europe c. 200 AD

In the last decades of the second century, the Goths appear to have settled in Masovia, Podlachia and Volynia regions, but some of them moved to the area just north-west of the Black Sea.

A second wave of Germanic migrants arrived in the mid-third century, and most of them settled between the Dniester and the lower Dnieper, including the Cherniakhiv area.

Most of the population appears to have been Sarmatians who lived between the lower Danube and the Sea of Azov. In the west, there may have been some Dacians and Getae. The Sarmatians practiced inhumation while those deriving from the north, i.e., elements descended from the Zarubintsy culture, continued urnfield practices.

In linguistic terms, it is said that this is the time and place where Slavic and Iranian borrowed lexical items from each other, and where Slavic picked up many of its Germanic loanwords. (Gothic, however, has few Slavic loanwords).

Finds

Archaeologists have found fibulae, combs and amulets showing contacts with not only Scandinavia, but also with Central Europe.

References

• James P. Mallory, "Chernoles Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• Ioni?? J. 1986. Chronologie der Sîntana de Mure?-Cerniachov-Kultur. Archaeologia Baltica vol 7: «Peregrinatio Gothica». Lódz.
• P.M. Barford, The Early Slavs, Cornell University Press, 2001.

External links

• A Russian archaeology article

de:Tschernjachow-Kultur it:Cultura di ?ernjachov pl:Kultura czerniachowska ru:???????????? ???????? uk:???????????? ????????