Re: The Wends and the Venedi

Martin Girchys-Shetty wrote

> This question of the Slavic, Baltic and Germanic relations is

certainly

> very interesting. And complex too. Archaeology of North-Eastern Europe
> has suffered much in the times of the cold war, either because of
> little interest, or because of misguided interest - as it was the case
> with Davydovna Gurevich excavating East Prussia and then distorting

her

> data in favor of Soviet inspired pro-Slavic (pan-Balto-Slavic?)
> propaganda.
>
> The Baltic, Slavic and Germanic relations along the Eastern Baltic
> coast are still disputed. Vistula is certainly a juncture point where
> these three most frequently interacted. Considering the Veneti in

those

> areas as Baltic traders, the posibility of Baltic origin is often
> ignored, possibly because of the scarce data available on
> Baltic-Germanic relations in the area. With the appearance of Goths
> near the Vistula, their origin, I believe, is sometimes attributed to
> either Gothland (the island) or somewhere further, Sweden perhaps.

A very good reference on the difficulties you are explaining here
Martin is Peter Heather's recent publication of the People's of Europe
Series, just titled "The Goths". This book fits the historical,
linguistic and archaelogical evidence together, exploring the changes
in the meaning of "Gothic identity" that I feel would be worthwhile for
any student of any culture in historical context.

Well worht while

John