| Abstract (English): |
The research is carried out using several analytical tools, the most important of which was to identify and keep track of the sequences of the neighbouring tribes, since Ptolemy himself testified (I, 19, 2) that when speaking of the peoples, he was concerned to indicate their relationships with one another. This means that the peoples mentioned side by side in his text probably lived close to one another and could not be scattered over a wide geographical area. Another important tool for us is to notice and consider Ptolemy’s specific patterns of presentation, which recur throughout his work. A case where the author was not quite consistent with his usual way of presentation is likely to signal a problem with the sources. Finally, we based our hypothesis on the fact that the connectives that separate Ptolemy’s phrases separate the data from different sources as well. Using these tools, we explored Ptolemy’s text in which he discusses the peoples living on the right bank of the Vistula (III, 5, 20–21), and we found that at least several arguments preclude them living there. The first objection was already raised by Carolus Müller, who noted that the Gythones/Goutai and the Finnoi were mentioned in the description of the island of Scandia (II, 11, 31–35). In this vein, he suggested that the neighbouring Soulones should also be regarded as the Sviones, a Scandinavian tribe mentioned by Tacitus. In this way he concluded that it was there, and not on the Vistula, that the three peoples were actually located. In our observation, which is another argument, Ptolemy’s description of the outline of European Sarmatia departs from his usual scheme and lists not one, but two rows of peoples along the right bank of the Vistula. This is probably because, on the one hand, he sees the Vistula as the eastern border of Germania and therefore the easternmost Germanic peoples mentioned by Pliny must have lived along the river. On the other hand, Ptolemy has a second list of peoples, according to which the Galindians, the Sudinians, and the Stavans lived on the right bank of the Vistula beyond the coastal Venedoi. Thus, in arranging the two rows, he tries to reconcile his two different sources. Finally, we also look at the only modern theory of the peoples on the right bank of the Vistula that does not trust Ptolemy’s data, which belongs to Gudmund Schütte. Although it is still supported by many authoritative Scandinavian and especially Finno-Ugric antiquity researchers, in our opinion, his theory is too voluntaristic and unreliable. We did not limit ourselves to denying the validity of Ptolemy’s list of the inhabitants of the right bank of the Vistula. We believe that, due to the principles of analysis already mentioned, we succeeded in finding a more appropriate place for these peoples; if we are right, it further strengthens the grounds for distrusting Ptolemy’s first list of the peoples located on the right bank of the Vistula. We argue that Ptolemy’s error can be explained as follows. The sequence of peoples located by Ptolemy on the right bank of the Vistula, the Gythones-Finnoi-Sviones, comes, as already suggested by Müller, from the geography of the Scandinavian peninsula, and the sequence the Frougoudiones-AvarinoiGythones comes from the mid- and downstream regions of the Oder. Both sequences are linked by the Ptolemaic identification of Gythones = Goutai. Ptolemy draws on two different sets of sources to write about the eastern margin of Germania. In his account of Greater Germania (Book II), he uses comprehensive sources that we do not know from elsewhere, and in his account of the Western border of European Sarmatia (Book III), he uses Pliny and Tacitus as his sources in discussing the same lands of eastern Germania In our study, the peoples on Ptolemy’s right bank of the Vistula are placed on the Oder in the following order: the Burgundians – the middle reaches of the Oder; the Varini – the middle and the lower reaches of the Oder (Ptolemy reverses the direction in his presentation, swapping the two); the Gotones – the lower reaches of the Oder, but not on the coast. The remaining three peoples are to be placed in Scandinavia: the Goutai are to inhabit the south-east of the Scandinavian peninsula, the Finns are to live north-west of the Goutai, and the Sviones are to live in the islands north-east of the Goutai. In placing these peoples, Ptolemy follows the same scheme as Tacitus does, whose narrative also jumps across the Baltic Sea. Finally, after the entire list of Ptolemy’s peoples is moved from the right bank of the Vistula to more suitable places, there remains his second row of peoples, with the Galindai, the Soudinoi, and the Stavanoi, below the Venedai, living on the right bank along the Vistula. This list is a much more accurate description of the area, since the Venedi, the Galindians, the Sudinians, and possibly the Stavans were all Baltic tribes. This conclusion fits well with other scholarship. For example, Germanists acknowledge that the Slavic languages, which normally preserve toponymy well, do not record any old Germanic toponyms in those areas. The same is true of the archaeological evidence: the famous Wielbark culture, which Germanic scholars have been keen to attribute to the Goths, is in fact much more easily interpreted as a variant of the archaeological culture of the Western Balts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Abstract (Lithuanian): |
Onomastikos duomenys rodo, kad pietvakarinė baltų pasaulio riba ėjo Vysla, o Pamaryje ji kai kuriose vietose siekė net Oderio deltą ir toliau (1). Kita vertus, Vysla buvo gana gerai pažįstama romėnų geografams [3] ir ypač Ptolemajui [2], kuris pateikia išsamiausią geografinį šios upės ir jos apylinkių vaizdą. Vis dėlto Ptolemajo perduodamas žinias apie Vyslos pakrančių gyventojus nėra lengva suprasti, mokslininkai jau seniai ginčijasi dėl jų tikslumo ir ypač dėl etninės vienos ar kitos didžiojo geografo paminėtos tautos priklausomybės. Šiame straipsnyje aptarsime tik dešiniajame Vyslos krante Ptolemajo įkurdintas tautas ir su jomis susijusius klausimus, siekdami parodyti, kad dešiniajame Vyslos krante lokalizuodamas gitonus, finus, sulonus, frugudijonus ir avarinus (2) didysis geografas suklydo. Tyrimo rezultatai turėtų būti svarbūs lituanistikos ir ypač baltistikos mokslams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
