Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)

Mark B. Shchukin: Forgotten Bastarnae

Tacitus, reporting on the situation of the 50s-80s of the 1

st c. A.D., also mentions them as neighbours of the Venedi and the Sarmatians. "Somewhat they are corrupted into thefashion of the Sarmatians by the inter-marriages of the principal sort with that nation'' (Tac. Germ. 46). The Bastarnae are mentioned as well as in the famous epitaph of Plautius Silvanus, the governor of Moesia in the 60s A.D. They were his allies in the war against the Sarmatians and Scythians in 62, and he returned to their kings some hostages taken by the enemy (CIL XIV, 3608; SHCHUKIN 1989, 314-326). In the 2

nd c. A.D., the Bastarnae were one of the largest peoples inhabiting the lands of "European Sarmatia" between the Baltic and the Black Sea, the Vistula and Tanais/Don (Ptol. Geogr. Ill, 5). In the 3

rd c. A.D. they sometimes took part in the raids of the Goths and other tribes on the territory of the Empire, for example in 248 and 269 A. D. (lord. Get. 91). Finally, in 280 A.D., remnants of the Bastarnae numbering up to 100,000, under pressure from enemies, were resettled by emperor Probus in Moesia (SHA, Prob. 18, 1; Zos. I, 71). After that they disappeared from the pages of history. The question is: where are the settlements and cemeteries of the Bastarnae who lived in the l

st-3

rd c. A.D.? What is the archaeological equivalent of this population? How and where could one look for it? The problem has not been seriously approached, much less resolved. During the 1

st c. A.D., the Bastarnae had rather close contacts with Romans (Plautius Silvanus) and Sarmatians (Tacitus), so sites providing proof of this must be investigated. The sites which do so most clearly are from the so-called Zvenigorod Group in the Upper Dniester region: single graves from Kolokolin, Chizhykovo and Luchka (SMISZKO 1932; SMISZKO 1935; SMISZKO 1957), cemeteries near Zvenigorod, Grinev and other locations (SVESHNIKOV 1957; KOZAK 1978; KOZAK 1982; KOZAK 1984; KROPOTKIN 1977; SHCHUKIN 1989, 276-286; SHCHUKIN 1994, 227-232). Roman bronze and silver vessels have been found in Chizhykovo, Roman fibulas in Kolokolin, Luchka, Grinev and Zvenigorod. The last one also yielded some Sarmatian elements: a sword with a ring-shaped pommel, two female inhumation graves with Sarmatian bronze mirrors etc. Certain associations can be made with information provided by Tacitus. Sometimes these burials were connected with the Lipitsa Culture, sometimes with the Przeworsk. I consider it legitimate to speak about a separate special cultural group with mixed population. A certain penetration by the Przeworsk population into the territories of the Upper Dniester region and of Volhynia during the late 1

st c. B. C. - first half of the 1

st c. A.D. has also been recorded on the basis of a series of settlements investigated by D. Kozak. Most of these materials have been presented by him (KOZAK 1992). Due to this process, the former population of the Poienesti-Lukashevka Culture was "przeworskised", which means that is was "germanised". This could explain the change of the name — Titus Livius' "Gauls" were replaced by "Germans" in the works by Pliny and Tacitus. Meanwhile, a comparison of assemblages of Zvenigorod Group graves with those of the Lipitsa Culture have demonstrated a special chronological and cultural difference that might have been connected with the different origin of these populations