Talk:Germanic peoples

map review

Concerning maps in generally it is perhaps worth reviewing what we have.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 09:42, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

The approximate positions of the three groups and their sub-peoples reported by Tacitus:   Suebi (part of the Herminones)   Other Herminones	Area of the Nordic Bronze Age culture, ca 1200 BC	Celtic–Germanic contact zone in the Iron Age around 500 BC–1 BCE according to Stefan Schumacher (2007)	Expansion of early Germanic tribes into Central Europe:    Settlements before 750 BCE    New settlements by 500 BCE    New settlements by 250 BCE    New settlements by 1 CE	The Roman province of Germania, in existence from 7 BCE to 9 CE. The dotted line represents the Limes Germanicus, the fortified border constructed following the final withdrawal of Roman forces from Germania.
I made this. I think it could be useful but I am not sure if it is the right place here?	Our text is about the Jastorf culture, but our illustration is not! This article is not really about the Bronze age.	This is a good topic to illustrate but it is a very poor illustration. It is not really visible on my PC screen. Strikes me that maps exist which combine this with positions of Jastorf and related cultures.[ADDED: BTW Schumacher (2007) is not in our bibliography]	I really don't like this map because it is "fake accurate" and comes from old tertiary sources. It is a misleading "just so" story. Again, a good map of Jastorf and related cultures might be better.	I suppose my new map contains all this information and more, and is easier to absorb.

We are not currently using this one, which seems a reasonable summary of the relevant cultures in the relevant period, and might be used to replace several of the above maps?

ArcheologicalCulturesOfCentralEuropeAtEarlyPreRomanIronAge

--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:45, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

Section references

Honestly, I like several of these, excepting the one that is based on the older sources. It's excellent that you've created your own versions Andrew Lancaster...using ArcGIS or another map tool (just wondering)? Anyway, which of the sources you've used provides the best one in your estimation? My only hangup with the first one you displayed is that it does not label the Rhine or Danube.--Obenritter (talk) 19:53, 17 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. I use QGIS, and then do the text and a few tweaks in GIMP. (Both QGIS and GIMP are free! For those who've never worked with those, both effectively involve editing bundles of layers. THE GIS program is the one which lines map data up according to geographical coordinates. GIMP is a general image manipulator like Photoshop.) I agree that old map I made could better with those river names. One thing I like about the new map I made is the background I have from https://cawm.lib.uiowa.edu/index.html because it recreates historical coastlines and rivers. (Quite important for the Netherlands.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:20, 18 August 2024 (UTC) In principle I can make new maps to get things just how we want them, so I'll be interested to collect ideas here about what maps we need to fit this article. I don't have any archaeological culture map data at the moment, but something might be available if I ask around. (OTOH the map I just posted covers the main cultures we need and does not seem to be terribly different from recent publications with regards to Jastorf, Przeworsk and Latène in Central Europe.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:32, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

The Nordic Bronze Age is mentioned in the text so the map is ok to keep, also the Germanic tribes migration map is used in a lot of articles and is reasonable accurate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.172.109.57 (talk) 06:44, 27 August 2024 (UTC) @Andrew Lancaster, why do you need to make that one map of Germania (the one you made) so big and why did you remove references to Germanic peoples in Scandinavia? Germania is not Germany and Germanic Peoples are not Germans only; an idea that you are trying to emphasize here by removing other maps. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 09:14, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for posting on the talk page. Replies/questions:

• We don't need an illustration for the Norse Bronze Age (or Iron Age) just because it is mentioned. The Norse region, apart from being only mentioned in passing, is geographically fairly simple to understand and thus not requiring special help from illustrations.
• I strongly disagree about the migration map. It is from old sources, and as mentioned in my edit summary it disagrees with what we say in the body of our article (which is very strongly sourced). It was highly speculative even when published (we are not citing the original version I think), and in conflict with orthodox scholarship about the spread of Germanic languages from the Jastorf culture.
• The sizes of maps can be discussed of course. (I generally work on a PC and it looks fine to me. I also personally do not like having to click on maps to understand them, and I am sure I am not the only one. On a mobile phone the map should work as well I guess.)
• I have no idea what you mean my saying that I am making Germania into Germany? Please explain! I certainly don't intend to give that impression, so if I need to adjust something please explain it more clearly. As far as I can see the actual outline of Germania Magna in my map is quite similar to the 19th century map you like (except in Slovakia, where I have followed Ptolemy). OTOH the 19th century gives no indication of the Germani outside Germania Magna (and present-day Germany).--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 09:58, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

The Germanic Peoples originated in Scandinavia so the Nordic Bronze Age is of relevance here, especially since Germanic tribes were those in Scandinavia, Central Europe, Western Europe and North Africa. Their movements can be summed up in three stages 1) Scandinavian origins, 2) migration to Central Europe, and 3) further migration to Western Europe and North Africa. This is an article about the people not Germania per se, so let us not focus on Germanic Peoples as those who only remained in what is today modern Germany or Germania itself. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 12:01, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

I generally disagree with the positions proposed by the IP and agree with AL. The Nordic Bronze is is mentioned as a possible origin of the Germanic people, but, as we say, this is unclear. We even mention that the Scandinavian Peninsula may have come to speak a Germanic language after Jutland.--Ermenrich (talk) 13:35, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

@Ermenrich, this is silly, so you re-added the picture of the skull even when it has no relevant connection to the text but then you go on to argue the Bronze Age map of Scandinavia is not particularly noteworthy and there is no need to include it. Can you explain to me what direct relevance that picture has to the text? Btw, not sure if you realize this but Jutland is considered Scandinavia and some of the oldest sites linked to early Germanic peoples are also found in Scania... sigh. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 14:26, 27 August 2024 (UTC) Please consider where Osterby Man was found on Jutland far from the Roman frontier, yet you got that picture of a skull in a section titled "Roman Imperial Period to 375". I raise this point to show the inconsistencies in your approach. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 14:52, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

That picture could be moved or even deleted. Personally, I think it is a nice picture of that haircut. The Scandinavian location is irrelevant (I think) because no one is denying that in the relevant period Scandinavia was Germanic. Seems like another subject altogether though? What does this have to do with the maps? I think we should discuss the suitability of each illustration separately? Coming back to the maps, no one is denying that Scandinavia (or Poland?) might have played a role in the origins of Germanic languages. However, they are generally seen to have spread from the Jastorf culture. That's how far back we can go because we don't have records of LANGUAGE before then. Or at least that is what our secondary sources say. And so for this specific article which is about periods AFTER that, we can't focus too much on what was BEFORE Jastorf. We have other articles for that. I can see you are a "believer" that Germans are wrong if they once claimed "the Germanic", while the Scandinavians are right. Great, but WP can't just become an argument between those types of speculations. That's something for a discussion forum.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:46, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

I am in favor of keeping the Swabian knot picture as it is a concrete, archaeological illustration of a person called "Germanic" by both Roman and modern traditions. We're discussing wars of Romans and Germani in that section, and he's a Germanic warrior - so directly relevant, I'd say.

Nothing more to add than what Andrew's said.--Ermenrich (talk) 18:49, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Germanic warrior? The head was found in a bog in Jutland. The man was decapitated, which leads archeologists to consider a possibility that he was a thief or a murderer. In fact archeologies speculate that most people who were found in the bogs were outcasts from their societes, were killed and their bodies dumped. So, the claim that he was a warrior fighting the Romans or whoever else is dubious. Btw, now Poland is the home of the Germanic peoples? Where do you come up with this stuff? The Nordic Bronze age occured before Jastorf which is an Iron Age culture. The Bronze Age came before the Iron Age so how do you rationalize your statement? Especially since Germanic tribes such as the Goth are known to have moved for what is now Sweden to what is now Poland and they had nothing to do with the Jastorf Culture which occured in an area of modern Germany. Your arguments are not factually correct and gravitate to what I mentioned earlier that some see all Germanic Peoples as connected to Germany and the Germans. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 08:11, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I suggesting reading things more carefully. Our article is not claiming that Osterby man was fighting Romans. The photo is just a good illustration of something Germanic. No one is suggesting that our article should say that Germanic languages started in Poland. That would be a discussion for other articles about the origins of Germanic languages. This article is not the right article to discuss speculations about what happened BEFORE evidence for Germanic languages begin. It is relatively clear that the Jastorf culture, which can be matched to peoples in the time of written records, was Germanic speaking, and that its material culture was related to various neighbours (not all of whom were in Scandinavia). The exact linguistic situation of them and their various related neighbours to the east, west and south, is a topic of interesting speculations, but this is not a discussion forum.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 10:06, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I didn’t say he fought Romans. I said he is a Germanic warrior, or probably one, identifiable as such by his Swabian knot. It doesn’t matter where the body is from or who he fought.—-Ermenrich (talk) 12:45, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Removing the original Nordic Bronze Age culture map and removing the Migration map robs this article of full historical context, it's that simple, and the skull pic is pointless. Also why do you have three people groups listed on that Germania map if there are no others listed within Germania? There are a bunch of maps in other articles that list various tribes across Northern Europe on them but none that take such an selective odd-ball approach. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.172.109.57 (talk) 11:41, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I've made my point. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 11:42, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

OK. In answer to the one new point, I believe it is a standard aim when making illustrations in the 21st century that we should not include too much detail. I aimed to make a map that was really for the text in our article. Although posting 19th century prints which contain more information (and more potential controversy) than our whole article is a lovely tradition on WP, but the reality is that it was also a quick and dirty solution in most cases, and we're slowly evolving away from that. The reason I nevertheless named 4 Germanic peoples outside Germania is because they are uncontroversially the only 4 named in classical sources, and luckily they all have reasonably clear locations. Again, the existence of such outliers is also discussed in the text, so the map illustrates the text. Going beyond these 4 would be mission creep, and would inevitably involve dilemmas and arbitrary decisions which verge on OR. So whether you agree with it or not there is a logic behind my map. And BTW I am open to suggestions for improvements, but no one has made any. If anyone is thinking I should add more detail though, my own thinking is that I can better make variants of this map, designed to serve specific article texts. For example they can be zoomed in to specific regions. I am thinking of doing one or more for the Marcommanic region soon, primarily for use on other articles. Ideas welcome.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:20, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

To be clear in case you do not realize, the 19th century map you like combines information from different periods in Roman history, and uses a lot of guesses, several of which are clearly wrong. It is not the worst case I've seen, but there is no reason for us to use wrong, doubtful or out-of-date materials. I mention this as an additional problem, apart from the fact that the work simply contains too much detail, making it a work which needs to be read on its own, and not a helpful tool to flick over to while reading Wikipedia.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:02, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

A 19th century map depicting ancient Germania

I'm getting a little confused about which map we're talking about. The one that he added of the bronze age doesn't seem to be directly based on anything 19th century?--Ermenrich (talk) Ermenrich (talk) 14:08, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Both. Discussion has moved around a bit. I replaced the 19th century map with the new one I made and discussed here (above). It is under "classical terminology".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:10, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

This is what Britannica says about the origins of the Germanic Peoples: The origins of the Germanic peoples are obscure. During the late Bronze Age, they are believed to have inhabited southern Sweden, the Danish peninsula, and northern Germany between the Ems River on the west, the Oder River on the east. So as I said before you are depriving this article of useful maps which you removed (the Nordic Bronze Age map and the Migration map). You should restore them as they help to illustrate the full ethnogenesis of the Germanic tribes. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 14:18, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

We have used better and newer sources, and there was a lot of discussion. You can search the archives, and look at the cited sources. In general Britannia is not really a great source.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:10, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Are you aware that Britannica is updated regualrly and the article about the Germanic Peoples was updated on August 2nd 2024. Also Britannica is a good source, being the most freaquently referenced "classic" enclyclopedia on the internet. Ultimatly I just think you are trying to create a new narrative here, which basically gives the impression that the Germanic People come from Germania, hiding the fact that they have a long history of migration starting out in Scandinavia and over the centuries moving as far south as Crimea, Spain, Italy and North Africa. Those two maps which I mentioned earlier should be restored at the very least. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.172.109.57 (talk) 17:31, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

It is clear that you know about the Scandinavian origins idea. That's great, but it is an idea about what happened BEFORE the Germanic peoples and/or languages entered history, and we have to split up our topics into different articles. To be practical:

• Ermenrich has already pointed out that the existence of this idea is already covered in our text. Do you have any proposals about changes to the text?
• I don't see any connection between your preference for the lovely-but-wrong 19th century map, and this idea you want to defend/promote. Your complaints are very confusing to me. The borders of Germania are roughly the same in the new map? What benefits does this 19th century map bring? You aren't really selling it very well.

Examples of problems in the old map: Rhine border, and Rhine mouth, are wrong; Sturii (of the Rhine delta) near the Ems; Varni (?Vannius) kingdom near Bratislava; Juthungi in Moravia; Gambrivii location is a guess; Chasuari should be near the river Hase; if the "Ansitvari" are the Ampsivari then they lived on the Ems; Chamavi should be west of the Ems; Silingi should be south of the Semnones (or at least we have no other information); the Turcilingi! And so on. Our 21st century readers don't deserve this. Concerning Britannica, on topics like these they don't seem to update much at all, although when you ask how to cite something they always give recent dates even if the article was first published 50 years ago. It is sometimes useful but you certainly can't say that it is a trump card which overrules other sources! --Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:27, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Britannica's accuracy is often questioned on Wikipedia. To some extent its a bit like citing Wikipedia, see WP:BRITANNICA.--Ermenrich (talk) 18:25, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Beating the very loosely interpreted Steuer (p.3) Quote to Death

So the latest edit (citing Steuer) has been rendered to: Although the first Roman descriptions of Germani involved tribes west of the Rhine, their homeland of Germania was portrayed as stretching east of the Rhine, to southern Scandinavia and the Vistula in the east, and to the upper Danube in the south. However, the translation of this content has been quite liberal from the onset and now that multiple attempts to "fashion" it accordingly have been played out several times in a row, I want to get first to what the text actually states. In the original German, the sentence before and the one being cited (bold) reads: Wenn auch diese Publikation im Titel wieder den allgemein im Bewusstsein gespeicherten Begriff „Germanen“ enthält, dann muss gleich zu Anfang betont werden, dass es im Nachfolgenden nicht eigentlich um eine imaginäre Völkerschaft „Germanen“ geht. Vielmehr geht es geographisch um den Raum zwischen Weichsel und Rhein sowie zwischen den Ländern an der Ostsee und der Donau als Siedlungsgebiet und um die Bewohner dieses Gebietes, also um die Bevölkerung in diesem Raum. [Heiko Steuer, „Germanen“ aus Sicht der Archäologie: Neue Thesen zu einem alten Thema (Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2021), 3.] The way I would translate this is: Even though this publication contains in its title the term "Germanic peoples" stored in our general consciousness, it must be emphasized right at the onset that the following (<Steuer is speaking about the book's research contents here<) is not actually about an imaginary population of "Germanic peoples". On the contrary, it is about the geographic space between the Vistula and Rhine and between the countries on the Baltic Sea and Danube as a settlement area; it is also about this area's inhabitants, that is, the population in this area." How we've gotten to where we are is a mystery, but it's one that I am not convinced represents the text all that well. Obenritter (talk) 09:34, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

True. But we should separate this disconnect from the source with the recent edits. The sentence connected to this Steuer footnote was already changed after discussion on this talk page, which started 2 August. This added a little bit of extra contextual information.

version 2 August	my version approved on talk page above	version now
The Romans called the area in North-Central Europe in which the Germanic peoples lived Germania. According to its largest definition it stretched between the Vistula in the east and Rhine in the west, and from southern Scandinavia to the upper Danube	While the Romans first described Germani west of the Rhine, according to the largest definition the associated country of Germania stretched between Rhine in the west to southern Scandinavia, the Vistula in the east, and the upper Danube in the south.	Although the first Roman descriptions of Germani involved tribes west of the Rhine, their homeland of Germania was portrayed as stretching east of the Rhine, to southern Scandinavia and the Vistula in the east, and to the upper Danube in the south.

So the first problem is that we might need a new footnote, because I added that context to the sentence which the footnote is attached to. OTOH we don't need footnotes in the lead and we can delete this one. The lead summarizes the body. Anyway, the more recent edits had nothing to do with this extra information problem in my mind. Many of our edits have been about grammar and readability haven't they?

But my other concern, which might be confused our efforts, has been that some of the tweaks to the sentence have changed the meaning, implying (the way I read it) that Caesar ONLY mentioned Germani west of the Rhine. We should want it to say that from the very first reports of Germani, these INCLUDED Germani west of the Rhine.

It should be possible to write in a simple way that Germania (Magna) was seen as the homeland of the Germani WITHOUT saying that all Germani lived there? That's what I've been trying to do. (In fact, the Roman never knew a time when all the Germani lived there. We can only report what they thought was true, but with "attribution" so to speak.)--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 10:30, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps it is as simple as deleting the footnote, as there is a clear disconnect otherwise. We could also just use the geographical parameters mentioned by Steuer in that very form as their area of dispersion. --Obenritter (talk) 10:47, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

Deletion seems best to me. I think it is sufficiently uncontroversial and sourced in the body?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 11:27, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

I’m for deletion. It was originally sourced to say something else entirely that was in some way controversial.—-Ermenrich (talk) 12:29, 18 August 2024 (UTC)

Source check: why southern Jutland?

We currently have these words: "Between around 500 BCE and the beginning of the common era, archeological and linguistic evidence suggest that the Urheimat ('original homeland') of the Proto-Germanic language, the ancestral idiom of all attested Germanic dialects, was primarily situated in the southern Jutland peninsula, from which Proto-Germanic speakers migrated towards bordering parts of Germany and along the sea-shores of the Baltic and the North Sea, an area corresponding to the extent of the late Jastorf culture." What is the source for the part which emphasizes Jutland? Isn't the wording also misleading about the localization of the Jastorf culture? (It is clearly mainly in Germany, and goes "deep south" coming into contact with Latène peoples, and quite far east, probably as Polish as it is Danish. So the German bit is not just a small add-on.) I looked a bit already at the source, and have not found an explanation for these words yet. I also can't imagine what linguistic evidence could possibly exist for these words. Should this be adjusted, or are there other sources we should be citing? Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:01, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I believe one of our "pro-Scandinavian" editors added southern Jutland to the text in protest of it originally only mentioning Germany. But maybe Austronesier has a better recollection: I trust him more than myself on the linguistic question.--Ermenrich (talk) 18:23, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

OK. I certainly don't want to rush anything. Happy if others will look into it.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:28, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

It was an edit from Armentriken that restored it[1] :) No idea though who first phrased it that way. Based on Ringe and Polomé alone, I can't see why Jastorf should be narrowed down to southern Jutland. –Austronesier (talk) 21:25, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Maybe I was thinking of something from the lead... At any rate, the text originally comes from Alcaios, who originally said "southern Scandinavia" [2]. Somewhere on the line, probably before my compression of the section, it became southern Jutland.--Ermenrich (talk) 21:42, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

On the other hand, I can't find it in any previous draft, so maybe I introduced the error. Anyway, feel free to fix.--Ermenrich (talk) 23:48, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

Someone want to have a go at this?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 20:49, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

What should it be changed to? Jutland and northern Germany?--Ermenrich (talk) 00:44, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Good question. Actually our Jastorf culture article could do with a major overhaul. The core of the Jastorf culture is normally taken to be on the Elbe, although there are similar cultures around it. Concerning Jutland, Jes Martens (Danish archaeologist): German scholars often count Jutland as a part of the Jastorf culture. While it could be justified for the southern and perhaps even the central parts of the peninsula (Becker’s zone B/C), it becomes less apprehensible as soon as we reach North Jutland. [...] though the South Jutland group may be counted as a Jastorf group it still has it’s own character, as Neergaard put it, a more modest and functional style compared to that of the rich show-offs down south. [3] There is a 2000 article by Rosemarie Müller on Germanische Altertumskunde Online. As far as I understand it many of the attributes which define this culture are "southern", and some of these are influenced by Latène Celtic cultures. More recent than this (and responding a bit to Martens, in an approving way) is the chapter [5] in Steuer's book which you have cited extensively in the past: Für mich ist das Ergebnis: Es gibt keine nördliche Peripherie der Jastorf-Kultur. I guess the obvious question to ask is why we don't describe it as a culture of the [Central] Elbe river.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:58, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Because people like Scandinavia, of course ;-). I’d suggest just “northern Germany” then.—-Ermenrich (talk) 12:15, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Hmmm. Trying to take that approach better would be central? or eastern? or northeastern? Simpler northern might indicate the "Saxon" area for many readers? Central is probably most accurate if you really read the latest summaries of current tendencies such as Steuer's (e.g. the Großromstedt culture, and the peculiarities of that region such as an apparent Przeworsk influence in western Germany), but that's maybe something to watch for in the future. Northeastern? OTOH is this a sentence we can just make simpler in order to avoid cans of worms?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 14:39, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

In the opening of the page we have that the Jastorf culture is from northern Germany and southern Denmark. It seems that the consensus on the talk page was that this is slightly outdated. I suggest changing the language to the language used under prehistory "central Elbe in present day Germany, stretching north into Jutland and east into present day Poland". This would still be more specific than just saying Germany alone, while also being a bit more up to date. Coldstone Steve Boston (talk) 20:31, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

Maybe it was a typo but in your edit on this article you switched from "southern Denmark and northern Germany" to just "Germany". [4] Concerning your edits on the Jastorf culture article, we can discuss on that talk page if necessary, but I am a bit concerned about one edit which changed sourced information without removing the old sources, or finding new ones. That's not best practice. When reasonable looking sources (even if a bit old) are already being used, then we first need to get our new/better sourcing all lined up and ready before going in and changing the content. In fact, on the article here we already had newer sources, but someone changed the text to make it say something which did not match those sources. Always awkward on WP if someone inserts content as if it comes from a source which it does not come from. --Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:21, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

I see. I am new here so I apologize for my mistakes, they were not made in bad faith. I was simply looking at this page and noticed you mentioned that it is not necessarily accurate to say northern Germany, as more current sources seem to imply more central Germany and even Bohemia. This is why I changed it to just Germany. However after your correction I thought maybe the same wording used later on in the page would be more appropriate. I still hold this opinion given what was mentioned on this page, ie. It would make more sense to state "central Elbe in present day Germany, stretching north into Jutland and east into present day Poland" or similar wording in the opening.

The same goes for the edit you corrected on the Jastorf page, it was made in regard to me (possibly misunderstanding) the talk page here. I will aim to be me careful. However, I still believe both pages(this one and the Jastorf culture) should line up as the central Elbe would not be the same location as Schleswig Holstein. Coldstone Steve Boston (talk) 14:33, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

No problem. Thanks for getting involved and welcome to WP!--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:21, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

I've made an attempt to simplify that geographical description of the Jastorf culture. On a related note, I notice in the lead we mention evidence of contacts with Iranian languages, but we don't discuss it in the body. Sounds interesting though? More well known to me, and included in the body, is evidence of contact with Finnic. But this is not in the lead.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 16:17, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I will have to see where that comes from, thanks for pointing that out Andrew!—Ermenrich (talk) 17:30, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Osterby Man

This picture should be removed as it has no direct relevance to the text in the section and the historical background of the artifact is somewhat controversial. Further, as described in the article about the bog body, the jaw has been arbitrarily added to the skull by the German archeologist Karl Schlabow who was connected with Herbert Jankuhn an SS officer who directed the museum at the time. Thus there is no legitimate reason to keep this picture and its inclusion only plays on the rather unfortunate Nazi stereotype of the totenkopf and the Germanic peoples. 94.172.109.57 (talk) 11:13, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

The picture illustrates the Swabian knot. This isn’t directly referenced in the text, but is something mentioned by Tacitus as a typical hairstyle for Germanic warriors - and the text is largely about wars. Furthermore, the article Osterby Man only mentions the addition of the jaw, not some sort of Nazi plot or controversy - the head was discovered in 1948! I see no reason to remove it, nor do I see how it has anything to do with the totenkopf.—11:44, 4 September 2024 (UTC) Ermenrich (talk) 11:44, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

@User:Ermenrich please drill in further into the article about Karl Schlabow who was connected to a member of Ahnenerbe a SS pseudoscientific organization. Further, I came across this article online [5] which highlights a somewhat related problem on Wikipedia. I don't know who added this picture, but if there is no reference to the subject matter in the section why do you have it? Especially given that the background of the skull is somewhat controversial and plays into some ugly stereotypes. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 12:14, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but linking to an article about people trying to cover up the Holocaust on Wikipedia has nothing to do with Osterby Man. Most German archaeologists from this time period had ties to the Nazi party. That does not mean that the Osterby head is somehow not a valid representation of the Swabian knot or is connected to the "totenkopf". Can you give any reference to the head itself being controversial? After all, right now it's cited to a modern scholar, Heiko Steuer, who is not a Nazi, in a recent book, as an example of the Swabian knot.

I've already explained how the head is related to the subject matter. I'm not going to repeat myself.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:21, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Recently the Nordic Bronze Age and the early Germanic migration maps were removed from the article even though those two topics are covered in the article's text. The argument was that there was not enough text about the Nordic Bronze Age or early Germanic migration in the article, yet there is nothing in the text about Suebian knots, bog bodies or the Osterby Man, but that out of place picture is still in the article, and on top of that the artifact has a fake jaw because Karl Schlabow who at the very least was a Nazi sympathizer added it to the skull. Who's jaw was it? I would not be surprised if it was from someone in the middle ages. Anyway, using the arguments about the two maps the Osterby Man picture needs to go. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 14:47, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I can't follow. The picture illustrates the hairstyle. Is that no a good rationale? Are you saying Osterby man is fake or something?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 15:44, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

You can't follow or you simply refuse to accept the same argument here, which you used to remove the two maps. Btw, you said the picture illustrates a hairstyle, however nowhere in the article do we have references to hairstyles or bog bodies and the Osterby Man was not found near an area close to the Roman frontier, archeologists can't even say he was a "warrior", yet the picture is located in the "Roman Imperial Period" section. So, what is the real reason for this picture and why such determination to keep it yet reacently so many other useful maps were removed because they were not the main focus of the text in a particular section. This picture has no relevance and you insist on keeping it. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 17:45, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

So far no one else objects to the presence of the picture or the removal of the maps. I’d suggest you just WP:DROP THE STICK and move on.—-Ermenrich (talk) 18:06, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

It's just you and Andrew Lancaster who keep agreeing on each other's ideas and dismiss other suggestions. This entire talk page is just a dialog between you two. --94.172.109.57 (talk) 18:15, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Wrong - there are lots of interested and astute watchers/contributors to this page. You just don't like the answer. --Obenritter (talk) 20:08, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

I echo Obenritter's sentiment. :bloodofox: (talk) 22:16, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

What is 'Northern Europe'?

Hi, pro-Scandinavian lurker here :) Sometimes it seems as if Europe = the Continent between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, divided by Pyrenees, Alps and Balkans into North and South, leaving Scandinavia as, one might suspect, a nearly non-European afterthought up there. Being from up here, we do consider ourselves European and also as constituting "Northern Europe", where Belgium, Germany, Poland etc. are "Middle Europe'. That, at least according to the maps, which barely extend to all of Jutland, also makes us non-Germanic. If the 'Germanic' in "Germanic peoples' is based on Roman history, or even later German history, ok; but if it is based on e.g. language, and possibly on archaeology, shoudn't Scandiavia be included a bit more? Or, as a minimum, if editors feel such a subject is best presented in separate articles, perhaps include links to these articles? T 2A02:FE1:E16B:CC00:DA63:B162:420A:CA58 (talk) 03:05, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Which maps or wordings are you talking about?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 04:18, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi, all maps but one in this article, for instance. The article is focused on the 'Roman' perspective, though, making the choice of maps adequate for the purpose; bit of an air punch for me there. But my criticism is tied to other ways of being Germanic, see above. I am assuming that there are articles covering this, it's just not apparent from this article. T 2A02:FE1:E16B:CC00:DA63:B162:420A:CA58 (talk) 21:40, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

It's difficult to discuss Scandinavia during this time because we have almost no contemporary sources (outside archaeology) that discuss it, and hence scholars don't discuss it in much detail when discussing the Germani. That being the case, I don't think there's much that can be added about it - but it finds continual mention in other sections of the article if you just look at those covering culture etc.--Ermenrich (talk) 21:45, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

In fact, we obviously have too few sources to clarify this problem. I remember a lecture by Reinhard Wenskus at Göttingen University, who was asked about a northern border of the ‘Germani’. He just replied that this border would not have run north of the Jutlandic Thy as Old Norse þjóð or ‘thioth’ for ‘people’. So, most tentatively, he apparently associated ‘thioth - deutsch - German’. However, apart from missing reliable sources and research, this oral opinion is not suitable for improving the article. Tympanus (talk) 14:22, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

I think this discussion won't go very far unless there is a more concrete proposal because I don't think anyone has consciously been avoiding Scandinavia. I know from maps I have made that I've felt the sourcing justifications are very weak for going beyond the southern parts of Scandinavia which Tacitus and others clearly something about. So I typically try to include something of Scandinavia but find myself asking if we really have any justification for pushing maps up into Norway or northern Sweden. If challenged, no I don't. There is also a second problem which is practical. While making a map about historical events mainly in mainland Europe, you realize that Scandinavia is large, and so including it all leads to a map of "Scandinavia and friends" which I once again don't think fits the bill very well.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:23, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

I am also a lurker to this page and I would like to add my two cents.

I have not seen any anti-Scandinavian posting on this page, as in nobody denies that the people in Scandinavia spoke a Germanic language in antiquity. For this reason I find it odd that there seems to be a faction that would like to ignore evidence supporting a Jastorf/German origin in favor of a Nordic origin who call themselves pro-Scandinavian. This seems largely to be due to a confirmation bias rather than any basis in factual evidence.

However, the main point of contention is when newer evidence, along with ancient sources seem to show that Germanic people probably originated in Germany rather than in Scandinavia. This idea of an origin in Germany was out of vogue after WW2 due to obvious political reasons, but I feel that enough time has passed where archeology has progressed to the point that this type of archeology is no longer taboo.

As such, this seems to bother people, presumably from Scandinavia, who were largely told that Germanic peoples, language, and culture originated there.

My own general thought is this: if evidence shows that Germanic peoples/culture originated in the Jastorf culture of central or northern Germany(rather than the Nordic bronze age culture of Scandinavia), then this is what should be reflected on the page. The fact that this also corroborates what ancient Roman sources seem to state should not be a negative(as is often implied from "pro-Scandinavian" accounts), but rather just another tool in understanding the Germanic peoples, using both ancient sources as well as linguistics and archeological evidence. One should not be "pro-Scandinavian" or "pro-German", but rather follow the evidence where it leads to avoid a confirmation bias. 98.165.59.45 (talk) 22:47, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Doubtful category

According to Emmanuel Todd, this is not a valid cultural category, meely a hodgepodge. Sarcelles (talk) 12:27, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

I'd rather stick to Malcolm Todd; and Liebeschütz, Wolfram, Heather, Halsall, Pohl, Goffart... for all their disputes, they are the subject-matter experts. –Austronesier (talk) 12:44, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

worth noting that discussion of disputes about the existence of “Germanic peoples” are already in the article and lead as well.—Ermenrich (talk) 12:56, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

I do not think a member of the communist youth(according to this wiki page) is typically going to be unbiased on such topics as this, due to the political biases that formed against this after the second world war. 98.165.59.45 (talk) 14:41, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Academic bias is not necessarily a problem, because no source is completely unbiased, but a lack of expertise or notability looks like a problem. As mentioned above, part of the issue is that the point is not even especially novel. We are already citing experts in this topic who more or less argue the same point. At first sight this sounds like an interdisciplinary side remark. Our article is citing notable experts from the directly relevant fields.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:54, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

What are his arguements? Gelbom (talk) 01:44, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

We should only discuss his arguments here if they are notable, expert, and ideally different from opinions the article already represents. Remember this is not a discussion forum. So the question is whether anyone has a concrete edit proposal, or is likely to be able to develop one from such a source.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 18:54, 19 October 2024 (UTC)