Pages: 95-113

This article addresses archaeological finds from the earliest stage of the Great Migration Period (late 4th to the first half of the 5th century AD) in the territory of the Western Roman Empire related to Central and Eastern Europe by origin, which could testify to the migration of the Vandals, the Suebi and the Alans to the Roman West in 406 AD. These finds comprise different types of crossbow brooches discovered in the Roman provinces in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, which parallels originate from the lands to the north of the Danube, in the zone where the Vandals and the Suebi lived by the moment of the migration to the West in 406 AD. Besides, some features of the funerary rite discovered in the early Great Migration Period in Eastern Gaul, particularly ritually destroyed weapons, are met with analogies in the cemeteries of Central European barbarians, particularly in the Przeworsk culture. On the other hand, certain customs, such as artificial cranial deformation and some objects, such as metal mirrors or gold plates and plaques, attest to the influence of the Alans.

Keywords: Roman West, Great Migration period, Vandals, Alans, Suebi, archaeological data

Information about author:

Michel Kazanski (Paris, France). Doctor Habilitat on Archaeology. Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR 8167: Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance. Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 52, Paris, 75005, France
E-mail: [email protected]