The migration of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman West and archaeological accounts

Abstract

This article addresses a few archaeological finds from the earliest stage of the Great Migration Period (late fourth to the first half of the fifth century AD) in the territory of the Western Roman Empire related to Central Europe by origin, which could testify to the migration of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman West in 406 AD. These finds comprise different types of crossbow brooches discovered in the Roman provinces in Gallia, 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 funeral rite discovered in the early Great Migration Period in Eastern Gallia, particularly ritually destroyed weapons, meet with analogies in the cemeteries of Central European barbarians, particularly in the Przeworsk culture. These archaeological pieces of evidence were partially related to the arrival of the Vandals and the Suebi to the Roman Empire’s territory in 406 AD, and also reflected the presence of the Central European barbarians in the Roman military service.