Ring of Pietroassa - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Ring of Pietroassa is a gold Torc

Torc

A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large, usually rigid, neck ring typically made from strands of metal twisted together. The great majority are open-ended at the front, although many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Smaller torcs worn around...

-like necklace found in a ring barrow in Pietroassa (now Pietroasele

Pietroasele

Pietroasele is a commune in Buzău County, Romania, known for its vineyards. The name means "the rockies". The commune is composed of six villages: Câlţeşti, Clondiru de Sus, Dara, Pietroasa Mică, Pietroasele and Şarânga.-History:...

), Buzău County

Buzau County

Buzău is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Buzău.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 496,214 and the population density was 81/km².*Romanians – 97%*Roma – under 3% declared, and others....

, southern Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

(formerly Wallachia

Wallachia

Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...

), in 1837. It formed part of a large gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

Hoard

In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...

(the Pietroasele treasure

Pietroasele treasure

The Pietroasele Treasure found in Pietroasele, Buzău, Romania, in 1837, is a late fourth-century Gothic treasure that included some twenty-two objects of gold, among the most famous examples of the polychrome style of Migration Period art...

) dated to between 250 and 400 CE

Roman Iron Age

The Roman Iron Age is the name that Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius gave to a part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Netherlands....

. The ring itself is generally assumed to be of Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

-Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

origin, and features a Gothic language

Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...

inscription in the Elder Futhark

Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...

runic alphabet

Runic alphabet

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...

.

The inscribed ring remains the subject of considerable academic interest, and a number of theories regarding its origin, the reason for its burial and its date have been proposed. The inscription, which sustained irreparable damage shortly after its discovery, can no longer be read with certainty, and has been subjected to various attempts at reconstruction and interpretation. Recently, however, it has become possible to reconstruct the damaged portion with the aid of rediscovered depictions of the ring in its original state. Taken as a whole, the inscribed ring may offer insight into the nature of the pre-Christian pagan

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

religion of the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

Origin

The original hoard, discovered within a large ring barrow

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

known as Istriţa hill near Pietroasele

Pietroasele

, Romania, consisted of 22 pieces, comprising a wide assortment of gold vessels, plates and cups as well as jewelry, including two rings with inscriptions. When first uncovered, the objects were found stuck together by an unidentifiable black mass, leading to the assumption that the hoard might have been covered in some kind of organic material (e.g. cloth or leather) prior to being interred. The total weight of the find was approximately 20 kg (44 lb.).

Ten objects, among them one of the inscribed rings, were stolen shortly after the find was made, and when the remaining objects were recovered, it was discovered that the other ring had been cut into at least four pieces by a Bucharest goldsmith, whereby one of the inscribed characters had become damaged to the point of illegibility. Fortunately, detailed drawings, a cast, and a photograph made by London's Arundel Society

Arundel Society

The Arundel Society was founded at London in 1849 and named after the Earl of Arundel, the famous collector of the Arundel Marbles and one of the first great English patrons and lovers of the arts...

of the ring before it was damaged survive, and the nature of the lost character can be established with relative certainty.

The remaining objects in the collection display a high quality of craftsmanship such that scholars doubt an indigenous origin. Taylor

Isaac Taylor (canon)

Isaac Taylor , son of Isaac Taylor, was a philologist, toponymist, and Anglican canon of York .- Life :...

(1879), in one of the earliest works discussing the find, speculates that the objects could represent a part of the plunder acquired by Goths in the raids made on the Roman provinces of Moesia

Moesia

Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...

and Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

(238 - 251). Another early theory, probably first proposed by Odobescu (1889) and picked up again by Giurascu (1976), identifies Athanaric

Athanaric

Athanaric was king of several branches of the Thervingian Goths for at least two decades in the fourth century. His name, Athanareiks, means "Year King" or "King for the Year" comes from the Gothic word Athni meaning "year" and the Gothic Reiks meaning "king."A probable rival of Fritigern, another...

, pagan king of the Gothic Thervingi

Thervingi

The Thervingi, Tervingi, or Teruingi were a Gothic people of the Danubian plains west of the Dnestr River in the 3rd and 4th Centuries CE. They had close contacts with the Greuthungi, another Gothic people from east of the Dnestr River, as well as the Late Roman Empire...

, as the likely owner of the hoard, presumably acquired through the conflict with the Roman Emperor Valens

Valens

Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...

in 369. The Goldhelm catalogue (1994) suggests that the objects could also be viewed as having been gifts made by Roman leaders to allied Germanic princes.

Recent mineralogical

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

studies performed on the objects indicate at least three geographically disparate origins for the gold ore itself: the Southern Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains

The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...

, Nubia

Nubia

Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...

(Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

), and Persia. An indigenous Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

n origin for the ore has been ruled out. Though Cojocaru (1999) rejects the possibility of Roman imperial coins having been melted down and used for some of the objects, Constantinescu (2003) comes to the opposite conclusion.

A comparison of mineralogical composition, smelting and forging techniques, and earlier typological

Typology (archaeology)

In archaeology a typology is the result of the classification of things according to their characteristics. The products of the classification, i.e. the classes are also called types. Most archaeological typologies organize artifacts into types, but typologies of houses or roads belonging to a...

analysis indicates that the gold used to make the inscribed ring, classified as Celto-Germanic, is neither as pure as that of the Graeco-Roman, nor as alloyed as that found in the Polychrome Germanic objects. These results seem to indicate that at least part of the hoard — including the inscribed ring — was composed of gold ore mined far north of Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

, and could therefore represent objects that had been in Gothic possession prior to their southward migration (see Wielbark culture, Chernyakhov culture

Chernyakhov culture

The Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhiv culture is the name given to an archaeological culture which flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what today constitutes Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and parts of Belarus...

). While this may cast some doubt on the traditional theory regarding a Roman-Mediterranean origin for the ring, further research is necessary before the origin of the material used in its manufacture can be identified conclusively.

Burial

As with most finds of this type, it remains unclear as to why the objects were placed within the barrow, though several plausible reasons have been proposed. Taylor argues that the ring-barrow in which the objects were found was likely the site of a pagan temple, and that, based on an analysis of the surviving inscription (see below), they were part of a votive hoard indicative of a still-active paganism. Though this theory has been largely ignored, later research, notably that of Looijenga (1997), has observed that all of the remaining objects in the hoard possess a "definite ceremonial character". Particularly noteworthy in this connection is the Patera

Patera

A patera was a broad, shallow dish used for drinking, primarily in a ritual context such as a libation. These paterae were often used in Rome....

, or libation dish, which is decorated with depictions of (probably Germanic

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

) deities.

Those in favour of viewing the objects as the personal hoard of Athanaric suggest that the gold was buried in an attempt to hide it from the Huns

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

, who had defeated the Gothic Greuthungi

Greuthungi

The Greuthungs, Greuthungi, or Greutungi were a Gothic people of the Black Sea steppes in the third and fourth centuries. They had close contacts with the Thervingi, another Gothic people from west of the river Dnestr. They may be the same people as the later Ostrogoths.-Etymology:"Greuthungi" may...

north of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

and began moving down into Thervingian Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

around 375. However, it remains unclear why the gold would have remained buried, as Athanaric's treaty with Theodosius I

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

(380) enabled him to bring his tribesmen under the protection of Roman rule prior to his death in 381. Other researchers have suggested that the hoard was that of an Ostrogothic king, with Rusu (1984) specifically identifying Gainnas

Gainas

Gainas was an ambitious Gothic leader who served the Eastern Roman Empire as Magister Militum during the reigns of Theodosius I and Arcadius....

, a Gothic general in the Roman army who was killed by the Huns around 400, as the owner of the hoard. Although this would help explain why the hoard remained buried, it fails to account for the conspicuous ring-barrow having been chosen as the site to hide such a large and valuable treasure.

Date

Various dates for the burial of the hoard have been proposed, largely derived from considerations regarding the origin of the objects themselves and their manner of burial, though the inscription has also been an important factor (see below). Taylor suggests a range from 210 to 250. In more recent studies, scholars have proposed slightly later dates, with supporters of the Athanaric theory suggesting the end of the 4th century, the date also proposed by Constantinescu, and Tomescu suggesting the early 5th century.

Inscription

Reconstruction and interpretation

The gold ring bears an Elder Futhark

Elder Futhark

runic inscription of 15 characters, with the 7th (probably ᛟ /o/) having been mostly destroyed when the ring was cut in half by thieves. The damaged rune has been the object of some scholarly debate, and is variously interpreted as indicating ᛃ /j/ (Reichert 1993, Nedoma 1993) or possibly ᛋ /s/

Sowilo rune

*Sowilō or *sæwelō is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the s-rune, meaning "sun". The name is attested for the same rune in all three rune poems...

(Looijenga 1997). If the photograph of the Arundel Society is to be taken as a guide, then the inscription originally read as follows:

gutaniowi hailag

This reading was followed by early scholars, notably Taylor, who translates "dedicated hailag to the temple ō-wī(h) of the Goths Gutanī", and Diculescu (1923), who translates "sacred (hailag) to the Jove (iowī, i.e. Thor

Thor

In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...

) of the Goths gutan(ī)". Düwel (2001), commenting upon the same reading, suggests interpreting ᛟ as indicative of ō[þal] thus:

gutanī ō[þal] wī[h] hailag

This, following Krause

Wolfgang Krause

Wolfgang Krause was a German linguist. He specialised initially in Celtic studies and the Tokharians, later in Old Norse and especially runology.-Education and career:...

(1966), translates as "sacred wī(h) (and) inviolable hailag inheritance ō(þal) of the Goths gutanī". Other scholars have interpreted the ᛟ as indicative of a feminine ending: Johnsen (1971) translates "the holy hailag relic wī(h) (= the [altar] ring) of Gothic priestesses gutaniō"; Krogmann (1978), reading ᛗ /m/ for ᚹᛁ /wi/, translates "dedicated hailag to the Gothic Mothers gutaniom (= female guardian spirits

Dis

- Academic institutions :* DIS – Danish Institute for Study Abroad, an English language study abroad program located in Copenhagen, Denmark* Dili International School, DIS an International School in Dili, Timor Leste - Companies :...

of the Goths)"; Antonsen (2002) translates "sacrosanctum wī(h)hailag of gothic women/female warriors

Shieldmaiden

A shieldmaiden was a woman who had chosen to fight as a warrior in Scandinavian folklore and mythology. They are often mentioned in sagas such as Hervarar saga and in Gesta Danorum. Shieldmaidens also appear in stories of other Germanic nations: Goths, Cimbri, and Marcomanni. The mythical Valkyries...

gutaniō". Construing the damaged rune as ᛋ /s/, Looijenga (1997) reads:

gutanīs wī[h] hailag

She comments that gutanīs should be understood as an early form of Gothic gutaneis, "Gothic", and wī[h] as early Gothic weih, "sanctuary". Following this reading, she translates the whole inscription "Gothic (object). Sacrosanct." Reichert (1993) suggests that it is also possible to read the damaged rune as ᛃ /j/, and interprets it as representative of j[ēra], thus:

gutanī j[era] wī[h] hailag

Reichert translates this as "(good) year j(era) of the Goths gutanī, sacred wī(h) (and) inviolable hailag". Though Düwel (2001) has expressed doubts regarding the meaning of such a statement, Nordgren (2004) supports Reichert's reading, viewing the ring as connected to a sacral

Sacred

Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred...

king in his role of ensuring an abundant harvest (represented by ᛃ jera). Pieper (2003) reads the damaged rune as ᛝ /ŋ/, thus:

gutanī [i(ng)]wi[n] hailag

He translates this "[to] Ingwin of the Goths. Holy."

Meaning

Despite the lack of consensus regarding the exact import of the inscription, scholars seem to agree that its language is some form of Gothic

Gothic language

and that the intent behind it was religious. Taylor interprets the inscription as being clearly pagan in nature and indicative of the existence of a temple to which the ring was a votive offering. He derives his date for the burial (210 to 250) from the fact that the Christianizing of the Goths

Gothic Christianity

Gothic Christianity refers to the Christian religion of the Goths and sometimes the Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians, who may have used Wulfila's translation of the Bible into Gothic and shared common doctrines and practices...

along the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

is generally considered to have been almost complete within a few generations after their having arrived there in 238. Though paganism among the Goths did survive the initial conversion phase of 250 to 300 - as the martyring of the converted Christian Goths Wereka, Batwin

Wereka and Batwin

Wereka and Batwin were two of several Christian Gothic martyrs burned alive in church by the local district royal officer and sacred pontiff, otherwise known as goði, *Wingureiks in the 370s...

(370) and Sabbas

Sabbas the Goth

Sabbas the Goth is a martyr and Christian saint.He was born in 334 to Christian parents in a village in the Buzău river valley and lived in what is now the Wallachia region in Romania...

(372) at the hands of the indigenously pagan Goths (in the latter case Athanaric

Athanaric

) shows - it was weakened considerably in the following years, and the likelihood of such a deposit being made would have been greatly diminished.

MacLeod and Mees (2006), following Mees (2004), interpret the ring as possibly representing either a "temple-ring" or a "sacred oath-ring", the existence of which in pagan

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

times is documented in Old Norse literature

Old Norse literature

Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to ca. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings.See:* Old Norse poetry* Edda* Norse saga* Icelanders' sagas* Kings' sagas* Legendary sagas...

and archaeological finds. Furthermore, they suggest that the inscription could be proof of the existence of 'mother goddess' worship among the Goths - echoing the well-documented worship of 'mother goddesses

Dis

' in other parts of the Germanic North. MacLeod and Mees also propose that the appearance of both of the Common Germanic terms denoting "holiness" (wīh and hailag) may help to clarify the distinction between the two concepts in the Gothic language, implying that the ring was considered holy, not only for its being connected to one or more divinities, but also in and of itself.

External links

Runenprojekt Kiel

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Origin

Burial

Date

Inscription

Reconstruction and interpretation

Meaning

See also

External links