Norway during the Roman era

 

In Norway, numerous graves of Roman soldiers have been discovered. The majority are found in the South and South East of the country. The graves date from 45 to 450 AC. Graves with precious jewellery have also been discovered.

The graves contains the remains of mostly Roman auxiliary soldiers. The earliest came here after Caiser Cladious conquer of Britain. The Roman dicoese of Brittania consisted of five provinces:

Brittania Prima (Southern England)

Brittania Secunda (Middle England)

Valentia (Northern England towards Hadrian’s wall)

Flavia Caesariensis (Northern Norway, Trøndelag)

Maxina Caesariensis (Southern Norway)

 

Romeriket is a region north of Oslo. The name means literally, the Roman Empire. It’s likely that this is where the Roman troops were stationed. Names like Rauma and Romsdalen in the North-West also date from this period.

The production of iron was a big industry during the Roman era in Norway. Pre 50AC, most Norwegians were farmers, hunters or fishermen. The Romans had a great interest in Norway because of the excellent conditions for production of iron. Experts on this subject suggests that between 4-600.000 tons of iron was produced here during the Roman era. That was a lot more than this country possibly could need at the time.  The population previous to year 1000 could not have been more than apprx. 250.000 people.

 

Where did these auxiliary soldiers came from?

The majority of the auxiliaries originated from the Limes (Frontier) along the river Rhine, starting by the Danube in Raetia (Switzerland), through the Rhine Valley, down to the North sea region of Frisia.

Soldiers retired after 25 years of service. They were given a Roman citizenship, and the choice of a lump sum of money or a piece of land. Those who chose the latter were given it, where the Romans wanted a Roman-friendly population. These auxiliaries settled down in England, Holland, Northern Germany, Denmark, parts of Norway and Sweden.

Some names typical of these settlements are:

Hoff / Hove : Old Germanic word for “Sacrificial temple”.

- Aal / Ahl. Old Germanic meaning “Temple”.

-Ton names, like “Hilton” or “Brighton” (Norw. Breitun). Saxon word for fenced area or enclosure.

-Ness, meaning “headland”.

Sted /Stad, meaning place.

Torp/Terp/Dorp – Meaning village.

-Bury, meaning castle, stronghold or fort, (Norw. Bry, Bæri).

 

DNA results

Haplogroup I1 is the most common haplogroup in Norway, ranging from 26% in the East to 45% in the South. Haplogroup I1a is, particularly associated with Germanic people. I suggest that a large percentage of migrants during the migration period were of I1 stock.

 

Technorati Tags: migration period Römer Roman era Germanic volkerwanderung Anglo Saxons Vikings Vicus

The Vandals

 

Origins

Jordanes refers to Vandals as Gothic (East Germanic) speakers, and name etymologies support the notion of Vandalic being near related to Gothic. The bearers of the Przeworsk culture (possibly the Lugii) had the custom of cremation. Cremation is characteristic to Baltic Prussian tribes. In Prussia both cremation and inhumation burials were found, which Germanic tribes practised. The remains of the Przeworsk culture is mainly traced in the areas which were marshes, when Romans mentioned the Lugii tribe.

Similarities of names have led to appointing homelands for the Vandals in Norway (Hallingdal), Sweden (Vendel), or Denmark (Vendsyssel). The Vandals are assumed to have crossed the Baltic into what is today Poland somewhere in the 2nd century BC, and to have settled in Silesia from around 120 BC. This tradition supports the identification of the Vandals with the Przeworsk culture, since the Gothic Wielbark culture seems to have replaced a branch of that culture.

Hasdingi

The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, . They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. They were part of the migratory movements of the Vandals, into the Iberian peninsula and later on to North Africa.

In 409 they settled as foederati in Gallaecia (today Galicia and the north of Portugal).

Gunderic, king of the Hasdingi, lost his kingdom to king Hermeric of the Suebi after a battle against an allied force of Suebi and Romans. He fled to Baetica with his army where he became king of the Silingi Vandals and of the Alans.

 

Haddingji

The Haddingjar refers on the one hand to legends about two brothers by this name, and on the other hand to possibly related legends based on the Hasdingi, the royal dynasty of the Vandals. The accounts vary greatly.

Origins

It has been suggested that they were originally two Proto-Germanic legendary heroes by the name *Hazdingōz, meaning the "longhairs", and that they were identical to the Alci mentioned by Tacitus. According to Tacitus, the Alci were worshiped as gods by priests in female clothing:

[...] and the Nahanarvali. Among these last is shown a grove of immemorial sanctity. A priest in female attire has the charge of it. But the deities are described in Roman language as Castor and Pollux. Such, indeed, are the attributes of the divinity, the name being Alcis. They have no images, or, indeed, any vestige of foreign superstition, but it is as brothers and as youths that the deities are worshipped.^[1]

Cassius Dio mentioned c. 170 the Astingoi as a noble clan among the Vandals, and the Asdingi reappear, in the 6th century in Jordanes' work as the royal dynasty of the Vandals.

The root appears in Old Icelandic as haddr meaning "women hair", and the motivation for the name Haddingjar/Astingoi/Asdingi was probably that men from Germanic royal dynasties sported long hair as a mark of dignity (cf. the "longhaired Merovingians").

DNA Material R1a

Norwegians do have a lot of R1a DNA, on average ca. 24% of the population but in the South it’s only 13% of all y-dna. A good portion of R1a clusters are matching with males from East-Germany / West-Poland. This supports the  theory that tribes of Vandals settled in Norway.

Please see for more information: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gallgaedhil/haplo_r1a.htm