Early Germanic culture

[4] More speculatively, given the lack of any such clear explanation in any classical source, modern linguists sometimes designate the Frankish language (and its descendant Dutch) as Istvaeonic, although the geographical term "Weser–Rhine Germanic" is often preferred.

Archaeological findings suggest that the early Germanic peoples practiced some of the same 'spiritual' rituals as the Celts, including human sacrifice, divination, and the belief in spiritual connection with the natural environment around them.

[26] Germanic priestesses were feared by the Romans, as these tall women with glaring eyes, wearing flowing white gowns often wielded a knife for sacrificial offerings.

[29][26] Germanic ideology and religious practices were pervaded and colored to a large degree by war, particularly the notion of a heroic death on the battlefield, as this brought the god(s) a "blood sacrifice.

[45] A main element uniting Germanic societies was kingship, in origin a sacral institution combining the functions of military leader, high priest, lawmaker and judge.

Under the influence of the Roman Empire, the power of Germanic kings over their own people increased throughout the centuries, partially because mass-migrations of the time required more stern leadership.

[citation needed] In the federalist organization of Switzerland, where cantonal structures remained comparatively local, the Germanic thing survived into the 21st century in the form of the Landsgemeinde, albeit subject to federal law.

[47] Traditional Germanic society was gradually replaced by the system of estates and feudalism characteristic of the High Middle Ages in both the Holy Roman Empire and Anglo-Norman England in the 11th to 12th centuries.

[citation needed] Elements of tribal law, notably the wager of battle, remained in effect throughout the Middle Ages, in the case of the Holy Roman Empire until the establishment of the Imperial Chamber Court in the early German Renaissance.

[50] Among the Anglo-Saxons, a regular free man (a ceorl) had a weregild of 200 shillings (i.e. solidi or gold pieces), classified as a twyhyndeman "200-man" for this reason, while a nobleman commanded a fee of six times that amount (twelfhyndeman "1200-man").

Unfree serfs did not command a weregild, and the recompense paid in the event of their death was merely for material damage, 15 shillings in the case of the Alamanni, increased to 40 or 50 if the victim had been a skilled artisan.

[citation needed] The social hierarchy is not only reflected in the weregild due in the case of the violent or accidental death of a man, but also in differences in fines for lesser crimes.

They carry a spear [hasta] (framea is their name for it), with a narrow and short head, but so sharp and easy to wield that the same weapon serves, according to circumstances, for close or distant conflict.

As for the horse-soldier, he is satisfied with a shield and spear; the foot-soldiers also scatter showers of javelins each man having several and hurling them to an immense distance, and being naked or lightly clad with a little cloak."

[54] Traces of the earliest pastoralism of the Germanic peoples appear in central Europe in the form of elaborate cattle burials along the Elbe and Vistula Rivers from around 4000–3000 BCE.

[54] Evidence from a Saxon village known as Feddersen Wierde near Cuxhaven, Germany (which existed between BCE 50 to CE 450) shows that the Germanic peoples cultivated oats and rye, used manure as fertilizer, and that they practiced crop rotation.

[citation needed] When the Iron Age arrived, the Germanic people showed greater mastery of ironworks than their Celtic contemporaries but they did not have the extensive trade networks during this period that their western neighbors enjoyed with the Greco-Roman world.

A comprehensive archaeological excavation between 1954 and 1963 yielded valuable knowledge about prehistoric settlements in the North Germany Although the Germanic tribes practiced both agriculture and husbandry, the latter was extremely important both as a source of dairy products and as a basis for wealth and social status, which was measured by the size of an individual's herd.

[74] Caesar notes that certain warlike and powerful Germanic tribes, such as the Nervii and Suebi, practiced teetotalism, banning the import of alcoholic beverages to their territories in order to combat degeneracy.

[m][n] The most important family relationships among the early Germanic peoples were within the individual household, a fact based on the archaeological evidence from their settlements where the long-houses appeared to be central in their existence.

[citation needed] Just how pervasive this awareness may have been is certainly debatable, but other factors like language, clothing, ornamentation, hair styles, weapon types, religious practices and shared oral history were likely just as significant in tribal identity for the Germanic peoples.

In fact, several elements of ancient Germanic life tended to weaken the role of kinship: the importance of the retinues surrounding military chieftains, the ability of strong leaders to unite people who were not closely related, and feuds and other conflicts within a tribe that might lead to permanent divisions.

[78] Recent scholarship suggests that, despite the obligation to take part in feuds and other customs involving kinship ties, extended families did not form independent units among the early Germanic peoples.

As individuals rose to prominence, a distinction between commoner and nobility developed and with it the previous constructs of folkright shared equally across the tribe was replaced in some cases by privilege.

[87] Important changes began taking place by the 4th century CE as Germanic peoples, while still cognizant of their unique clan identities, started forming larger confederations of a similar culture.

On the surface this change appeared to the Romans as welcome since they preferred to deal with a few strong chiefs to control the populations that they feared across the Rhine and Danube, but it eventually made these Germanic rulers of confederated peoples more and more powerful.

[92] For a young Germanic man, having had sexual relations with a woman before the age of twenty was considered a disgrace: "Their whole life is occupied in hunting and in the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they devote themselves to fatigue and hardships.

And to have had knowledge of a woman before the twentieth year they reckon among the most disgraceful acts; of which matter there is no concealment..."[93]Caesar further noted, to his amazement, that men and women would frequently bath naked together in lakes and rivers.

[104] Upon the death of their husbands and other male relatives on the battlefield and the defeat of their tribe, Germanic women are recorded by Roman historians as having killed their children and committed suicide.

[123] Following World War II there was a backlash against nationalism, and as a response, government support for the study of ancient Germanic history and culture was significantly reduced both in Germany and Scandinavia.