Historical Ethnography of the Vandals

In recent research, the Vandals and their North African kingdom have received comparatively little attention. The project "Historical Ethnography of the Vandals" is intended to fill gaps and deal with neglected aspects of Vandal history. The central problem to be addressed is the question of Vandal identity. Who were the Vandals, how did they become what they were, and what part did their kingdom play in this process? In the long run, the project proposes to lay the basis for a new overview of the history of the Vandals that can go beyond the Vandal histories written by Courtois and Diesner in the fifties and sixties. It can profit from the lively recent research on the Mediterranean world of late antiquity and has to take into account a number of new approaches. At the core of the project is is the systematic investigation of ethnic processes. This does not only imply the question of Vandal identity and its development since the Vandilioi of the early imperial age, but, in complementary fashion, also the role of the other ethnic groups in the Vandal kingdom: among them not only the Alans, Romans and Berbers who formed part of the political set-up of the kingdom, but also (partly under- researched) minorities such as Greeks, Jews, Lybians and others. What consequences did establishing the rule over rich Roman provinces have for Vandal identity? The approach chosen here represents an innovation in Vandal studies because it does not regard identity as given but proposes a systematic analysis of the development and construction of identity, based on previous research by the Vienna School of Historical Ethnography` and the works of the applicant Walter Pohl as of his teacher Herwig Wolfram. In the Vandal kingdom, numerous texts have contributed to the development of ethnic identities, among them also theological and poetic works not previously studied in this context. In the case of some of the chronicles, aspects of textual transmission can be analyzed on the basis of manuscripts, which promises (as exemplified in a pilot study by the research assistant) some new results as compared to the editions. Complementing this text-based approach, the coinage of Vandal kings and surveys of recent archaeological results can be taken into account. The history of perceptions and of the historiography of the Vandals will also receive some attention. On the whole, a number of recent approaches and methods, and a thorough analysis of the sources, can be employed in the study of the historical ethnography of the Vandals.

At the core of the project were the systematic investigation of ethnic processes in 5th and 6th century Vandal North Africa and the perceptions of Vandal identity in medieval and modern Europe. The approach chosen represented an innovation in Vandal studies because it did not regard identity as given but proposed a systematic analysis of the development and construction of identity, based on previous research by the Vienna School of Historical Ethnography` and the works of the applicant Walter Pohl as of his teacher Herwig Wolfram. Peoples and ethnic identities are not seen as natural, but it is asked how they evolved under specific social and political circumstances. In the case study done in Vienna in the last three years a "Vandal identity" was not taken for granted as a basic condition for the evolution of a gens to a regnum. With the described background the texts of Procopius and Victor of Vita, some late antique chronicles, archaeological evidence and the coins of the Vandal kings werde studied. Furthermore the 4th and early 5th century situation in the Pannonian area was analysed to understand the formation of ethnic groups at the borders of the empire. Whether or not there was a stable Vandal people capable of maintaining a specific ethnic identity for many centuries that came from Pannonia or even from the Vistula became more and more doubtful. Integration in imperial Roman structures and the transformation of ethnic identity happened so smoothly that it is not possible to trace them expicitely in our sources. Several different tribes and individuals formed, that were longing for booty and a better life in the imperial provinces. Such groups also quickly disintegrated, mainly as a consequence of a lost war, as the Vandals did in 533. The ethnonym "Vandals" was used as long as the 18th century for very diverse political and scholary purposes. The Swedish kings bore the title Rex Suecorum, Gothorum, Vandalorumque until 1972 to affirm that they could be traced back to antiquity and the noble and famous invaders of the Roman empire. At the same time the title referred to the equation of Wends (for the Slavs) and Vandals that was used in medieval sources, which gave the Slavs an old history and a place in the scholary european ethnical system established since Isidore of Sevilla. "Vandalism" ("vandalisme"), a term invented during the French revolution, is the most recent use of "Vandal identity". The project aimed at studying these representations of the past in context.