History of the Vandals

Integrating the research progress of the project "Historical Ethnography of the Vandals" finished in 2005 a new overview on Vandal history is planned. The approach chosen 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. Peoples and ethnic identities are not seen as natural, but it is asked how they evolved under specific social and political circumstances. Special attention will be given to the history of research, especially the tradition of "Germanenforschung", which will be problematized carefully. In the case study to be done in Vienna a "Vandal identity" will not be taken for granted as a basic condition for the evolution of a gens to a regnum. With the described background the written sources and the archaeological evidence will be studied, comparing this evidence with other Regna in the "Transformation of the Roman World". Furthermore the identity behind the Vandal name in Roman sources of the 1st and 2nd century AD as the 4th and early 5th century situation in the Pannonian area will be 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 becomes 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. Barbarian warriors entering the Roman empire looking for a better life there took over the power, the imperium. They used old and prestigious names.