Carpi (people)
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| Carpi | |
|---|---|
.svg) | |
| Ethnicity | Disputed (Dacian, Sarmatian, Thracian, Slavic, Germanic, Baltic, Celtic) |
| Language | Unknown (no direct evidence) |
The Carpi or Carpiani were a tribe that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD 140 and until at least AD 318.
The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as there is no direct evidence in the surviving ancient literary sources. A strong body of modern scholarly opinion considers that the Carpi were a tribe of the Dacian nation.[1][2][3] Other scholars have linked the Carpi to a variety of ethnic groups, including Sarmatians, Thracians, Slavs, Germanic peoples, Balts and Celts.
About a century after their earliest mention by Ptolemy, during which time their relations with Rome appear to have been peaceful, the Carpi emerged in c. 238 as among Rome's most persistent enemies. In the period AD 250–270, the Carpi were an important component of a loose coalition of transdanubian barbarian tribes that also included Germanic and Sarmatian elements. These were responsible for a series of large and devastating invasions of the Balkan regions of the empire which nearly caused its disintegration in the "Crisis of the Third Century".
In the period 270–318, the Roman "military emperors" acted to remove the Carpi threat to the empire's borders. Multiple crushing defeats were inflicted on the Carpi in 273, 297, 298-308 and in 317. After each, massive numbers of Carpi were forcibly transferred by the Roman military to the Roman province of Pannonia (modern western Hungary) as part of the emperors' policy of repopulating the devastated Danubian provinces with surrendered barbarian tribes. Since the Carpi are no longer mentioned in known documents after 318, it is possible that the Carpi were largely removed from the Carpathian region by c. 318 or, if any remained, it is possible that they mingled with other peoples resident or immigrating into Moldavia, such as the Sarmatians or Goths.
Name etymology
[edit]The Greco-Romans called this people the Carpi or Carpiani.[4] Probably the earliest mention of them, under the name Καρπιανοί (Carpiani in Latin) is in the Geographia of the 2nd-century Greek geographer Ptolemy, composed c. AD 140.[5][6]
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The name Carpi or Carpiani may derive from the same root as the name of the Carpathian mountain range that they occupied, also first mentioned by Ptolemy under the name Καρπάτης - Karpátēs.[7] The root may be the putative Proto-Indo-European word *ker/sker, meaning "peak" or "cliff" (cf. Lithuanian karpyti "mountain peaks looking like a saw", Albanian karpë "rock", Romanian (ş)carpă "precipice", Sanskrit kar "cut", and Latin scarpa, cfr. Italian scarpata, English escarpment).[8][9] Scholars who support this derivation are divided between those who believe the Carpi gave their name to the mountain range (i.e. the name means "mountains of the Carpi")[10][11] and those who claim the reverse. In the latter case, Carpiani could mean simply "people of the Carpathians".[7] But the similarity between the two names may be coincidence, and they may derive from different roots. For example, it has been suggested that the name may derive from the Slavic root-word krepu meaning "strong" or "brave".[12]
Romanian scholar Vasile Pârvan considered that the following peoples recorded in ancient sources correspond to Ptolemy's Karpiani:
- the Kallipidai mentioned in the Histories of Herodotus (composed around 430 BC) as residing in the region of the river Borysthenes (Dnieper)[13][14]
- the Karpídai around the mouth of the river Tyras (Dniester) recorded in a fragment of Pseudo-Scymnus (composed c. 90 BC)[14][15]
- the Harpii, located near the Danube Delta, mentioned by Ptolemy himself.[14][16]
If so, their locations could imply that the Carpi had very gradually migrated westwards in the period 400 BC - AD 140, a view championed by Kahrstedt.[17] These names' common element carp- appears frequently in Dacian and Thracian placenames and personal names.[9][18] But there is no consensus that these groups are in fact Carpi. Bichir suggests that they were Thraco-Dacian tribes distantly related to the Carpi.[19]
Territory
[edit]The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World places the Carpi between the river Hierasus (Siret) and the river Porata (Prut)[20]
However, it is not possible to reliably define the territories of these groups due to the imprecision of the ancient geographical sources. Also, it is likely that in many areas, ethnic groups overlapped and the ethnic map was a patchwork of dispersed sub-groups. The Sarmatians and Bastarnae are attested, in both literature and archaeology, all over Wallachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia.[21][22][23] It is likely that, when Greco-Roman sources refer to conflicts with the Costoboci, Carpi or Goths, they are referring to coalitions of different groups under the currently hegemonic tribe. Given the Carpi's repeated raids South of the Danube and clashes with the Romans during the 3rd century, it is likely by ca. 230, the Carpi had extended their hegemony over eastern Wallachia, previously dominated by the Roxolani.
Material culture
[edit]There is no dispute among scholars that some Decebalic-era Dacian settlements in Moldavia (mostly west of the Siret, with a few on the east bank (including Piroboridava, identified with Poiana-Tecuci), were abandoned by 106, most likely, according to Bichir, as a result of the Roman conquest of Dacia.[24] From this time, Bichir identifies two distinct cultures in Moldavia, existing side by side. One, a sedentary culture, labelled "Daco-Carpic" by Bichir, started around 106 and disappeared around 318;[25] A smaller culture displayed characteristics usually associated with nomadic peoples from the Eurasian steppes, labelled "Sarmatian" by Bichir.[22]
By 1976, 117 sedentary settlements had been identified, the great majority (89) located West of the Siret (thus inside Dacia's borders as defined by Ptolemy).[26] The inhabitants lived in both surface-dwellings and sunken-floor huts. The single-roomed surface-dwellings were made of wattle and beaten-earth, usually of rectangular or square form, varying from 9 sq m to 30 sq m in size. Each contained a clay hearth placed at the centre of the dwelling. The more numerous sunken-earth huts are usually of oval or round shape.[27] The sedentary people generally cremated their dead, both adults and children, according to Bichir: all the 43 purely "Daco-Carpic" (sedentary) cemeteries used only cremation. The ashes from the cremation were, in the great majority of cases, buried inside urns.[28] Some graves contained grave-goods, but no weapons other than a single dagger. Mundane goods include knives, keys, and belt-buckles; valuable goods include Sarmatian-style mirrors, silver ear-rings, gold pendants and beads.[29]
Pottery found in sedentary sites includes the hand-made "porous" type, grey wheel-made ware, red-fired pottery and imported Roman ware. Bichir describes the first two as continuing Dacian La Tène pottery, and points to the presence of the so-called "Dacian cup", a cup of distinctive design, as evidence of a Dacian base to this culture. However, he admits that the pottery also shows Roman and Sarmatian influence.[30] The sedentary folk appear to have been generally illiterate, as no "Daco-Carpic" inscription was ever found during the very intensive excavations carried out in the region.
The sedentary culture did not issue its own coinage. However, Roman coinage circulated "intensely" in the Carpi's territory, according to Bichir.[31] This is based on the large number of coin-hoards found in Moldavia (90), and about 100 isolated coins. However, the circulation of Roman coins seems to have virtually ceased after 218, as no coin-hoards and only 7 isolated coins have been found from after Caracalla, who ruled AD 211–218.