Talk:Migration Period

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[edit] Bibliography

Love the page, but can anyone provide a few references more recent than 1923? Harthacanute 01:58, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Title and scope

There is no reason to use the German term Völkerwanderung in an English-language Wikipedia, where Human migration is an exact equivalent, and at the same time many reasons not to connect these historic phenomena specifically with a 19th century German historians' term and whatever nationalistic baggage may come along with that.

Which is better, Migration (human) or Migration (history). I prefer "human" myself. Wetman 15:36, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)

(I was wrong here and caused misunderstandings. I really should have meant "Migrations period", which is currently a redirect to Volkerwanderung.) --Wetman 20:57, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
You do not understand. Volkerwanderung is the name of a specific group of migrations in European history (both in the English & German languages), not a generic reference for all human migrations. There is no need to pile all content about all human migrations into a single article. Please let it be. Crusadeonilliteracy 18:02, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)
But I think I do understand: the term Völkerwanderung was created to refer specifically to the Germanic migrations that divide the culture of Antiquity from that of the Middle Ages, the period modern historians refer to in English as the Migrations (or Early Medieval) and that the English-speaking 19th century used to call the Dark Ages— not a very modern term itself. There is room at Wikipedia both for Volkerwanderung, with its own connotations, and for Human migrations in the broader modern historical sense. surely. I certainly won't blank Völkerwanderung.Wetman 18:43, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Not only Germanic people migrated by the Völkerwanderung . It was initiated by Huns and Slavs and Turks took part in it. Cautious 09:46, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Now I understand your concept better and know what is wrong with it. The division of culture was made by all migrations between 500-900. However, if you want to refer to the reception of the migration in German culture, feel free to use the word Völkerwanderung. One should remember, that this the product of one eye-blind view of German historians, that saw only Germanic people as important. In the matter of fact, Germanic people, were the same level barbarians like Slavic, the are only 2 differents: (1) they got in touch with Romans few centuries before and little bit civilised sooner, (2) they settled down in the already civilised provinces and assimilated little bit by the higher culture that existed there before. There is no agreement on reproducing the discriminative view of Europe, that makes artificial divisions between Western and Eastren part. Cautious 10:41, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Dbachmann, see above. --Joy [shallot] 00:05, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

what?? dab (ᛏ) 20:22, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)
ah, in case you mean to suggest that I think Germans are more important than Slavs: I fully endorse what Cautious says. If I added Germanic tribes to this articles, this was not because I think Slavic tribes should not be added. It is true that the Migration period is dominated by Germanic tribes and Huns, and that the Slavs appear on history's radar slightly later, though, but early slavic migrations certainly may be traced to the Migration period. dab (ᛏ) 20:26, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Völkerwanderung is what German historians called it. The Romans saw it as The Barbarian Invasions, later historians have called it The Germanic Invasions. It is apparent that neither Barbarian, nor Germanic, nor Invasion correctly describe this vastly complicated process which took place over hundreds of years and thousands of kilometers. I'm a strong supporter of the term Völkerwanderung, while at the same time I wish to expand it to include the non-Germanic "nations" which participated, primarily the Slavs, Huns and Turks. It is also important to realise that these migrations where influenced by push factors in Central Asia, where most of these tribes started out such as the Mongolan Hoards which "encouraged", so to speak the various tribes to move on.

I want to expand this article to include the things mentioned above, as soon as I can research it properly. This is a pivotal moment in European history and deserves more coverage. --BadSeed 19:55, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Good widely-used modern historians' terms for this period of transition include Late Antiquity, Great Migrations or Migrations Period and Early Medieval Period (There's already an entry Early Medieval History of Northumbria, for example.) Each term is most suitable in its own somewhat different context. Three articles, referring to the existence of the other two, would give three perspectives, with some factual overlap, probably. Völkerwanderung still has its place and its own entry: the history of specifically Germanic migrations (with a subsection on 19th century historical views) --Wetman 20:57, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)


Ok, I've been looking over the aricles on this subject, so far there appears to be this one, a sub topic in Human Migration and the Northumbria article. It would be good to have a dedicated article to the sujbect. If I manage to write something decent and post it, it will hopefully compensate for the stub in Great Migrations and Human Migration and , while this article as you point out would be a good for either the Germanic aspect or the 19th Century historical aspect, or whatever. --BadSeed 21:31, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)


I do think this article should be called Migration period. It was originally entitled Volkerwanderung probably to suggest that the concept is an outdated historical notion of grey-bearded German historians. Since the article is also about modern notions of what happened between 300 and 700 AD, it should also be titled with the contemporary English term. This article will just be a redirect, until the 'history' section on Migrations period grows large enough to warrant a specialized article. dab (ᛏ) 20:22, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Suggested addition

This is temporarily posted here to be worked on,. I didn't want to just put it into the text, if this whole subject is sensitive. Wetman 20:33, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC):

They saw these migrations as a contributory factor leading to the break-up of the Roman Empire. English-language historians of the same generations persisted in the old usage "barbarians"
The expansion of Germanic peoples into Southern Europe, France,England, Northern Italy and elsewhere allegedly indicated the energy and dynamism of those so-called "barbarian" peoples. This became associated with 19th century German nationalism and the Eastern expansion of Germany (Drang nach Osten), and later helped form the Nazi ideology of Lebensraum, or "living space", the theory that the Germans had an ethnic right to expand their population beyond the national borders of Germany. These migrations, which separated Antiquity from the Middle Ages in Europe and the West generally speaking, but had less effect on the continuity of the Byzantine Empire, also included non-Germanic Huns and Slavs, Avars and others. Thus Modern English-language historians refer to the Völkerwanderung as "Migrations period" and "Migrations art."
Two kinds of wanderers were involved. Some were marauding war-bands. Others were peoples on the move, with their women and children, their slaves and chattels. Not all the migrations were of people who were nomadic by culture. Sometimes the war-bands acted as the wedge that opened the way for a broader migration: Angle and Saxon raiding parties harassed the Romano-Britons before the full brunt of the Anglo-Saxon immigration began.

I think you should keep the actual history and how 19th century Nationalists (mis)interpreted it to their own ends separate. IMO, the like between the Völkerwanderung and German expansion belongs under Historiography, not History. --BadSeed 20:00, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Good point! Each periodization entry at Wikipedia should really have a subsection (at the very bottom?): Historiography of... to cover these points for each term. --Wetman 20:57, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)
That would be good. Pretty had to do. Historigraphy tends to be a rather specialised thing so finding compenent writters might be hard. At least it might reduce some of the confusion about the difference between POV and Historical Interpretation

--BadSeed 21:15, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] One article, two articles or many?

I'm not sure I understand what's in process here, but in case we are about to get several articles covering different understandings of the same phenomenon, I would like to protest as early as possible. If the term Migrations Period is more common in English than Völkerwanderung, then I don't understand why not this article is moved.

However, User:JHK, who seems to know what she does, moved this article here.
--Ruhrjung 02:29, Jan 13, 2005 (UTC)

It's our choice. I'm for one article, at Migrations Period, with a section about 19th century interpretations. The timeline thing I created is horrible, by the way, but I got fed up with fiddling with it. Any help is appreciated. dab (ᛏ) 17:07, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Is the following a consensus picture: Migrations Period is indeed the most current term, even extended to art (Sutton Hoo). The other view of the same events is at Late Antiquity. The two should link to one another and complement one another. The Germanic migrations, and their romantic nationalist perspective are at Völkerwanderung umlaut and all, somewhat as "Dark Ages" is already about historiography rather than history itself. Individual tribes are given individual articles in the plural: Huns, Goths, Franks even Merovingians and Visigoths. The same events are seen from a local perspective under 'History of" subsections at cities (Pavia etc) or at articles for areas (Lombardy, Duchy of Spoleto etc). The next article in a sequence of the History of Europe should be Early Middle Ages, leading up to the Carolingians, the major ending to this group of mutually-supporting articles. A very condense disambiguation might head each article, much as I hate the look, and the reader should also be guided from History of Europe (or better ideas?) BtW anyone interested here will be interested in Wikipedia:WikiProject Middle Ages--Wetman 23:05, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)
sounds ok. I really think it is more important to get this article in better shape first, and decide on how to distribute the material among several articles later. But your proposal is good, of course. dab (ᛏ) 08:56, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Late Antiquity goes from the crisis of the third century to around 700AD. Early Middle Ages from around 700 to 1000 and High Middle Ages goes from 1000 to 1300. These are the general terms and bounds in use at the moment in acadamia. The other periodization articles could be historiographical in nature (similar to Dark Ages) and redirect the reader to a single article that contain the specific history. Stbalbach 06:16, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposal to rename article

I would like rename the article to "Migration Period"

  1. Singular not plural as that is the Wikipedia convention, and theres no clear precendent either way.
  2. Since it is a term of periodization, we need not worry about what it implies, that is handled in the historiography section. See Dark Ages for how this can be handled. We report on how the rest of the world views the term, not what we would prefer it to mean.
  3. As a proper noun "Period" is capitalized (as in "Dark Ages" vs "Dark ages")
  4. Migration Period is a commonly used term of periodization. See Migration Period art for example.
  5. Völkerwanderung is obscure and generally unknown to the average English reader.

--Stbalbach 04:13, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It looks like someone jumped the gun and renamed the article before anyone had time to discuss or make input. The article is now called "Migration Period" for the reason listed above. Any change to this I would appreciate to discuss first to avoid any edit wars and subsequent problems. Stbalbach 28 June 2005 16:52 (UTC)
No, I didn't jump the gun, people have been talking about "Migrations period" months ago, read the fine discussion above. --Joy [shallot] 28 June 2005 17:00 (UTC)
Not everyone agreed with the change, and there was no clarity on what to call it exactly (plural or singular, capital letters or not). Anyway it's now been done, water under the bridge, hopefully there are no hard feelings with anyone. Stbalbach 28 June 2005 17:04 (UTC)

[edit] Improvement Drive

The article History of the Balkans has been listed to be improved on Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive. You can add your vote there if you would like to support the article.--Fenice 17:18, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Map request

I've added a request for a map for this article on Wikipedia:WikiProject_Maps/Requested_and_orphan_maps. (Though multiple maps might be necessary.) I think such an addition would go a long way toward making this article easy and quick to read, and to help readers (including myself) get clear on the relevant geography. -- Beland 04:19, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

The German Wikipedia has a nice map here. dab (ᛏ) 11:19, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ecological influence

I read that the Barbar invasions induced changes in the ecology of Europe. Basically, the mountains, that had been relatively free of human effect and preserved the pre-Human environment, were settled by peoples fleeing the fightings.

I guess it could have been caused by the coetaneous changes in agriculture or some other process.

Can somebody confirm? --Error 21:57, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] length

I have my doubts that "Migration Period" is used for times as late as 900, or even 1000 as suggested by the timeline. Sure, migrations continued to occur, but the term doesn't apply to them (otherwise, we would have to argue that the Migration Period never ended). By 800 at the latest, with the Holy Roman Empire, the Migration period ends. Later Migrations are incursions on a solidified political entity, and not chaotic turmoils. The Viking Age is a continuation of the Migration period, but not usually considered part of the Migration period. AD 300-800 would be acceptable, 300-700 would be more common, and note that the German article says that the span of the term in the narrow sense covers 375-568 only. dab (ᛏ) 11:18, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

since there was no reply, I'll reduce the span given. Charlemagne was certainly no Migration Period ruler, I'll opt for 300-700. dab (ᛏ) 15:24, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
The Dictionary of the Middle Ages defines the period as ending roughly in the middle of the 6th century when the Germanic kingdoms had been established, mainly focused on the 5th and 6th centuries. Certainly it should not start before 375 though? I think 375-568 is pretty accurate, this is a German historiographical term usually used to emphasis the carving up of a collapsing roman empire and establishment of German kingdoms. -- Stbalbach 01:02, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
Actually reading our article "The modern account" it makes a case for including the Slavs which extends it later, and also includes events in the 8-10th centuries. I'll add a cite request for the modern account. -- Stbalbach

[edit] DNA evidence

Moved this recent DNA text to here:

In addition, recent DNA analysis of current populations suggests that the german language and culture, moreso than the germanic peoples, expanded in geographic influence. This is due to the current populations of europe being shown to be very similar, in DNA terms, to the populations in pre-roman times with only minimal germanic input. Thus, the migration period may be more simmilar to the celtic and roman linguistic and cultural expansions in western europe.

Need a citation. DNA results are always complex in what they really mean, and are often mis-interpreted by the press to make a good/interesting story. So, we need to see the original science paper and have someone parse it for what it's really saying, now what the BBC or whomever says. --Stbalbach 16:39, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Map

That map's good, but it should be in English.--Cúchullain t/c 00:55, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why did a migration occur?

I would like to see more this article on why the migration occurred.

  • If it was not a hostile invasion, and merely occupying under-populated land, then the Roman Empire should have been able to absorb them
  • Why would their land suffer population pressures when the Roman Empire was under-populated?
  • Is there evidence that the environment was changing adversely?
  • If there was displacement by other tribes, what caused these tribes to move west?) JMcC 13:00, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] They didn't move only westwards

Some Germanic people moved east, this is why they are called "Ostrogoths", not to mention other branches. And it was central and eastern Europe (Byzantine empire included) that caught the wave first. Dpotop 09:51, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

The Ostrogoths did not migrate east, they originated in the east. Ameise -- chat 08:56, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
I thought Goths, including Ostrogoths, originated in the Scandinavian peninsula. And the oldest mentions put them in Poland (near Vistula). Dpotop 10:53, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Slavs, Alans, Avars, Bulgars, Hungarians, Pechenegs, Cumans, Tatars

What about these other migrating people? Nobody mentions the slavs and the alans, even though their migrations fit the chosen time frame. Dpotop 09:44, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

And why this time frame? Migrations continued until the 10th century, with the Hungarians (Magyars), Pechenegs, Cumans, and ultimately Tatars. And these migrations are well-documented.

I didn't mention here mongols, because their movements were ultimately part of some state's policy. Dpotop 09:44, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 500 AD?

There was no western Roman Empire in AD 500, please fix that in the graphic.--Damifb 12:46, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disagreement with title name!!!

This is so insulting to me and others of Italian descendants, to negate the horrible atrocities the Germanic tribes did to the Italian countryside and its inhabitants!! This is purely done to gloss over these horrible violent raids and conquest and make the past more suitable for modern day peoples of Germanic ancestry. This is absolutely insane to change history to suit your own propaganda purposes. The facts are the facts and history Should Never be rewritten to soothe the ego's of modern day Germanics or any people for that matter. God forbid how will they gloss over slavery in a another hundred years or so.


Thankfully, this new viewpoint is not agreed upon by all historians around the world. This new movement where the Germanic tribes are portrayed in a more favorable way, has a strong following in Germanic countries such as Scandavia, Northern Europe and most predominately in the USA. This new movement wants to cover up the violence and atrocities and downright massacre that the Germanic tribes did to the Latin people of Western Rome and Italy during the 5th-7th century.

This is not the viewpoint that historians in Italy or most other nations around the world have. There are numerous historical facts, literature, evidence and letters throughout Italy that shows the Invasion was devastating and severe. Read, "the Fall of Rome" by Bryan Ward-Perkins.

In Italy the Barbarian Invasions are still looked at as a time of great destruction and violence. Italy had no standing army at the time, so the battle was fought primarily between Germanic warriors and Italian citizens, including woman and young children. The multiple invasions and raids led by the Germanic tribes led to huge amounts of Italian refugees flooded from the cities and countryside, there land was confiscated, the woman & daughters were raped, murdered, persercuted(catholic christians), tortured, plundered, and families were broken up and left to starve and thousands of Italians and Romans were enslaved and massacred.

This article should still be entitled, "Barbarian Invasions".....I wonder if Americans will be so kind as to call the massive immigration of Hispanics(and this is only the beginning of their exodus to America) as a peaceful migration period?? I highly doubt it, The arrogance, naivety, blindness and hypocrisy of modern day American people and historians is unacceptable, immoral and disgusting!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Joeguida30 (talk • contribs)


In Italy the Barbarian Invasions are still looked at as a time of great destruction and violence. Italy had no standing army at the time, so the battle was fought primarily between Germanic warriors and Italian citizens, including woman and young children. The multiple invasions and raids led by the Germanic tribes led to huge amounts of Italian refugees flooded from the cities and countryside, there land was confiscated, the woman & daughters were raped, murdered, persercuted(catholic christians), tortured, plundered, and families were broken up and left to starve and thousands of Italians and Romans were enslaved and massacred. Perhaps "Germanic Invasions" would be a better more descriptive name.(Scipio3000 21:41, 9 August 2007 (UTC))


To Joeguida30: You state that thousands italians and romans were ensalved and massacred. Did you know that Caesar alone killed 2 millions germanic people? So, should we rename the roman empire to Mass-Murder Empire, and leave any neutrality? I prefer the truth without insults.

In the last decades of the Roman Empire, they used the germanic people as military servants in many battles, but often broke contracts to make them weak. After they maked even a deal with the extremly aggressive and cruel huns to massacre their true and most loyal allies, the burgunds, which served them well in many battles even against other germanic people, no germanic people would trust them again. Finally, Western-Rom was destroyed by an Foederati of East-Roman, and they tried to keep Rom intact. What you mean with murders and starvation, took place when Eastern-Rom attacked his former servant (see Gothic War) because they thought that they are too powerful.

So, only rassistic POV, no germanic murder, rape or whatever. Even the last attack of the Lombards was partly initiated by Narses, so all i see is anti-germanic rassism.


To Scipio3000: invasions is the italian view. People can be only at one place a time, so they leave a place and go (invade?) to another. If you look at europe, for example the Goths, who probably left scandinavia with unknown reason, fought wars against western-rom in contract with eastern-rom as Foederati, so no real invasion. Just a lot of movements in a period (Migration Period), when a big empire broke down. Wispanow 02:35, 15 September 2007 (UTC)


To Wispanow: Two factual errors in your post. First, there was no such thing as a "Germanic people" in the period concerned. There were a great many tribes and tribal confederations, at war with eachother more often than with Rome, which are (very) roughly subdivided in Przeworsk and Jastorf cultures in the archaeological record. Second, Julius Caesar didn't kill very many Germani, as no Germani lived in Gaul during his campaigns. Which by the way were some 500 years before the period the article is about.

Also, please refrain from projecting modern notions of "fairness" in international politics onto a time when such things simply did not apply. Your claim about "rassism" (sic) is simply ridiculous: at the time of the Rhine crossing in 405-406 the de facto ruler of the Western Empire was Stilicho, who was a Vandal.

To Joeguida30 and Scipio3000: The horrors you describe were much greater and had much longer-lasting in places like Britain and Gaul initially. Except from the extreme north which suffered under Radagasius and Attila, Italy was spared most of the bloodshed until the Gothic Wars of the mid-6th century which - amongst other things - led to the utter destruction of the old senatorial class. If you're Italian - and I am assuming you are - please go visit Ravenna, which was flourishing until around AD600 and the remains of this are still to be seen. A fact which Ward-Perkins conveniently ignores in his, in otherwise excellently written and delightfully polemic book.

There is nowhere near a consensus about the precise nature of the invasions or migrations or whatever label one chooses to attach to them in the current academia, and precisely so because the quite limited written sources from the period have been enormously expanded on in recent years with a mass of archaeological data.

What we do know is that specific events such as the Rhine crossings and the Vandal seizure of Roman Africa contributed greatly to the disintegration of the Roman state, and that a great deal of destruction was wrought in the initial events, even though this was mainly constrained to specific areas which mostly initially recover somewhat before going into terminal decline due to the loss of a superstate such as Rome was and the complex trade and exchange networks it made possible.

I think in order to maintain a neutral POV however, the term "Migrations Period" is quite adequate: for Romans it certainly meant "invasion" in the more traditional sense. But for the Germanic peoples on the move it meant a choice between being annihilated or enslaved by the Huns or face Rome's legions who weren't about to let them in without a fight, contrary to what people like Walter Goffart might have claimed before. For them it was therefore a choice of survival and not one of simple spite or avarice.Quadrifoglio (talk) 23:16, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Did those battles really happen? With attila and such?

I have been told that those battles, like at Chalons, were just metaphoric for christianisation. Written by the manipulative tiranic roman church. ANy opinions? (And please dont start to nag about sources)(N33 08:29, 16 October 2007 (UTC))

If you make such a bold and unverified claim, which goes agains almost any source which survives from the period, I am certainly going to nag about sources. Quadrifoglio (talk) 23:18, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Destruction

Obviously the northern european peoples DID cause profound death and violence- it's been shown by many emperical anthropological studies that hunter-gatherer and early state peoples typically have high rates of violence. There's no way the germans and the like would be exempt from this human universal. But why does the article say so little of it other than anecdotes? Someone should fill this in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.103.68.182 (talk) 08:13, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 05:34, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Title Incorrect?

Why isn't this article titled 'Barbarian Invasions', many scholars in history have called it this and its widely known in English as the Barbarian invasions. These peoples didn't arrive peacefully they murdered and pillaged their way across Europe, to call it a 'migration' asif to make it seem like a peaceful event is equivalent to attempting to alter history. This was undoubtedly an invasion they were not welcomed by those who they invaded. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.45.145.109 (talk) 08:22, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That is oversimplifying the issue. Many of these tribes were only 'invading' the Roman empire because they in turn were pushed west by invaders. Several of these tribes even became part of the Roman empire in exchange for a guarantee of protection. Needless to say that they were not at all happy when the Romans were not able to provide it, and were left no choice to move further into the empire after the border fell.
These more nuanced views are (IMHO) one of the major achievements of modern historians, not taking the historical POV but looking at all sides. So no - stay with migration period - if I have a say. Arnoutf 10:21, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

To Arnoudf: I wouldn't say that peaceful accomodation happened very often in the period described in the article. The normal Roman practice was to break up an immigrating tribe into tiny portions and disperse them across the Empire so they could no longer pose a threat. Or, if the tribe had misbehaved from the viewpoint of Rome (which wasn't necessarily a fair one) people were sold off into slavery or worse. The change we see after 376AD is that, starting with the Goths, tribal confederations had reached a size with which they could not only cross into Roman territory, but remain together as a cohesive unit. The Goths who crossed in 376 had 30.000-40.000 fighting men who - as Adrianopolis showed - were a quite capable force too. The Vandal/Suevi/Alemanni Rhine crossing of 406 probably involved even more fighting men. While the Roman army on paper vastly outnumbered both of these groups, it was too widely dispersed to make an effective stand against either force, and the result was disastrous in both cases. Settlement of the groups in a more peaceful fashion mostly happened only much later: the Visigoths entered Roman territory in 376 and were only settled in 418, when Rome's military was much weaker than four decades before. The Burgundians also had been in Gaul for four decades when a more permanent arrangement was made in 443, at a time when the Western Empire was even weaker. The Roman state did not do all this out of a kindness of heart - mass expropriation of one's own citizens' property to a foreign entity would have been as politically hard to sell then as it is now. To state that this all was due to "an imaginative experiment that got a little out of hand" (Goffart, 1980) is thus a distortion of historical fact, and one which has been argued against quite vehemently by a number of authors recently. Quadrifoglio (talk) 05:16, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

"Migration Period" is standard fare now. "Barbarian Invasion" begs the question, skirting it by presenting a foregone conclusion. Some further reading will help. --Wetman (talk) 08:13, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
Even the very notion of migrations at all has come under heavy attack recently, thanks especially to Walter Goffart (who would abhor all our nice maps with those squiggly lines denoting barbarian migrations routes). This is an area in which Wikipedia is very out of date generally, but it would be a very difficult task to try and get it up to speed, if there even is anything like a scholarly consensus to get up to speed with (I don't know). Srnec (talk) 03:56, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] German article

In comparision with the (very long but good) german article (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkerwanderung), the english article is a little bit disappointing. Especially the Bibliography could be enlarged. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.181.4.132 (talk) 14:29, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Question

How can I add to Timeline diagram Serbian Rashka state founded somewhere between 600 AD - 650 AD as stated in Administrativo Imperio