Istvaeones

The Istvaeones, Istaevones or Istiaeones, whose name may originally have been Istriones, were a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine border of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD, and who were understood on the basis of old Germanic "songs" (Latin: carmina) to descend from an ancient common ancestor. According to Tacitus the old songs described three such groups, each descended from one of the three sons of their common ancestor who was named Mannus, and who was in turn the son of a god named Tuisco. The other two groups were the Ingaevones who lived on the North Sea coast, and the Herminones who lived further inland. Apart from this Mannus story, Tacitus noted there were claims that this god had more offspring, and that there were other tribal names as old as these three. In an earlier mention of these three peoples by Pliny the Elder it is explained that the Istvaeones lived near the Rhine. The surviving manuscripts of both Pliny and Tacitus lack any listing of specific Germanic peoples who were Istvaeones.

Although the names of these three peoples did not appear again in Roman era literature, they were used again in learned medieval literature, although different nations were included in the medieval versions. The terms were also revived in modern times in both archaeology and linguistics, in proposals about the evolution of the languages and cultures of the Germanic peoples. The use of these terms in linguistics and archaeology is especially associated with the interdisciplinary proposals of Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984).

In archaeology, the term Istvaeonic has sometimes been associated with the so called Rhine-Weser material culture which came into being during the Roman era, replacing earlier La Tène material cultures. The material culture of the region became distinct after the Romans first entered the region. In linguistics, the term "Istvaeonic languages" is sometimes given for a proposed sub-grouping within the West Germanic language family, consisting of a proposed Frankish language and its descendants, which would include Old Dutch and several historical dialects of German. The language of the ancestral Istvaeones may have been Celtic, but Maurer proposed that their language indirectly influenced later Germanic languages in the area as a substrate.