The Baiuvarii, Bavarii, sometimes simply called Bavarians (German: Bajuwaren) were a Germanic people who lived in or near present day southern Bavaria, which is named after them.

They began to appear in records by the 6th century AD, and their culture, language and political institutions are the predecessors of those of the medieval Duchy of Bavaria and Margraviate of Austria.

Among the Baiuvarii the Bavarian language developed, which is West Germanic language related to Standard German, still spoken not only by modern-day Bavarians, but also by Austrians and South Tyroleans.

The name of the Baiuvarii is also spelled Baiuvari.^[1] It probably means "men from Bohemia".^[1] The placename Bohemia is believed to be connected to that of the Boii, a Celtic people who partly left the region before the Roman era and then were dominated by Germanic peoples. The Baiuvarii gave their name to the region of Bavaria.^[2]

The language of the Baiuvarii is classified as Germanic.^[3][4] It is uncertain whether they originally spoke an East Germanic or West Germanic language.^[5] Early evidence regarding the language of the Baiuvarii is limited to personal names and a few Runic inscriptions. By the 8th century AD, the Baiuvarii were speakers of an early form of the Austro-Bavarian language within the West Germanic family.^[3][2]

The name is first attested in Latin sources in the 6th century AD.

• The early 6th century biography of Severinus of Noricum describes the region without mentioning them.^[6]
• One of the earliest references to the Baiuvarii is the Frankish Table of Nations from about 520, which describes them as a people with kinship to the Burgundians, Thuringians and Lombards.^[6]
• In his Getica (551), Jordanes described how the Suebian people under the rule of the 5th century king or warlord named Hunimund moved to the southern side of the Danube to live in an Alpine area near the Alemanni, with the Franks on their west, Thuringians to their north, Burgundians to their south, and the Baibaros to their east, who are generally understood to have been the Bavarians.^[7]
• In a poem about a pilgrimage to Augsburg in 565, Venantius Fortunatus mentions the land Baioaria on the river Lech, which flows north from the Austrian alps to the German Danube.^[1] They were between the Allemanni on the Danube and the Breuni who were based near the river Inn.

Evidence from the etymology of their name implies that the Baiuvarii, being named after Bohemia, can not have existed under that name before the 1st century AD. During this period Maroboduus, king of the Germanic Marcomanni, lead his people into their area which had previously been inhabited by the Celtic Boii.^[2] Whether the Baiuvarii settled Bavaria in a specific later migration, after Maroboduus, either from the north (Bohemia) or from Pannonia, is uncertain.^[2]

A possible earlier record of the Baiuvarii, is the 2nd century mention of the Banochaemae, whose name appears to have a similar etymology. Claudius Ptolemy described them in his Geography as living near the Elbe, east of the Melibokus mountains, and north of the Asciburgius mountains.^[8]

According to Karl Bosl, Bavarian migration to present-day Bavaria is a legend.^[6] The early Baiuvarii are often associated with the Friedenhain-Přešťovice archaeological group, but this is controversial.^[1] During the time of Attila in the 5th century, the entire Middle Danube region saw the entry of many new peoples from north and east of the Carpathians, and the formation and destruction of many new and old political entities.

It is thus more probable that the Baiuvarii emerged in the provinces of Noricum ripense and Raetia secunda following Odoacer's withdrawal of population to Italy in 488, and the subsequent expansion of Italian Ostrogothic, and Merovingian Frankish influence into the area.^[1][6] They are believed to have incorporated elements from several Germanic peoples, including the Sciri, Heruli, Suebi, Alemanni, Naristi, Thuringi and Lombards. They might also have included non-Germanic Romance people (romanized Celtic people).^[1]

The region was under the influence of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Theodoric the Great. During this period, the Frankish king Theudebert I (died 548) claimed control from the North Sea to Pannonia. After his death, his uncle Chlothar I appointed Garibald I as dux of Bavaria.^[6] He established the Agilolfings dynasty with his power base at Augsburg or Regensburg.^[1] By the 8th century, many Baiuvarii had converted to Christianity.^[9]

Through their ruling Agilolfings dynasty, they were closely connected with the Franks.

A collection of Bavarian tribal laws was compiled in the 8th century. This document is known as Lex Baiuvariorum. Elements of it possibly date back to the 6th century.^[1] It is very similar to Lex Thuringorum, which was the legal code of the Thuringi, with whom the Baiuvarii had close relations.^[10]

The funerary traditions of the Baiuvarii are similar to those of the Alemanni, but quite different from those of the Thuringi.^[10]

The Baiuvarii are distinguished by the presence of individuals with artificially deformed craniums in their cemeteries. These individuals were predominantly female; there is no undisputed evidence of males with artificially deformed skulls in Bavaria.^[11] Genetic and archeological evidence shows that these women were migrants from eastern cultures, who married Bavarii males, suggesting the importance of exogamy within the Bavarii culture.^[12] The migrant women were fully integrated in to Bavarii culture.^[13]

In 2018, genomic research showed that these foreign women had southeastern European and East Asian ancestry. The presence of these women among the Bavarii people indicates that men from the Bavarii culture practiced exogamy, preferentially marrying women from eastern populations.^[14][a][15]

A genetic study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 2018 examined the remains of 41 individuals buried at a Bavarian cemetery ca. 500 AD. Of these, 11 whole genomes were generated. The males were found to be genetically homogeneous and of north-central European origin. The females were less homogeneous, carried less Northern European ancestry, and were found to combine Southeast European and East Asian ancestry.^[14]

There were significant gender differences in skin, hair and eye pigmentation in the sample. While 80% of the Bavarii males had blond hair and blue eyes, the women had much higher rates of brown eyes and darker hair colors. The local women with East Asian and Southern European-related ancestry, generally had brown eyes, and 60% were dark haired.^[b][c]

No significant admixture with Roman populations from territories further south of the area was detected.^[d] Among modern populations, the surveyed male individuals did not have modified skulls and were found to be most closely related to modern-day Germans.^[e]

• Austrians
• Bavarians
• Elbe Germanic peoples
• Irminones

• Fries-Knoblach, Janine; Steuer, Heiko; Hines, John, eds. (2014). The Baiuvarii and Thuringi: An Ethnographic Perspective. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 9781843839156.

• Media related to Bavarii at Wikimedia Commons