This is a paragraph where he is discussing what remnants and artifacts survive to tell us about the culture of the Goths in the 5th century AD.
"The dance is something with no survival, lacking verbal or pictoral record. The Goths may have had it. If they painted, it was not in a medium or on a material that has survived. Their history was unwritten. Their scientific speculation may not have gone beyond mead-table discussions and arguments. There is no record of their early philosophy. Since they were Germans, they must have constructed philosophical systems; and also, since they were Germans, these would have been erroneous."R. A. LaffertyThe Fall of Rome