The Crimean Goths were a Germanic-speaking people that lived in the lands around the Black Sea, especially Crimea, between about the 3rd and 18th centuries. While the exact period when they ceased to exist as a distinct culture is unknown, they were the longest-lasting of the peoples known as Goths – a name applied to various tribes that may have had little or no connection to each other. Based on the limited historical and linguistic evidence, the Crimean Goths may have been connected to a preceding East Germanic tribe called the Greuthungi and/or a tribe speaking a West Germanic language.