Peoples belonging to numerous archeological cultures

Archaeological culture

An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...

 identified with Celtic, Germanic and Baltic

Balts

The Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Jutland peninsula in the west and Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east...

 tribes, lived and migrated through various parts the territory that now constitutes Poland in Antiquity, an era that dates from about 400 BC

Anno Domini

and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....

 to 450–500 AD

Anno Domini

and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....

. Other groups, difficult to identify, were most likely also present, as ethnic

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 composition of archeological cultures is often poorly recognized. Short of using a written language to any appreciable degree, many of them developed relatively advanced material culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 and social organization, as evidenced by the archeological record, for example judged by the presence of richly furnished, dynastic "princely" graves. Characteristic of the period was high geographical migration

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

 rate of large groups of people, even equivalents of today's nations. This article covers the continuation of the Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 (see Bronze and Iron Age Poland

Bronze and Iron Age Poland

The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland begun around 2300–2400 BCE, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 700–750 BCE. The Iron Age archeological cultures no longer existed by the start of the Common Era...

), the La Tène

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

 and Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 influence and Migration

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 periods. La Tène

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

 period is subdivided into La Tène A, 450 to 400 BC; La Tène B, 400 to 250 BC; La Tène C, 250 to 150 BC; La Tène D, 150 to 0 BC. 200 to 0 BC is also considered the younger pre-Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 period (A). It was followed by the period of Roman influence, of which the early stage had lasted from 0 to 150 AD (0–80 B₁, 80–150 B₂), and the late stage from 150 to 375 AD (150–250 C₁, 250–300 C₂, 300–375 C₃). 375 to 500 AD constituted the (pre-Slavic

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

) Migration Period

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 (D and E).

The Celtic peoples established a number of settlement centers, beginning in the early 4th century BC, mostly in southern Poland, which was at the outer edge of their expansion. Through their highly developed economy and crafts, they exerted lasting cultural influence (La Tène culture

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

) disproportional to their small numbers in the region.

Expanding and moving out of their homeland in Scandinavia and northern Germany, the Germanic peoples had lived in today's Poland for several centuries, during which period many of their tribes also migrated out in the southern and eastern directions (see Wielbark culture). With the expansion of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, the Germanic tribes came under the Roman cultural influence. Some written remarks by Roman authors that are relevant to the developments on Polish lands have been preserved; they provide additional insight when compared with the archeological record. In the end, as the Roman Empire was nearing its collapse and the nomadic peoples invading from the east destroyed, damaged or destabilized the various Germanic cultures and societies, the Germanic people left eastern

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 and central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

 Europe for the safer and wealthier southern and western parts of the European continent

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

The northeast corner of contemporary Poland's territory was and remained populated by Baltic tribes. They were at the outer limits of significant cultural influence of the Roman Empire.

Celtic peoples

Archeological cultures and groups

The first Celtic people arrived in Poland, coming from Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

 and Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, around or after 400 BC, just a few decades after their La Tène culture

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

 was born. They formed several enclaves mostly in the southern part of the country, within the Pomeranian

Pomeranian culture

The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture, often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, and subsequently expanded southward...

 or Lusatian

Lusatian culture

The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...

 populations or in areas abandoned by those people. The cultures or groups that were Celtic, or had a Celtic element in them (mixed Celtic and autochthonous

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

), lasted at their furthest extent to 170 AD (the Púchov culture

Púchov culture

The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celt Cotini tribe. It existed in northern and central Slovakia between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE...

). After the Celts moved in, and during their tenure (they had always remained only a small minority), the bulk of the population had begun acquiring the traits of archaeological culture

Archaeological culture

An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...

s with a dominant Proto-Germanic

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

 or Germanic component. In Europe the expansion of Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 and the Germanic pressure checked and reversed the Celtic expansion.

At first two groups established themselves on fertile grounds in Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

: One on the left bank of the Oder River south of Wrocław, in the area that included Mount Ślęża

Mount Sleza

Ślęża is a mountain in the Sudetes foothills in Lower Silesia, from Wrocław, southern Poland. This natural reserve built mostly of granite is 718 m high and covered with forests....

, and one around the Głubczyce highlands; both stayed in their respective regions during the 400–120 BC period. Burial and other significant Celtic sites in Głubczyce County were investigated in Kietrz

Kietrz

Kietrz is a town in Głubczyce County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland, near the border with the Czech Republic. As of 2007, it has a population of 6,366.-Notable residents:*Alfons Luczny , Luftwaffe general...

 and nearby Nowa Cerekiew. The Ślęża group disintegrated eventually within the local population, while the one at Głubczyce Upland apparently migrated out in the southern direction. More recent discoveries include Celtic settlements in Wrocław County, where in Wojkowice a well-preserved 3rd century BC grave of a woman with bronze and iron bracelets, brooches, rings and chains was found.

In another hundred years or more two groups arrived and settled the upper San River

San River

The San is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the Vistula River, with a length of 433 km and a basin area of 16,861 km2...

 basin (270–170 BC) and the Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 area respectively. This last one, together with the local population developing at about that time the Przeworsk culture

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 characteristics (see the next section), formed the mixed Tyniec

Tyniec

Tyniec is a historic village in Poland on the Vistula river, since 1973 a part of the city of Kraków . Tyniec is notable for its famous Benedictine abbey founded by king Casimir the Restorer in 1044.-See also:...

 group, in existence 270–30 BC. The rise of the Tyniec group took place in particular about 80–70 BC, when the existing settlements received Celtic reinforcements from the more southern populations being displaced from Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

 by the Dacians

Dacians

The Dacians were an Indo-European people, very close or part of the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia...

. In 1st century BC another small group settled probably much further north, in Kujawy. And finally there was the long-lasting (270 BC - 170 AD) mixed Púchov culture, associated based on Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 sources with the Celtic Cotini

Cotini

Cotini was a Celtic tribe most probably living in today's Slovakia, and in Moravia and southern Poland. They were probably identical or constituted a significant part of the archaeological Púchov culture, with the center in Havránok.The tribe was first time mentioned in 10 BC in the Elogium of...

, whose northern reaches included parts of the Beskids

Beskids

The Beskids , ) is a traditional name for a series of Eastern European mountain ranges.- Definition :The Beskids are approximately 600 km in length and 50–70 km in width...

 mountain range and even the Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 area.

Economy and crafts, trade and contacts, art

The Celts practiced advanced agriculture and favored fertile lands; they brought with them and disseminated the inventions, including a variety of tools, and other achievements of La Tène culture. Celtic farmers used plows with iron shares and fertilized fields with animal manure. Their livestock consisted of selected breeds

Selective breeding

Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...

, especially sheep and large cattle. The rotational querns

Quern-stone

Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone...

 that they invented had a stationary lower stone and an upper one rotated by a lever. Iron was obtained in greater quantities from locally available turf ores; its metallurgy and processing were improved, resulting in the manufacturing of stronger and more resistant tools and weapons. The ceramic shops used the potter's wheel

Potter's wheel

In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in asma of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...

 and produced with great precision (especially the Tyniec group) baked, thin walled, painted vessels, one of the best in Europe. Domed bilevel furnaces were used, the pots being placed on a perforated clay shelf, with the hearth underneath. Glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 and enamel

Vitreous enamel

Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...

 were produced, gold and semi-precious stones were processed for jewelry.

The Celtic communities kept extensive trade contacts with the Greek cities

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Etruria

Etruria

Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...

 and then Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. They were involved in the amber trade

Amber Road

The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber. As one of the waterways and ancient highways, for centuries the road led from Europe to Asia and back, and from northern Africa to the Baltic Sea....

, whose route ran between the Baltic and Adriatic seas, but amber was also worked on in local shops. Metal coins were used and minted (made of gold and silver in addition to the more common metals) around Kraków in 1st century BC and elsewhere. In Gorzów near Oświęcim

Oswiecim

Oświęcim is a town in the Lesser Poland province of southern Poland, situated west of Kraków, near the confluence of the rivers Vistula and Soła.- History :...

 a whole treasure of Celtic coins was discovered. Original Celtic art found its expression in numerous decorations, where plant, animal and anthropomorphic motifs were used. The various Celtic achievements were adopted by the native populations, but usually with considerable delay.

Prominent settlements and burial sites

The settlement in Nowa Cerekiew functioned from the beginning of 4th to the end of 2nd century BC. One hundred people lived in over twenty houses supported by pillars, with walls made of beams, finished with clay and painted. They were positioned on an elevated area, but the Celtic settlements in Poland had no defensive reinforcements. After the Celts evacuated the area the Nowa Cerekiew settlement remained uninhabited for 150 years, before being reoccupied by the Przeworsk culture

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 people and later the Slavs. Objects recently found at Nowa Cerekiew include a collection of gold and silver coins minted by the Boii

Boii

The Boii were one of the most prominent ancient Celtic tribes of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul , Pannonia , in and around Bohemia, and Transalpine Gaul...

 tribe (3rd - 2nd century BC), Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 coins from Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

 and other colonies, and various metal decorative items. Clay containers, jewelry and tools were recovered in the past. Nowa Cerekiew was a major Celtic trade and political center, one of the very few in central Europe, a source of great profits and northernmost of their Amber Road

Amber Road

The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber. As one of the waterways and ancient highways, for centuries the road led from Europe to Asia and back, and from northern Africa to the Baltic Sea....

 stations.

Among the most significant Celtic finds in Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

 are the extensive and wealthy settlement in Podłęże and its associated cemetery in Zakrzowiec, both in Wieliczka

Wieliczka

-External links:***...

 County, and a multi-period settlement complex in Aleksandrowice, Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 County. The Podłęże site was occupied from mid 3rd century BC on and yielded many metal objects, coins and coin blank molds, large collection of glass bracelets. The Zakrzowiec Celtic graves have the form of large (several meters long) dugout rectangular enclosures containing the ashes and grave offerings, such as pottery and personal ornaments. Graves of the same type but of a later period, 1st to 2nd century AD, are also found around Kraków, which demonstrates continuation of the Celtic tradition even after the arrival of Germanic tribes in the area. The Celtic burial site investigated in Aleksandrowice contains a rich 2nd century BC assemblage of funerary gifts including iron weapons and decorative elements. The unique fancy decorations, including a sheath with a recurring dragon motif, relate the findings only to the Celtic settlement area in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 and western Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

.

Spiritual life and cult sites

Within the Celtic spiritual sphere there is considerable variation. 4th and early 3rd century BC burials in Wrocław and Ślęża region are skeletal. Sometimes a man and a woman were buried together, suggesting the known Celtic practice of killing the wife during her husband's funeral, but women were usually buried separately, with their jewelry. Some of the dead were given meat and a knife for cutting it. From 3rd century on the bodies were cremated, which was also the case in all of the Lesser Poland burials. There in Iwanowice the graves of Celtic warriors (3rd century BC) contain a very rich assortment of weapons and decorations.

Mount Ślęża

Mount Sleza

Ślęża is a mountain in the Sudetes foothills in Lower Silesia, from Wrocław, southern Poland. This natural reserve built mostly of granite is 718 m high and covered with forests....

 formation is believed by many to have been a place of exceptional cult significance, over many centuries, possibly going back all the way to the Lusatian times, but especially for the Celts. Chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg

Thietmar of Merseburg

Thietmar of Merseburg was a German chronicler who was also bishop of Merseburg.-Life:...

 mentions in early 11th century the mountain as a place surrounded by adoration because of its size and the "cursed" pagan ceremonies carried out there. The summits of this and of the neighboring mountains are circled by stone rings and monumental sculptures. Diagonalized cross signs found on many of the stone objects may have had their origin in the Hallstatt

Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...

 - Lusatian solar cult. Such signs can also be seen on the massive "monk" stone sculpture (actually looking more like a simple chess figure or a skittles pin) that was located inside the largest stone ring on Mount Ślęża itself and is therefore believed to originate from the Hallstatt cultural circles. The stone rings also contain fragments of Lusatian ceramics. The younger sculptures ("Maiden with a fish", "Mushroom" and the bear figures) have their distant counterparts in the Iberian Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 Celtic art and are thought to be the work of the Celtic people, who developed the Ślęża cult center further. After that the Mount Ślęża area cult was probably revived by the Slavs

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

, who arrived here in early Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

Early Germanic peoples

La Tène and Jastorf cultures and their role

The Proto-Germanic or Germanic cultures on Polish lands developed gradually and in a diverse way, beginning with the old local Lusatian and Pomeranian stock, influenced and augmented first by La Tène culture

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

 and the Celtic people, and then by the Jastorf culture

Jastorf culture

The Jastorf culture is an Iron Age material culture in what is now north Germany, spanning the 6th to 1st centuries BC, forming the southern part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The culture evolved out of the Nordic Bronze Age, through influence from the Halstatt culture farther south...

 and its tribes, which settled northwestern Poland beginning in 4th century BC, and later migrated in the southeastern direction through and past the main stretch of Polish lands (mid 3rd century BC and afterwards). The disappearing Celtic people made a big impact in central Europe and left a lasting legacy. Their advanced culture catalyzed economic and other progress within the contemporary as well as future populations, which had often had little of no ethnic Celtic component. The archeological period is considered "La Tène" until the beginning of the Common Era

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

. The beginnings of the powerful ascent of the Germanic people, who replaced the Celts, are not easy to discern (e.g. to what degree the Pomeranian culture lands became the Przeworsk culture

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 lands by internal evolution, external population influx or just permeation by the new regional cultural trends).

The early Germanic Jastorf cultural sphere was in the beginning an impoverished continuation of the North German Urnfield culture

Urnfield culture

The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields...

 and the Nordic circle cultures

Nordic Bronze Age

The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...

. It formed around 700–550 BC in northern Germany and Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

 under the Hallstatt

Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...

 influence and in Jastorf's early stages its funeral customs resembled a lot those of the contemporary Pomeranian culture

Pomeranian culture

The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture, often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, and subsequently expanded southward...

. From the Jastorf culture, which rapidly expanded from around 500 BC on, two groups sprang and settled the western borderlands of Poland during the 300–100 BC period: The Oder group in western Pomerania and the Gubin group further south. These peripheral for the Jastorf culture groups very likely originated as Pomeranian culture populations influenced by the Jastorf cultural model. Jastorf communities established large burial grounds, separate for men and women. The dead were cremated and the ashes placed in urns, which were covered by bowls turned upside down. Funeral gifts were modest and rather uniform, indicating a society that was neither affluent nor socially diversified.

The above mentioned migration was undertaken by a part of the Jastorf population, which probably included the tribes later called Bastarnae

Bastarnae

The Bastarnae or Basternae were an ancient Germanic tribe,, who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited the region between the eastern Carpathian mountains and the Dnieper river...

 and Scirii

Scirii

The Scirii were an East Germanic tribe of Eastern Europe, attested in historical works between the 2nd century BC and 5th century AD.The etymology of their name is unclear...

 in Greek written sources, noted because of their military exploits around Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Greek colonies

Colonies in antiquity

Colonies in antiquity were city-states founded from a mother-city—its "metropolis"—, not from a territory-at-large. Bonds between a colony and its metropolis remained often close, and took specific forms...

 in the later part of 3rd century BC. Their route went along the Warta and Noteć

Notec

Noteć is a river in central Poland with a length of 388 km and a basin area of 17,330 km². It is a tributary of the Warta river and lies completely within Poland....

 rivers, then crossed Kujawy and Masovia, turned south along the Bug River

Bug River

The Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...

 and continued on to what today is Moldavia

Moldavia

Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

. It is marked by archeological findings, especially the characteristic bronze crown-shaped necklaces.

Oksywie culture and Przeworsk culture

While it is not clear whether, and to what degree or for what duration some of the passing Jastorf culture people settled at that time on Polish lands, their migration catalyzed, together with the accelerated at this point La Tène culture influence, the emergence of the Oksywie

Oksywie culture

The Oksywie Culture, was an archaeological culture which existed in the area of modern day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD....

 and Przeworsk

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 cultures. Both new cultures were under a strong Jastorf circles influence. The increasingly common within the Przeworsk culture area presence of objects made by the Jastorf people reflects penetration by their population. Both the Oksywie and Przeworsk cultures fully utilized iron processing technologies, and, unlike their predecessor cultures, they show no regional differentiation.

The Oksywie culture

Oksywie culture

The Oksywie Culture, was an archaeological culture which existed in the area of modern day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD....

, so named after a village (now within the city of Gdynia

Gdynia

Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...

) where a burial site was found, lasted from 250 BC to 30 AD and originally occupied the Vistula

Vistula

The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....

 delta region, then the rest of eastern Pomerania, expanded west up to the Jastorf Oder group area, in 1st century BC also including partially what was before that group's territory. It had basically, like other cultures of this period, La Tène cultural characteristics, with traits typical of the Baltic cultures. Oksywie culture's ceramics and burial customs indicate strong ties with the Przeworsk culture.
Men only had their ashes placed in well made black urns with fine finish and a decorative band around. Their graves were supplied (unlike those of the Jastorf culture) with utensils and weapons, including typical for this culture swords with one-sided edge, and were often covered or marked by stones. Women's ashes were buried in hollows and supplied with feminine items. A clay vessel with relief animal images found in Gołębiowo Wielkie in Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 County (2nd half of 1st century BC) is among the finest in all of the Germanic cultural zone.

The Przeworsk culture

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

, named after a town in Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

, near which another burial ground was found, originated like the Oksywie culture around 250 BC, but lasted a long time. In its course it went through many changes, formed tribal and political structures, fought wars, also with the Romans

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, until in 5th century AD its highly developed society of farmers, artisans, warriors and chiefs left for the temptations of the fallen empire lands (for many of them it happened possibly rather quickly, during the first half of that century).

The Przeworsk culture initially became established in Lower Silesia

Lower Silesia

Lower Silesia ; is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia; Upper Silesia is to the southeast.Throughout its history Lower Silesia has been under the control of the medieval Kingdom of Poland, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy from 1526...

, Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

, central Poland, and western Masovia and Lesser Poland, gradually replacing, moving eastbound, the Pomeranian culture, assimilating in process some of its characteristics. In 2nd and 1st century BC (late La Tène period) they followed the lead of the more advanced Celts, implementing their various achievements, to the point of sometimes forming with them mixed groups, cooperating within common settlements (e.g. the Tyniec group in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 region and another one in Kujawy). Arms, clothes and ornaments were patterned after the Celtic products. In the early stages the Przeworsk people displayed no social distinction, their graves were alike and flat, and ashes together with funeral gifts buried usually without urns. Religious practices of pagan Germanic people included offering ceremonies performed in swamp areas, involving man-made objects, produce, farm animals, or even human sacrifice, as was the case at a site near Słowikowo in Słupca County; another such investigated site is in Otalążka, Grójec

Grójec

Grójec is a town in Poland. Located in the Masovian Voivodeship, about 40 km south of Warsaw, it is the capital of Grójec County. It has about 14,875 inhabitants . Grójec surroundings are considered to be the biggest apple-growing area of Poland. It is said, that the region makes up also for...

 County. Dog burials within or around a homestead were another form of protective offerings.

As the Celtic domination in this part of Europe was coming to an end and the borders of the Roman Empire had gotten much closer, the Przeworsk culture people were being subjected to the Greco-Roman world's influence with a rapidly growing intensity.

Early Roman wars and movement of tribes

Much circumstantial evidence points to the participation of Germanic people from Polish lands in the events that took place in the first half of 1st century BC and found their culmination in Gaul

Gaul

Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...

 in 58 BC, as related in Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

's Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Commentarii de Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting local armies in Gaul that opposed Roman domination.The "Gaul" that Caesar...

. At the time of the Suebi

Suebi

The Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c...

 tribal confederation led by Ariovistus

Ariovistus

Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC. He and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani to defeat their rivals the Aedui, after which they settled in large numbers in conquered Gallic...

 arrival in Gaul, a rapid decrease of settlement density can be observed in the areas of the upper and middle Oder River basin. In fact the Gubin group of the Jastorf culture disappeared then entirely, which may indicate this group's identity with one of the Suebi tribes. The western regions of the Przeworsk culture were also vacated (Lower Silesia, Lubusz Land

Lubusz Land

Lubusz Land is a historical region and cultural landscape in Poland and Germany, on both sides of the Oder river.Originally the settlement area of the West Slavic Leubuzzi, a Veleti tribe, the swampy area was located east of Mark Brandenburg and west of Greater Poland, south of Pomerania and north...

 and western Greater Poland), which is where the tribes accompanying the Suebi tribes must have come from. Burial sites and artifacts characteristic of the Przeworsk culture have been found in Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

 and Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, on the route of the Suebi offensive. The above mentioned regions of western Poland had not become repopulated and economically developed again until in 2nd century AD.

As a result of the consequent Roman efforts to subjugate all of Germania

Germania

Germania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...

, the member tribes of the Suebi alliance became displaced, moved east, conquered the Celtic tribes that stood in their way and settled, the Quadi

Quadi

The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little is definitively known. We only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through reports of the Romans themselves...

 in Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, and the Marcomanni

Marcomanni

The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.-Origin:Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of "march" and "men"....

 in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

. The latter tribe, under Marbod

Marbod

Maroboduus , was king of the Marcomanni. The name "Maroboduus" can be broken down into two Celtic elements, māro- meaning "great" , and bodwos meaning "raven"...

, formed a quasi-state with a huge army and was able to conquer the Lugii

Lugii

The Lugii, Lugi, Lygii, Ligii, Lugiones, Lygians, Ligians, Lugians, or Lougoi were an ancient Germanic tribe attested in the book Germania by the Roman historian Tacitus. They lived in ca...

 tribal association among others. What archeologists see as the Przeworsk culture, by this period (early 1st century AD) is believed to consist first of all of the Lugii tribes. A Roman defeat known as the Teutoburg Forest

Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place in 9 CE, when an alliance of Germanic tribes led by Arminius of the Cherusci ambushed and decisively destroyed three Roman legions, along with their auxiliaries, led by Publius Quinctilius Varus.Despite numerous successful campaigns and raids by the...

 Battle (9 AD) stabilized the situation at the peripheries of the Empire to some degree. The Lugii and other tribes on Polish lands were increasingly becoming involved in trade and other contacts, through the Marcomanni and Quadi intermediaries, with the Danubian provinces of Rome. The Lugii, according to Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

, was a very large union of tribes. In 50 AD they invaded and pillaged the Quadi state created by Vannius

Vannius

Vannius was the king of the Germanic tribe Quadi. He lived in the 1st century. The Kingdom of Vannius was in the western part of present day Slovakia and it was the first political unit in Slovak area. He was a client King of Pannonia and Dalmatia and served from 17-20AD under the reign of Tiberius....

, contributing to its fall. The motivation for the expedition were the rumors of the enormous riches that Vannius had accumulated by plunder and charging duties. In 93 AD the Lugii, fighting a war with the Suebi, asked Emperor Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

 for help, and received one hundred mounted soldiers.

Amber Road

Operations of the ancient Amber Road

Amber Road

The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber. As one of the waterways and ancient highways, for centuries the road led from Europe to Asia and back, and from northern Africa to the Baltic Sea....

 - a trans-European, north-south amber trade route, continued and intensified during the Roman Empire times. From 1st century BC the Amber Road connected the Baltic Sea shores and Aquileia

Aquileia

Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in what is now Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso , the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times...

, an important amber processing center. This route was controlled first by the Celts, and later by the Romans south of the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

, by Germanic tribes north of that river, and was used for transporting a variety of traded merchandise (and slaves) besides amber. As told in Naturalis Historia

Naturalis Historia

The Natural History is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...

by Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

, during the reign of Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 an equestrian

Equestrian (Roman)

The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...

 of unknown name led an expedition to the Baltic shorelines, from where he brought a huge quantity of amber, which was subsequently used for propaganda purposes during public games - gladiator

Gladiator

A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...

 fights. The infrastructure of the Amber Road was destroyed by Germanic and Sarmatian

Sarmatians

The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....

 attacks in the second half of 3rd century AD; to a lesser degree it was still used intermittently until mid 6th century. The Przeworsk culture sites provide a rich assortment of Amber Road traded objects.

Gustow group and Lubusz group

From the beginning of the new era until 140 AD two local groups existed in northwest Poland. The Gustow group

Gustow group

The Gustow group is an archaeological culture of the Roman Iron Age in Western Pomerania. The Gustow group is associated with the Germanic tribe of the Rugii....

 (named after Gustow on Rügen

Rügen

Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...

) people lived in the area settled in the past by the Oder group, and south of there, by the middle section of the Oder River was the Lubusz group

Lebus

Lebus is a town in the southeast of the Märkisch-Oderland District in Brandenburg, Germany. It had a population of 3,375 as of 2005. It was the center of the historical region known as Lubusz Land.-Location:...

, in the area previously inhabited by the Gubin group. Those were of an intermediate character, between the Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

 cultural circle to the west, and the Przeworsk and Wielbark cultures to the east (the last one replaced the Oksywie culture after 30 AD).

Przeworsk culture settlements and burial sites

The Przeworsk culture

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 people of the earlier Roman period lived in small, unprotected villages, populated each by a few dozen residents at the most, made up of several or more houses, usually set partially below the ground level, each covering an area of 8–22 square meters. They knew how to dig and build wells, so the settlements didn't have to be located near bodies of water. Thirteen 2nd century wells with variously constructed timber lined walls were found at a settlement in Stanisławice, Bochnia

Bochnia

Bochnia is a town of 30,000 inhabitants on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately in halfway [] between Tarnów and the regional capital Kraków . Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built circa 1248...

 County. Fields were being used for crop cultivation for a while and then as pastures, when animal excrements helped the soil regain fertility. Afterwards, because of plows with iron shares they could be just plowed, rather than burned, and such tillage and grazing cycle was performed repeatedly, with the next field going through an alternate sequence. Several or more settlements made up a microregion, within which the residents cooperated economically and buried their dead in a common cemetery, but which was separated from other microregions by undeveloped areas. A number of such microregions could make up a tribe, with the tribes again separated by empty space, zones "of mutual fear", as Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 put it. The tribes in turn, especially if they were culturally closely related, would at times form larger structures, such as temporary alliances for waging wars, or even early statehood forms.

A Przeworsk culture turn of the millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

 industrial complex for the extraction of salt from salt springs was discovered in Chabsk near Mogilno

Mogilno

Mogilno is a town in central Poland, situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship , previously in Bydgoszcz Voivodeship .-History:...

.

Examinations of the burial grounds, of which even the largest, used continuously over periods of up to several centuries, contain no more than several hundreds graves, shows that the overall population density was low. The dead were cremated and the ashes sometimes placed in urns, which had the mid-part in the form of an engraved bulge, in 1st century AD replaced with a sharp-profiled (with a horizontal ridge around the circumference) shape. The burials were richly appointed, with men and boys provided with weapons, tools and personal toilet items (including razors and scissors), while women were receiving numerous ornaments, bronze mirrors, jewelry pieces and cases, locks and keys, and toy-like miniature objects, some of which, dating from the 1st centuries AD, were found in Siemiechów in Łask Couty. Also in Siemiechów a grave of a warrior who must have taken part in the Ariovistus

Ariovistus

Ariovistus was a leader of the Suebi and other allied Germanic peoples in the second quarter of the 1st century BC. He and his followers took part in a war in Gaul, assisting the Arverni and Sequani to defeat their rivals the Aedui, after which they settled in large numbers in conquered Gallic...

 expedition during the 70–50 BC period was found; it contains Celtic weapons and an Alpine region manufactured helmet used as an urn, together with local ceramics. The burial gifts were often, for unknown reasons, bent or broken, and then burned with the body. The burials range from "poor" to "rich", the latter ones supplied with fancy Celtic and then Roman imports, reflecting a considerably by this time developed social stratification.

Wielbark culture and its burials

The Wielbark culture, named after Wielbark in Malbork

Malbork

Malbork is a town in northern Poland in the Żuławy region , with 38,478 inhabitants . Situated in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously assigned to Elbląg Voivodeship...

 County, where a large cemetery was found, replaced in Pomerania the Oksywie culture

Oksywie culture

The Oksywie Culture, was an archaeological culture which existed in the area of modern day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD....

 rather suddenly and over its entire territory. While the Oksywie culture was closely related to the Przeworsk culture, its successor the Wielbark culture shows only minimal contacts with the Przeworsk areas, indicating a clear tribal and geographical separation. The Wielbark culture lasted on Polish lands from 30 to 400 AD, although most of its people left Poland long before that later date. Some of this culture's burials are skeletal - the dead were inhumed in solid wood log coffins, while other crematory, both identically equipped. The cremated remains were either placed in urns, or just buried in dents. No weapons or tools were put there, but clay vessels, decorations, attire elements and spurs, if the deceased was well-positioned enough to possess a horse. Those various items, and especially the 1st and 2nd century AD jewelry, made of bronze, silver and gold, are the works of highest quality and exceed the comparable products of the Przeworsk culture. This craftsmanship reached its apex in the 2nd century finesse of "baroque" jewelry, beautiful by any standards, placed in graves of women in (as the Wielbark culture expanded south) Poznań

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 Szeląg and Kowalewko, Oborniki

Oborniki

Oborniki is a town in Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, about 30 km north of Poznań. It is the capital of Oborniki County and of Gmina Oborniki. Its population is 18,176 .-External links:* *...

 County, among other places.

The Kowalewko cemetery in Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 is one of the largest in Poland and is distinguished by a great number of beautiful relics, made locally or imported from the Empire. The total number of burials is estimated at over 500, most of which have been excavated. 60 percent of the bodies were not cremated and typically placed in wooden coffins constructed of board or plank pieces. The burial ground was in use from mid 1st century AD to about 220, which gives approximately 80 area inhabitants per generation. Remnants of settlements in the region have also been investigated. At Rogowo near Chełmno a Wielbark settlement, an industrial production site and a 2nd to 3rd century bi-ritual cemetery with very richly furnished graves have been discovered. In the area of Ulkowy, Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 County a settlement consisting of both sunken floor and post construction dwellings, as well as a burial ground in use from mid 1st century to the second half of 3rd century were found. Only a part of the cemetery was excavated on the occasion of a motorway construction, but it yielded 110 inhumations (11 in hollowed-out log coffins) and 15 cremations (8 of them in urns) and a rich collection of decorative objects, mostly from the graves of women. Those include fancy jewelry and accessories made of gold, silver, bronze, amber, glass and enameled plates. Ceramics, utility items and tools including weaving equipment were recovered from the settlement site. Other significant Wielbark settlements in the area were encountered in Swarożyn and Stanisławie, both in Tczew

Tczew

Tczew is a town on the Vistula River in Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 60,279 inhabitants . It is an important railway junction with a classification yard dating to the Prussian Eastern Railway...

 County.

Many Wielbark graves were flat, but kurgan

Kurgan

Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

s are also characteristic and common. In the case of kurgans the grave was covered with stones, which were surrounded by a circle made of larger stones. More earth material was piled to cover all that, with a solitary stone, or stela often put on top. Such a kurgan could include one or several individual burials, have a diameter of up to a dozen or so meters and be up to one meter high. On some burial grounds large stone circles

Stone circle (Iron Age)

The stone circles of the Iron Age were a characteristic burial custom of southern Scandinavia, especially on Gotland and in Götaland during the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the Roman Iron Age. In Sweden, they are called Domarringar , Domkretsar or Domarsäten...

 are found. These consist of massive boulders or rock pieces, up to 1.7 meters high, separated by several meters wide spaces, sometimes connected by smaller stones, the whole structure having a 10 to 40 meter diameter. In the middle of the circles one to four stelae were placed, and sometimes a single grave. The stone circles are believed to be the locations of meetings of Scandinavian (see below) tings

Thing (assembly)

A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...

 - assemblies or courts. The single graves inside the circles are probably of people sacrificed and buried there - human offerings to the gods, to assure their support for the deliberations. A stone kurgans cemetery was found in Węsiory, Kartuzy

Kartuzy

Kartuzy is a town in the historic Eastern Pomerania region of northwestern Poland, located about west of Gdańsk with a population of 15,472...

 County; another burial site with ten large stone circles was discovered in Odry, Chojnice

Chojnice

Chojnice is a town in northern Poland with 39 670 inhabitants , near famous Tuchola Forest, Lake Charzykowskie and many other water reservoirs. It is the capital of the Chojnice County....

 County, both dated 2nd century AD.

Origins and expansion of the Wielbark culture

This brings the issue of the mysterious origin of the Wielbark culture, and why it so immediately replaced the Oksywie culture. According to the legend quoted in The Origin and Deeds of the Goths by the 6th century Gothic

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 historian Jordanes

Jordanes

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....

, the ancestors of that Germanic tribe arrived from Scandinavia (under King Berig

Berig

Berig is a legendary king of the Goths appearing in the Getica by Jordanes. According to Jordanes, Berig led his people on three ships from Scandza to Gothiscandza...

) in two boatloads and landed on the South Baltic shores, followed by a third boat carrying the ancestors of the Gepids. Supposedly they conquered the native people of that region, and then, some years later (under King Filimer

Filimer

Filimer was an early Gothic king, according to Jordanes.He was the son of Gadareiks and the fifth generation since Berig settled with his people in Gothiscandza. When the Gothic nation had multiplied Filimer decided to move his people to Scythia where they defeated the Sarmatians. They then named...

, the fifth one counting from Berig), continued their migration toward the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

. This story, in the past dismissed, is now seen as containing basic elements of the true sequence of events and the Wielbark culture is in part identified with Germanic ancestors of the Goths indeed. The idea of an arrival in the mouth of the Vistula region of culturally different (although related) people, who mixed with the Oksywie culture population, and being more advanced possibly dominated it (at least culturally) to some degree, is not at odds with the state of archeological findings and may explain the change of cultures in Pomerania around 30 AD.

Archeology nevertheless shows the evolution of the Oksywie culture to be the fundamental source of the Wielbark culture, as the two cultures extended over exactly the same territory and continuously used the same cemeteries. The locally present Veneti and Rugians

Rugians

"Rugi" redirects here. For the Romanian villages by this name, see Păltiniş, Caraş-Severin and Turcineşti.The Rugii, also Rugians, Rygir, Ulmerugi, or Holmrygir were an East Germanic tribe migrated from southwest Norway to Pomerania around 100 AD, and from there to the Danube River valley...

 became influenced by the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 or their Scandinavian protoplasts. It is presently believed that the Scandinavian arrivals directly settled the areas where the great cult kurgan and stone burial grounds are found. They are referred to as the Odry-Węsiory-Grzybnica type, were established in the second half of 1st century AD and occur in parts of Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

 west of the Vistula, up to the Koszalin

Koszalin

Koszalin ; is the largest city of Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland. It is located 12 km south of the Baltic Sea coast. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999...

 area. The contemporary and rather closely related Wielbark culture in (previously settled by the Przeworsk culture) Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

, represented by the Kowalewko cemetery, lacks however for the most part the kurgans and the stone structures. The Wielbark people came here from Pomerania.

In the course of 1st and 2nd century AD the Wielbark culture expanded south, towards Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 and Masovia, partially at the expense of the Przeworsk culture. Around mid 1st century the Wielbark culture people forced out the Przeworsk population from northern Greater Poland and settled the area for about 150 years. The Przeworsk culture itself also expanded in the southern, eastern and south-western directions.

Marcomannic Wars and movement of tribes

The Marcomannic Wars

Marcomannic Wars

The Marcomannic Wars were a series of wars lasting over a dozen years from about AD 166 until 180. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against the Marcomanni, Quadi and other Germanic peoples, along both sides of the upper and middle Danube...

 fought during 166–180 AD were caused by the pressure exerted by the northern Germanic peoples (settled around the area of today's Poland) on the tribes located in the vicinity of Roman limes

Limes

A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire.The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any...

, the Empire's defended border. Expansion of the Proto-Gothic Wielbark culture displaced from northern Greater Poland and Masovia the Przeworsk culture people; they in turn, moving south and east, crossed during the third quarter of 2nd century the Carpathian Mountains

Carpathian Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...

. The ethnic composition of the Przeworsk population at this stage is not known, as the Lugii tribes no longer seem to be mentioned. Related to the Przeworsk culture was the Wietrzno-Solina type, a cultural unit with Celtic and then Dacian

Dacians

The Dacians were an Indo-European people, very close or part of the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia...

 elements, situated within the more eastern part of the Beskids

Beskids

The Beskids , ) is a traditional name for a series of Eastern European mountain ranges.- Definition :The Beskids are approximately 600 km in length and 50–70 km in width...

 range (San River

San River

The San is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the Vistula River, with a length of 433 km and a basin area of 16,861 km2...

 basin) during the 100–250 AD period. The Kotins tribe Celtic survivors with their Púchov culture disappeared now for good, as a result of their migration and involvement in the Marcomannic Wars. There were also changes in northwest Poland, on the border of the Elbe cultural sphere region. The Lubusz group there was absorbed by the new Luboszyce culture (Luboszyce, Krosno Odrzańskie

Krosno Odrzanskie

Krosno Odrzańskie is a city on the east bank of Oder River, at the confluence with the Bóbr. The town in Western Poland with 12,500 inhabitants is the capital of Krosno County...

 County), that occupied the middle Oder basin during the 140–430 AD period. Its birth was related to the arrival from the east of population groups strongly influenced by the Przeworsk and Wielbark cultures. Gradually a new branch of Germanic people, the Burgundians

Burgundians

The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...

, whose origins are traced back to Scandinavia and the Bornholm

Bornholm

Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...

 island in particular and whose ancestors then migrated to the northwest Przework culture area, developed and evolved under new favorable conditions here. On the other hand the Gustow group left western Pomerania, to be replaced after 70 years by the Dębczyn group (Dębczyn, Wschowa

Wschowa

Wschowa is a town in the Lubusz Voivodeship in Poland with 14,607 inhabitants . It is the capital of Wschowa County.-History:Wschowa was originally a border fortress in a region disputed by the Polish dukes of Silesia and Greater Poland. After German colonists had established a settlement nearby,...

 County), established by the arrivals from the Elbe cultures and lasting between 210 and 450 AD.

Economic development and currency

The economic development of what to the Romans were barbarian lands (also called "Barbaricum", regions populated mostly by Germanic peoples, north and northeast of the Empire) benefited greatly from the skills of the prisoners taken during the protracted Marcomannic Wars, Roman legionaries and craftsmen, some of whom undoubtedly stayed beyond the limes and made their contribution there. Contacts with the wealthy Danubian Roman provinces during the wars were also quite active and intensive. Because of all that, from the end of 2nd century AD on, the Roman-originated and based technical expertise and inventions were becoming increasingly widespread within the Germanic societies. For example besides traditional houses supported by pillars, framework houses were being built, lathe machines were used for amber and other jewelry work. The barbarian societies were getting more wealthy and, especially during the last centuries of imperial Rome, more socially polarized.

An estimated 70,000 Roman coins from all periods were found in Poland, starting with 2nd century BC silver denarii

Denarius

In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...

. A treasure of these and other coins, some as early as 1st century AD, was found in Połaniec, Staszów

Staszów

Staszów is a town in Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, about 54 km southeast of Kielce. It is the capital of Staszów County. Population is 15,108 .- Demography :...

 County, probably a booty captured around 19 AD from King Marbod

Marbod

Maroboduus , was king of the Marcomanni. The name "Maroboduus" can be broken down into two Celtic elements, māro- meaning "great" , and bodwos meaning "raven"...

 of the Marcomanni

Marcomanni

The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.-Origin:Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of "march" and "men"....

. Greater waves of Roman money found their way to Poland throughout 1st and 2nd centuries and then again during 4th and 5th centuries, this time as bronze and golden solidi

Solidus (coin)

The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

. The barbarians did not use them for commerce; they were being accumulated in dynastic treasuries of rulers and occasionally used for ceremonial gift exchange. The chiefs also kept large golden Roman medallions or their local imitations. The largest barbarian medallion, an equivalent of 48 solidii, is a part of the gold and silver treasure found in Zagórzyn near Kalisz

Kalisz

Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...

.

Princely burials

The evolution of the power structure within the Germanic societies in Poland and elsewhere can be traced to some degree by examining the "princely" graves - burials of chiefs, and even hereditary princes, as the consolidation of power progressed. Those appear from the beginning of the Common Era and are located away from ordinary cemeteries, singly or in small groups. The bodies were inhumed in wooden coffins and covered with kurgans, or interred in wooden or stone chambers. Luxurious Roman-made gifts and fancy barbarian emulations (such as silver and gold clasps with springs, created with an unsurpassed attention to detail, dated 3rd century AD from Wrocław Zakrzów), but not weapons, were placed in the graves. 1st and 2nd century burials of this type, occurring all the way from Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

 to Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

, are referred to as princely graves Lubieszewo type, after Lubieszewo, Gryfice

Gryfice

Gryfice is a town in Pomerania, north-western Poland with 16 632 inhabitants . It is the capital of Gryfice County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship , previously in Szczecin Voivodeship .-History:...

 County in western Pomerania, where six such burials were found. On 3rd and 4th century sites two types of princely graves are distinguished. The Zakrzów type, named after the location of three very rich stone chamber burials found in Wrocław Zakrzów occur in southern Poland, while in the northern and central parts of the country the Rostołty (Białystok County) type kurgans are rather common. At some sites, believed to be dynastic necropolises, the princes were buried in generation long time increments. During the late Roman period the princely burials are fewer in number, but they get increasingly more elaborate.

Ceramics and metallurgy

The pottery as well as iron mining and processing industries kept developing in Poland throughout the Roman periods, until terminated in 5th century or so by the Great Migration

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

. Clay pots were still often formed manually and these were more crude, while the better ones were made with the potter's wheel

Potter's wheel

In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in asma of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...

, used beginning in the early 3rd century. Some had inscriptions engraved, but their meaning, if any, is not known (Germanic people had occasionally used the runic alphabet

Runic alphabet

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter...

s). Wide-open, vase type Przeworsk culture urn from 2nd century AD found in Biała, Zgierz

Zgierz

Zgierz is a town in central Poland, located just to the north of Łódź and part of the metropolitan area centered on that city. As of 2007, it had a population of 58,164....

 County is covered with representations from Celtic and Germanic mythology, such as deer, horse riders, crosses and swastikas. 3rd and 4th century buckets were made of wood and reinforced with bronze braces and sheets. Przeworsk culture's large globular clay storage containers from 3rd and 4th century were 60 cm to over one meter tall. 4th and 5th century ceramic specimens from the late phase of this culture include pitchers, clay pails, beakers and bowls.

Characteristic of the Roman times iron industry were huge centers of metallurgy. One such concentration of ironworks, in Świętokrzyskie Mountains

Swietokrzyskie Mountains

Świętokrzyskie Mountains , are a mountain range in central Poland, in the vicinity of the city of Kielce. The mountain range consists of a number of separate ranges, the highest of which is Łysogóry . The two highest peaks are Łysica at 612 meters and Łysa Góra at 593 meters...

, which already produced iron on an industrial scale in 1st century AD, in 2nd and 3rd centuries became Barbaricum's largest. It may had been responsible for the majority of the iron supplied for barbarian weapon production during the Marcomannic Wars. The iron product was obtained in rather small, single use smelting furnaces. One furnace's iron output was from a few to 20 kg, which required 10 to 200 kg of ore and the same amount of charcoal

Charcoal

Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...

. The satisfaction of so much need for charcoal caused significant deforestation of the areas surrounding the iron centers. Not only turf, but also hematite

Hematite

Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...

 ores were utilized, which involved building mines and shafts to provide access. The furnaces in Świętokrzyskie Mountains were grouped into large complexes, located in forested areas, away from human settlements. There could have had been as many as 700,000 smelting furnaces built in that area; one big concentration of the Przeworsk culture's spent furnaces (2nd-3rd centuries) was located in Nowa Słupia, Kielce

Kielce

Kielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...

 County. The second largest iron production center functioned at that time in Masovia, west of Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, with the total number of furnaces there, in which only turf ores were used, estimated at up to 200,000. They were operated as very large complexes, with several thousand furnaces at a time located near populated areas, where intermediate products were processed further. Those two great concentrations of metallurgical industry produced iron largely for long distance trade; to fulfill local requirements and on smaller scale iron was obtained at a number of other locations.

Weapons and tools

A set of iron carpenter's tools from 3rd-4th century, including a compass for marking circles, was found in Przywóz, Wieluń

Wielun

Wieluń is a city in central Poland with 24,347 inhabitants . Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship , it was previously in Sieradz Voivodeship .- History :...

 County, where there was a Przeworsk culture settlement and a 2nd/3rd century dynastic burial complex. The graves of Przeworsk men typically include substantial collections of arms, so that their warrior's battle equipment and its evolution are well known. Less wealthy warriors fought typically on foot, with spears (for close range combat) and javelins (for throwing), both with iron heads. The better off fighters used swords, first of the long Celtic kind, and then in 1st and 2nd century AD of the short and broad, gladius

Gladius

Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...

 Roman infantry type. Swords were kept in sheaths, some of which, depending on status, were very ornate. The long and narrow swords, better suited for horseback combat, became popular again in the 3rd century, but only the more wealthy warriors had horses, nor to mention iron helmets or ring armor. Round wooden shields had iron umbos in the middle, usually with a thorn for piercing the enemy. There were no saddles, but the richest of horsemen used silver spurs and bronze bridles with chain reins. Numerous Przeworsk culture objects including spurs and a unique silver belt buckle were recovered at the Aleksandrowice, Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 County settlement area; some relics there are dated possibly as late as the first half of 6th century.

Migrations of Wielbark and Przeworsk cultures people

In 2nd century AD the Proto-Gothic

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

 people of the Wielbark culture began their own great migration, moving east, south and south-east. In the first half of 3rd century they left most of Pomerania except for the lower Vistula region, where a small Wielbark population remained; Pomerania west of there became mostly settled by the Dębczyn group. Also evacuated at that time northern Greater Poland was retaken by the Przeworsk culture people. The Wielbark people successively took over eastern Masovia, Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

, Podlaskie, Polesie and Volhynia

Volhynia

Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...

. They settled in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, where they encountered other peoples, which resulted in early 3rd century AD in the rise of the Chernyakhov culture

Chernyakhov culture

The Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhiv culture is the name given to an archaeological culture which flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what today constitutes Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and parts of Belarus...

. This last culture, which in 4th century encompassed large areas of southeastern Europe, was of a mixed ethnic composition; in the more western part it was made-up of the Wielbark culture people, as well as other Germanic people and the Dacians

Dacians

The Dacians were an Indo-European people, very close or part of the Thracians. Dacians were the ancient inhabitants of Dacia...

. It was within the Chernyakhov culture that the Gothic tribes assumed their mature form.

The Przeworsk culture populations were for the most part also moving (to a lesser extent) south and east, which by 4th century caused a lessening of the population density in northern and central Poland with a simultaneous settlement concentration increases in Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland

Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...

 and Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. The Przeworsk people there at this point in time are often identified with the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 Germanic tribe. The 4th and 5th century Przeworsk societies had to cope with a deterioration of their traditional tribal social structure, caused by the accumulation of wealth and influence in the hands of the rich, the warriors, the tribal elders and rulers, who controlled the trade, imposed contributions and plundered. During these two centuries the number of the Przeworsk culture settlements and cemeteries generally decreases. There are also clear signs of the environment being overly exploited, which provided another motivation for the population to gradually leave. Most burials were getting more poorly equipped, in comparison with the previous periods. Late Przeworsk culture ceramic materials from Greater Poland show impoverishment and lack of differentiation of form, but on the other hand metal 5th century clasps, found at a variety of locations from eastern Lesser Poland, through eastern Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 to Kujawy, demonstrate the usual for mature Germanic societies highest quality of workmanship.

Hun advance, barbarian migrations in Europe, depopulation of Poland

On top of the Przeworsk culture's internal crisis situation came external pressures, namely the massive migration of peoples. At around 370 AD the Huns

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

 crossed the Volga River

Volga River

The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...

, defeating the Alans

Alans

The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...

 and then the Ostrogoths, causing in 375 the fall of their state located in the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 shores region. This unleashed a domino effect, as various Germanic peoples moved west and south to avoid the danger. The Visigoths and others retreated, forcing further migrations, while the weakness of the Roman Empire encouraged encroachments of its territory, the whole scenario resulting in the fall of its western part. The paths of this Great Migration of Peoples

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 led in part through the Polish lands, and the Germanic tribes living here joined the movement themselves, with the result of an almost complete, in the course of 5th century, depopulation of Poland.

In the upper Vistula basin, where the Przeworsk culture settlements were still relatively dense in the first half of 5th century, they are markedly absent during the second half of it. This is also the case in Silesia - the depopulation pattern began there earlier and the latest finds are dated around 400 AD. All of it agrees well with the information given by Procopius of Caesarea

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...

, according to whom the Heruli

Heruli

The Heruli were an East Germanic tribe who are famous for their naval exploits. Migrating from Northern Europe to the Black Sea in the third century They were part of the...

 returning to Scandinavia from the Carpathian Basin

Pannonian Basin

The Pannonian Basin or Carpathian Basin is a large basin in East-Central Europe.The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense - meaning only the lowlands, the plain that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea dried...

 in 512, heading towards the Varni

Varni

The Varni , Varini , Varinnae , Wærne/Werne and Warnii probably refer to a little known Germanic tribe. The name would have meant the "defenders". They lived in northern Germany...

 tribe area in Germany, crossed a large region devoid of human settlements - presumably Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

 and Lusatia

Lusatia

Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Elbe valley in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland...

. Likewise there are no settlements found in Masovia and Podlaskie beyond the early part of 5th century. On the other hand in central Poland and Greater Poland

Greater Poland

Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...

 isolated remnants from the Roman era cultures continue to be located through the end of 5th and even into the earlier parts of 6th century. Still further north, in Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

, such findings are actually quite numerous, including many cult coin deposit sites (Roman and then Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 golden solidi

Solidus (coin)

The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

). That's where the Germanic groups lasted the longest (and kept up trade and other contacts with their brethren elsewhere).

The territory of the powerful confederation of the Hun

Huns

The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...

 tribes included about 400 AD the lands of southern Poland, where burial and treasure sites have been investigated. A woman's grave in Jędrzychowice, Strzelin

Strzelin

Strzelin is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is located on the Oława river, a tributary of the Oder, about south of the region's capital Wrocław. The town is the seat of Strzelin County and also of the smaller municipality of Strzelin...

 County contained fancy feminine ornaments and a nicely preserved bronze kettle, which gave a name ("Jędrzychowice") to one of the two basic Hun kettle types, while a burial of a young warrior-aristocrat including his horse and precious harness, attire and weaponry elements (gold sheet covered ritual bow and sword sheath) was found in Jakuszowice, Kazimierza Wielka

Kazimierza Wielka

Kazimierza Wielka is a town in Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, about 45 km northeast of Kraków. It is the administrative seat of Kazimierza County . Population is 5,848 .-Education:* * *...

 County. Still further east, in Świlcza near Rzeszów

Rzeszów

Rzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...

 a hidden Hun treasure was located; this last find dates from mid 5th century, when the Hun empire was about to crumble.

Early Balts in light of ancient sources and linguistic research

The Balts

Balts

The Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Jutland peninsula in the west and Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east...

 or Baltic peoples, or their Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...

 protoplasts, have settled (at different times different parts of) the territory of today's northeast Poland as well as the lands located further north and east, generally east of the lower Vistula River, the Baltic seashore north of there including and past the Sambian peninsula

Sambia

Sambia or Samland is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The Curonian Lagoon and the Vistula Lagoon demarcate the peninsula. Prior to 1945 it formed an important part of East Prussia.-Names:Sambia is named after the Sambians, an extinct...

, and the inland area east of the above regions (some of their ancestors came from as far east as the upper Oka River

Oka River

Oka is a river in central Russia, the largest right tributary of the Volga. It flows through the regions of Oryol, Tula, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Vladimir, and Nizhny Novgorod and is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as to the town of Kaluga. Its length exceeds...

), from the early Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

. The analysis of the Baltic historic range has been aided by the studies of their characteristic toponyms

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 and hydronym

Hydronym

A hydronym is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history...

s, in addition to the examination of the archeological record and the few ancient written sources.

Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

 wrote of the Neuri

Neuri

According to Herodotus the Neuri were a tribe living beyond the Scythian cultivators, one of the nations along the course of the river Ὕπανις Hypanis , West of the Βορυσθένης Borysthenes , roughly the area of modern Belarus and Eastern Poland.-Herodotus's Account:In Herodotus's account, he states...

 tribe, who lived beyond the Scythians and to the north of whom the land was uninhabited as far as he knew.

Of the Baltic tribes may had written Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 and Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

 when they spoke of the Veneti, Venedi or Venedai people. Pliny in Natural History locates them in the mouth of the Vistula region, while Ptolemy in Geographia

Geographia (Ptolemy)

The Geography is Ptolemy's main work besides the Almagest...

just east of the lower Vistula along the Bay of Gdańsk

Gdansk Bay

Gdańsk Bay or the Bay of Gdańsk or Danzig Bay is a southeastern bay of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the adjacent port city of Gdańsk in Poland and is sometimes referred to as a gulf.-Geography:...

. The Western Baltic Veneti's territory may had reached east all the way to Sambia

Sambia

Sambia or Samland is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The Curonian Lagoon and the Vistula Lagoon demarcate the peninsula. Prior to 1945 it formed an important part of East Prussia.-Names:Sambia is named after the Sambians, an extinct...

. Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

 in Germania

Germania (book)

The Germania , written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.-Contents:...

, describing (possibly the same) inhabitants of the south-eastern Baltic shores, mentioned the Aesti

Aesti

The Aesti were a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his treatise Germania . According to this account, the Aestii lived on the shore of the Suebian Sea , eastward of the Suiones and westward of the Sitones. They were a population of Suebia...

 people, involved in collecting amber not for their own use but for long distance trade in a raw state. Jordanes

Jordanes

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....

 in Getica speaks of the "Aesti, who dwell on the farthest shore of the German Ocean" (beyond the Germanic-named Vidivarii people, who occupied the mouth of the Vistula area). This "Ocean" he defines as where the floods of the Vistula empty, the Baltic Sea. Various versions of the Aesti name were used later for various purposes; in particular that's what in 9th century the Baltic Old Prussian

Old Prussians

The Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians were an ethnic group, autochthonous Baltic tribes that inhabited Prussia, the lands of the southeastern Baltic Sea in the area around the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons...

 people were called and their country was then referred to as Aestland.

Ptolemy in Geographia

Geographia (Ptolemy)

The Geography is Ptolemy's main work besides the Almagest...

gives the names of two Baltic tribes: "Galindai" and "Soudinoi", which he localized east of the lower Vistula, some distance from the sea, just about where the Baltic Galindians (in Masuria

Masuria

Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...

), and the Sudovians or Yotvingians

Yotvingians

Yotvingians or Sudovians were a Baltic people with close cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians...

 east of the Galindians lived a thousand years later.

According to linguistic sources, the Baltic tribes precursors appeared first inland, in the forest zone regions far from the sea, and only later settled the near Baltic Sea areas, extending from the northeastern part of the Vistula basin to the Daugava River basin. This westbound expansion resulted in the establishment of the two main Baltic branches: The Western Balts, represented by the extinct Old Prussians and Yotvingians, and the Eastern Balts including the modern nations of Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

ns and Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

ns.

Western Balt culture

The Western Baltic Kurgans culture, which resulted from the interaction between groups arriving from the east and the people living in the Masuria-Sambia region (middle first millennium BC) is discussed in the Bronze and Iron Age Poland

Bronze and Iron Age Poland

The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland begun around 2300–2400 BCE, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 700–750 BCE. The Iron Age archeological cultures no longer existed by the start of the Common Era...

 article, within its time frame. The process of separation and differentiation of the eastern and western Baltic tribes deepened during the period of Roman influence, when the economy, culture and customs of the Western Balts became increasingly influenced by the more highly developed Przeworsk

Przeworsk culture

The Przeworsk culture is part of an Iron Age archaeological complex that dates from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. It was located in what is now central and southern Poland, later spreading to parts of eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia ranging between the Oder and the middle and...

 and Wielbark cultures people. From the beginning of the Common Era we can speak of the Western Balt culture, which included several distinct groups of the Western Baltic cultural circle and which definitely can be connected with the Baltic peoples.

Beginning in 1st century AD the Western Balts experienced their "golden" period - the times of economic expansion and increased affluence of their societies, all of which was based on the amber trade, but resulted in active and long term contacts with the lands of the Roman Empire. As late as in early 6th century an Aesti mission arrived in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 at the court of King Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...

 of the Ostrogoths with gifts of amber. As elsewhere, with wealth came imported and locally manufactured luxurious objects, social stratification and an emergence of the "princely" class, together with the appearance of their burials.

Balt settlements, economy, crafts and burials

Despite the advent of iron reinforced plows and other improved methods of crop cultivation, the regional environmental conditions placed limits on the practicality and extend of land tillage, but various grains, beans and peas were grown. The dense forest coverage on the other hand facilitated gathering and was more amenable to the raising of farm animals, which involved all of the major species, including in particular the small, forest type horses. The horses constituted an important element of the Baltic tribes' culture – men of the upper socioeconomic status were often buried with their horses and even together with their fancy horsemanship gear.

The settlements were small, forming family based communities, but some of them were more sizable and functioned over many generations. They lacked artificial fortifications, but natural factors facilitating self-defense were often utilized. Such settlements could form small clusters separated by uninhabited areas. One rather large dwelling place, which functioned from 2nd to 4th century, was discovered and investigated in Osowo near Suwałki. The living quarters consisted of pillar supported houses, while the farming infrastructure area included eighty grain storage caves. Small fortified refuge areas were built to a limited extend beginning at the end of 4th century, but on a larger scale fortified settlements were constructed by the Western Balts only during the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

The dominant burial customs involved cremation of bodies, with the ashes placed in urns that were either ceramic, or made from organic materials, such as fabric or leather. The flat graves, in seashore areas covered by stone pavement, formed large cemeteries. Skeletal burials from 1st and 2nd centuries are found in Sambia, and later ones (3rd–4th centuries) in Sudovia

Yotvingians

Yotvingians or Sudovians were a Baltic people with close cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians...

. In this case the usually single graves had stone structure and kurgans. From about 400 AD on cremation became the only form of burial and the "familiar" kurgans emerged – each grave contains the remains of several persons.

Samples of ancient Baltic mature craftsmanship (2nd–4th century) have been found in Żywa Woda and Szwajcaria, both in Suwałki County and in Augustów

Augustów

Augustów is a town in north-eastern Poland with 29,600 inhabitants . It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal. It is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship , having previously been in Suwałki Voivodeship . It is the seat of Augustów County and of Gmina Augustów.In 1970 Augustów became...

 County among other places. The princely graves as usual also contain many imports from southern and western Europe. Baltic fine bronze ornamental items, such as thin, openworked plates for the attachment of necklaces, were typically coated with colored, often red enamel. Foreign influence can also be seen in the design of clay urns, such as the 3rd or 4th century Greek kernos

Kernos

In the typology of ancient Greek pottery, the kernos is a pottery ring or stone tray to which are attached several small vessels for holding offerings. Its unusual design is described in literary sources, which also list the ritual ingredients it might contain...

 type vessel with additional miniature urns attached, or the 5th century "window" container with a square opening from Olsztyn

Olsztyn

Olsztyn is a city in northeastern Poland, on the Łyna River. Olsztyn has been the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in the Olsztyn Voivodeship...

 County, similar to the urns found in Denmark and northwestern Germany.

Olsztyn group

The last mentioned specimen comes from the Olsztyn group burial ground in Tumiany. The Olsztyn group represents the late phase of the Western Baltic cultural circle, with the beginnings in the second half of 5th century and the developed stages in 6th and 7th centuries. It was located in Masuria, partially in areas vacated by the Wielbark culture people. The group is believed to have been established by branches of the Galindians tribe, including a part of it that migrated to southern Europe and then returned to the Baltic area. The Olsztyn group cemeteries contain horse burials and many sophisticated style plate clasps, buckles, connectors and other objects made of bronze, silver and gold, studded with semi-precious stones and decorated with engravings, which demonstrate its people's extensive interregional and far reaching trade and other relationships and contacts, that included Scandinavia, western, southern and southeastern Europe.

Migrations and their effects on Baltic people

The Baltic settlement patterns were being altered beginning in 5th century by the Migration Period

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

 population shifts and the pressure from the westbound movement of the Slavic peoples

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

. The Western Balts took over the lands left by the Wielbark culture people and reached the eastern part of the mouth of the Vistula. A major trade route connecting the southeastern Baltic areas with the Black Sea shores went now through the regions controlled by the Balts. Expansion of the Old Prussian tribes, for example the previously mentioned Galindians and Yotvingians

Yotvingians

Yotvingians or Sudovians were a Baltic people with close cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians...

, encompassed today's northeast Poland and the adjacent territories further north. Galindia (today's western Masuria), including the Olsztyn group, became in 6th and 7th centuries the most affluent of the Baltic people settled lands, with highly developed local craftsmanship supplementing the wealth of items brought from distant countries.

This westbound expansion was accompanied by the regress at the southeastern bounds of the Baltic range caused by the advancing Slavs, the Balts' closest relatives

Proto-Balto-Slavic language

Proto-Balto-Slavic is reconstructed proto-language descending from Proto-Indo-European and out of which all later Balto-Slavic languages and dialects descended, such as modern Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian.The Proto-Balto-Slavic language is not directly attested by any surviving texts...

. A majority of the Baltic peoples, whose population at the end of first millennium AD is estimated at about 480 thousand, became extinct during the later Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 because of attempts of forced Christianisation, conquest and extermination, or assimilation, the Old Prussians being the primary example. Lithuanians and Latvians are the surviving Baltic peoples.

See also

• Prehistory of Poland (until 966)
  Prehistory of Poland (until 966)
  The prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the period from the first appearance of Homo species on the territory of modern-day Poland, to the establishment of the Polish state in the 10th century AD—a span of roughly 800,000 years....
  
  
• Stone Age Poland
  Stone Age Poland
  The Stone Age in Poland is divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. The Paleolithic extended from about 800,000 BCE to 8000 BCE. The Paleolithic is subdivided into periods, the Lower Paleolithic, 800,000 to 350,000 BCE, the Middle Paleolithic, 350,000 to 40,000 BCE, the Upper...
  
  
• Bronze and Iron Age Poland
  Bronze and Iron Age Poland
  The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland begun around 2300–2400 BCE, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 700–750 BCE. The Iron Age archeological cultures no longer existed by the start of the Common Era...
  
  
• Poland in the Early Middle Ages
  Poland in the Early Middle Ages
  The ancient Roman scholars new nothing about the impenetrable forest north of Dacia and the Carpathian Mountains, between the migrating Celts and Germanic tribes to the west, and the Sarmatians to the east. Augustian historian Strabo only assumed the presence of a different tribe reaching north to...
  
  

Citations