Pomeranian culture

Last updated
Pomeranian culture
Geographical range Central Europe, Eastern Europe
Period Iron Age
Dates7th century BC - 3rd century BC
Preceded by Lusatian culture
Followed by Oksywie culture, Przeworsk culture
Early Iron Age:

.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}
Nordic Bronze Age

Jastorf culture

Harpstedt-Nienburg group

Celtic groups

Pomeranian culture

House urns culture

East Baltic culture

West Baltic cairns culture

Milogrady culture

Estonian group ArcheologicalCulturesOfCentralEuropeAtEarlyPreRomanIronAge.png
Early Iron Age:
  Nordic Bronze Age
  Jastorf culture
  Harpstedt-Nienburg group
  Celtic groups
  Pomeranian culture
  House urns culture
  East Baltic culture
  West Baltic cairns culture
  Milogrady culture
  Estonian group


The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture [1] was an Iron Age culture with origins in parts of the area south of the Baltic Sea (which later became Pomerania, part of northern Germany/Poland), from the 7th century BC to the 3rd century BC, which eventually covered most of today's Poland.

Contents

About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture between the lower Vistula and Parseta rivers, [2] and subsequently expanded southward. Between 200 and 150 BC, it was succeeded by the Oksywie culture in eastern Pomerania and the Przeworsk culture at the upper Vistula and Oder rivers. [3]

Features

Pomeranian culture, reconstruction Rekonstruktionsversuch bastarnischer Trachten (eine Gruppe aus Pomoranischer Kultur) von dem Aussere Karpatensenke und Westbeskiden, 2 bis 3 Jh. PR DSC 1317.JPG
Pomeranian culture, reconstruction

The Pomeranian culture developed in Western Pomerania covering the entire range of the Oder (Odra) and Vistula river basins. It has been sometimes associated with the Bastarnae. The original homeland of the Bastarnae remains uncertain. Babeş and Shchukin argue in favour of an origin in eastern Pomerania on the Baltic coast of northwestern Poland, on the grounds of correspondences in archaeological material e.g. a Pomeranian-style fibula found in a Poieneşti site in Moldavia. [4]

The most characteristic feature was the use of burial urns with faces. The urns were often contained in stone cists. The face-urns have lids in the form of hats, often miniature ear-rings of real bronze are added. The faces are sometimes modelled very naturalistically, and no two urns show the same face. Incised drawings on the urns show hunting scenes, chariot races, or riders. Brooches of Certoza-type and necklaces of multiple bronze rings are typical examples of metal work.

The economy was similar to that of the Lusatian culture. Rye was systematically cultivated for the first time, but still formed a minor component of the cereals. There were fewer hill forts than in the area of the Lusatian culture further west. Southern imports were sparse as well.

A related culture of the same age was the House Urn culture in central Germany. [5]

Spread

In the later Iron Age, the Pomeranian culture spread southward, into areas formerly belonging to the Lusatian, Wysoko- and Milograd cultures. In Masovia and Poland, this mixture led to the development of the group with bell-shaped burials.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerania</span> Historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe

Pomerania is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian, Pomeranian and Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, while the western part belongs to the German states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerelia</span> Historical sub-region of Pomerania

Pomerelia, also known as Eastern Pomerania, Vistula Pomerania, and also before World War II as Polish Pomerania, is a historical sub-region of Pomerania on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomeranians (tribe)</span> West Slavic tribe that formed around the 6th-century at the shore of the Baltic Sea

The Pomeranians, first mentioned as such in the 10th century, were a West Slavic tribe, which from the 5th to the 6th centuries had settled at the shore of the Baltic Sea between the mouths of the Oder and Vistula Rivers. They spoke the Pomeranian language that belonged to the Lechitic languages, a branch of the West Slavic language family.

The Vistula Veneti, also called Baltic Veneti or Venedi, were an Indo-European people that inhabited the lands of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the Bay of Gdańsk. Ancient Roman geographers first mentioned Venedi in the 1st century AD, differentiating a group of peoples whose manner and language differed from those of the neighbouring Germanic and Sarmatian tribes. In the 6th century AD, Byzantine historians described the Veneti as the ancestors of the Slavs who, during the second phase of the Migration Period, crossed the northern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusatian culture</span> Archaeological culture

The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of what is now Poland and parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, eastern Germany and western Ukraine. It covers the Periods Montelius III to V of the Northern European chronological scheme. It has been associated or closely linked with the Nordic Bronze Age. Hallstatt influences can also be seen particularly in ornaments and weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Prussians</span> Historical Baltic tribal group

Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were a Baltic people that inhabited the region of Prussia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. As Balts, they spoke an Indo-European language of the Baltic branch now known as Old Prussian and worshipped pre-Christian deities. Their ethnonym was later adopted by predominantly Low German-speaking inhabitants of the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jastorf culture</span> Iron Age material culture

The Jastorf culture was an Iron Age material culture in what is now Germany, stretching north into Jutland, and east into Poland, spanning the 6th to 1st centuries BC, forming the southern part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Pomerania</span>

The history of Pomerania starts shortly before 1000 AD, with ongoing conquests by newly arrived Polan rulers. Before that, the area was recorded nearly 2000 years ago as Germania, and in modern times Pomerania has been split between Germany and Poland. Its name comes from the Old Polish po more, which means "(land) at the sea".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Przeworsk culture</span> Iron Age culture in Poland

The Przeworsk culture was an Iron Age material culture in the region of what is now Poland, that dates from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. It takes its name from the town Przeworsk, near the village where the first artifacts were identified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wielbark culture</span> Archaeological culture in present-day Poland

The Wielbark culture is an Iron Age archaeological complex which flourished on the territory of today's Poland from the 1st century AD to the 5th century AD.

The prehistory and protohistory of Poland can be traced 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 500,000 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oksywie culture</span> Archaeological culture

The Oksywie culture was an archaeological culture that 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. It is named after the village of Oksywie, now part of the city of Gdynia in northern Poland, where the first archaeological finds typical of this culture were discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Baltic culture</span> Prehistoric culture in northern Europe

The Western Baltic culture was the westernmost branch of the Balts, representing a distinct archaeological culture of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. It is a zone of several small archaeological cultures that were ethnically Baltic and had similar cultural features. They included tribes such as the Old Prussians, Galindians, Yotvingians and Skalvians, in addition to the little-known Pomeranian Balts or Western Balts proper, in the area now known as Pomerania.

The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland began around 2400–2300 BCE, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 750–700 BCE. The Iron Age archeological cultures no longer existed by the start of the Common Era. The subject of the ethnicity and linguistic affiliation of the groups living in Central Europe at that time is, given the absence of written records, speculative, and accordingly there is considerable disagreement. In Poland the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archeological finding from that period is the Biskupin fortified settlement (gord) on the lake from which it takes its name, representing the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poland in antiquity</span> History of Poland from 400 BC to 500 AD

Poland in antiquity was characterized by peoples from various archeological cultures living in and migrating through various parts of what is now Poland, from about 400 BC to 450–500 AD. These people are identified as Slavs, Celts, Germanic peoples, Balts, Thracians, Avars, and Scythians. Other groups, difficult to identify, were most likely also present, as the ethnic composition of archeological cultures is often poorly recognized. While lacking any written language to speak of, many of them developed a relatively advanced material culture and social organization, as evidenced by the archeological record; for example, richly furnished, "princely" dynastic graves.

The most important phenomenon that took place within the lands of Poland in the Early Middle Ages, as well as other parts of Central Europe was the arrival and permanent settlement of the West Slavic or Lechitic peoples. The Slavic migrations to the area of contemporary Poland started in the second half of the 5th century AD, about a half century after these territories were vacated by Germanic tribes fleeing from the Huns. The first waves of the incoming Slavs settled the vicinity of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in the lands of present southeastern Poland and southern Masovia. Coming from the east, from the upper and middle regions of the Dnieper River, the immigrants would have had come primarily from the western branch of the early Slavs known as Sclaveni, and since their arrival are classified as West Slavs and Lechites, who are the closest ancestors of Poles.[a]

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages</span>

Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages covers the History of Pomerania from the 7th to the 11th centuries.

Pomerania has experienced several transitions not only of culture and administration, but also of its population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early history of Pomerania</span>

After the glaciers of the Ice Age in the Early Stone Age withdrew from the area, which since about 1000 AD is called Pomerania, in what are now northern Germany and Poland, they left a tundra. First humans appeared, hunting reindeer in the summer. A climate change in 8000 BC allowed hunters and foragers of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture to continuously inhabit the area. These people became influenced by farmers of the Linear Pottery culture who settled in southern Pomerania. The hunters of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture became farmers of the Funnelbeaker culture in 3000 BC. The Havelland culture dominated in the Uckermark from 2500 to 2000 BC. In 2400 BC, the Corded Ware culture reached Pomerania and introduced the domestic horse. Both Linear Pottery and Corded Ware culture have been associated with Indo-Europeans. Except for Western Pomerania, the Funnelbeaker culture was replaced by the Globular Amphora culture a thousand years later.

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.

References

  1. Anthropological Literature, Tozzer Library, "The Pomerelian Face Urn culture: a report on the status of the research", Acta praehistorica et archaeologica Berlin, no. 11/12, 1980/81. p. 219–304, Redgrave Pub. Co., 1982
  2. Jan M Piskorski, Pommern im Wandel der Zeit, 1999, p.23, ISBN   83-906184-8-6
  3. J. B. Rives, Tacitus' Germania, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.8, ISBN   0-19-924000-0
  4. Shchukin (1989) 65-6, 71-2
  5. Peter N. Peregrine, Melvin Ember, Human Relations Area Files, inc, Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Springer, 2001, p.406, ISBN   0-306-46258-3