Prehistory and protohistory of Poland

The prehistory of Poland, or the history of Poland before 966 CE, is a period about which relatively little is known, especially when compared to the later eras. The available information is obtained mainly by archeological methods.

Prehistory of Polish lands from earliest human settlements through the Roman Empire times

From Homo erectus and then during the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages and throughout the Late Antiquity, the lands of present day Poland were populated by many different peoples, often known archeologically, but of uncertain ethnicity or linguistic affiliation. Celtic, Germanic and Baltic peoples were among the prominent groups. The most famous archeological finding is the Biskupin fortified settlement on the lake, of the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, by some past researchers considered to be a Proto-Slavic development.

Homo erectus

Human settlements on Polish lands occurred later than in the more climatically hospitable regions of southern and western Europe and were dependent on the recurring episodes of glaciation. The earliest remnants of the Homo genus campsites, together with their inhabitants' primitive stone tools, bones of the animals they hunted and of the fish they caught, were found below the San River glaciation period sediments in Trzebnica and are about 500 thousand years old. Younger Homo erectus sites were found at Rusko near Strzegom, located, like Trzebnica, in the Lower Silesia region. This archeologically represents the microlithic complexes of the Lower Paleolithic period, but biologically Homo erectus was a separate species of early humans.

Homo neanderthalensis

Now often also considered a distinct species, Homo neanderthalensis (otherwise known as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) lived in the southern half of Poland during the Middle Paleolithic, that is between 300,000 and 40,000 BC. Various relics were found and different Neanderthal cultures are distinguished, even though no actual human bones from this period have been identified. Examination of the Micoquien-Prądnik culture sites in the Prądnik River Valley north of Kraków and in Zwoleń near Radom from about 85,000 to 70,000 BC (early phase of the Vistula River glaciation period) shows that some Neanderthals were skilled collective hunters, able to kill numerous large mammals characteristic of the cold Paleolithic climate and process the meat, skin and bones using specialized tools.

Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens proper (Homo sapiens sapiens, the Cro-Magnon type) appears beginning with the Upper Paleolithic, which lasted from 40,000 to 9,000 BC. Upper Paleolithic in Poland was not continuous in terms of human inhabitation, because during the coldest part of this Ice Age period, 20,000 to 15,000 BC, the humans were absent. During the earlier part the Neanderthal probably still existed and coexisted with the modern man. The latter, warmer part, after the climatic discontinuity and the reappearance of humans, is therefore considered the Late Paleolithic.

Upper Paleolithic people were specialized in group big game hunting, sometimes pursuing and driving into traps entire herds. Their nutritional needs were met, over the many thousand years when the vegetation was limited to tundra and steppe and the land was covered by ice and snow for long periods, largely by meat consumption. More sophisticated tool making methods resulted in the production of long (even over two feet), narrow and sharp flintstone splits. In a cave near Nowy Targ a 30,000 years old (world's oldest) boomerang was found - a crescent-shaped 70 cm long object with fine finish, made of mammoth tusk.

A rich source of Late Paleolithic sites and artifacts (the Magdalenian culture of 14,500 BC) is again the Prądnik River Valley.

Mesolithic hunters and gatherers

The Mesolithic lasted from 9000 BC (rapid climate warming) to 5500 BC (arrival of first farmers from the Danube River area). It was the last period when the food production economy was entirely opportunistic, based on assimilation of plant and animal material found in nature, that is gathering and hunting. Because of warmer temperatures, complex forest ecosystems and wetlands developed and this natural diversity necessitated new hunting and fishing strategies. Hunters and fishermen working individually or in small groups had to pursue single large and small animals using traps, javelins, bows and arrows, boats and fishing equipment, and utilizing dogs. Women engaged in gathering of such products as roots, herbs, nuts, bird eggs, mollusks, fruit or honey, which possibly was even more important than hunting. Mesolithic human settlements became quite numerous and by the end of this period the economy of harvesting nature became very highly developed. Tools and devices were made of materials such as stone (flint strip mines have been found at the northern edge of Świętokrzyskie Mountains), bone, wood, horn, or plant material for rope and baskets, and included such fine utensils as fishing hooks and sewing needles. Animal figurines were made of amber. At least during the later Mesolithic, the dead were placed in graves and outfitted with familiar objects of their surroundings. One such well preserved grave of an apparent tool-maker, together with his tools and other items was found in Janisławice near Skierniewice and dated 5500 BC.

Introduction of agriculture - Danubian cultures of farming communities

Early Neolithic era begins around 5500 BC with the arrival from the Danube area of people (their land tilling predecessors had been coming into the Balkans and then the Danube region from Anatolia beginning a thousand years earlier) who kept livestock, cultivated crops and made pottery. They formed the first settled rural communities, thus forging the most fundamental civilizational advance.

The original newcomers are referred to as the Linear Pottery culture - their uniform culture survived in Poland in its original form until about 4600 BC. Despite the big impact they made, the first waves came in small numbers - hundreds, or at most a few thousand people, judging by the sizes of the known settlements. They populated mainly fertile soils of southern highlands and river valleys further north, all the way to the Baltic Sea. They lived alongside the more numerous native people who were still pursuing the Mesolithic lifestyle, but during the Linear Pottery culture times there wasn't much interaction, as the two groups inhabited different environments. Their villages consisted of several or more long (even over 30 meters) rectangular homes supported by wooden posts, the oldest of which come from the Lower Silesia region. One such location from about 5000 BC was also unearthed at Olszanica, which is now at the west end of Kraków just within the city limits. Plants were cultivated mostly in small nearby gardens, but wheat and barley were also grown on small fields obtained by burning the forest. Further out were the pastures, the entire area utilized by a single settlement having a radius of about 5 km. Cattle, sheep and goats were even more numerous in the northern flatlands, where the land was less fertile. The Danubian people communities kept in touch and exchanged goods over large areas, all the way to their regions of origin beyond the Carpathian Mountains.

After 5000 BC new waves of immigrants arrived from the south again, which accelerated the process of differentiation of the agrarian society into several distinct cultures during the first half of 5th millennium BC and afterwards. In the Oder River basin mostly there was the culture named after the punctured variety of Linear Band pottery - Stroked Pottery culture, while in the Vistula River basin the Lengyel and Polgár cultures appeared. The two regions developed in some separation, but within them the different cultural traditions of the younger Danubian circle often overlapped. The houses were now of an elongated trapezoidal shape, up to 40 meters long, grouped in larger complexes, often protected by beam and earth walls, moats and other fortifications, as such defensive measures apparently became necessary against people from the still Mesolithic native population or other Danubian settlements. The complicated, time and resources consuming defensive structures were being built beginning in mid 5th millennium BC. Their design followed that of the similar construction that was taking place in the Danube River areas, starting in the early part of this millennium. Large cemeteries and graves supplied with fancier objects such as jewelry, including the first so-called "princely" graves (the princesses had imported copper necklaces, earrings and diadems in addition to locally made decorations), testify to the emergence of a relatively more affluent society. Cattle husbandry and trading (large varieties resulted from cross-breeding with the aurochs) and land tillage provided basic sustenance. Salt was obtained and traded and became a much sought after commodity, at first probably to help preserve stored food. The Danubian people produced many richly decorated objects, including clay vessels with animal head ornaments and figurines of women. Among the large explored settlements of the Lengyel culture from the 4400-4000 BC period, there is one in Brześć Kujawski, and another one in Osłonki, solidly fortified about 4200 BC after an assault incident involving arson and murder, both located in the Kujawy region.

The Malice farming culture of southern Poland (5th millennium and until 3800 BC, named after a site in Malice near Sandomierz) was the first Neolithic culture to originate north of the Carpathian Mountains and spread south.

Neolithic cultures developed by native populations

After 4500 BC the Ertebølle culture of northwestern origin entered a ceramic phase with its own forms of pottery. They lived by the Baltic Sea shores and were specialized in utilizing the resources of the sea, thus still representing the Mesolithic ways of life. At their settlement in Dąbki near Koszalin Stroke-ornamented pottery was found, obtained probably through trade with the Danubian people.

The native Mesolithic populations were slow in gradually assimilating the agricultural way of life, beginning with just the use of ceramics. It took a thousand years into the Neolithic period before they adopted animal husbandry (which became especially important to them) and plant cultivation to any appreciable degree. When they eventually developed interest in the more fertile areas utilized by the late Danubian cultures, they became the threat that compelled the Danubian farmers to fortify their settlements.

The first truly native Neolithic culture was the Funnelbeaker culture named after the shape of their typical clay vessels, which developed starting around 4400 BC and lasted some two thousand years. Like other post-Mesolithic cultures the Funnelbeaker culture was Megalithic - they built tombs of large stones, some of them huge and resembling pyramids. Few survived till now because of the demand for stone as building material, but a well-preserved one from the first half of 4th millennium BC was found in Wietrzychowice near Włocławek. From this place and period comes the skull, on which the trepanation procedure was performed for medical or magic reasons. Timewise the beginnings of the post-Mesolithic cultures in Poland coincide with the beginnings of the Eneolithic period in the Balkans. Copper objects, mostly ornamental or luxurious items, were traded and then developed locally, first by the Danubian and then by the indigenous people. Copper metallurgy facilities were identified in Złota near Sandomierz. Clay decorative objects include realistic representations of animals and containers with images engraved on them - a pot from Bronocice, Pińczów County (3400 BC) has a unique narrative scene and the world's oldest semblance of a four-wheeled cart drawn on its surface. Stone tools became most highly developed and acquired their then characteristic smooth surfaces. Well preserved settlements with rectangular buildings were unearthed in Gródek Nadbużny near Hrubieszów (where remnants of a vertical loom for weaving were found) and in Niedźwiedź near Kraków. Originating from central European lowlands, the Funnelbeaker people moved south into the regions previously developed by the Danubian cultures, all the way to Bohemia and Moravia. Being more numerous, better fit for the environment, organized and economically more productive the Funnelbeaker culture people replaced the Danubian cultures in their late phase, and themselves lasted a long time.

Globular Amphora culture was the next major Neolithic culture. It originated in the Polish lowlands during the first half of 4th millennium BC, lasted to about 2400 BC and is named after the bulging shape of its representative pottery. They specialized in breeding domestic animals and lived in a semi-settled state, seeking optimal pastures and moving as needed. This semi-nomadic lifestyle was probably necessitated by the poor condition of the soils, by that time depleted and rendered infertile because of the preceding centuries of forest burning and extensive exploitation. Globular Amphora were the first culture in Poland known for utilizing the domesticated horse and swine became important as the source of food. Ritual animal, especially cattle burial sites, often with two or more individuals buried together and supplied with objects as strange as drums have been discovered, but their role is not well understood.

The Baden culture in southern Poland was the latest of the Danubian ancestry cultures and continued between 3200 and 2600 BC. They made vessels with characteristic protruding radial ornaments. A large fortified Baden culture settlement of around 3000 BC was found in Bronocice near Pińczów.

Finally there were still in existence the Forest Zone cultures, representing the ceramic phase of hunting and gathering communities. Some of them lasted into the early Bronze Age.

The major industry of this period was flintstone mining. One of the largest such mines with preserved underground passages is located in Krzemionki Opatowskie near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski.

Late Neolithic arrivals from eastern and western regions of Europe

The Corded Ware culture, in existence in central Europe between 3000 and 2000 BC, originated most likely from Proto-Indo-European nomadic people of the Black Sea steppes. It was a pastoral culture at least in its early stages, lacking permanent settlements and known primarily from the burial grounds (a large one with many richly furnished graves was discovered in Złota near Sandomierz). They moved together with their herds of cattle, sheep and goats along the river valleys of southern Poland, but also engaged in flint mining and manufacturing of tools and weapons for their own use and trade.

The Rzucewo culture (named after the village near Puck where the discoveries took place) developed from northern populations of the Corded Ware culture as an offshoot specialized in exploitation of the sea resources and lasted in parallel with their mother culture for a comparable period of time. Their settlements consisting of characteristic sea erosion reinforced houses were located along the Bay of Gdańsk and east of there. They engaged in fishery and hunting, especially of seals, then numerous along the Baltic coast. The Rzucewo culture people produced in special shops the widely used and traded amber decorative items.

From the opposite end of Europe (the Iberian Peninsula) came the few people who formed during the 2500-1900 BC period the Bell-Beaker culture, named after the shape of their typical, carefully finished and precisely ornamented pottery - southwestern Poland was at the eastern edge of their range. Because of their mobility, they helped spread new inventions, including developing metallurgy, over large areas of Europe.

Unetice and other Bronze Age cultures

The Bronze Age in Poland, as well as elsewhere in central Europe, begins with the innovative Unetice culture, in existence in western Poland during the first period of this era, that is from before 2200 to 1600 BC. This fundamentally settled agricultural society originated from the Corded Ware populations influenced by the Bell-Beaker people, kept in touch with the highly developed cultures south of the Carpathian Mountains, had trade links with the cultures of early Greece and echoes influence coming all the way from the highly developed civilizations of the Middle East. Characteristic of the Unetice societies was greater general affluence and developed social stratification. Objects made of bronze, often of luxurious or prestigious nature, were in high demand as symbols of power and importance and are typically found in the graves of "princes". 14 such burial sites, mounds of earth material heaped up on top of wooden, clay and stone structures, some as large as 30 meters in diameter, were found in Łęki Małe near Grodzisk Wielkopolski, erected 2000-1800 BC, suggesting the existence of a local dynasty. Proliferation of bronze items (Uneticean daggers were in high demand all over Europe and in Anatolia) far from the centers of ore mining or bronze craftsmanship shows that the elites were able to control the trade routes, which involved also the transportation of amber from the Baltic Sea shores to the Aegean Sea area artisans. Many concealed (for unknown reasons) bronze treasures have been found, including a fine one from Pilszcz near Głubczyce. Stylistically refined Uneticean ceramics shows inspiration by the Achaean vessels. Fortified settlements were built (one actively researched site, that was utilized and went through a number of phases during the 2000-1500 BC period, is in Bruszczewo in Kościan County), which together with the nature of the weapons and other items found suggests a chronic state of warfare and the emergence of the warrior class. In civilizational forefront of its time and place, the Unetice culture eventually succumbed to internal deterioration of its social and economic structure; its demise may had been hastened by destructive raids waged by the warriors of the belligerent Burial Mound culture, which in the end replaced it.

East of the Unetice culture, in Lesser Poland and further north to the Masovia region, during roughly the same span of time was the territory of the Mierzanowice culture, named after the village near Opatów. These descendants of the Corded Ware culture at first lived as mobile cattle breeders, but around 2200 BC started building permanent settlements and became preoccupied with plant cultivation as well. Mierzanowice culture was a conservative egalitarian society, frequently still using stone tools and copper decorations. Of the same cultural sphere, still further east was the Strzyżów culture, named after the village near Hrubieszów.

The above three cultures constitute the first (early) period of the Bronze Age, ca. 2300 to 1600 BC, according to the Polish chronology system.

Throughout their range and beyond the Mierzanowice and Strzyżów cultures were replaced by the Trzciniec culture. It was named after Trzciniec near Puławy and lasted from 1700 to 1100 BC, that is throughout the second and third period of the Bronze Age. It was probably made up of various and diverse Post-Neolithic populations, whose common characteristic was the type of pottery - large vessels with a thickened upper edge and a horizontal decorative protrusion around the neck, first found around northern Germany at the beginning of the millennium. Their own production of bronze objects came late and only in the western part of this culture's range.

Proto-Lusatian (on Polish lands) Burial Mound culture thrived in western Poland during the 1700-1400 BC period, contributed to the birth and rise of the Urnfield cultures, and around 1400 BC was replaced by the most important of them - the Lusatian culture. Burial Mound again was a complex of cultures, which replaced the Unetice culture and had an earth and stone mound grave as their common trait. The burials are skeletal, as opposed to the cremation practices of the later Urnfield cultures. There are no substantial settlements left by the Burial Mound people, whose agricultural practices were apparently limited mostly to animal husbandry. They developed bronze metallurgy to a large extend, to satisfy their own needs for weapons and richly designed and executed decorations. Their dominant social class were the warriors, who were equal and were the only men entitled to a burial under the mound.

The Piliny culture (1500-1200 BC, roughly the third or middle period of the Bronze Age) of Hungary and Slovakia, but also southern Lesser Poland, where like others they left bronze treasures, is an early example of the Urnfield cultures. These cultures' burial customs involved cremation of bodies and placing the ashes in urns (often with small apertures, presumably for the soul to escape). The urns were buried without a mound, sometimes forming huge cemeteries with thousands of such graves.

Lusatian culture of the later Bronze Age

The Lusatian culture lasted on Polish lands from 1450 to 250 BC, through the remainder of the Bronze Age (middle and beginning ca. 1150 BC late periods) and then into the Iron Age, from 750 BC on. Although archeologically it presents itself in a fairly uniform way, it is believed to had been ethnically nonhomogeneous, originating from groups arriving from outside, as well as from populations in existence in Poland adopting new cultural patterns. This manifests itself in the continuation of the east-west cultural disparity. For example the use of metal objects was less common in the eastern regions, while in the western zone besides the urns the burials contained often many other vessels. The western zone ceramics of the early Lusatian period had very prominent protuberances around the lower part of the container. Not only these regional differences didn't disappear, they became even more pronounced with time. In addition a number of smaller subcultures are distinguished, such as the one in Upper Silesia, where after a 250 year hiatus, beginning at about 900 BC, atypically for the Urnfield cultural sphere, skeletal burials are found again.

Bronze Age Lusatian rural settlements were limited to low-lying areas and (until late in this period) lacked fortifications or other defensive measures - during these more peaceful times protection was not as essential as in the centuries to follow. The houses were made of beams insulated by clay or moss, supported by poles, with slanting roofs covered by straw or reed. Inside there were hearths, stools, beds, places for economic activity such as metallurgical production shops, vertical looms and hand operated mills. Some livestock were also kept inside, and some were culled before winter because of insufficient ability to store feed.

The materials used were still wood, horn and bone, and, especially in the eastern zone - stone. Women were commonly engaged in spinning and weaving. Pottery was being produced still without the potter's wheel and furnaces for burning or baking pots were just making their first appearance. During the late bronze periods specialized centers manufactured beautifully painted ceramics, much of it for sale. Bronze metallurgy and craftsmanship became also highly developed and acquired locally different styles - luxurious decorative items, tools and arms were made around Legnica and elsewhere in western and southern Poland.

Lusatian social organization was based on the family and extended family, although early tribal communities may had also been developing. Social, professional and trade groups were gradually forming, including warriors, priests and metallurgists, but there is no evidence of hereditary ruling class or other social elites.

Many objects recovered by archeologists are believed to be related to a cult of the sun and the solar deity. Those include ceramics with painted solar images and molded into bird figures, bronze wheeled mini-carts with animal ornaments and bronze clasps with bird images, probably worn as parts of a ceremonial robe by priests-sorcerers. Anthropomorphic figurines and zoomorphic containers and plates related to solar or other forms of cult are found in the Lusatian western zone; they come from the last centuries of the Bronze Age and continue into the Iron Age. Engraved on a vase-urn found in Łazy in Milicz County and dated 850-650 BC are representations of mythical deer-man figures. Some such vessels, jewelry and drawings are similar to the contemporary ones found in Syria, Palestine, Greece and Italy. A panpipe (syrinx), a musical instrument of the type popular in northern Italy and eastern Hallstatt circles, was found in a grave in Przeczyce near Zawiercie from the late bronze or early iron periods.

Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age

Several factors destabilized the situation at the outset of the Iron Age. The climate cooling caused a degradation of the Asian steppes which forced the nomadic people who lived there to move out and started a chain of consequences - horsemen from Asia armed with iron weapons were able to penetrate large areas of Europe. The Europeans responded by building large fortified settlements, adopting the warring methods of the Asian invaders, developing a specialized military caste and a strong power system based on a prince-ruler. The Hallstatt culture, which developed west and south of Poland, itself imitating the Mediterranean civilizations and cultivating close contacts with them, turned out to be a major influence on the Lusatian people on Polish lands, whose culture reached its peak during the 750-550 BC period.

Baltic amber was traded in return for weapons and luxurious objects from southern Europe, including fancy personal grooming items such as nail clipping devices, and trade relations with the Nordic area peoples were similarly well developed. The latter factor was especially true in the case of the western Pomerania region, which had increasingly been falling under the Nordic cultural zone (southern Scandinavian Peninsula, Denmark and northern Germany) influence throughout the later bronze periods, with its artisans imitating the Nordic imports. The Lusatian culture of the Hallstatt periods included most lands of present day Poland, including the related Białowice culture (Zielona Góra County) in some of the westernmost parts, in existence during the Hallstatt periods C, D and beyond and credited with the passing of a "cist" (rock encasement) grave type to the Pomeranian culture. Western Poland was more highly developed, with local manufacturing - jewelry and other decorative products made of iron, bronze, glass, amber and other materials as well as luxurious painted ceramics were patterned after the Hallstatt craft. In many graveyards the dead were buried in wooden chambers. The burials found in Gorszewice (Szamotuły County) in Greater Poland (650-550 BC) are supplied with fancy equipment and resemble the graves of the Hallstatt tribal chiefs, and similarly there are other treasures of luxurious and prestigious objects. But despite this apparent fascination with the lifestyles of the western elites (and to some degree creation of their own), the Lusatian people never acquired a comparable level of social stratification and there were no hereditary "princes".

Agricultural activities were the mainstay of the economy, supplemented as before by hunting and gathering. Simple butting plows were already used, pulled by oxen. Millet, wheat, rye, oat and barley were grown in the fields, while in the gardens bean and lentil were cultivated, as well as oil producing poppy, turnip and flax, which was also used to obtain fiber used to make yarn. Animal husbandry methods improved when iron utensils became more common, that is beginning in 6th century BC. Horses were bred and utilized more often, in addition to the traditionally kept cattle, swine, sheep and goats and improved feed storage allowed keeping the herds throughout the winter season. Salt springs were used for salt production and in southern Poland the Lusatians tried to exploit the locally available metal ores.

Beginning around 900 BC the Lusatian people gradually fortified more and more of their settlements, first in the Silesia region. By 650-600 BC there were quite a few of them there and all over the western zone. Often built in locations naturally easy to defend, they were surrounded by walls built of earth, stone and wood, and moats, and could cover anywhere from 0.5 to 20 hectares. Smaller strongholds were built at strategic locations such as mountain passes and trade routes, from where the residents could control and police the area, but also functioned as industrial centers. A good example of a trade-manufacturing fortified settlement is the one in Komorów, located near the Gorszewice cemetery. Some of the large fortified areas didn't have many structures inside and served probably as temporary sanctuaries for the local population at times of danger, and there was no shortage of danger. Beginning in 6th century BC several waves of Scythian invasions went through the Polish lands. The routes they traveled can be seen from the trail they left: The burnt out settlements of the Lusatian people. Dramatic material testimony of violent death and destruction was found among the ashes of a perished fortified settlement in Wicina near Nowogród Bobrzański. On the other hand a golden Scythian treasure was discovered near a Lusatian settlement in Witaszkowo near Gubin - elements of arms and decorations patterned after zoomorphic Greek art motifs and dated 550 BC, probably a booty seized from a wounded Scythian chief.

Of a different and far less common type is the famous, very well preserved Biskupin wooden fortress on the lake, built from 738 BC. The houses (almost a hundred) inside the walls were densely and regularly arranged and the streets were covered by wood, which some see as a proto-urban imitation of the Mediterranean cities. But they were all alike, so the chieftain, if the community had one, lived like everybody else. This central to Polish archeology site has been under active and intense research since 1934.

The descendants of the Biskupin dwellers, like of most Lusatian people, were very likely incorporated into the Pomeranian culture, and with it eventually into the Germanic mainstream.

In 5th century BC the Lusatians stopped building fortified settlements. The Scythian expansion severed their trade links with the Hallstatt societies, while climatic changes damaged their agriculture. All this forced them to disperse and caused disintegration of their social structures. Less developed population from the eastern zone migrated west, highly developed ceramic and metallurgic industries waned, the Pomeranian culture expanded into the previously Lusatian areas. By 4th century BC the Lusatian culture was for the most part gone, with the last, small populations surviving in western and southern Poland.

Pomeranian culture, Western Baltic Kurgans culture

The last major extinct culture covering most Polish lands, the Pomeranian culture, developed in 7th century BC in eastern Pomerania. This region had preserved a distinct cultural identity throughout the middle and late bronze periods - unlike the rest of the Lusatian lands they kept the custom of raising burial mounds or barrows above the graves. Those were covered by a layer of stones and the urns were placed in a chest, or cist built of rock pieces.

At the outset of the Iron Age the eastern Pomeranians became involved in long distance amber trade that ranged from the Sambian Peninsula, through Pomerania, the Lusatian and Hallstatt lands all the way to Italy and which gave them access to imported products. At roughly the same time climatic changes favored a rural economy different from that typical of the Lusatian societies - animal husbandry and the less demanding cereals (rye and barley) became more important, as the villages had to be built at higher altitudes. This in turn favored small communities based on the family and extended family, flexible and capable of greater mobility - all such factors gave the Pomeranian people a competitive advantage over the traditional Lusatian settlements.

Accordingly the Lusatian large urn fields were replaced by small, family size burial sites with several or more urns. The cist graves were now mostly flat, without mounds, forming a rectangle with up to two meter long sides built of vertical slabs, containing the urns (sometimes as many as thirty and in separate compartments) inside and covered with another plate. Further south and east, as the Pomeranian culture expanded into central and southeastern Poland, there were also burials where the urn was placed under a "globe", that is inside a large, spherical ceramic container, itself sometimes placed in a cist (areas with this arrangement are sometimes recognized a distinct subculture). The Pomeranians left two peculiar types of urns, house-urns and face-urns. House-urns stand on several legs, have a large opening in front, come from an earlier period, 7-6th century BC and mostly from the Lębork region. Face-urns from the same period are round, bulging containers with a unique and often realistic image of a face around the neck area and a hat-like lid, while the younger ones tend to be less elaborate. Sometimes on the outside they were variously decorated, with tools and toilet accessories placed inside. Face-urns from the 650-450 BC period unearthed in Borucino, Kartuzy County and elsewhere present a rich assortment of engraved narrative scenes. Those include horse drawn chariots that apparently depict the nightly trips of the sun-god through the underworlds, which symbolically represents the cyclical renewal of life; carts pulled by oxen and representing lunar symbolism are also present. Solar images were placed on the lids. House- and face-urns are believed to represent Etruscan influence.

Pomeranian rural economy was based on small, open settlements. Their livestock included horses and many dogs. Plowing was done with all wooden (bare) spatula-plows, which required multiple runs. The Pomeranians cultivated several different grains and practiced fishery. Bronze and iron processing became very highly developed. Of the weapons, tools, decorative items and jewelry manufactured, the large bronze necklaces made of many rigs, running around the neck and upper chest area, connected by a latticed buckle in the back (600-450 BC) are especially impressive. Advanced bronze metallurgy facilities were found at Juszkowo near Pruszcz Gdański. At Pruszcz itself an amber processing workshop was found - the material used was imported from Sambia. At the iron works material obtained from the local ore deposits (Góry Świętokrzyskie) was most likely used. Another highly developed craft was pottery, which found its highest expression in the above described face-urns.

The already existing Pomeranian culture expanded further when the Lusatian culture entered the crisis stage. In 5th century BC major acquisitions took place in the western and southern directions, when northern Silesia and Lesser Poland were taken over. The older Lusatian populations were pushed out or assimilated. The Pomeranians themselves were changing in the process, either as a result of encountering new environmental conditions, or because of being influenced by the Lusatian people (face-urns for example disappeared here). In 3rd century BC the Pomeranian culture in its original form mostly vanished, with regional enclaves only surviving till the middle of 2nd century BC.

The Western Baltic Kurgans culture existed in Masuria, Warmia, Sambia and northern Masovia during the 650-50 BC period. It originated partially from the people who migrated there from the Dnieper River area and assimilated elements of the Warmian-Masurian Lusatian branches (themselves preceded by the middle Bronze Age Sambian Kurgans culture) as well as of the old Forest Zone cultures. They were related in a number of ways, including funeral vessels, to their contemporary, the Pomeranian culture. Upon radial stone structures they built burial mounds - kurgans, or barrows, some of them quite large and containing a number of individual burials. A large kurgan site from 3rd century BC was located and investigated in Piórkowo in Braniewo County. The dead were cremated and the ashes placed in urns. They built small fortified settlements at naturally suitable places, such as hilltops, and characteristically, within shallow bodies of water, which involved sinking logs and special pile construction. Underwater exploration allowed a conceptual reconstruction of such settlement (3rd-2nd century BC) on Orzysz Lake near Orzysz in Pisz County. The Western Baltic Kurgans economy was traditional, based on animal husbandry (herds kept in a semi-wild state). Land tilling was done to a lesser extend and only later in this culture's history. Hunting, fishing and gathering were also important. Tool manufacturing was old-fashioned, mostly non-metallic. Ceramic containers often had round (semi-spherical) bottoms and modest punctured or engraved ornamentation. The Western Baltic Kurgans culture is the predecessor culture of the Western Baltic culture (cultural sphere of Western Baltic tribes), which developed during the first several centuries CE.

Celtic peoples

The first Celtic people arrived in Poland, coming from Bohemia and Moravia, around or after 400 BC, just a few decades after their La Tène culture was born. They formed several enclaves mostly in the southern part of the country, within the Pomeranian or Lusatian populations. The cultures or groups that were Celtic, or had a Celtic element in them (mixed Celtic and autochthonous), lasted at their furthest extend to 170 CE (the Púchov culture). 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 Germanic cultural traits. The Germanic pressure checked and reversed the Celtic expansion.

At first two groups established themselves in Silesia: One on the left bank of the Oder River south of Wrocław, in the area that included Mount Ślęża, and one around the Głubczyce fertile 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 and Nowa Cerekiew. The Ślęża group disintegrated eventually within the local population, while the one at Głubczyce Highlands apparently migrated out in the southern direction. In another hundred years or more another two groups arrived and settled the upper San River basin (270-170 BC) and the Kraków area. This last one, together with the local population developing at about that time the Przeworsk culture characteristics (see the next section), formed the mixed Tyniec group, in existence 270-30 BC. In 1st century BC another small group settled probably much further north, in Kujawy. And finally there was the long-lasting (270 BC - 170 CE) mixed Púchov culture (associated based on Roman sources with the Kotins Celtic tribe), whose northern reaches included parts of the Beskids mountain range. The Celts practiced advanced agriculture and favored fertile lands; they brought with them and disseminated the inventions and other achievements of La Tène culture.

Celtic farmers used plows with iron blades and fertilized fields with animal manure. Their livestock consisted of selected breeds, especially sheep and large cattle. Rotational querns 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 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 and enamel were produced, gold and semi-precious stones were processed for jewelry.

The Celtic communities kept extensive trade contacts with the Greek cities, Etruria and then Rome. They were involved in the amber trade, 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 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 a considerable delay.

The settlement in Nowa Cerekiew functioned from 4th to 2nd century BC. One hundred people lived in 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.

Within the Celtic spiritual sphere there is considerable variation. 4th and early 3rd century 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 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 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 - 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 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, who arrived here in early Middle Ages.

Early Germanic peoples

The Germanic culture 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 and the Celtic people, and then by the Jastorf culture 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). While the cultural legacy and impact of the disappearing Celtic people are easy to see, the beginnings of the powerful ascent of the Germanic people are more difficult to discern (e.g. to what degree the Pomeranian culture lands became the Przeworsk culture 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 and the Nordic circle cultures. It formed around 700-550 BC in northern Germany and Jutland under the Hallstatt influence and in Jastorf's early stages its funeral customs resembled a lot those of the contemporary Pomeranian culture. From the Jastorf culture, which rapidly expanded from around 500 BC on, two groups sprang and settled the western peripheries of Poland during the 300-100 BC period: The Oder group in western Pomerania and the Gubin group further south. 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 and Scirii in Greek written sources, noted because of their military exploits around Greece and Greek colonies in the later part of 3rd century BC. Their route went along the Warta and Noteć rivers, then crossed Kujawy and Masovia, turned south along the Bug river and continued on to what today is Moldavia. It is marked by archeological findings, especially the characteristic bronze crown-shaped necklaces. 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 and Przeworsk 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, so named after a village (now within the city of Gdynia) where a burial site was found, lasted from 250 BC to 30 CE and originally occupied the Vistula 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 County (2nd half of 1st century BC) is among the finest in all of the Germanic cultural zone.

The Przeworsk culture, named after a town in 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, until in 5th century CE 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, Greater Poland, 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 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 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.

Germanic cultures and tribes in Roman times

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 in 58 BC, as related in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. At the time of the Suebi tribal confederation led by Ariovistus arrival in Gaul, a rapid decrease of the 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 and western Greater Poland), which is where the tribes accompanying the Suebi tribes must had come from. Burial sites and artifacts characteristic of the Przeworsk culture have been found in Saxony, Thuringia and Hesse, 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 CE.

As a result of the consequent Roman efforts to subjugate all of Germania, the member tribes of the Suebi alliance became displaced, moved east, conquered the Celtic tribes that stood in their way and settled, the Quadi in Moravia, and the Marcomanni in Bohemia. The latter tribe, under Marbod, formed a quasi-state with a huge army and was able to conquer the Lugii tribal association among others. What archeologists see as the Przeworsk culture, by this period (early 1st century CE) is believed to consist first of all of the Lugii tribes. A Roman defeat known as the Teutoburg Forest Battle (9 CE) 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, was a very large union of tribes. In 50 CE they invaded and pillaged the Quadi state created by Vannius, 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 CE the Lugii, fighting a war with the Suebi, asked Emperor Domitian for help, and received one hundred mounted soldiers.

Operations of the ancient Amber Road - 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, an important amber processing center. This route was controlled first by the Celts, and later by the Romans south of the Danube, by Germanic tribes north of that river, and was used for transporting a variety of traded merchandise (and slaves) besides amber. During the reign of Nero an equestrian 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 fights. The infrastructure of the Amber Road was destroyed by Germanic and Sarmatian attacks in the second half of 3rd century CE; 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.

From the beginning of the new era until 140 CE two local groups existed in northwest Poland. The Gustow group (named after Gustow on Rügen) 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, in the area previously inhabited by the Gubin group. Those were of an intermediate character, between the Elbe cultural circle to the west, and the Przeworsk and Wielbark cultures to the east (the last one replaced the Oksywie culture after 30 CE).

The Przeworsk culture 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. 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 blades 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 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.

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 CE 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 first centuries CE, were found in Siemiechów in Łask Couty. Also in Siemiechów a grave of a warrior who must had taken part in the Ariovistus 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.

The Wielbark culture, named after Wielbark in Malbork County, where a large cemetery was found, replaced in Pomerania the Oksywie culture rather suddenly and lasted on Polish lands from 30 to 400 CE, although most of its people left Poland long before that last date. Some of this culture's burials are skeletal - the dead were inhumed in solid wood log coffins, while other crematory, with the remnants either placed in urns, or just buried in dents. No weapons were put there, but clay vessels, decorations, uniform parts and spurs, if the deceased was well-positioned enough to posses a horse. Those various items, and especially the 1st and 2nd century CE 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 Szeląg and Kowalenko, Oborniki County, among other places.

Many Wielbark graves were flat, but kurgans are also characteristic and common. The grave itself was in this case 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 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 - 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 County; another burial site with ten large stone circles was discovered in Odry, Chojnice County, both dated 2nd century CE.

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 historian Jordanes, the ancestors of that Germanic tribe arrived from Scandinavia (under King Berig) 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, the fifth one counting from Berig), continued their migration toward the Black Sea. This story, in the past dismissed, is now seen as containing basic elements of the true sequence of events and the Wielbark culture is 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 CE.

In the course of 1st and 2nd century CE the Wielbark culture expanded south, towards Greater Poland and Masovia, partially at the expense of the Przeworsk culture, while the Przeworsk culture itself also expanded in the southern, eastern and south-western directions.

"Barbarians", Late Roman Empire and the Great Migration of Peoples

The Marcomannic Wars fought during 166-180 CE were caused by the pressure exerted by the northern Germanic peoples (settled around the area of Poland) on the tribes located in the vicinity of Roman limes, 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. 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 elements, situated within the more eastern part of the Beskids range (San River basin) during the 100-250 CE 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 County), that occupied the middle Oder basin during the 140-430 CE 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, whose origins are traced back to Scandinavia and the Bornholm 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 County), established by the arrivals from the Elbe cultures and lasting between 210 and 450 CE.

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 CE 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. A treasure of these and other coins, some as young as early 1st century CE, was found in Połaniec, Staszów County, probably a booty captured around 19 CE from King Marbod of the Marcomanni. 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. 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.

Th 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 CE 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 to Lesser Poland, are referred to as princely graves Lubieszewo type, after Lubieszewo, Gryfice County in western Pomerania, where six such burials were found. On 3rd and 4th century sites two types of princely graves are distinguished. 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.

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. Clay pots were still often formed manually and these were more crude, while the better ones were made with the potter's wheel. Some have inscriptions engraved, but their meaning (if any) is not known. Wide-open, vase type Przeworsk culture urn from 2nd century CE found in Biała, Zgierz 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, which already produced iron on an industrial scale in 1st century CE, 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. The satisfaction of so much need for charcoal caused significant deforestation of the areas surrounding the iron centers. Not only turf, but also hematite 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 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 County. The second largest iron production center functioned at that time in Masovia, west of Warsaw, 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.

A set of iron carpenter's tools from 3rd-4th century, including a compass for marking circles, was found in Przywóz, Wieluń 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 CE of the short and broad, Roman infantry type. Swords were kept in sheaths, some of them, depending on status, very ornate. The long and narrow swords, better suited for horseback combat, became popular again in 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.

In 2nd century CE the Proto-Gothic people of the Wielbark culture began their own great migration, moving east, south and south-east. They left most of Pomerania except for the lower Vistula region, where a small Wielbark population remained; most of Pomerania west of there became settled by the Dębczyn group, while the evacuated northern Greater Poland was retaken by the Przeworsk culture people. The Wielbark people successively took over eastern Masovia, Podlachia, Polesie and Volhynia. They settled in Ukraine, where they encountered other peoples, which resulted in early 3rd century CE in the rise of the Chernyakhov culture. 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. 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 extend) 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 and Silesia. The Przeworsk people there at this point in time are often identified with the Vandals 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 to Kujawy, demonstrate the usual for mature Germanic societies highest quality of workmanship.

On top of the Przeworsk culture's internal crisis situation came external pressures, namely the massive migration of peoples. At around 370 CE the Huns crossed the Volga River, defeating the Alans and then the Ostrogoths, causing in 375 the fall of their state located in the Black Sea 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 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 CE. All of it agrees well with the information given by Procopius of Caesarea, according to whom the Heruli returning to Scandinavia from the Carpathian Basin in 512, heading towards the Varni tribe area in Germany, crossed a large region devoid of human settlements - presumably Silesia and Lusatia. Likewise there are no settlements found in Masovia and Podlachia beyond the early part of 5th century. On the other hand in central Poland and Greater Poland 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, such findings are actually quite numerous, including many cult coin deposit sites (Roman and then Byzantine golden solidi). 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 tribes included about 400 CE the lands of southern Poland, where burial and treasure sites have been investigated. A woman's grave in Jędrzychowice, 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 County. Still further east, in Świlcza near Rzeszów a hidden Hun treasure was located; this last find dates from mid 5th century, when the Hun empire was about to crumble.

Baltic peoples

The Balts or Baltic peoples, or their Indo-European 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, and the inland area east of the above regions (some of their ancestors came from as far east as the upper Oka River), from the early Iron Age. The analysis of the Baltic historic range has been aided by the studies of their characteristic toponyms and hydronyms, in addition to the examination of the archeological record and the few ancient written sources.

Of the Baltic tribes may had written Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy when they spoke of the Venedes people, whom they located east of the mouth of the Vistula.Tacitus, describing the inhabitants of the south-eastern Baltic shores mentioned the Aesti people, involved in collecting amber not for their own use but for long distance trade in a raw state. Various versions of this name were used later for various purposes; in particular that's what in 9th century the Baltic Old Prussian people were called and their country was then referred to as Aestland. Ptolemy in Geographia 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), and Sudovians or Yotvingians east of Galindians lived thousand years later.

According to linguistic sources, the Baltic tribes precursors appeared first inland, in 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 Lithuanians and Latvians.

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 a previous section, 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 and Wielbark cultures people. From the beginning of the Common Era we can speak of the Western Baltic culture, which included several distinct groups of the Western Baltic cultural circle.

Beginning in 1st century CE 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 at the court of King Theodoric the Great 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.

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.

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 a stone pavement, formed large cemeteries. Skeletal burials from 1st and 2nd centuries are found in Sambia, and later ones (3th-4th centuries) in Sudovia. In this case the usually single graves had stone structure and kurgans. From about 400 CE on cremation became the only form of burial and the "familiar" kurgans emerged - each grave contains the remnants 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 County among other places. The princely graves as usual also contain many imports from the southern and western parts of 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 type vessel with additional miniature urns attached, or the 5th century "window" container with a square opening from Olsztyn County, similar to the urns found in Denmark and northwestern Germany.

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 had 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.

The Baltic settlement patterns were being altered beginning in 5th century by the Migration Period population shifts and the pressure from the westbound movement of the Slavic peoples. 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, 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. A majority of the Baltic peoples, whose population at the end of first millennium CE is estimated at about 480 thousand, became extinct during the later Middle Ages because of attempts of forced Christianisation, conquest and extermination, or assimilation, the Old Prussians being the primary example.

Slavic peoples - Polish myths and legends

According to a Polish myth, the Slavic nations trace their ancestry to three brothers, Lech, Czech and Rus, who parted in the forests of Central Europe, each moving in a different direction to found a family of distinct but related peoples (Lech founded Gniezno, the first capital of Poland, Czech founded Bohemia, and Rus founded Ruthenia).

Conspicuous of the Slavic period (described below) is the lack of substantiated historic persons and their names. Those that we have are the stuff of legends, or come from chronicles written centuries later and for a purpose other than accurate recording of events.

And so the Vistulans were ruled by Krak or Krakus, the founder of Kraków and Wanda was his daughter. Ascribed to them are the two large mounds of early medieval origin in Kraków area, considered to be their burial places or memorial monuments, but it's not certain that they were actually built by the Slavs. In one of the very few written records mentioning the Vistulans, The Life of Saint Methodius speaks of a "very powerful" pagan prince of Vistulans who was forced to convert to Christianity, but gives neither his pagan nor Christian name.

Up north the Polans were ruled by the wicked Popiel, the last of the dynasty that was replaced by the Piast dynasty. In a sequence given by the 12th century chronicler, Piast, Siemowit, Lestek, Siemomysł and Mieszko I would be the first "Piast" rulers beginning with Mieszko's great great grandfather, but whether the first four names refer to real people is anyone's guess.

Slavic origins of the Polish nation and state (5th - 10th century)

Slavic peoples around the 8th and 9th centuries.

The tale of Lech, Czech and Rus, despite being of doubtful historicity, accurately describes the westward migration and gradual differentiation of the early Slavic tribes following the collapse of the Roman Empire. According to the currently predominant opinion, the Slavic tribes were not indigenous to the lands that were to become Poland, but their first waves settled the area of the upper Vistula River and elsewhere in southeastern Poland and southern Masovia, coming from the upper and middle regions of the Dnepr River (West Slavs have come from the more western early Slavic branch called "Sclavi" by Jordanes in Getica, the eastern branch being "Antes"), beginning in the second half of 5th century, some half century after these territories were vacated by Germanic tribes. This discontinuity (a period during which human settlements on most Polish lands were absent or rare) makes the moment of appearance of the Slavs in Poland at the outset of the Middle Ages distinct and clear.

From there the new population dispersed north and west during the course of 6th century. The incoming Slavic people were markedly less developed than their Germanic predecessors (the northeast corner of contemporary Poland's territory was and remained populated by Baltic tribes), which can be seen from the comparable quality of the pottery and other artifacts left by the two groups. They lived from cultivation of crops and were generally farmers, but also engaged in hunting and gathering. Their migration was probably caused by the pursuit of more fertile soils and persistent attacks on southeastern Europe by waves of people and armies from the East, such as Huns, Avars and Magyars. This westward movement of Slavic people was facilitated in part by the previous withdrawal of Germanic people and their own migration toward the safer and more attractive areas of western and southern Europe.

A number of such Polish tribes formed small states beginning in 8th century, some of which coalesced later into larger ones. Among those were the Vistulans (Wiślanie) in southern Poland with Kraków and Wiślica as their main centers (major building of fortified centers and other developments in their country took place in 9th century; they have been the focus of much speculation), but later the Polans (Polanie, lit. "people of the plain") turned out to be of momentous historic importance. The tribal states built many fortified structures with primitive walls ("gród" is the name of such early town-fortress, of which the early ones date from 7th century); some of them had a very large area and may had served primarily as refuges in times of trouble. The Polans settled in the flatlands around Giecz, Poznań and Gniezno that eventually became the foundation and early center of Poland, lending their name to the country. They went through a period of accelerated building of fortified settlements and territorial expansion beginning in the first half of 10th century, and the Polish state developed from their tribal entity in the second half of it. Over time the modern Poles emerged as the largest of the West Slavic groupings, establishing themselves to the east of the Germanic regions of Europe, with their ethnic cousins, the Czechs and Slovaks, to the south.

Early Slavic peoples

The origins of the Slavic peoples, who arrived on Polish lands at the outset of the Middle Ages, archeologically as the Prague culture, go back to the Kiev culture, which formed beginning in 3rd century CE, and which is genetically connected to the so-called Post-Zarubintsy cultural horizon (Rakhny-Ljutez-Pochep), and itself was one of the later Post-Zarubintsy culture groups. In the opposite time direction such genetic relationship is quite apparent between the large Kiev culture population and the early (6th-7th century) Slavic settlements in the Oder and Vistula basins, but lacking between these and the older local cultures there, that expired rather rapidly beginning in the 400-450 CE period.

The Zarubintsy culture circle, in existence roughly from 200 BC to 150 CE, extended along the middle and upper Dnieper and its tributary the Pripyat River, but also left traces of settlements in parts of Polesie and the upper Bug River basin. The main distinguished local groups were the Polesie group, the Middle Dnieper group and the Upper Dnieper group. The Zarubintsy culture developed from the Milograd culture (which could possibly had been a seat of the early hypothetical Indo-European, Proto-Balto-Slavic society; such common ancestry is presumed for linguistic reasons) in the northern part of its range and from the local Scythian populations in the more southern part. The Polesie group's origin was also influenced by the Pomeranian and Jastorf cultures. The Zarubintsy culture and its beginnings were moderately affected by La Tène culture and the Black Sea area (trade with the Greek cities provided imported items) centers of civilization in the earlier stages, but not much by Roman influence later on, and accordingly its economic development was lagging behind that of other early Roman period cultures. Cremation of bodies was practiced, with the human remains and burial gifts including metal decorations, small in number and limited in variety, placed in pits.

Originating from the Post-Zarubintsy cultures ad sometimes considered the first Slavic culture, the Kiev culture functioned during the later Roman periods (3rd through mid 5th century) north of the vast Chernyakhov culture territories, within the basins of the upper and middle Dnieper, Desna and Seym rivers. It is known mostly from settlements sites; the burial sites, involving pit graves, are few and poorly equipped. Not many metal objects have been found, despite the known native production of iron and processing of other metals, including enamel coating technology. Clay vessels were made without the potter's wheel. The Kiev culture represented an intermediate level of development, between that of the cultures of the Central European Barbaricum, and the forest zone societies of the eastern part of the continent. The Kiev culture consisted of four local formations: The Middle Dnieper group, the Desna group, the Upper Dnieper group and the Dnieper-Don group. The general model of the Kiev culture is quite compatible with that of the early Slavic cultures that were to follow and must had originated mainly from the Kiev groups, but evolved probably over a larger territory, stretching west to the base of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, and from a broader Post-Zarubintsy foundation. The Kiev culture and related groups expanded considerably after 375 CE, when the Ostrogoth state, and more broadly speaking the Chernyakhov culture were destroyed by the Huns. This process was facilitated further and gained pace, involving at that time the Kiev's descendant cultures, when the Hun confederation itself broke down in mid 5th century.

The eastern cradle of the Slavs is also directly confirmed by a written source. The anonymous author of Cosmographer of Ravenna (7th/8th century) mentions Scythia, "where the generations of the Sclavi had their beginnings".

The final process of the differentiation of the cultures recognized as early Slavic, the Kolochino culture (over the Kiev culture's territory), the Penkovo culture and the Prague-Korchak culture took place during the end of 4th and in 5th century CE, probably with small participation of some elements from the Chernyakhov culture and the Dacian Carpathian Kurgans culture (the Slavs took over much of those cultures' territories). The Prague culture developed over the western part of the Slavic expansion, within the basins of the middle Dnieper, Pripyat, upper Dniester and in southeastern Poland (possibly corresponding to Jordanes' Sclavi, whose area extended west to the Vistula sources), the Penkovo culture the southeastern part, from Seversky Donets to the lower Danube (including the region where the Antes would be), and the Kolochino culture was located north of the more eastern area of the Penkovo culture (the upper Dnieper and Desna basins). The Korchak type designates the eastern part of the Prague-Korchak culture. In Poland the earliest archeological sites considered Slavic include a limited number of 6th century settlements and a few isolated burial sites. The material obtained there consists mostly of simple, manually formed ceramics, typical of the entire early Slavic area. It is on the basis of the different varieties of these basic clay pots and infrequent decorations that the three cultures are distinguished. The largest of the earliest Slavic (Prague culture) settlement sites in Poland that have been subjected to systematic research is located in Bachórz, Rzeszów County and dated the second half of 5th through 7th centuries. It consisted of 12 nearly square, partially dug out houses, each covering the area of 6.2 to 19.8 (14.0 on the average) square meters. A stone furnace was usually placed in one of the corners, which is typical for Slavic homesteads of that period. 45 younger, different type dwellings (7/8th to 9/10th century) have also been discovered in the vicinity.

Characteristic of all early Slavic cultures are poorly developed handicraft and limited resources of their communities. There were no major iron production centers, but metal founding techniques were known; among metal objects occasionally found are iron knives and hooks, as well as bronze decorative items (7th century finds in Haćki, Bielsk Podlaski County, a site of one of the earliest fortified settlements). The inventories of the typical, rather small, open settlements include normally also various clay (including weights used for weaving), stone and horn utensils. The developments arranged as clusters of cabins along river or stream valleys, but above their flood levels, were usually irregular, and typically faced south. The wooden frame or pillar supported square houses covered with a straw roof had each side 2.5 to 4.5 meters long. Fertile lowlands were sought, but also forested areas with diversified plant and animal environment to provide additional sustenance. The settlements were self-sufficient - the early Slavs functioned without significant long-distance trade. The potter's wheel was being used from the turn of 6th century on. Some villages larger than a few homes have been investigated in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region (cottages for example from about 625), where, on the left bank of the Vistula, in the direction of Igołomia a complex of 11 settlements has been located. The original furnishings of Slavic huts are difficult to determine, because equipment was often made of perishable materials such as wood, leather or fabrics. Free standing clay dome stoves for bread baking were found on some locations.

Like others for many centuries in this part of the world, the Slavic people cremated their dead. The burials were usually single, the graves grouped in small cemeteries, with the ashes placed in simple urns more often than in ground indentations. The number of burial sites found is small in relation to the known settlement density. The food production economy was based on millet and wheat cultivation, cattle breeding (swine, sheep and goats to a lesser extend), hunting, fishing and gathering.

As the Slavs were arriving from the east beginning in the second half of 5th century, the earliest settlers reached southeastern Poland, that is the San River basin, then the upper Vistula regions including the Kraków area and Nowy Sącz Valley. Single early sites are also known around Sandomierz, Lublin, in Masovia and Upper Silesia. Somewhat younger settlements concentrations were discovered in Lower Silesia. In 6th century the above areas were settled. At the end of this century, or in early 7th century the Slavic newcomers reached Western Pomerania (according to Theophylact Simocatta, the Slavs captured in 592 at Constantinople named the Baltic Sea coastal area as the place they came from). As of that time this region, plus some of the Greater Poland, Lower Silesia and some areas west of the middle and lower Oder River make up the Sukow-Dziedzice group. Originating partially from the Prague culture, it shows significant idiosyncrasies, as no graves or (typical for the rest of the Slavic world) rectangular dwellings set partially below the ground level were found within its span. This particular pattern of expansion into the lands of Poland and then Germany (another, more southern 6th century route took the Prague culture Slavs through Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia) was a part of the great Slavic migration, which took many of them (during this 5th - 7th century period) from the lands of their origin to the various countries of central and southeastern Europe.

Besides the above mentioned Baltic Venedes, ancient and medieval authors speak of East European, or Slavic Venedes. It can be inferred from Tacitus' description in Germania that his Venethi lived possibly around the middle Dnieper basin, which in his times would correspond to the Proto-Slavic Zarubintsy cultural sphere. Jordanes, to whom the Venedes meant his contemporary Slavs, wrote of past fighting between the Ostrogoths and the Venedes, which took place during the third quarter of 4th century in today's Ukraine. At that time the Venedes would therefore mean the Kiev culture people. Jordanes' 6th century description of the Slavic range includes the regions east of the northeastern slope of the Carpathian Mountains and stretching from there "almost endlessly" east, while in the western direction reaching the sources of the Vistula. Elsewhere being more specific he designates the area between the Vistula and the lower Danube as the Sclavi country, while the Antes would have settled the lands between the Dniester and the Dnieper rivers. The Venedes were the third Slavic branch of an unspecified location (the more distant from Jordanes' vantage and more ancestral in relation to the other two, the Kolochino culture comes to mind), as well as the overall designation for the totality of the Slavic peoples. Procopius located the "countless Antes tribes" even further east, beyond the Dnieper. Together with the Sclavi they spoke the same language, of an "unheard of barbarity". According to him the Heruli nation traveled in 512 across all of the Sclavi peoples territories, and then through a large expanse of unpopulated lands (the Slavs were about to settle the western and northern parts of Poland in the decades to follow). All of the above is in good accordance with the findings of today's archeology.

Byzantine writers had the Slavs in low regard for the simple life they lived and supposedly also limited combat abilities, but in fact they were already in early 6th century a threat to the Danubian boundaries of the Empire, where they waged plundering expeditions. Procopius, the anonymous author of Strategikon known as Pseudo-Maurice and Theophylact Simocatta wrote at some length on how to deal with the Slavs militarily, which suggests that they had become a formidable adversary. John of Ephesus actually goes as far as saying (the eightieths decade of 6th century), that the Slavs had learned to conduct war better than the Byzantine army (!). The authors also provide various details on the character, lifestyle and living conditions, social structure and economic activities of the early Slavic people, some of which are confirmed by the archeological discoveries as far as in Poland, as the Slavic communities were quite similar all over their range. Their uniform Old Slavic language remained in use until, depending on the region, 9th to 12th century. For example the Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius from Thessaloniki, where "everybody fluently spoke Slavic", when sent in 863 by the Byzantine ruler to distant Moravia, were expected to be able to communicate there without any difficulty.

In 6th century the Turkish speaking Avars became important in the Slavic history. They conquered and settled the middle Danube area from 567 on and subjugated the Slaves living there, making use of Slavic warriors to serve their own ends. Twice (562 and 566-567) the Avars had undertaken military expeditions against the Franks and their routes went through the Polish lands. While the exact nature of their relations with the Slavs there is not known (the nomad envoys bribed Slavic chiefs from the lands they did not control, including Pomerania, to secure their participation in Avar raids), the Avars had some presence or contacts in Poland also in 7th and 8th centuries, where they left artifacts in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region and elsewhere, including a bronze fixture found in the Krakus Mound.

Polish tribes

With the major population shifts completed, 8th century brought a measure of stability to the Slavic people settled in Poland. About one million people actively developed and utilized no more than 20-25% of the land, the rest being forest. Normal settlements, with the exception of a few fortified and cult places, were limited to lowland areas, below 350 meters above the sea level. Most villages built without artificial defensive structures were located within valley areas of natural bodies of water. The Slavs were very familiar with the water environment and used it as natural defense.

The living and economic activity structures were either distributed rather randomly, or arranged in rows or around a central empty lot. The larger settlements could have over a dozen homesteads and be occupied by 50 to 80 residents, but more typically there were just several homes with no more that 30 inhabitants. From 7th century on the previously common semi-underground dwellings were being replaced by buildings located over most of their areas or wholly above the surface (pits were dug for storage and other uses), but still consisted of just one room. As the Germanic people before, the Slavs were leaving no man's land regions between developed areas, and especially along tribal "borders", for separation from strangers and to avoid conflicts.

The Polish tribes did however leave remnants of more imposing structures - fortified settlements and other reinforced enclosures of the gord (Polish "gród") type. Those were being established on naturally suitable, defense enhancing sites beginning in late 6th or 7th century (Szeligi near Płock and Haćki are the early examples), with a large scale building effort taking place in 8th century. The gords were differently designed and of various sizes, from small to impressively massive. Ditches, walls, palisades and embankments were used to strengthen the perimeter, which involved an often complicated earthwork, wood and stone construction. Gords of the tribal period were irregularly distributed across the country, could cover an area from 0.1 to 25 hectares, have a simple or multi-segment architecture, and be protected by fortifications of different types. Some were permanently occupied by a substantial number of people or by a chief and his cohort of armed men, while other were utilized as refuges to protect the local population in case of an external danger. The gords eventually (beginning in 9th century) became nuclei of future urban developments, attracting, especially in strategic locations, tradesmen of all kinds. Gords erected in 8th century have been investigated for instance in Międzyświeć (Cieszyn County, Gołęszyce tribe) and Naszacowice (Nowy Sącz County), which was destroyed and rebuilt four times, with the final reconstruction after 989.

The Slavs in Poland, from 8th century on increasingly often organized in so-called great tribes, either through voluntary or forced association, were primarily agricultural people. Fields were cultivated, as well as, within settlements, nearby gardens. Plowing was done using oxen and wooden, iron reinforced plows. Forest burning was used to increase the arable area, but also provided fertilizer, as the ashes lasted in that capacity for several seasons. Rotation of crops was practiced as well as the winter/spring crop system. After several seasons of exploitation the land was being left idle to regain fertility. Wheat, millet and rye were most important; other cultivated plant species included oat, barley, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax, hemp, as well as apple, pear, plum, peach and cherry trees in fruit orchards. Beginning in 8th century, swine gradually became economically more important than cattle; sheep, goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, geese and ducks were also kept. The Slavic agricultural practices are known from archeological research, but also from written reports provided by Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a 10th century Jewish traveler. An anonymous Arab writer from the turn of 9th century mentions that the Slavic people made an alcoholic beverage out of honey and their celebrations were accompanied by music played on the lute, tambourines and wind instruments.

Gathering, hunting and fishing were still essential as sources of food and materials, such as hide or fur. The population was, until 9th century, separated from the main centers of civilization, self-sufficient with primitive, local community and household based manufacturing. Specialized craftsmen (of rather mediocre qualifications) existed only in the fields of iron extraction from ore and processing, and pottery; the few more luxurious items were being imported. From 7th century on modestly decorated ceramics was made with the potter's wheel. 7th-9th century collections of objects have been found in Bonikowo and Bruszczewo, Kościan County (iron spurs, knives, clay containers with some ornamentation) and in Kraków-Nowa Huta region (weapons and utensils in Pleszów and Mogiła, where the most substantial of iron treasures was located), among other places. Slavic warriors were traditionally armed with spears, bows and wooden shields; occasionally seen later axes and swords are of the types popular throughout 7th-9th century Europe. Independent of distant powers the Slavic tribes in Poland lived a relatively undisturbed life, but at the cost of some civilizational backwardness. A qualitative change took place in 9th century, when the Polish lands were crossed again by long-distance trade routes, with Pomerania becoming a part of the Baltic trade zone, while Lesser Poland participated in exchange centered in the Danubian countries. Oriental silver jewelry and Arab coins, often cut into pieces, "grzywna" iron coin equivalents (of the type used in Great Moravia) in the Upper Vistula basin and even linen cloths served as currency.

The basic social unit was the nuclear family, consisting of parents and their children, which had to fit in a dwelling area of several to 25 square meters. A patriarchal group of related families, kin or clan, was of declining during the discussed period importance. Several or more of clan territories were grouped into a neighborhood association, or "opole". A top level of this structure was the tribe, containing several opoles and controlling a region of up to 1500 square kilometers, where internal relationships were arbitrated and external defense organized. A general assembly of all tribesmen present took care of the most pressing of issues (Thietmar of Merseburg wrote in early 11th century of the Veleti, Polabian Slavs, that their assembly kept deliberating till everybody agreed), but this so-called "war democracy" was gradually being replaced by a government system in which the tribal elders and rulers had the upper hand. This may had been necessary to facilitate the coalescing of tribes into great tribes, some of which under favorable conditions would later become tribal states.

The burial customs, at least in southern Poland, included raising kurgans. The urn with the ashes was placed on the mound or on a post thrust into the ground. In that position few such urns survived, which may be why Slavic burial sites in Poland are rare. All dead, regardless of social status, were cremated and afforded a burial, according to Arab testimonies (one from the end of 9th century and another one from about 930). A Slavic funeral feast practice was also mentioned earlier by Theophylact Simocatta.

According to Procopius the Slavs believed in one god, creator of lightning and master of the entire world, to whom all sacrificial animals were offered. Natural objects such as rivers were also worshiped, as well as nymphs and other spirits, who were all venerated and bought over with offering rituals, which also involved augury. Such beliefs and practices were later continued, developed further and individualized by the many Slavic tribes.

The Slavs erected sanctuaries, created statues and other sculptures including the four-faced Svetovid (one 9th century specimen from the Zbruch River in today's Ukraine, found in 1848, is on display at the Archeological Museum in Kraków), whose carvings symbolize various aspects of the Slavic cosmology model. Many of the sacred locations and objects were identified outside of Poland, in northeastern Germany or Ukraine. Some locations in Poland include northwestern Pomerania, including Szczecin, where a three-headed deity once stood and the Wolin island, where 10th-11th century cult figurines were found.

The Magyars were at first still another wave of nomadic invaders. Of the Finno-Ugric languages family, coming from northwestern Siberia, they migrated south and west, occupying from the end of 9th century the Pannonian Basin. From there, until the second half of 10th century, when they were forced to settle, they raided and pillaged vast areas of Europe, including Poland. A Hungarian warrior's grave (first half of 10th century), saber and ornamental elements have been found in Przemyśl area.

References and notes

General:

• Various authors, ed. M. Derwich i A. Żurek, U źródeł Polski (do roku 1038) (Foundations of Poland (until year 1038)), Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, Wrocław, 2002, ISBN 83-7023-954-4
• Piotr Kaczanowski, Janusz Krzysztof Kozłowski - Najdawniejsze dzieje ziem polskich (do VII w.) (Oldest history of Polish lands (till 7th century)), Fogra, Kraków 1998, ISBN 83-85719-34-2
• Jerzy Wyrozumski - Dzieje Polski piastowskiej (VIII w. - 1370) (History of Piast Poland (8th century - 1370)), Fogra, Kraków 1999, ISBN 83-85719-38-5

Inline:

See also

• Early East Slavs