West Baltic barrow culture
The West Baltic Barrow Culture was an early Iron Age culture in the area of present-day northeastern Poland , the Kaliningrad area and a small part of western Lithuania and northwestern Belarus .
Distribution area
It covered the area from Warmia to the Memel estuary and to northern Mazovia .
From approx. 450 BC Chr. Can be distinguished:
- the Western Masurian Group
- the East Masurian Group
- the North Masurian Group
- the Samland group
- the Memel group.
The western Baltic barrow culture bordered in the west on the Lausitz culture and the subsequent Pomeranian face urn culture and in the east on the ceramic line culture .
Settlements in Prussian places Lyck, Lötzen, Goldap, Angerburg, now Polish Ełk , Giżycko , Gołdap , Węgorzewo , Tulewo , Czarne ( Powiat Pisk ), Mardaki , Kretowiny ( Powiat Ostród ). Important sites of burial mounds are in the Memel region, Lithuania Šern Raj ( Rajongemeinde Klaipėda ), Ėgliškių and Kurmaiči Kr ( Rajongemeinde Kretinga ).
chronology
The West Baltic tumulus culture followed the late Bronze Age phase of the Rzucewo culture and the Warmian-Masurian group of the Lusatian culture
It can be divided into:
- Phase I: approx. 600-450 BC Chr. (Hallstatt D)
- Phase II: approx. 450-350 BC BC (early La Tène)
- Phase III: approx. 350-100 BC BC (middle La Tène)
- Phase IV: approx. 100 - 50 BC BC (late La Tène)
Middle of the 1st century BC The Oksywie culture and the Nidzica group moved into the area.
In the 1st century AD the West Baltic culture emerged .
economy
The economy differed little from that of the line pottery culture neighboring to the east . Livestock farming (horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats), hunting and fishing dominated everyday life, and agriculture was only practiced on small areas. Only from around the 1st century BC He began to play a bigger role.
The main materials were stone (pentagonal stone axes of the Lausitz type), animal bones and horn (bushels, arrowheads). Bronze (jewelry) and iron were rarely used. In Angerburg (Tarławki , węgorzewo county ) a bronze foundry was rescued. The ceramics were undecorated, rarely with finger or nail prints.
Settlements
The settlements were mostly in protected locations, on hilltops, headlands, islands and were protected by stone-covered wood and earth walls. At a distance of 2 to 3 km from fortified settlements, there were sometimes also unprotected settlements with less inventory, possibly for limited periods of time (livestock farming, harvesting, fishing). The houses were built at ground level with wooden post constructions. Sometimes houses were built on wooden platforms on boggy ground or in shallow water. This construction was after 450 BC. Widespread (Ełk, Gołdap, Węgorzewo)
Funeral culture
Corpse burns were buried in barrows. These were surrounded by one, two or three stone circles. It was partly buried in stone boxes . In later phases, several people lay in a barrow. In Mazovia there were barrow fields covered with stones of oval, rectangular or amorphous shape. There were hardly any grave goods.
literature
- Wilhelm Gaerte : Prehistory of East Prussia . Koenigsberg 1929.
- Łucja Okulicz: Kultura kurhanów zachodniobałtyjskich we wczesnej epoce żelaza ( The West Baltic Barrow Culture of the Early Iron Age ). Wrocław, Warsaw, Kraków 1970.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ first examined by Alfred Götze (1895) and Adalbert Bezzenberger (1898)