Early history of Pomerania
Encyclopedia
After the glaciers of the Ice Age
in the Early Stone Age withdrew from Pomerania
, in what are now northern Germany
and Poland
, they left a tundra
. First humans appeared, hunting reindeer
in the summer. A climate change in 8000 BC allowed hunters and foragers of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture to continuously inhabit the area. These people became influenced by farmers of the Linear Pottery culture
who settled in southern Pomerania. The hunters of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture became farmers of the Funnelbeaker culture
in 3000 BC. The Havelland culture
dominated in the Uckermark
from 2500 to 2000 BC. In 2400 BC, the Corded Ware culture
reached Pomerania and introduced the domestic horse
. Both Linear Pottery and Corded Ware culture have been associated with Indo-Europeans
. Except for Western Pomerania, the Funnelbeaker culture was replaced by the Globular Amphora culture
a thousand years later.
During the Bronze Age
, Western Pomerania was part of the Nordic Bronze Age
cultures, while east of the Oder
river the Lusatian culture
dominated. Throughout the Iron Age
, the people of the western Pomeranian areas belonged to the Jastorf culture
, while the Lusatian culture of the East was succeeded by the Pomeranian culture
, then in 150 BC by the Oksywie culture
, and at the beginning of the first millennium by the Wielbark Culture.
While the Jastorf culture
is usually associated with Germanic peoples
, the ethnic category of the Lusatian culture and its successors is debated. Veneti, Germanic peoples
like Goths
, Rugians
, and Gepids, and Slavs are assumed to have been the bearers of these cultures or parts thereof.
Since the 3rd century, many settlements were abandoned, marking the beginning of the migration period
in Pomerania. It is assumed that Burgundians
, Goths and Gepids with parts of the Rugians left Pomerania during that stage, while some Veneti, Vidivarii
and other, Germanic groups remained, and formed the Gustow
, Debczyn
and late Wielbark culture cultures, which existed in Pomerania until the 6th century.
some 13,000 years BC, when the Scandinavia
n glacier
receded northwards (Allerød oscillation
). At the site of the later Baltic Sea
was the cold, saline Yoldia Sea
(~11,500-9500 BC), which was succeeded by the fresh water Ancylus Lake
(9500-8000 BC).
(10,000 - 8000 BC) during the summer to hunt the reindeer
herds, and retreated southward during the winter. A tool from the early post-Ice Age was found in Greifswald
. From the Allerød oscillation to the late Paleolithic, Pomerania, at least partially, belonged to the Hamburg culture
, a subgroup of the Ahrensburg culture
. A prensence of hunters of the Swiderian culture
, also associated with the Ahrensburg culture, is assumed, too.
About 7,500 years ago, the Litorina Sea, a predecessor of the Baltic Sea
evolved, with its southern coastline being close to the current one.
was succeeded by the early mesolithic Maglemosian culture
(8000-6000 BC), whose members were not only hunters, but also foragers and fishermen. According to their tools, they are grouped as first belonging to the Komornica and Duvensee culture, later to the Chojnice-Pienki culture. They settled the dunes and used flint stone microliths.
stone tools of hunters and foragers from the Mesolithic Age were found at various sites. Most of the artefacts date back to the late Mesolithic Age (since 5500 BC). They belong to the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture (Lietzow subgroup), a culture that settled the coastline and already used ceramics.
While primarily hunters, it is assumed that the mesolithic people were also foraging, fishing, and even farming on a most primitive scale. They also knew how to build dugout
canoes, and with these they travelled down the rivers into the hinterlands. The starting point for these expeditions often was Rügen
.
(Mesolithic to Neolithic Age) is marked by the change in the way of life from hunting and foraging to farming and livestock breeding. This was not a sudden change, but took place over a long period. The people of the Ertebølle culture were thereby inspired by the Middle German Linear Pottery culture
, whose northernmost frontier was southern Pomerania (Uckermark and the Pyritz area).
First ceramics and polished stone tools appear in Western Pomerania.
(also TRB, Trichterbecher culture), that had evolved from the previous Mesolithic cultures and Linear Pottery culture influence. During this period, Western Pomerania was more densely settled than before, primarily on smooth hills near the water. Artefacts and settlements from this periods have been found at various sites in Western Pomerania, e.g. around the Bay of Greifswald
. The Funnelbeaker culture people erected numerous Megalith
tombs.
was not influenced by the Funnelbeaker culture, but by the Havelland culture
, representing the northernmost area of this culture that was centered around the middle Elbe
and Havel
rivers. The Bay of Greifswald
, Usedom
and Uecker-Randow
areas were under a weak influence of this culture also.
About 2400 BC, people of the Corded Ware culture
reached Pomerania. They probably originated in the Black Sea
area and introduced the domestic horse
. While the Corded Ware people have been associated with the first Indo-Europeans
, recently the earlier Linear Pottery Culture
is said to be Indo-European, too.
While most of Pomerania was part of or influenced by the Single Grave culture subgroup, eastern Pomerelia
belonged to the Rzucewo (also Bay Coast or Haffküsten) culture
subgroup stretching from Pomerelia to Lithuania
, formerly associated with early Balts
.
The impact of the late neolithic Corded Ware culture
on Western Pomerania was not as strong, but traceable. For example, both Funnelbeaker and Corded Ware culture artefacts were found in a Megalith tomb near Groß Zastrow.
replaced the Funnelbeaker culture
in most of Pomerania a thousand years later, but no artefacts have been found in Western Pomerania. This culture is associated with amber
trade.
were traced in Pomerania
.
Nordic Bronze Age
While the Bronze Age
began in Southern Germany before 1800 BC and had reached the Elbe
and Saale
area by 1550 BC, the North was still dominated by the neolithic Funnelbeaker culture
and Corded Ware culture
(Single Grave culture). Only isolated artefacts belonging to the early Bronze Age have been found in Western Pomerania. The early Bronze Age cultures in Western Pomerania are classified as Buchholz group (Plonia group).
From the Late Bronze Age, various settlements and artefacts were found in Western Pomerania. These later Bronze Age culters (periods II and III) are classified as Westpomeranian group (also Wusterwitz or Ostrowice group), and associated with the Grubengrab culture. In this period, settlement became more stable.
, the eastern and the southeastern parts of Pomerania
were not as densely settled as the western parts. The local cultures were influenced by Iwno culture, later Trzciniec culture
. Based on linguistic analyses of toponymes, Marija Gimbutas
and others proposed a culture of Pomeranian Balts
from the mouth of the Oder, and the whole Vistula basin to Silesia in the South-West.
Lusatian Culture
During the late Bronze Age (1200 BC), Farther Pomerania
and Pomerelia
were under the influence of the Lusatian culture
, the north-eastern subgroup of the Urnfield culture
. People of this culture burned their dead and buried the ashes in urn
s, which were typically placed in urnfields but also in tumuli
. The Pomeranian variant of the Lusatian culture can further be divided into an eastern and the Göritz group. The sun
is assumed to have played a prominent role in their religion, which also included cannibalism
. Numerous archeological findings of imported Scandinavian products prove contacts to Nordic Bronze Age
peoples.
These contacts and the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture. The local Lusatian cultures were also influenced by the west-alpine
and Hallstatt culture
s. Metalworks technologies were imported from the South via the Oder
river. The eastern or Kashubian group of the Pomeranian Lusatian culture, characterized by burial rites were burned ashes were placed in burial mounds with stone constructions, imported their metalworks technologies from the South via the Vistula
river as well as from the North
via the Baltic Sea
.
The people of the Lusatian Culture lived either in unfortified villages or in fortified strongholds. The number of such strongholds rapidly increased at about 700 BC for unknown reasons. Towards and during the Iron Age
, an increasing wealth is recorded.
There was a dispute between German and Polish historians concerning the ethnicity of the Lusatian Culture people. This dispute had reached its climax in the interbellum and also after World War II. Recent studies conclude a multi-ethnic character, prominently including the Veneti, but also Germanic peoples
in the Northwest and Slavic peoples
in the East.
, the dead were burned and the ashes buried in urns. Settlements and urn grave fields with artefacts were found e.g. in the then densely settled Greifswald
area.
The Jastorf culture is associated with early Germanic peoples. Western Pomerania belonged to the Warnow-Oder estituary subgroup of the Jastorf culture, the easternmost group is designated Oder group. The Oder group, formerly thought to have emerged after an immigration from Bornholm
, is now thought to have evolved from a local population formerly belonging to the Pomeranian culture
and the Göritz group of the Lusatian culture
, who first adapted to new habits and later mingeld with a Germanic
population from the West.
evolved from the Lusatian culture east of the Parseta river and in Pomerelia. It is characterized primarily by the use of faced urns, also of house urns, placed in stone cists.
This culture is considered to mark the (proto-)Germanic-Baltic frontier. A linguistic classification, whether Baltic, Germanic, or interlink, is not possible. Earlier, the Pomeranian culture was associated with the Bastarnae
, yet today the culture is considered to have evolved from the local Lusatian culture tribes.
), where the first artifacts typical of this culture were discovered.
The Oksywie culture is associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii
.
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and are heavily influenced by the material culture of the Oder
and Vistula
area. Influences from the Elbe
area and Scandinavia are found in ceramics artefacts.
Slag from the smelting of iron was found in many settlements, also imported goods, primarily from the Roman provinces, as well as silver and gold. After an archaeological site in Gustow
on Rügen
, this western Pomeranian culture is referred to as Gustow group
. The Gustrow group comprised the coastal territories between the Darß
peninsula in the West, and the Rega
river in the East, while the adjacent Lower Oder
area in the South belonged to the related Lebus group. The Gustow group was closely related to the contemporary Elbe
cultures.
In the 3rd century, as in all of Pomerania
, many settlements were abandoned, and fewer settlement traces are found in the following period. Though rather scarce, Gustow group settlements were located on better soil due to the increasing importance of plant cultivation.
The Willenberg or Wielbark culture appeared during the first half of the 1st century AD and replaced the Oksywie culture. This culture dominated the area of Farther Pomerania northeast of the Ihna river, most of Pomerelia and northern Mazovia
.
The ethnic background of the Wielbark people is not certain. While in the past, German and Polish historians had associated them with the Goths
or Slavs, respectively, recent hypotheses suggest they were a heterogeneous people, though scholarship is divided on whom to include therein; suggestions include the Veleti, Germanic peoples (Goths, Rugians, and Gepids) and possibly Slavs.
From this period, many influences are recorded from the Roman Empire
. Coins were in use abundantly. Imported Roman goods and their native imitations, though poorer in quality, were common. Roman luxury goods were also found, but those were most probably reserved for the elite. Besides the import of Roman goods, the society also to a lesser degree copied the social differentiation of the Romans. Many princely graves are known from this period.
Between 170 and 260 AD, settlement in Pomerania became less dense. The Wielbark culture continued to exist in the Oder and Vistula estuaries, in parallel to and under mutual influence of the Dębczyn (Denzin) culture
that evolved in its midst. Numerous imported goods found from this period in the Oder estuary, originating in the Black Sea
area, the Roman provinces, and Scandinavia
underline the contemporary importance of the Oder estuary.
rivers, and a local, not yet classified culture between the lower Oder and Persante rivers. The adjacent areas to the east were uninhabited by this time. Whether the eastern Dębczyn culture replaced or evolved from the Wielbark culture is not yet known, in the western areas, settlement was continuous. The emergence of this group is characterized by an influence of the Vistula region (Wielbark culture), the expansion of the Gustow group, and many paralleles to the Elbe
Germanic areas. The dead were buried unburned. The culture existed until the first quarter of the 6th century, when burial of the dead in grave fiedls stopped.
The Dębczyn group might comprise the archaeological remnants of Tacitus
' Lemovii, probably identical with Widsith
's Glommas, who are believed to have been the neighbors of the Rugians, a tribe dwelling at the Pomeranian coast before the migration period. Germanic saga
s report a battle on the isle of Hiddensee
between King Hetel (Hethin, Heodin of the Glommas) and Rugian king Hagen, following the abduction of Hagen's daughter Hilde by Hetel. Yet, there are also other hypotheses about the location of the Lemovii, and that their identification as Glommas, though probable, is not certain.
s anymore. Also, hoards of fibulae
have been found from this period, especially of the Sösdala
and Sjörup type. From the second half of the 5th century and the beginning 6th century, treasures of late Roman
solidi, bracteates, and golden jewelry are found. From the same period these treasures were hidden, both hoards of and single solidi have been found, coined by Valentinian III
(425-455) and Anastasius I
(491-518). These were found in the Debczin group area, the Vistula
area, where they are associated with the Vidivarian stage of the Willenberg culture, and in the Oder
estituary, where they were found together with jewelry. Some of these hoards might have served as a substitute for burial objects, others might have been buried for some mythological purpose.
In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, large grave fields were set up in the coastal areas, which differ from the Debzcyn group type and show Scandinavia
n analogies. Findings include fibulae
of the Bornholm
type, needles with bird heads, and armour (shields, lances and swords) of western European and Scandinavian type.
It is assumed that Burgundians
, Goths
and Gepids with parts of the Rugians
left Pomerania
during the late Roman Age, and that during the migration period
, remnants of Rugians
, Vistula Veneti, Vidivarii
and other, Germanic tribes
remained and formed units that were later Slavicized. The Vidivarii themselves are described by Jordanes
in his Getica as a melting pot
of tribes who in the mid-6th century lived at the lower Vistula. Though differing from the earlier Willenberg culture, some traditions were continued. One hypothesis, based on the sudden appearance of large amounts of Roman solidi and migrations of other groups after the breakdown of the Hun empire in 453, suggest a partial re-migration of earlier emigrants to their former northern homelands.
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
in the Early Stone Age withdrew from Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, in what are now northern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, they left a tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
. First humans appeared, hunting reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
in the summer. A climate change in 8000 BC allowed hunters and foragers of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture to continuously inhabit the area. These people became influenced by farmers of the Linear Pottery culture
Linear Pottery culture
The Linear Pottery culture is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, flourishing ca. 5500–4500 BC.It is abbreviated as LBK , is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incised Ware culture, and falls within the Danubian I culture of V...
who settled in southern Pomerania. The hunters of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture became farmers of the Funnelbeaker culture
Funnelbeaker culture
The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...
in 3000 BC. The Havelland culture
Havelland culture
Havelland culture was a neolithic archaeological culture in northeastern Germany, centered at Havelland, with contacts to the Globular Amphora culture. It was characterized by cups with handles, amphoras with to handles, and barrels and dishes with carpet-like decorations. The dead were buried...
dominated in the Uckermark
Uckermark
Uckermark is a Kreis in the northeastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Barnim and Oberhavel, the districts Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and to the east Poland . It is the largest district of Germany areawise...
from 2500 to 2000 BC. In 2400 BC, the Corded Ware culture
Corded Ware culture
The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...
reached Pomerania and introduced the domestic horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
. Both Linear Pottery and Corded Ware culture have been associated with Indo-Europeans
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
. Except for Western Pomerania, the Funnelbeaker culture was replaced by the Globular Amphora culture
Globular Amphora culture
The Globular Amphora Culture , German Kugelamphoren-Kultur , ca. 3400-2800 BC, is an archaeological culture preceding the central area occupied by the Corded Ware culture. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture. To the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much...
a thousand years later.
During the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, Western Pomerania was part of the Nordic Bronze Age
Nordic Bronze Age
The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
cultures, while east of the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
river the Lusatian culture
Lusatian culture
The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...
dominated. Throughout the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, the people of the western Pomeranian areas belonged to the Jastorf culture
Jastorf culture
The Jastorf culture is an Iron Age material culture in what is now north Germany, spanning the 6th to 1st centuries BC, forming the southern part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The culture evolved out of the Nordic Bronze Age, through influence from the Halstatt culture farther south...
, while the Lusatian culture of the East was succeeded by the Pomeranian culture
Pomeranian culture
The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture, often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, and subsequently expanded southward...
, then in 150 BC by the Oksywie culture
Oksywie culture
The Oksywie Culture, was an archaeological culture which existed in the area of modern day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD....
, and at the beginning of the first millennium by the Wielbark Culture.
While the Jastorf culture
Jastorf culture
The Jastorf culture is an Iron Age material culture in what is now north Germany, spanning the 6th to 1st centuries BC, forming the southern part of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The culture evolved out of the Nordic Bronze Age, through influence from the Halstatt culture farther south...
is usually associated with Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
, the ethnic category of the Lusatian culture and its successors is debated. Veneti, Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
like Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
, Rugians
Rugians
"Rugi" redirects here. For the Romanian villages by this name, see Păltiniş, Caraş-Severin and Turcineşti.The Rugii, also Rugians, Rygir, Ulmerugi, or Holmrygir were an East Germanic tribe migrated from southwest Norway to Pomerania around 100 AD, and from there to the Danube River valley...
, and Gepids, and Slavs are assumed to have been the bearers of these cultures or parts thereof.
Since the 3rd century, many settlements were abandoned, marking the beginning of the migration period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
in Pomerania. It is assumed that Burgundians
Burgundians
The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...
, Goths and Gepids with parts of the Rugians left Pomerania during that stage, while some Veneti, Vidivarii
Vidivarii
The Vidivarii are described by Jordanes in his Getica as a melting pot of tribes who in the mid-6th century lived at the lower Vistula:Ad litus oceani, ubi tribus faucibus fluenta Vistulae fluminibus ebibuntur, Vidivarii resident ex diversis nationibus aggregati.Though differing from the earlier...
and other, Germanic groups remained, and formed the Gustow
Gustow group
The Gustow group is an archaeological culture of the Roman Iron Age in Western Pomerania. The Gustow group is associated with the Germanic tribe of the Rugii....
, Debczyn
Debczyn culture
The Dębczyn group is an archeological culture in Pomerania from the 3rd to 6th centuries. It was derived from the East Germanic Wielbark culture with influences from the Elbe region, and succeeded by migration of West Slavs, the Pomeranian tribes.In the second half of the third century, the...
and late Wielbark culture cultures, which existed in Pomerania until the 6th century.
Ice Age and Paleolithic (Early Stone) Age (before 8000 BC)
20,000 years ago the territory of present-day Pomerania was covered with ice, which did not start to recede until the late period of the Old Stone Age or PaleolithicPaleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
some 13,000 years BC, when the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n glacier
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
receded northwards (Allerød oscillation
Allerød Oscillation
The Allerød period was a warm and moist global interstadial that occurred at the end of the last glacial period. The Allerød oscillation raised temperatures , before they declined again in the succeeding Younger Dryas period, which was followed by the present interglacial period.In some regions,...
). At the site of the later Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
was the cold, saline Yoldia Sea
Yoldia Sea
Yoldia Sea is a name given by geologists to a variable brackish-water stage in the Baltic Sea basin that prevailed after the Baltic ice lake was drained to sea level during the Weichsel glaciation...
(~11,500-9500 BC), which was succeeded by the fresh water Ancylus Lake
Ancylus Lake
Ancylus lake is a name given by geologists to the body of fresh water that replaced the Yoldia Sea after the latter had been severed from its saline intake across central Sweden by the isostatic rise of south Scandinavian landforms. The dates are approximately 9500-8000 BP calibrated, during the...
(9500-8000 BC).
Ahrensburg (Hamburg) culture
The first humans travelled to the Pomeranian tundraTundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
(10,000 - 8000 BC) during the summer to hunt the reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
herds, and retreated southward during the winter. A tool from the early post-Ice Age was found in Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...
. From the Allerød oscillation to the late Paleolithic, Pomerania, at least partially, belonged to the Hamburg culture
Hamburg culture
The Hamburg culture was a Late Upper Paleolithic culture of reindeer hunters in northwestern Europe during the last part of the Weichsel Glaciation and beginning of the Meiendorf Interstadial...
, a subgroup of the Ahrensburg culture
Ahrensburg culture
The Ahrensburg culture was a late Upper Paleolithic culture during the Younger Dryas, the last spell of cold at the end of the Weichsel glaciation. The culture is named after village of Ahrensburg, northeast of Hamburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein where wooden arrow shafts and clubs...
. A prensence of hunters of the Swiderian culture
Swiderian culture
Swiderian culture, also published in English literature as Sviderian and Swederian, is the name of Final Palaeolithic cultural complexes in Poland and the surrounding areas. The type-site is Świdry Wielkie, in Otwock. The Swiderian is recognized as a distinctive culture that developed on the sand...
, also associated with the Ahrensburg culture, is assumed, too.
Mesolithic (Middle Stone) Age (8000 - 3000 BC)
About 8000 BC, the climate started to change, and the former subarctic tundra was transformed into woodlands.About 7,500 years ago, the Litorina Sea, a predecessor of the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
evolved, with its southern coastline being close to the current one.
Maglemosian culture
The paleolithic Ahrensburg cultureAhrensburg culture
The Ahrensburg culture was a late Upper Paleolithic culture during the Younger Dryas, the last spell of cold at the end of the Weichsel glaciation. The culture is named after village of Ahrensburg, northeast of Hamburg in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein where wooden arrow shafts and clubs...
was succeeded by the early mesolithic Maglemosian culture
Maglemosian culture
Maglemosian is the name given to a culture of the early Mesolithic period in Northern Europe. In Scandinavia, the culture is succeeded by the Kongemose culture....
(8000-6000 BC), whose members were not only hunters, but also foragers and fishermen. According to their tools, they are grouped as first belonging to the Komornica and Duvensee culture, later to the Chojnice-Pienki culture. They settled the dunes and used flint stone microliths.
Ertebølle-Ellerbek-Lietzow culture
FlintFlint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
stone tools of hunters and foragers from the Mesolithic Age were found at various sites. Most of the artefacts date back to the late Mesolithic Age (since 5500 BC). They belong to the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture (Lietzow subgroup), a culture that settled the coastline and already used ceramics.
While primarily hunters, it is assumed that the mesolithic people were also foraging, fishing, and even farming on a most primitive scale. They also knew how to build dugout
Dugout (boat)
A dugout or dugout canoe is a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon is Greek -- mono- + ξύλον xylon -- and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In Germany they are called einbaum )...
canoes, and with these they travelled down the rivers into the hinterlands. The starting point for these expeditions often was Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
.
Neolithic (Late Stone) Age (3000 -1900 BC)
Linear Pottery culture
The move from Middle to Late Stone AgeStone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
(Mesolithic to Neolithic Age) is marked by the change in the way of life from hunting and foraging to farming and livestock breeding. This was not a sudden change, but took place over a long period. The people of the Ertebølle culture were thereby inspired by the Middle German Linear Pottery culture
Linear Pottery culture
The Linear Pottery culture is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, flourishing ca. 5500–4500 BC.It is abbreviated as LBK , is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incised Ware culture, and falls within the Danubian I culture of V...
, whose northernmost frontier was southern Pomerania (Uckermark and the Pyritz area).
First ceramics and polished stone tools appear in Western Pomerania.
Funnelbeaker culture
From 3000 to 1900 BC Pomerania was settled by farmers and herders of the Funnelbeaker cultureFunnelbeaker culture
The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...
(also TRB, Trichterbecher culture), that had evolved from the previous Mesolithic cultures and Linear Pottery culture influence. During this period, Western Pomerania was more densely settled than before, primarily on smooth hills near the water. Artefacts and settlements from this periods have been found at various sites in Western Pomerania, e.g. around the Bay of Greifswald
Bay of Greifswald
The Bay of Greifswald is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Germany in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With an area of 514 km², it is the largest Bodden of the German Baltic coast....
. The Funnelbeaker culture people erected numerous Megalith
Megalith
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic describes structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement.The word 'megalith' comes from the Ancient...
tombs.
Havelland culture
From 2500 to 2000 BC, the UckermarkUckermark
Uckermark is a Kreis in the northeastern part of Brandenburg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Barnim and Oberhavel, the districts Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and to the east Poland . It is the largest district of Germany areawise...
was not influenced by the Funnelbeaker culture, but by the Havelland culture
Havelland culture
Havelland culture was a neolithic archaeological culture in northeastern Germany, centered at Havelland, with contacts to the Globular Amphora culture. It was characterized by cups with handles, amphoras with to handles, and barrels and dishes with carpet-like decorations. The dead were buried...
, representing the northernmost area of this culture that was centered around the middle Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
and Havel
Havel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
rivers. The Bay of Greifswald
Bay of Greifswald
The Bay of Greifswald is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Germany in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With an area of 514 km², it is the largest Bodden of the German Baltic coast....
, Usedom
Usedom
Usedom is a Baltic Sea island on the border between Germany and Poland. It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder in Pomerania...
and Uecker-Randow
Uecker-Randow
Uecker-Randow was a Kreis in the eastern part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. The district was created on June 12, 1994 by merging the previous districts Pasewalk, Ueckermünde and part of the district Strasburg...
areas were under a weak influence of this culture also.
Corded Ware culture
Corded Ware culture
The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...
reached Pomerania. They probably originated in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
area and introduced the domestic horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
. While the Corded Ware people have been associated with the first Indo-Europeans
Proto-Indo-Europeans
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...
, recently the earlier Linear Pottery Culture
Linear Pottery culture
The Linear Pottery culture is a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic, flourishing ca. 5500–4500 BC.It is abbreviated as LBK , is also known as the Linear Band Ware, Linear Ware, Linear Ceramics or Incised Ware culture, and falls within the Danubian I culture of V...
is said to be Indo-European, too.
While most of Pomerania was part of or influenced by the Single Grave culture subgroup, eastern Pomerelia
Pomerelia
Pomerelia is a historical region in northern Poland. Pomerelia lay in eastern Pomerania: on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and west of the Vistula and its delta. The area centered on the city of Gdańsk at the mouth of the Vistula...
belonged to the Rzucewo (also Bay Coast or Haffküsten) culture
Rzucewo culture
The Rzucewo was a local archaeological culture of late Neolithic. It centered at the coast of the Bay of Gdansk and Vistula Lagoon and extended north to the Curonian Lagoon and up to Šventoji settlement in Lithuania...
subgroup stretching from Pomerelia to Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, formerly associated with early Balts
Balts
The Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Jutland peninsula in the west and Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east...
.
The impact of the late neolithic Corded Ware culture
Corded Ware culture
The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...
on Western Pomerania was not as strong, but traceable. For example, both Funnelbeaker and Corded Ware culture artefacts were found in a Megalith tomb near Groß Zastrow.
Globular Amphora culture
The Globular Amphora cultureGlobular Amphora culture
The Globular Amphora Culture , German Kugelamphoren-Kultur , ca. 3400-2800 BC, is an archaeological culture preceding the central area occupied by the Corded Ware culture. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture. To the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much...
replaced the Funnelbeaker culture
Funnelbeaker culture
The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...
in most of Pomerania a thousand years later, but no artefacts have been found in Western Pomerania. This culture is associated with amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
trade.
Comb Ceramic culture
During the mid-Neolithic Age, small populations belonging to the Comb Ceramic or Pit-comb ware culturePit-Comb Ware culture
The Pit–Comb Ware culture Comb Ceramic culture was a northeast European culture of pottery-making hunter-gatherers. It existed from around 4200 BC to around 2000 BC...
were traced in Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
.
Bronze Age (1900 - 550 BC)
Nordic Bronze AgeNordic Bronze AgeThe Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
(Western Pomerania)
While the Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
began in Southern Germany before 1800 BC and had reached the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
and Saale
Saale
The Saale, also known as the Saxon Saale and Thuringian Saale , is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale in Lower Saxony, a tributary of the Leine.-Course:The Saale...
area by 1550 BC, the North was still dominated by the neolithic Funnelbeaker culture
Funnelbeaker culture
The Funnelbeaker culture, short TRB from Trichterbecherkultur is the principal north central European megalithic culture of late Neolithic Europe.- Predecessor and successor cultures :...
and Corded Ware culture
Corded Ware culture
The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...
(Single Grave culture). Only isolated artefacts belonging to the early Bronze Age have been found in Western Pomerania. The early Bronze Age cultures in Western Pomerania are classified as Buchholz group (Plonia group).
From the Late Bronze Age, various settlements and artefacts were found in Western Pomerania. These later Bronze Age culters (periods II and III) are classified as Westpomeranian group (also Wusterwitz or Ostrowice group), and associated with the Grubengrab culture. In this period, settlement became more stable.
Early Bronze Age in Eastern Pomerania
During the early Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, the eastern and the southeastern parts of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
were not as densely settled as the western parts. The local cultures were influenced by Iwno culture, later Trzciniec culture
Trzciniec culture
The Trzciniec culture was an ancient tradition that subsisted in central Europe. Archeologists speculate its existence to have been between the years 1700 and 1200 BC....
. Based on linguistic analyses of toponymes, Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...
and others proposed a culture of Pomeranian Balts
Pomeranian Balts
The term Pomerania Balts, or rather Western Balts, refers to Baltic people, who as early as the bronze age inhabited parts of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, an area now known as Pomerania....
from the mouth of the Oder, and the whole Vistula basin to Silesia in the South-West.
Lusatian CultureLusatian cultureThe Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...
(Eastern Pomerania)
During the late Bronze Age (1200 BC), Farther PomeraniaFarther Pomerania
Farther Pomerania, Further Pomerania, Transpomerania or Eastern Pomerania , which before the German-Polish border shift of 1945 comprised the eastern part of the Duchy, later Province of Pomerania, roughly stretching from the Oder River in the West to Pomerelia in the East...
and Pomerelia
Pomerelia
Pomerelia is a historical region in northern Poland. Pomerelia lay in eastern Pomerania: on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and west of the Vistula and its delta. The area centered on the city of Gdańsk at the mouth of the Vistula...
were under the influence of the Lusatian culture
Lusatian culture
The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...
, the north-eastern subgroup of the Urnfield culture
Urnfield culture
The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields...
. People of this culture burned their dead and buried the ashes in urn
Urn
An urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...
s, which were typically placed in urnfields but also in tumuli
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
. The Pomeranian variant of the Lusatian culture can further be divided into an eastern and the Göritz group. The sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
is assumed to have played a prominent role in their religion, which also included cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
. Numerous archeological findings of imported Scandinavian products prove contacts to Nordic Bronze Age
Nordic Bronze Age
The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age culture in Scandinavian pre-history, c. 1700-500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia. Succeeding the Late Neolithic culture, its ethnic and linguistic affinities are unknown in the absence of...
peoples.
These contacts and the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture. The local Lusatian cultures were also influenced by the west-alpine
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
and Hallstatt culture
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
s. Metalworks technologies were imported from the South via the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
river. The eastern or Kashubian group of the Pomeranian Lusatian culture, characterized by burial rites were burned ashes were placed in burial mounds with stone constructions, imported their metalworks technologies from the South via the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
river as well as from the North
North
North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.North is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west.By convention, the top side of a map is north....
via the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
The people of the Lusatian Culture lived either in unfortified villages or in fortified strongholds. The number of such strongholds rapidly increased at about 700 BC for unknown reasons. Towards and during the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, an increasing wealth is recorded.
There was a dispute between German and Polish historians concerning the ethnicity of the Lusatian Culture people. This dispute had reached its climax in the interbellum and also after World War II. Recent studies conclude a multi-ethnic character, prominently including the Veneti, but also Germanic peoples
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
in the Northwest and Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
in the East.
Pre-Roman Iron Age
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Jastorf culture (Western Pomerania, 550 - 50 BC)
During the Iron Age, Western Pomerania belonged to the Jastorf culture (550-50 BC). As before during the Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, the dead were burned and the ashes buried in urns. Settlements and urn grave fields with artefacts were found e.g. in the then densely settled Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...
area.
The Jastorf culture is associated with early Germanic peoples. Western Pomerania belonged to the Warnow-Oder estituary subgroup of the Jastorf culture, the easternmost group is designated Oder group. The Oder group, formerly thought to have emerged after an immigration from Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
, is now thought to have evolved from a local population formerly belonging to the Pomeranian culture
Pomeranian culture
The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture, often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, and subsequently expanded southward...
and the Göritz group of the Lusatian culture
Lusatian culture
The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of today's Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany and parts of Ukraine...
, who first adapted to new habits and later mingeld with a Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
population from the West.
Pomeranian culture (Eastern Pomerania, 650 - 150 BC)
The Pomeranian culturePomeranian culture
The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture, often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age, and subsequently expanded southward...
evolved from the Lusatian culture east of the Parseta river and in Pomerelia. It is characterized primarily by the use of faced urns, also of house urns, placed in stone cists.
This culture is considered to mark the (proto-)Germanic-Baltic frontier. A linguistic classification, whether Baltic, Germanic, or interlink, is not possible. Earlier, the Pomeranian culture was associated with the Bastarnae
Bastarnae
The Bastarnae or Basternae were an ancient Germanic tribe,, who between 200 BC and 300 AD inhabited the region between the eastern Carpathian mountains and the Dnieper river...
, yet today the culture is considered to have evolved from the local Lusatian culture tribes.
Oksywie (Oxhöft) culture (Eastern Pomerania, 150 BC - 1 AD)
The Oksywie culture existed in the area of Farther Pomerania and Pomerelia around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD. The culture is named after the village Oksywie (formerly Oxhöft, today part of the city of GdyniaGdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
), where the first artifacts typical of this culture were discovered.
The Oksywie culture is associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii
Lemovii
The Lemovii were a Germanic tribe, only once named by Tacitus in the late 1st century. He noted that they lived near the Rugii and Goths and that they had short swords and round shields.The Oxhöft culture is associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii...
.
Roman Iron Age and Migration period
Gustow group, Western Pomerania
Since the second half of the 1st century AD, settlement in Western Pomerania became more dense. The highest density was reached in the 2nd century. Artefacts, settlements and tombs from this period belong to the coastal group of the Roman Iron AgeRoman Iron Age
The Roman Iron Age is the name that Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius gave to a part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, Northern Germany and the Netherlands....
and are heavily influenced by the material culture of the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
and Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
area. Influences from the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
area and Scandinavia are found in ceramics artefacts.
Slag from the smelting of iron was found in many settlements, also imported goods, primarily from the Roman provinces, as well as silver and gold. After an archaeological site in Gustow
Gustow
Gustow is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-External links:*...
on Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
, this western Pomeranian culture is referred to as Gustow group
Gustow group
The Gustow group is an archaeological culture of the Roman Iron Age in Western Pomerania. The Gustow group is associated with the Germanic tribe of the Rugii....
. The Gustrow group comprised the coastal territories between the Darß
Darß
The Darß is the middle part of the peninsula of Fischland-Darß-Zingst on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The peninsula's name comes from the names of the three regions making up the peninsula. There is a large forest in the Darß...
peninsula in the West, and the Rega
Rega
The Rega is a river in north-western Poland, flowing into the Baltic Sea. It is the country's 24th longest river, with a total length of 168 km and a catchment area of 2,725 km².Towns on the Rega:* Świdwin* Łobez* Resko* Płoty* Gryfice...
river in the East, while the adjacent Lower Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
area in the South belonged to the related Lebus group. The Gustow group was closely related to the contemporary Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
cultures.
In the 3rd century, as in all of Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, many settlements were abandoned, and fewer settlement traces are found in the following period. Though rather scarce, Gustow group settlements were located on better soil due to the increasing importance of plant cultivation.
Wielbark (Willenberg) Culture (Eastern Pomerania, 1 - 450 AD)
Mazovia
Mazovia or Masovia is a geographical, historical and cultural region in east-central Poland. It is also a voivodeship in Poland.Its historic capital is Płock, which was the medieval residence of first Dukes of Masovia...
.
The ethnic background of the Wielbark people is not certain. While in the past, German and Polish historians had associated them with the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
or Slavs, respectively, recent hypotheses suggest they were a heterogeneous people, though scholarship is divided on whom to include therein; suggestions include the Veleti, Germanic peoples (Goths, Rugians, and Gepids) and possibly Slavs.
From this period, many influences are recorded from the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Coins were in use abundantly. Imported Roman goods and their native imitations, though poorer in quality, were common. Roman luxury goods were also found, but those were most probably reserved for the elite. Besides the import of Roman goods, the society also to a lesser degree copied the social differentiation of the Romans. Many princely graves are known from this period.
Between 170 and 260 AD, settlement in Pomerania became less dense. The Wielbark culture continued to exist in the Oder and Vistula estuaries, in parallel to and under mutual influence of the Dębczyn (Denzin) culture
Debczyn culture
The Dębczyn group is an archeological culture in Pomerania from the 3rd to 6th centuries. It was derived from the East Germanic Wielbark culture with influences from the Elbe region, and succeeded by migration of West Slavs, the Pomeranian tribes.In the second half of the third century, the...
that evolved in its midst. Numerous imported goods found from this period in the Oder estuary, originating in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
area, the Roman provinces, and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
underline the contemporary importance of the Oder estuary.
Dębczyn (Denzin) culture (250-525 AD)
In the second half of the 3rd century, the Dębczyn (Denzin) culture (or group) succeeded the Wielbark culture between the Persante and DrawaDrawa
Drawa is a river in north-western Poland, a tributary of the Notec river , with a length of 186 kilometres and the basin area of 3,296 km2.Towns:*Drawsko Pomorskie*Drawno*Krzyz Wielkopolski-See also:...
rivers, and a local, not yet classified culture between the lower Oder and Persante rivers. The adjacent areas to the east were uninhabited by this time. Whether the eastern Dębczyn culture replaced or evolved from the Wielbark culture is not yet known, in the western areas, settlement was continuous. The emergence of this group is characterized by an influence of the Vistula region (Wielbark culture), the expansion of the Gustow group, and many paralleles to the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
Germanic areas. The dead were buried unburned. The culture existed until the first quarter of the 6th century, when burial of the dead in grave fiedls stopped.
The Dębczyn group might comprise the archaeological remnants of Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
' Lemovii, probably identical with Widsith
Widsith
Widsith is an Old English poem of 144 lines that appears to date from the 9th century, drawing on earlier oral traditions of Anglo-Saxon tale singing. The only text of the fragment is copied in the Exeter Book, a manuscript of Old English poetry compiled in the late 10th century containing...
's Glommas, who are believed to have been the neighbors of the Rugians, a tribe dwelling at the Pomeranian coast before the migration period. Germanic saga
Saga
Sagas, are stories in Old Norse about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, etc.Saga may also refer to:Business*Saga DAB radio, a British radio station*Saga Airlines, a Turkish airline*Saga Falabella, a department store chain in Peru...
s report a battle on the isle of Hiddensee
Hiddensee
Hiddensee is a carfree island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Rügen on the German coast.The island, located 54°33' north longitude 13°07' east, has about 1,300 inhabitants. It was a popular vacation destination for East German tourists during German Democratic Republic times and continues to...
between King Hetel (Hethin, Heodin of the Glommas) and Rugian king Hagen, following the abduction of Hagen's daughter Hilde by Hetel. Yet, there are also other hypotheses about the location of the Lemovii, and that their identification as Glommas, though probable, is not certain.
5th and 6th centuries
Since the mid-5th century, the dead were not buried on grave fieldGrave field
A grave field is a prehistoric cemetery, typically of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe.Grave fields are distinguished from necropoleis by the former's lack of above-ground structures, buildings, or grave markers.-Types:...
s anymore. Also, hoards of fibulae
Brooch
A brooch ; also known in ancient times as a fibula; is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material...
have been found from this period, especially of the Sösdala
Sösdala
Sösdala is a locality situated in Hässleholm Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 1,785 inhabitants in 2005....
and Sjörup type. From the second half of the 5th century and the beginning 6th century, treasures of late Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
solidi, bracteates, and golden jewelry are found. From the same period these treasures were hidden, both hoards of and single solidi have been found, coined by Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
(425-455) and Anastasius I
Anastasius I (emperor)
Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 491 to 518. During his reign the Roman eastern frontier underwent extensive re-fortification, including the construction of Dara, a stronghold intended to counter the Persian fortress of Nisibis....
(491-518). These were found in the Debczin group area, the Vistula
Vistula
The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....
area, where they are associated with the Vidivarian stage of the Willenberg culture, and in the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
estituary, where they were found together with jewelry. Some of these hoards might have served as a substitute for burial objects, others might have been buried for some mythological purpose.
In the late 5th and early 6th centuries, large grave fields were set up in the coastal areas, which differ from the Debzcyn group type and show Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n analogies. Findings include fibulae
Brooch
A brooch ; also known in ancient times as a fibula; is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold but sometimes bronze or some other material...
of the Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
type, needles with bird heads, and armour (shields, lances and swords) of western European and Scandinavian type.
It is assumed that Burgundians
Burgundians
The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...
, Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
and Gepids with parts of the Rugians
Rugians
"Rugi" redirects here. For the Romanian villages by this name, see Păltiniş, Caraş-Severin and Turcineşti.The Rugii, also Rugians, Rygir, Ulmerugi, or Holmrygir were an East Germanic tribe migrated from southwest Norway to Pomerania around 100 AD, and from there to the Danube River valley...
left Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
during the late Roman Age, and that during the migration period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, remnants of Rugians
Rugians
"Rugi" redirects here. For the Romanian villages by this name, see Păltiniş, Caraş-Severin and Turcineşti.The Rugii, also Rugians, Rygir, Ulmerugi, or Holmrygir were an East Germanic tribe migrated from southwest Norway to Pomerania around 100 AD, and from there to the Danube River valley...
, Vistula Veneti, Vidivarii
Vidivarii
The Vidivarii are described by Jordanes in his Getica as a melting pot of tribes who in the mid-6th century lived at the lower Vistula:Ad litus oceani, ubi tribus faucibus fluenta Vistulae fluminibus ebibuntur, Vidivarii resident ex diversis nationibus aggregati.Though differing from the earlier...
and other, Germanic tribes
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
remained and formed units that were later Slavicized. The Vidivarii themselves are described by Jordanes
Jordanes
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....
in his Getica as a melting pot
Melting pot
The melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous society becoming more homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" into a harmonious whole with a common culture...
of tribes who in the mid-6th century lived at the lower Vistula. Though differing from the earlier Willenberg culture, some traditions were continued. One hypothesis, based on the sudden appearance of large amounts of Roman solidi and migrations of other groups after the breakdown of the Hun empire in 453, suggest a partial re-migration of earlier emigrants to their former northern homelands.