Wielbark culture

The evolution of the Wielbark culture before the migration to the Black Sea.

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  Roman Empire

The Wielbark culture (German: Wielbark-Willenberg-Kultur, Polish: Kultura wielbarska, Ukrainian: Вельбарська культура (Vel’bars’ka kul’tura)) was a culture that appeared during the first half of the 1st century CE. It replaced the Oksywie culture, in the area of modern-day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, which was related to the Przeworsk culture.

The Wielbark culture has been associated with Jordanes' account of the Goths leaving Scandza (Scandinavia) and their settlement in Gothiscandza.^{[citation needed]}

Discovery

Vistula delta with localization of the archeological sites of Wielbark and Oksywie cultures; actual and 19th-century-names

The Wielbark culture was named after a village where a burial place with over 3000 tombs, attributed to the Goths, and Gepids was discovered back in 1873. Unfortunately, many of the cemetery stones were moved, and many graves were damaged by the early German discoverers. The report of the original excavation, lost during World War II was rediscovered only in 2004 and is about to be analysed in a cooperation of Polish scientists from Gdańsk, Warszawa, Kraków and Lublin.

Distribution

The Wielbark culture started out covering the same area as the Oksywie culture, around the present day towns of Gdańsk and Chełmno. Later it reached into the lakelands (Kashubian and Krajenskian lakes) and stretched southwards, into the region around Poznań.

In the first half of the 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture left settlements by the Baltic Sea, at that time called Mare Suevicum or Mare Germanicum, except for the areas adjacent to the Vistula, and expanded into the area which later (by 1000 AD) became Masovia and Lesser Poland on the eastern side of the Vistula reaching into Ukraine, where they formed the Chernyakhov culture.

In 2000, in Czarnówko near Lębork, Pomerania, a cemetery of Oksywie and Wielbark cultures was found. These reached their height before the emigration of the population to the south west began. A bronze kettle depicts males wearing the Suebian knot hairstyle.

Characteristics

A stone circle in northern Poland.

There was a clear separation between the Przeworsk culture and the Wielbark culture, and there appear to have been no detectable contacts^{[citation needed]}.

The people of the Wielbark culture used both inhumation and cremation techniques for burying their dead. Whether one or the other was used varies from site to site and is believed to have depended on family traditions^{[citation needed]}.

A characteristic of this culture, which it had in common with southern Scandinavia, was the raising of stone covered mounds, stone circles, solitary stelae and variations of cobble cladding.

No weapons or tools are found in Wielbark culture graves, unlike the Przeworsk culture for which it was typical to give the dead such gifts. Instead, the artifacts found are mostly ornaments and costumes, although a few graves have shown spurs, these being the only warrior attributes found.

Another feature of the Wielbark culture was the use of bronze to make ornaments and accessories. Silver was used seldom and gold rarely. Iron appears to have been used extremely rarely.

The Goths

  traditional Götaland

  the island of Gotland

  Wielbark Culture in the early 3rd century

  Chernyakhov Culture, in the early 4th century

  Roman Empire

Germaniae veteris typus (Old Germany.), Aestui, Venedi and Gythones on the right upper corner of the map Edited by Willem and Joan Blaeu), 1645.

The Wielbark culture is associated with Jordanes' account of the Goths leaving Scandza (Scandinavia) and their settlement in Gothiscandza.

However, archaeologists are wary of ascribing ethnicities to archaeological cultures, and it is considered to be an extremely difficult matter. This is reflected by the names used for the cultures, usually baptised after the towns where remains are found. The latest tendency is to doubt the equation between the Wielbark Culture and the Goths, and contemporary researchers do not believe that immigration from Scandinavia is the sole cause of the Wielbark Culture. While Scandinavian influences played a part, the identical geographical extent and persistent use of Oksywie cemeteries suggest that the Weilbark Culture evolved from the Oksywie culture, with small groups of Scandinavian immigrants joining earlier inhabitants.

The evidence of cemeteries may also indicate which settlements were established directly by Goths. Barrow cemeteries on the Baltic Sea in today's Poland, which have raised stone circles and solitary stelae next to them, reflect Scandinavian burial customs with a concentration in Gotland and Götaland. Appearing in the later 1st century, this type is found between the Vistula and the Kashubian and Krajenskian lakelands reaching into the Koszalin region.

See also

• Wielbark culture and its burials
• Origins and expansion of the Wielbark culture
• Migrations of Wielbark and Przeworsk cultures people

References

• (Polish) A Polish Archaeology Article by Theodore Makiewicz
• (Polish) Gothic jewelry, by Thomas Skorupka, on a Polish museum site
• (Polish) Wielbark on mapa.szukacz.pl