Polish excavations and projects

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Dudka – cemetery and campsites of hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age

Excavation conducted by (renew from 2023): Dr Karolina Bugajska and Dr hab. Witold Gumiński
Localisation: NE Poland, Masurian Lakeland, Wydminy commune, Giżycko district
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Type of the site: Stone Age peat-bog site with the cemetery of hunter-gatherers

Description of the site: Exceptional cemetery with very diversified burials from the Late Mesolithic and Para-Neolithic, and habitation sites of hunter-gatherers from the Late Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Para-Neolithic (Zedmar culture) till the Late Neolithic. Complex stratigraphy and preserved bones and wooden materials, besides amber, stone, flint and pottery make the site unique.

Research project:
NCN Opus 20; nr 2020/39/B/HS3/02375, Absolute chronology of burials and loose human bones from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age sites Dudka and Szczepanki in Masuria (NE-Poland).
Published results of the project:
– Bugajska, K. (2023). Purified by fire: Cremation burials in the Stone Age hunter-gatherer cemetery at Dudka, Masuria, northeast Poland. Documenta Praehistorica, 50, 110-135. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.50.10
– Bugajska, K. (2024). Loose human bones as evidence of the multi-step burial rite: Case study of the Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites at Dudka and Szczepanki, Masuria (northeastern Poland), Přehled výzkumů 65/1, 2024 X 103–137 https://doi.org/10.47382/pv0651-05

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Puszcza Augustowska – early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Person conducting excavation: dr hab. Tomasz Nowakiewicz
Country: Poland
Site name:  Augustów Primeval Forest, area of Szczeberka river
Type of the site: early medieval cemeteries with cremation

Description of the research: The aim of excavation is research of cemeteries of Yatvingian elites from the 12th-13th centuries. Layers with the remains of funeral pyres containing rich burial assemblages were explored. The result of the research provides the best illustration of the material culture of early medieval Yatvingia (vel Sudovia), confirming the meaning of medieval historical sources, which emphasise the wealth and military power of the inhabitants of this land.

 

 

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Ciepłe – a settlement complex from the turn of the 10th/11th century in Eastern Pomerania

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: Ciepłe, county Tczew, voivodeship pomorskie
Type of the site:  a complex of sites – three strongholds, two cemeteries and settlements
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The excavations are carried out as a part of  project ‘The early medieval settlement complex at Ciepłe: the Piast dynasty’s key to Eastern Pomerania’, which aim is to investigate the important archaeological site at Ciepłe in Eastern Pomerania, and to learn about the role that it played in incorporating this region into the first Polish state. Until recently Ciepłe was best known for the accidental discovery of an early medieval cemetery where there was a grave of an armed warrior thought to be a Viking. This cemetery is only one part of a vast complex made up of three strongholds, several settlements and two burial grounds. So far, researchers have concentrated on the discoveries made at the cemetery. This is no surprise. New excavations carried out at the cemetery (2004–2014) uncovered further richly furnished graves, which confirmed the remarkable importance of this place.

The settlement complex at Ciepłe is a unique cluster of sites dating from the late 10th/early 11th century. It was probably founded at the end of the 900s by people associated with the first rulers of the Piast dynasty (Mieszko I or Bolesław I the Brave). Gaining supremacy over Eastern Pomerania was one of the steps that helped build a fully formed and strong political structure at the end of the 10th century and the beginning of the 11th century. The Piasts were particularly keen to seize this area for economic reasons (it gave them access to trade and control of the River Vistula).

The planned research will be conducted on two levels. A multidisciplinary study of the Ciepłe settlement complex will examine the site at a narrow, regional level. The second, broader-level study will look at the site’s wider importance, and will include several innovative research methods. As well as traditional archaeological procedures, we will be using palaeoenvironmental and bioarchaeological studies (including genetic analysis, and analysis of stable isotopes of strontium, carbon nitrogen and sulfur).

 

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Nowy Chorów – cemetery with rectangular mounds

Person conducting excavation: dr Sławomir Wadyl
Country: Poland
Site name: Nowy Chorów, pow. Słupski, woj. pomorskie
Type of the site: barrow cemetery
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: The cemetery in Nowy Chorów is located on a small elevation, along the edge of the valley cut by watercourses. Excavations in the necropolis were initiated in 2022. They were preceded by geophysical research, which was carried out using magnetic and electrical resistance methods. In the first two seasons of research, three barrows were examined and protection works were carried out on one barrow, where there is a large robbery pit. The research allowed us to initially determine the chronology for the 11th-12th century.

In fact, most of the burial mounds at the site have a quadrangular shape. Objects of this type are called the Orzeszkowo type. The term comes from the cemetery in Orzeszków in the district of Łobez, examined in 1921-1924. In their classic form, they are found only in Pomerania. Barrows of the Orzeszkowo type are basically four-sided, usually square embankments “closed” with a stone surround. Inside the mound, there are various stone constructions in the form of burial chambers or stone pavements. They are usually the burial place of several people. They are characterized by bi-ritualism – apart from the prevailing inhumation, cremation was also used. The “equipment” of the dead is usually very modest. Although the Orzeszkowo-type graves belong to the more intriguing category of funerary objects, they have not been studied in recent decades. There are 16 mounds at the site. They form two clusters – the larger (Western) consisting of 10 and the smaller (Eastern) with six barrows.

Each of the examined burial mounds is a different funeral story. The goal is to explore a few more embankments. And due to the fact that the last studies of objects of this type took place in the years 1966–1968 – then excavations were carried out in Żydów in the Koszalin district – the research has great scientific and cognitive potential.

 

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Lubanowo Lake – ritual place

Person conducting excavation: prof. Bartosz Kontny
Country: Poland
Site name: Lubanowo Lake
Type of the site: ritual place
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Lubanowo Lake, phot. Aleksander Kozłowski
Lubanowo Lake, phot. Aleksander Kozłowski

Description of the research:
Since 2014 the team from the University of Warsaw has been conducting an underwater survey in Lake Lubanowo in Western Pomerania. It unveiled traces of a three-millennium-long human activity, including i.a. an Iron Age logboat, a Roman Period war-booty offering, Medieval deposits, a copper cauldron from ca AD 1600, private stamp of a Prussian general from the early nineteenth century. During underwater research weapons, tools, and horse harness elements were found dated mainly to the Roman Period; some of them bear traces of ritual destruction. The parallels to weapons may be pointed out namely in Central Europe and, to some extent, in Scandinavia. The site should be attributed to sacrificial military deposits, known generally from northern Europe, but until recently unknown to the south of the Baltic Sea. Its extraordinary character is manifested by the fact that the site is still in its ‘lake stage’, not a bog, into which ancient lakes have evolved due to the process of eutrophication. Most probably the site was used by local inhabitants, i.e. the people of the Lubusz group, in the 1st until the early 3rd c. AD but at least some of deposited weapons may be linked to the neighbouring cultural groups. The author presents first conclusions concerning the character of the deposit.

Literature:
B. Kontny, T. Nowakiewicz, A. Rzeszotarska-Nowakiewicz, The Turning Point: preliminary results of underwater research of the former Herrn-See at the vilage of Lubanowo (Western Pomerania, Poland), “Archaeologia Baltica” 23 (2016), 45–57.

Starożytne miejsce ofiarne w jeziorze w Lubanowie na Pomorzu Zachodnim, ed. Tomasz Nowakiewicz, Warszawa: IA UW 2016.

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Szczepanki – peat-bog site of hunter-gatherers

Person conducting excavation: dr hab. Witold Gumiński
Country: Poland
Site name: Szczepanki site 8, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Type of the site: Stone Age peat-bog site of hunter-gatherers

Description of the research: Paleoenvironment, economy, settlement, burial practices and wooden, bone, amber, stone and flint artefacts, as well as pottery in following periods of the Stone Age – the Late Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Para-Neolithic (Zedmar culture) and the Late Neolithic.

Research project:
NCN Opus 20; nr 2020/39/B/HS3/02375, Absolute chronology of burials and loose human bones from the hunter-gatherer Stone Age sites Dudka and Szczepanki in Masuria (NE-Poland).
Published results of the project:
– Bugajska, K. (2023). Purified by fire: Cremation burials in the Stone Age hunter-gatherer cemetery at Dudka, Masuria, northeast Poland. Documenta Praehistorica, 50, 110-135. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.50.10
– Bugajska, K. (2024). Loose human bones as evidence of the multi-step burial rite: Case study of the Stone Age hunter-gatherer sites at Dudka and Szczepanki, Masuria (northeastern Poland), Přehled výzkumů 65/1, 2024 X 103–137 https://doi.org/10.47382/pv0651-05

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Wólka Prusinowska – cemetery

Person conducting excavation: Kamil Niemczak MA, mgr Iwona Lewoc MA
Country: Poland
Site name: Wólka Prusinowska
Type of the site: cemetery
Involved institutions:
Terra Desolata Foundation
Description of the research:
The cemetery in Wólka Prusinowska (Ger. Pruschinowen Wolka) is located on the north-eastern high bank of the Wielki Zyzdrój Lake. It was discovered at the end on the XIX century. During the modern excavations we discovered – among them – bronze bow brooch, disc brooches with wooden insert, bronze tweezers, iron buckle with trapezoidal frame. It is evidence of contacts Olsztyn Group with Avars. Apart from that we found several hundred fragments of pottery. Part of it was decorated.
More info: terradesolata.pl
Project/sources of financing:
Institute of Archaeology, Consultative Council for Students’ Scientific Movement of  University of Warsaw, Universitatis Varsoviensis Foundation, University of Warsaw Foundation, Terra Desolata Foundation

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Podlesie – early neolithic site

Person conducting excavation: Artur Grabarek, MA
Country: Poland
Site name: Podlesie, site 6,  Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship
Type of the site: cementry of the Lusatian Culture
Involved institutions:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Description of the research:
In the years 2014-2018, the area of 380 m² was investigated. About 13,000 artefacts were discovered: 9,000 pieces of ceramics, 2400 flint products, 100 obsidian products, 110 stone items, as well as clay weights, whorls, fragments of animal bones. Stratigraphic and planigraphic observations and the results of a comprehensive analysis of materials, clearly indicate that we are dealing with a culturally homogeneous group, constituting a remnants of the middle and late phase of the LBK. The nature of the finds makes the site Podlesie one of the most important points on the map of the KCWR settlements in the Nida Basin region.
Project: –

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Podlesie – cemetery of the Lusatian Culture

Person conducting excavation: Artur Grabarek, MSc
Country: Poland
Site name: Podlesie, site 5,  Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship
Type of the site: cemetery of the Lusatian Culture
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw

Description of the research: Podlesie is a small village, located about 5 km east of Oleśnica in the świętokrzyskie voivodeship. In 2014-2017, excavations were carried out at the site, during which a surface area of 150 m² was investigated. Over 100 graves with cremations body in urn were discovered that belong to the Tarnobrzeg culture. A large scientific value is not only a diversified ceramic inventory, but also a very rich collection small bronze and flint artefacts. Some of them occurred in the grave context. Two well-equipped graves of the Przeworsk culture were also discovered. The analysis confirmed the similarity of materials from Podlesie to items of other cemeteries of the Lusatian culture in this region.

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Supraśl – ritual place

Person conducting excavation: prof. Dariusz Manasterski
Country: Poland
Site name: Supraśl, site 3, Podlaskie Voivodeship
Type of the site: cementry of the Przeworsk Culture
Involved institutions: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw; Podlachian Museum in Białystok

Description of the research: Excavation works covered the area of sandy elevation among the backwaters of the Supraśl River within the Knyszyn Primeval Forest , where four ritual objects of the Bell Beaker culture have been recognized so far. There were also traces of the stay of the Corded Ware culture and Lusatian culture from the early Iron Age.

Project: Interdisciplinary research of the Knyszyn Primeval Forest microregion (financed from the budget of the Faculty of Archaeology University of Warsaw and the Podlachian Museum in Białystok)

 

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