Wielbark culture

The Wielbark culture (German: Wielbark-Willenberg-Kultur; Polish: Kultura wielbarska; Russian: Вельбарская культура; Ukrainian: Вельбарська культура) or East Pomeranian-Mazovian is an Iron Age archaeological complex which flourished in Magna Germania, (now Poland) from the 1st century AD[1] to the 5th century AD.[2]

Wielbark culture

Geographical range	Poland
Period	Iron Age
Dates	ca. 100–400 AD
Preceded by	Oksywie culture, Przeworsk culture
Followed by	Chernyakhov culture, Sukow-Dziedzice group

The Wielbark culture is associated with the Goths and related Germanic peoples, and played an important role in the Amber Road. it displays cultural links not only with its but neighbours, but also with southern Scandinavia. The Wielbark culture replaced the preceding Oksywie culture on the lower Vistula in the 1st century AD, and subsequently expanded southwards at the expense of the Przeworsk culture, which is associated with the Vandals. This expansion has been associated by historians such as Peter Heather with the contemporary Marcomannic Wars. By the late 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture had expanded into the area of the upper Dniester, where it influenced the Chernyakhov culture to its south, — encompassing a large area between the Danube and the Don River.

In the 5th century AD, the Wielbark culture was replaced by the Sukow-Dziedzice group, which is associated with the Early Slavs.

Discovery

The Wielbark culture was named after the once-Prussian village, known in German as Willenberg, where a burial place with over 3,000 tombs, was discovered and partially recorded in 1873.

The "first modern description" of the culture was not until the work of Ryszard Wołągiewicz in the 1970s. The cemetery's completeness and long period of use was the reason this site was chosen to name the culture, which "spans all the phases of Wielbark culture as well as phases predating its emergence and thus dating to the earlier, pre-Roman period".[3]

Many of the cemetery stones were moved, and many graves were damaged by the early discoverers and particularly during WW II, when Soviets conquered the area and handed it to Communist Poland.

Characteristics

A stone circle in northern Poland – Kashubia.

Before 1 AD, when the Roman empire began to be more influential in northern Europe, there was relative consistency in burial practices between the Rhine and Vistula. Bodies were normally cremated and there were few grave goods, if any. This began to change, possibly reflecting increasing social stratification. The Wielbark culture, for example, is distinguished by its occasional use monumental "barrow" burials.[4]

The Wielbark culture is primarily differentiated from its predecessor the Oksywie culture by the introduction of inhumation as opposed to cremation, which began around 1 AD. Notably, the Wielbark culture used both rituals. Despite this, there is also evidence for continuity between the two cultures. This is interpreted as being caused by an evolution in spiritual culture.[5]

The neighbouring Przeworsk culture, on the other hand, long continued to practice cremation, and whereas Wielbark burials never included weapons, Przeworsk burials often did. In the second century AD however, the burial practices of the Wielbark culture began to spread into Przeworsk areas.[6]

Instead, the artifacts found are mostly ornaments and costumes, although a few graves have shown spurs, these being the only warrior attributes found. The people of the Wielbark culture used both inhumation and cremation techniques for burying their dead.[7]

The Wielbark culture played an important role in the Amber Road.[7][8] A complex series of wooden bridges and causeways built by the Wielbark culture were probably connected to this trade.[9]

The Wielbark culture appears to have practiced mixed agriculture. Their lack of agricultural expertise made their fields less fertile, which caused to population to be quite mobile.[10] Several settlements however remained stable for hundreds of years.[10]

A characteristic of the Wielbark 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. These stone circles might have been places of communal meatings.[10]

The Wielbark culture displays several characteristics similar to those of the Chernyakhov culture.[11] This includes the creation of handmade bowl-shaped ceramics, the wearing by females of fibula brooches on each shoulder, the presence of Germanic longhouses, the practice of both cremation and inhumation, and the lack of weapons deposited in burials.[12]

Reconstruction of a Wielbark culture house

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. 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 began. A bronze kettle depicts males wearing the Suebian knot hairstyle.[13]

History

  Götaland

  Gotland

  Wielbark culture in the early 3rd century

  Chernyakhov culture in the early 4th century

  Roman Empire

The Wielbark culture emerged in the 1st century AD around the same area as the Oksywie culture, around the present day towns of Gdańsk and Chełmno.[7] Whether the Wielbark culture was an outgrowth of the Oksywie culture or represents a new population is disputed. The increasing density of Wielbark centuries after its establishment suggests that it experienced significant population growth during its existence.[6]

During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Wielbark culture expanded into the lakelands (Kashubian and Krajenskian lakes) and stretched southwards, into the region around Poznań. Here it ejected the Przeworsk culture, which is often associated with the Vandals.[14][6] Rather than being entirely replaced, archaeological evidence suggest that the Przeworks were to a certain extent absorded by the Wielbark. The southward expansion of the Wielbark burial habits has been connected with the beginning of the Marcomannic Wars.[6] By 200 AD, people are of the Wielbark culture appear to have been recruited as soldiers in the Roman Army.[6]

In the first half of the 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture expanded southwards along the Vistula and Bug towards the upper Dniester. Meanwhile Pomeranian settlements by the Baltic Sea were somewhat, but not entirely,[15] abandoned.[12] This expansion was swifter and on an even larger scale than previous ones, and represented a significant shift of Wielbark power towards the south.[12][16] Archaeological and linguistics evidence suggest that the expansion involved both men, women and children.[17][16] The Gothic attack on Histria in 238 is probably connected with this expansion.[12] North of the Black Sea, the Wielbark culture played a decisive role in the formation of the Chernyakhov culture n the late 3rd century AD, which by the 4th century AD would cover a huge area between the Danube and the Don River.[18][19] Though historically controversial, it is now universally accepted that the origins of the Chernyakhov culture lie primarily in the Wielbark culture, and that the former represents a culture dominated by the Goths and other Germanic peoples.[12]

Isolated pockets of the Wielbark culture continued to exist in current northern Poland until the 5th century AD.[2][15] From then it was replaced by the Sukow-Dziedzice group, which is associated with Early Slavs.[20]

Ethnicity

It is believed that the Wielbark culture was formed under the influence of the Goths, Rugii[6][21] and Gepids.[18][19][22] Along with the neighboring Przeworsk culture, Peter Heather places it in the Germanic cultural horizon.[23][lower-alpha 1] In the past, the Wielbark culture was often connected with Early Slavs, but such theories have been dismissed by modern scholarship.[6][25]

The Wielbark culture has traditionally been attributed to the migration of the Goths from Scandza (Scandinavia) to Gothiscandza as related in Jordanes' account of their origin. While Gothic influence may well have played a part, the identical geographical extent and persistent use of Oksywie cemeteries suggest that the Weilbark Culture emerged from previous human settlements in the area, with new groups of Scandinavian immigrants making contributions to it as they arrived.[26][7]

The cemeteries may give some indication in evidence as to which settlements could have been 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.[27]

Physical characteristics

Odontological analysis revealed that the Central European populations from the Roman period and the Early Middle Ages were indistinguishable in terms of non-metrical dental traits, though this does not exclude the possibility of genetically different origins.[28]

Genetics

A genetic study published in PLOS One in 2014 examined and compared the mtDNA of the Wielbark culture and the Przeworsk culture, both belonging to the Roman Iron Age (RoIA) with that of populations from Poland in the Middle Ages. 24 samples of mtDNA from the Wielbark sites of Kowalewko (11) and Rogowo (13) were examined. Wielbark samples were found to be primarily carrying types of haplogroup H, while types of U and W were also frequent. It was found that the mtDNA of the RoiA populations was largely similar to that of medieval populations, although they displayed closer genetic relations to populations of northern and central Europe, while medieval populations on the other hand displayed closer genetic relations to Slavs of eastern and southern Europe. The mtDNA of the RoIA samples were found to be more closely related to Poles than any other modern population, while similarities with Balts and other West Slavs were also detected.[1]

A genetic study published in Scientific Reports in 2018 examined the mtDNA of 60 individuals buried at the Wielbark cemetery of Kowalewko in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The majority of the individuals carried types of haplogroup H and U. Notably, they displayed higher frequencies of U5b (a typically Western Hunter-Gatherer lineage) than preceding and succeeding populations in the area. Compared to some ancient DNA samples, the male mitochondrial mix was found to be most closely related to Iron Age Jutland and late Neolithic Central European Bell Beaker culture samples. The females were most similar to Early-Middle Neolithic farmers. [29]

A genetic study published by the same author in Scientific Reports in 2019 examined the mtDNA of 27 individuals from a Wielbark cemetery in Masłomęcz, Poland. The remains were from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD. Based on archaeological evidence, these individuals were assumed to be Goths. They were found to be mostly carriers of haplogroup H and U. The individuals displayed even closer genetic links to Iron Age populations of southern Scandinavia than those of Kowalewko did. Males and females at Masłomęcz were found to be more closely related to each other than those at Kowalewko were. They also carried fewer samples of U5b, and displayed less strong genetic links to the Yamanya culture, Corded Ware culture, Bell Beaker culture and Unetice culture than earlier Wielbark samples from Kowalewko.[18]

See also

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

Notes

1. "[T]he Wielbark and Przeworsk systems have come to be understood as thoroughly dominated by Germanic-speakers...[24]

References

1. Juras 2014.
2. Heather 2012, p. 125. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
3. Cieśliński 2016, p. 219.
4. Heather 2012, p. 56. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
5. Cieśliński 2016, p. 222.
6. Heather 2012, pp. 103-107. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
7. Rau 2018.
8. Heather 2012, p. 139. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
9. Heather 2012, p. 134. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
10. Heather 2012, p. 146. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
11. Heather & Matthews 1991, pp. 63, 91.
12. Heather 2012, pp. 117-120. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
13. Maczynska & Rudnicka 2004.
14. Stoalrek 2019. sfn error: no target: CITEREFStoalrek2019 (help)
15. Heather 2012, p. 592. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
16. Heather 2012, p. 147. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
17. Heather 2012, p. 130. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
18. Stolarek 2019.
19. Heather 2012. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
20. Heather 2012, p. 413. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
21. Heather 2012, p. 222. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
22. Murdoch & Read 2004, p. 151.
23. Heather 2010, p. 87.
24. Heather 2012, p. 679. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
25. Heather 2012, p. 392. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFHeather2012 (help)
26. Kaliff 2001.
27. Makiewicz.
28. Piontek 2007.
29. Stolarek 2018.

Sources

• Andrzejowski, Jacek (2019), "The Gothic migration through Eastern Poland – archaeological evidences", in Cieśliński; Kontny (eds.), Interacting Barbarians. Contacts, Exchange and Migrations in the First Millennium AD, Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung, 9, Warszawa-Braunschweig, pp. 227–239
• Cieśliński, Adam (2016), "The society of Wielbark culture, AD 1‒300", in Rzeszotarska-Nowakiewicz (ed.), The Past Societies. Polish lands from the first evidence of human presence to the Early Middle Ages. 500BC‒500AD, 4, Warszawa, pp. 217‒255
• Heather, Peter; Matthews, John (1991). The Goths in the Fourth Century. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780853234265.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Heather, Peter (2010). The Fall of the Roman Empire. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9780330529839.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Heather, Peter (2012). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199892266.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Heather, Peter (2012). "Goths". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191735257. Retrieved February 20, 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Juras, Anna (October 22, 2014). "Ancient DNA Reveals Matrilineal Continuity in Present-Day Poland over the Last Two Millennia". PLOS One. PLOS. 9 (10): e110839. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110839. PMC 4206425. PMID 25337992.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kaliff, Anders (2001). Gothic connections: Contacts between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic coast 1000 BC-500 AD. Uppsala University. ISBN 9150614827.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Makiewicz, Tadeusz. "The Goths in Greater Poland". pl:Muzeum Archeologiczne w Poznaniu. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Maczynska, Magdalena; Rudnicka, Dorota (2004). "Ein Grab mit römischen Importen aus Czarnówko,Kr. Lêbork (Pommern)" [A grave with Roman imports from Czarnówko, Lębork district, Pomerania, Poland] (PDF). Germania. Verlag Henrich Editionen. 88 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Murdoch, Brian; Read, Malcolm Kevin (2004). Early Germanic Literature and Culture. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 157113199X.
• Piontek, Janusz (January 2007). "Odontological Analysis of Central European Populations from the Roman Period and the Early Middle Ages". Humanbiologia Budapestinensis. 30: 77–86. Retrieved February 20, 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Rau, Andreas (2018). "Wielbark Culture". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191744457. Retrieved February 20, 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Stolarek, Ireneuz (February 6, 2018). "A mosaic genetic structure of the human population living in the South Baltic region during the Iron Age". Nature Communications. Nature Research. 8 (2455): 2455. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20705-6. PMC 5802798. PMID 29410482.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Stolarek, I. (May 1, 2019). "Goth migration induced changes in the matrilineal genetic structure of the central-east European population". Nature Communications. Nature Research. 9 (6737): 6737. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43183-w. PMC 6494872. PMID 31043639.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

• Kokowski, Andrzej (2011). "The Goths in ca. 311 AD" (PDF). In Kaliff, Anders; Munkhammar, Lars (eds.). Wulfila 311-2011. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. pp. 71–96. ISBN 9789155486648.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)