Plural: History, Culture, Society (Dec 2017)
Formation of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age cultural model in Wielkopolska
Abstract
The start of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age was the time of a transformation of the communities residing in this region into a new civilizational quality that was radically different from the quality of the preceding period. In the interior of the continent, a certain "Celt fashion" could be noticed, which was manifested in adaptation of patterns of both material culture and, most likely, elements of Celtic rites. Its course appears to be the key to the understanding of the transformations taking place in Wielkopolska at the turn of the 2nd century B.C. In older literature, the origins of the changes taking place at that time were linked to the transformation of the community of the Pomeranian (Wejcherowo-Krotoszyn) culture as a result of influence of strong Celtic currents that resulted in formation of a new group typical of cultural currents of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age, namely of the Przeworsk culture. Currently we know that the issue is not quite as simple and unequivocal. In order to understand the complexity of the cultural situation of Central Europe at the threshold of its La Tenization, one must go back to the time of formation of the local model of civilization of the Iron Age and of formation of cultures that individually adapted the Hallstatt cultural model. In present-day Poland, these changes were described in the literature as the Pomeranian culture. In the archeological materials, the changes taking place at that time were manifested most of all in the changes in the funeral rites and in the new style of pottery forms, present mostly in funeral groups and, in the case of the post-Nordic zone, also in introduction of production of iron based on Hallstatt traditions. This is probably the cause of the similarities between the Pomeranian culture and the central and northern German zone and partly the Scandinavian zone. At that time, a new universal civilizational stream was born that influenced a majority of the territories of Central and Northern Europe and became an alternative model to the ineffective southern civilizational pattern. In the case of the territory of the present-day Poland, the distinctiveness of the Pomeranian culture has traditionally been defined by comparing its "genetic code" to that of the Lusatian culture. The similarity to the pottery of the older culture resulted in parts from the materials being connected in a kind of a Lusatian-Pomeranian horizon. The identity of the younger of the two groups was built on the comparison of the groups. On the other hand, attempts have been made to capture the typological relations between pottery of the Pomeranian culture and the forms of the Przeworsk culture that followed it, which has not been convincingly achieved despite all the efforts. This has certainly been due to the limited understanding of the youngest development phase of the Pomeranian culture and, consequently, the lack of knowledge of the youngest ceramic forms typical of that culture, which should actually be the basis for comparisons with pottery typical of the Przeworsk culture.
