The History and Current State of Research on the Olsztyn Group

Chapter 2 The History and Current State of Research on the Olsztyn Group

2.1 Cultural Background

The Olsztyn Group is part of the West Balt cultural circle. The latter was shaped in the Early Iron Age on the basis of the Lusatian culture, which occupied the lands between the Lower Vistula and the Nemunas rivers. At some point during the middle of the 1st millennium BC, the first sites of the West Balt Barrow culture appeared, which were different from those of Lusatian culture in terms of burial rites, settlement system, and pottery morphology. This phenomenon is related to the inflow of new population, most probably from the Middle Dnieper region, which was occupied at that time by the Milograd culture. The migration led not only to cultural changes visible in the archaeological material, but also to ethnic transformations that are responsible for the forma- tion of the West Balts. The West Balt Barrow Culture has been subdivided into several groups. The dominant one in the area of the Masurian Lakeland was the so-called West-Masurian Group, which is related to the Pomeranian Group. That in turn gave rise to the Bogaczewo Culture, the immediate predecessor of the Olsztyn Group.1 The Bogaczewo culture was first recognized in 1982 by Wojciech Nowakowski, who thus replaced the earlier classification of prehistoric cultures based on the work of the German researchers active in the first half of the 20th century.2 The Bogaczewo culture emerged during the late, so-called Pre-Roman period (Phase A3) from the West Balt Barrow Culture in the region between the Iława Lakeland and the Nemunas River.3 Its appearance was probably spurred by the

1 Wojciech Nowakowski, “Korzenie Prusów. Stan i możliwości badań nad dziejami plemion bałtyjskich w starożytności i początkach średniowiecza,” Pruthenia 1 (2006), pp. 12–21. 2 Wojciech Nowakowski, “Kultura bogaczewska na Pojezierzu Mazurskim od schyłku młodszego okresu przedrzymskiego do starszej fazy późnego okresu wpływów rzymskich,” Ph.D. dissertation, Warsaw University (Warsaw, 1983). 3 W. Nowakowski has distinguished five horizons in the development of the Bogaczewo culture. More recent studies suggest that Horizon 1 may be subdivided into two parts, one embracing Phase A3–B1a, the other Phase B1b–B2a. See Piotr Iwanicki, Anna Juga-Szymańska, “Horyzont 1. kultury bogaczewskiej w świetle analizy wybranych typów zabytków,” in Kultura bogaczewska w 20 lat później. Materiały z konferencji, Warszawa, 26–27 marca 2003, ed. by Anna Bitner-Wróblewska, Seminarium Bałtyjskie 1 (Warszawa, 2007), p. 59.

“Latenisation” (the adoption of late Iron-Age cultural practices) coming from the south through the intermediary of the Przeworsk culture. Bogaczewo was the first culture formed in the West Balt Circle after the decline of the West Balt Barrow Culture, and the southern influence probably came from the so-called Nidzica Group of the Przeworsk Culture. That influence is especially visible in the military equipment found on Bogaczewo sites.4 Others have pointed out to the influence of the Oksywie culture.5 At its earliest stage, the Bogaczewo Culture occupied the Mrągowo Lakeland, the Great Masurian Lake District, and the western part of the Ełk Lakeland. At the beginning of the Roman Period, an increase in the number of sites and an expansion to the east can be observed, as a result of which the Bogaczewo Culture reached the eastern part of the Ełk Lakeland and the Suwałki Lakeland, occupying its maximum area in Phase B2/C1.6 Its influence extended farther east to the areas of southern Lithuania, which is evidenced by the finds with Bogaczewo Culture traits from such cemetery sites as Pažarstis, Zapsė, or Stanaičiai.7 The Bogaczewo Culture had two settlement zones—a western one, occupying the Mrągowo Lakeland and the Great Masurian Lake District, and an eastern one, occupying the Suwałki region, the Ełk Lakeland and the lands on the Upper Gołdapa River. In the eastern zone, the finds from

4 Wojciech Nowakowski, “Kultura przeworska a zachodniobałtyjski krąg kulturowy,” in Kultura Przeworska I ed. by Jan Gurba, Andrzej Kokowski (Lublin, 1994), p. 374; Wojciech Nowakowski, Od Galindai do Galinditae. Z badań nad pradziejami bałtyjskiego ludu z Pojezierza Mazurskiego (Warsaw, 1995), pp. 18–19; Die Funde, der römischen Kaiserzeit und der Völkerwanderungszeit in Masuren (Berlin, 1998), p. 14. 5 Jan Jaskanis, Jerzy Okulicz, “Kultura zachodniobałtyjska,” in Prahistoria ziem polskich, V: Późny okres lateński i okres rzymski ed. by Jerzy Wielowiejski (Wrocław/Warsaw/ Kraków/Gdańsk, 1981), p. 222. Jerzy Okulicz, “Grupy mrągowska i węgorzewska kultury zachodniobałtyjskiej a zagadnienia ‘Galindai i Sudinoi’ Ptolemeusza,” Rocznik Białostocki 14 (1981), p. 55. Having analysed the earliest military equipment of the Bogaczewo culture, Bartosz Kontny has demonstrated that this category of finds was influenced not only by the Przeworsk, but also by the Oksywie culture, although the impact of the former seems to have been stronger. See Bartosz Kontny, “Najwcześniejsze elementy uzbrojenia w kulturze bogaczewskiej w świetle zewnętrznych wpływów kulturowych,” in Kultura bogaczewska w 20 lat później. Materiały z konferencji, Warszawa, 26–27 marca 2003, ed. by Aanna Bitner- Wróblewska (Warsaw, pp. 73–111. 6 Paweł Szymański, “Ceramika kultury bogaczewskiej. Próba analizy na podstawie wybranych materiałów,” Barbaricum 6 (2000), p. 110. 7 Anna Bitner-Wróblewska and Gytis Grižas, “Ceramika kultury bogaczewskiej z południowej Litwy,” in Kultura bogaczewska w 20 lat później. Materiały z konferencji, Warszawa, 26–27 marca 2003, ed. by Anna Bitner-Wróblewska, Seminarium Bałtyjskie 1 (Warsaw, 2007), pp. 261–276.