Revisiting the Middle Bronze Age Barrows in South-Western Poland

Middle Bronze Age Barrows Mateusz Jaeger, Jutta Kneisel and Janusz Czebreszuk (eds.) Revisiting the Middle Bronze Age Barrows of South-Western Poland Mateusz Jaeger, Jutta Kneisel, Janusz Czebreszuk (eds.) In the area of southwestern Greater Poland, fairly extensive forest areas have survived the 19th century agrotechnical revolution associated with the large-scale introduction of steam plowing. As a result, there are still well-preserved remnants of the cultural landscape within the dense oak forests. To a large extent, these remains are Middle Bronze Age barrows. The volume presents the results of several years of Polish-German research on these sites, both in the form of excavations and non-invasive research, as well as reanalysis of archival information. The sources presented provide a starting point for comparative research and summarize knowledge about the state of preservation of the past landscape. In Kommission bei Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH SAO SPEŚ 21 Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa Studia nad Pradziejami Europy Środkowej 21 Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa Band / Tom 21 · Studia nad Pradziejami Europy Środkowej Revisiting the Middle Bronze Age Barrows in South-Western Poland Mateusz Jaeger, Jutta Kneisel, Janusz Czebreszuk (eds.) In Kommission bei Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn 2023 Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa Studia nad Pradziejami Europy Środkowej Band / Tom 21 Editors / Redaktorzy Johannes Müller, Kiel Janusz Czebreszuk, Poznań Sławomir Kadrow, Kraków The publication was financed by Distribution Translation Editor DTP & technical editor Cover design ISBN Printed by Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Institute of European Culture in Gniezno Christian-Albrechts University Kiel Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology SFB 1266 Scales of Transformation Krotoszyn Town Hall Gniezno Town Hall Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn Szymon Nowak and Mateusz Jaeger Mateusz Jaeger Justyna Nowaczyk Ralf Opitz 978-3-7749-4377-3 (Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn) Totem.com.pl © Authors 2023 No part of the book may be, without the written permission of the authors: reproduced in any form (print, copy, CD, DVD, the Internet or other means) as well as working through, reproduced or distributed CONTENTS Janusz Czebreszuk, Johannes Müller, Preface from series’ editors ................................................................... 7 Introduction ........................................................................................ 9 A GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION The Silesian-Greater Poland Borderland ............................................... 13 Sławomir Kadrow Mateusz Jaeger, Jutta Kneisel, Janusz Czebreszuk Jakub Niebieszczański, Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke MIDDLE BRONzE AGE SMOSzEW CEMETERy Jakub Niebieszczański Łukasz Pospieszny Geomorphology of Smoszew cemetery ................................................ 19 Archaeological research in the Krotoszyn Forest until 1924 ............................................................. 27 Mateusz Stróżyk Excavations conducted in the 1960 at the Smoszew cemetery. Barrow no. 18 ....................................................................................... 51 Jutta Kneisel, Mateusz Jaeger, Łukasz Pospieszny, Janusz Czebreszuk Marcin Szydłowski Smoszew near Krotoszyn, Greater Poland – Excavations of barrow no. 15 .................................................................................. 65 Petroarchaeological analysis of stones from barrow no. 15 at the site in Smoszew ................................................................ 89 Łukasz Pospieszny, Mateusz Stróżyk MIDDLE BRONzE AGE CEMETERIES IN SILESIAN-GREATER POLAND BORDERLAND Barrows from the Krotoszyn area in the light of non-invasive surveys from 2007–2012 .............................................. 97 Mateusz Cwaliński The cemetery in Obrót (Osada Leśna) near Oleśnica, Lower Silesia ..... 105 Jutta Kneisel, Mateusz Cwaliński, Verification research on cemetery in Sadowie-Wysocko Wielkie ......... 125 Jakub Niebieszczański, Mateusz Jaeger, Leszek Ziąbka Robert Staniuk Mateusz Cwaliński MIDDLE BRONzE AGE RITUAL AND MATERIAL CULTURE Social relations and communication: a bronze-based case study from the boundary area of Silesia and Greater Poland ................................... 143 Comparative analysis of barrow burial rites of the Tumulus culture in south-western Poland and south-western Bohemia ............... 163 WELCOME TO KROTOSzyN ............................................................... 251 Preface from series’ editors The decline of the Early Bronze Age communities identified primarily with the dominance of the Únětice culture, in most areas of Central Europe, was associated with profound cultural changes. In western Poland, these changes consisted of the disappearance of a stable settlement network characteristic of the first half of the second millennium BC and the emergence of a new cultural model. Its bearers, the socalled Tumulus culture, were traditionally seen as mobile and aggressive, pastoral societies, from which the main material remnant remained the barrows scattered over a vast area of Central Europe. In Polish archaeology, the image of the Middle Bronze Age was also formed under the influence of excavations conducted at funerary sites. In the pre-war period and until the end of the 1970s, a relatively large number of barrows were investigated. However, the results of these studies did not answer a number of the questions posed. First and foremost, the chronology of the Middle Bronze Age still remains insufficiently understood. Also, little attention has been paid to the place of barrows in the landscape and the spatial relationships in which individual sites remained in relation to each other. The current trend in Polish heritage management aims to minimize the scale of excavation of archaeological objects with their own landscape form. At the same time, there is an emphasis on using the opportunities offered by non-invasive methods and specialized analyses of archival materials. The authors of the presented research have made every effort to provide the reader with as much information as possible from the available sources, precisely within the new ways of documenting space, remote sensing and new analytical methods. The authors’ research area became southwestern Greater Poland and the Silesian-Greater Poland borderland. This region offers rich sources for understanding the cultural landscape of the Middle Bronze Age. A relatively large number of archaeological sites have been preserved within stands older than 180 years. The vast majority of them are barrows, which can be associated with the so-called Tumulus culture. The presented book contains information from multifaceted research of single barrows and cemeteries. Both the results of rescue excavations, the analysis of archival materials and results of field surveys to record barrows and the degree of their preservation are presented. The collected information also forms the basis for the presented cross-regional studies. Their results allowed to better understand the specificity of the Middle Bronze Age of the Silesian-Greater Poland borderland against the background of other regions of Central Europe. The presented next volume in the SAO/ SPEŚ series in no way closes the discussion of the key problems in research on the Middle Bronze Age in western Poland. Instead, it constitutes a necessary summary, without which the identification of further research objectives would not be possible, and allows us to realize the dangers that threaten the still preserved parts of the past landscape. Last but not least it should be underlined that the publication of this book and the field research would not have been possible without the support of the Krotoszyn city government. Cooperation between archaeologists and hosts in the region was based on the same way of looking at the past and understanding it as our common heritage. Janusz Czebreszuk • Johannes Müller • Sławomir Kadrow 7 Introduction The Middle Bronze Age, associated primarily with the so-called Tumulus culture, represents one of the least understood periods of Poland’s prehistory. Knowledge of the communities of the second half of the second millennium BC is based primarily on the results of archival studies of funerary objects - barrows. The progressive development of remote sensing, including LiDAR technology within archaeology became an impetus a few years ago to start research dedicated to the recording of Bronze Age barrows in the area of the Krotoszyn Forest (southwestern Wielkopolska). Over time, the scope of this research was expanded and the results are presented to the reader in the next volume in the SAO/SPEŚ series. This book is the culmination of several years of work by Polish and German archaeologists focused on Middle Bronze Age research. The area of their research became the region of southwestern Wielkopolska. In this part of Poland, due to the large amount of forests that survived the dynamic development of agrotechnology from the end of the 19th century, there are still a relatively large number of archaeological sites with their own landscape form preserved. The vast majority of them are barrows that are relics of the Middle Bronze Age cultural landscape. The book presented to the reader includes the results of rescue and non-invasive research, as well as the compilation of archival materials at the disposal of individual museums. The compiled information made it possible to determine the state of current knowledge about the Middle Bronze Age in the region of southwestern Wielkopolska, and was confronted with information from neighboring regions of Central Europe. The excavations and research that led to this publication were carried out by the National Science Center of Poland - (NSC - project no. 2012/05/B/HS3/03714 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation – project number 2901391021–SFB 1266 and under Germany´s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2150 ROOTS – 390870439). Mateusz Jaeger • Jutta Kneisel • Janusz Czebreszuk 9