Bronze and Iron Age Poland

The most famous archeological finding from that period is the Biskupin fortified settlement (gord) on the lake from which it takes its name, representing the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age.

This settled agricultural society's origins consisted of the conservative traditions inherited from the Corded Ware populations and dynamic elements of the Bell-Beaker people.

Objects made of bronze, often of luxurious or prestigious nature, were in high demand as symbols of power and importance and are typically found in the graves of "princes".

Fourteen such burial sites, circular mounds of earth heaped up on top of wooden, clay and stone structures, some as large as 30 meters in diameter, were found in Łęki Małe near Grodzisk Wielkopolski, erected 2000–1800 BC, suggesting the existence of a local dynasty.

The area has been a site of archeological explorations for the past hundred years, but only the more recent investigations uncovered its true significance in terms of the understanding of the early Bronze Age developments in central Europe.

Some of the objects recovered, as well as the nature of the defensive structures, reveal the Pleszów group's contacts with the Carpathian Basin peoples and the resulting influence coming from their cultures.

It was probably made up of diverse post-Neolithic populations, whose common characteristic was the type of pottery – large vessels with a thickened upper edge and a horizontal decorative protrusion around the neck, first found around northern Germany at the beginning of the millennium.

The main identified burial site was actively and repeatedly utilized for generations, bodies rearranged, the grave dug in the ground being covered by a mound five meters in diameter.

Although archeologically it presents itself in a fairly uniform way, it is believed to have been ethnically non-homogeneous, originating in the interplay between groups arriving from outside and populations in existence in Poland, in which new cultural patterns were adopted.

The east-west cultural disparity continued: For example, the use of metal objects was less common in the eastern regions, while in the western zone besides the urns the burials contained often many other vessels.

[22] A number of smaller Lusatian subcultures are distinguished, such as the one in Upper Silesia, where after a 250-year hiatus, beginning at about 900 BC, atypically for the Urnfield cultural sphere, skeletal burials are found again.

[22] Bronze Age Lusatian rural settlements were limited to low-lying areas and until late in this period lacked fortifications or other defensive measures; during these more peaceful times protection was not as essential as in the centuries to follow.

Bronze metallurgy and craftsmanship became also highly developed and acquired locally different styles – luxurious decorative items, tools and arms were made around Legnica and elsewhere in western and southern Poland.

[22] Lusatian settlements in central Poland (Łódź area) were small (4–5 families) and short-lived, no more than half a century at the same location, probably because the soil was no longer usable after intensive exploitation through a couple of generations.

[26] Some such vessels, jewelry and drawings have their contemporary counterparts in Assyria, ancient Israel, Archaic Greece and Etruria, which shows the breadth of Lusatian trade and other contacts.

A panpipe (syrinx), a musical instrument of the type popular in northern Italy and eastern Hallstatt circles, was found in a grave in Przeczyce near Zawiercie from the late bronze or early iron periods.

The Europeans responded by building large fortified settlements, adopting the warring methods of the Asian invaders, developing a specialized military caste and a strong power system based on a prince-ruler.

Western Poland was more highly developed, with local manufacturing; jewelry and other decorative products made of iron, bronze, glass, amber and other materials as well as luxurious painted ceramics were patterned after the Hallstatt craft.

The burials found in Gorszewice (Szamotuły County) in Greater Poland (650–550 BC) are supplied with fancy equipment and resemble the graves of the Hallstatt tribal chiefs; similarly there are other treasures of luxurious and prestigious objects.

There at Stary Śleszów and Milejowice parts of the settlements are separated from the rest by a solid palisade fence, possibly enclosing the dwellings of the emerging local elite.

Because of the evidence acquired, some investigators now believe that the large center in Wrocław County and other early Iron Age settlements in Lower Silesia represent the Hallstatt, rather than Lusatian culture.

[30] Despite this apparent fascination with the lifestyles of the western elites (and to some degree creation of their own), the Lusatian people never acquired a comparable level of social stratification and there were no hereditary "princes".

Millet, wheat, rye, oats and barley were grown in field systems, while in the gardens bean and lentil were cultivated, as well as oil-producing poppy, turnips and flax, whose fiber made linen thread.

Horses were bred and utilized more often, in addition to the traditionally kept cattle, swine, sheep and goats, and improved feed storage allowed keeping the herds throughout the winter season.

[31] Of a different and far less common type is the famous, very well preserved Biskupin wooden stronghold on the lake, in use from about 750 to 500 BC, when rising water levels forced the inhabitants to abandon the settlement.

This region had preserved a distinct cultural identity throughout the middle and late Bronze Age; unlike the rest of the Lusatian lands they kept the custom of raising burial mounds or barrows above the graves.

[37] At the outset of the Iron Age the eastern Pomeranians became involved in long distance amber trade that ranged from the Sambian Peninsula, through Pomerania, the Lusatian and Hallstatt lands all the way to Italy.

Animal husbandry and the less demanding cereals (rye and barley) became more important, as the villages had to be built at higher altitudes (because of climatically elevated water tables and environmental exploitation of the lowland settlement areas).

Of the weapons, tools, decorative items and jewelry manufactured, the large bronze necklaces made of many rings, running around the neck and upper chest area, connected by a latticed buckle in the back (600–450 BC) are especially impressive.

They built small fortified settlements at naturally suitable places, such as hilltops, and characteristically, within shallow bodies of water, which involved sinking logs and special pile construction.