Poland in antiquity

While lacking any written language to speak of, many of them developed a relatively advanced material culture and social organization, as evidenced by the archeological record; for example, richly furnished, "princely" dynastic graves.

[4] Expanding and moving out of their homeland in Scandinavia and Northern Germany, Germanic peoples lived in Poland for several centuries, during which period many of their tribes also migrated outward to the south and east (see Wielbark culture).

[7] Initially, two groups established themselves on fertile grounds in Silesia: one on the left bank of the Oder River south of Wrocław, in the area that included Mount Ślęża; the other around the Głubczyce highlands.

Finally, there was the long-lasting (270 BC–170 AD) mixed Púchov culture, whom Roman sources associated with the Celtic Cotini, whose northern reaches included parts of the Beskids mountain range and even the Kraków area.

Such signs can also be seen on the massive "monk" sculpture (actually more like a simple chess figure or skittles pin), which was located inside the largest stone ring on Mount Ślęża itself and so is believed to originate from Hallstatt cultural circles.

The younger sculptures ("Maiden with a fish", "Mushroom," and bear figures) have distant counterparts in the Celtic art of the Iberian Peninsula and are thought to be by Celts, who further developed Ślęża as a cultic center.

[21] The Oder and Gubin groups probably included the tribes later called Bastarnae and Sciri in Greek written sources, noted because of their military exploits around Greece and its colonies in the later part of the 3rd century BC.

A clay vessel with relief animal images found in Gołębiowo Wielkie in Gdańsk County (2nd half of 1st century BC) is among the finest in all of the Germanic cultural zone.

It went through many changes, formed tribal and political structures, fought wars (including with the Romans), until in the 5th century AD its highly developed society of farmers, artisans, warriors, and chiefs succumbed to the temptations of the lands of the now-fallen empire.

The passage of the Bastarnae and Sciri and the associated unrest likely functioned as the outside catalyzing agent; Jastorf culture archeological material has been found in pre-Przeworsk artifact assemblages and in some of the early Przeworsk range.

In the early stages of their culture, the Przeworsk people displayed no social distinctions; their graves were alike and flat, and ashes were usually buried together with funeral gifts and without urns.

[21] As the Celtic domination in this part of Europe was coming to an end and the Roman Empire's borders had gotten much closer, the Przeworsk people were being subjected to the Greco-Roman world's influence with a rapidly growing intensity.

At the time the Suebi tribal confederation led by Ariovistus arrived in Gaul, a rapid decrease of settlement density can be observed in the areas of the upper and middle Oder River basin.

As told in Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder, during the reign of Nero an equestrian of unknown name led an expedition to the Baltic shorelines and returned to Rome with huge quantity of amber, which was subsequently used for propagandist purposes during gladiator matches and other public games.

Only part of the cemetery was excavated on the occasion of a motorway construction, but it yielded 110 inhumations (11 in hollowed-out log coffins) and 15 cremations (eight of them in urns) with a rich collection of decorative objects, mostly from the graves of women.

[24] The Marcomannic Wars (166–180 CE) were caused by the pressure exerted by the northern Germanic peoples (settled around what is now Poland) on the tribes in the vicinity of Roman limes, the Empire's defended border.

Gradually a new branch of Germanic people, the Burgundians, whose origins are traced back to Scandinavia and Bornholm island in particular and whose ancestors then migrated to the northwest Przework culture area, developed and evolved under new favorable conditions here.

Luxurious Roman-made gifts and fancy barbarian emulations (such as silver and gold clasps with springs, created with an unsurpassed attention to detail, dated 3rd century CE from Wrocław Zakrzów), but not weapons, were placed in the graves.

Wide-open, vase type Przeworsk culture urn from the 2nd century CE found in Biała, Zgierz County is covered with representations from Celtic and Germanic mythology, such as deer, horse riders, crosses and swastikas.

Numerous Przeworsk culture objects including spurs and a unique silver belt buckle were recovered at the Aleksandrowice, Kraków County settlement area; some relics there are dated possibly as late as the first half of the 6th century.

The paths of this Great Migration of Peoples led in part through the Polish lands, and the Germanic tribes living here joined the movement themselves, with the result of an almost complete, in the course of the 5th century, depopulation of Poland.

All of it agrees well with the information given by Procopius of Caesarea, according to whom the Heruli returning to Scandinavia from the Carpathian Basin in 512, heading towards the Varni tribe area in Germany, crossed a large region devoid of human settlements - presumably Silesia and Lusatia.

A woman's grave in Jędrzychowice, Strzelin County contained fancy feminine ornaments and a nicely preserved bronze kettle, which gave a name ("Jędrzychowice") to one of the two basic Hun kettle types, while a burial of a young warrior-aristocrat including his horse and precious harness, attire and weaponry elements (gold sheet covered ritual bow and sword sheath) was found in Jakuszowice, Kazimierza Wielka County.

[48] Tacitus in Germania, describing (possibly the same) inhabitants of the south-eastern Baltic shores, mentioned the Aesti people, involved in collecting amber not for their own use but for long-distance trade in a raw state.

[45] The Western Baltic Kurgans culture, which resulted from the interaction between groups arriving from the east and the people living in the Masuria-Sambia region (mid-1st millennium BC) is discussed in the Bronze and Iron Age Poland article, within its time frame.

[29][50] Beginning in the 1st century AD, the Western Balts experienced their "golden" period — times of economic expansion and increased affluence of their societies, all of which was based on the amber trade, resulting in active and long-term contacts with the lands of the Roman Empire.

[45] The Balts grew various grains, beans, and peas, but despite the advent of iron-reinforced plows and other new agricultural technologies, the regional environmental conditions set limits on the practicality and extent of land tillage.

Its cemeteries contain horse burials and many plate clasps, buckles, connectors, and other objects made of bronze, silver, and gold, studded with semi-precious stones and decorated with engravings.

Galindia (today's western Masuria), whose new inhabitants included the Olsztyn group, became in the 6th and 7th centuries the most affluent of the lands settled by Balts, with highly developed local craftsmanship supplementing the wealth of items brought from distant countries.

[53] A majority of the Baltic peoples, whose population at the end of the first millennium AD is estimated at 480,000, became extinct during the later Middle Ages due to attempts at forced Christianization, conquest and extermination, or assimilation (Slavicisation), the Old Prussians being the primary example.