Prehistory and protohistory of Poland

The area of present-day Poland went through the stages of socio-technical development known as the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages after experiencing the climatic shifts of the glacial periods.

Among the peoples that inhabited various parts of Poland up to the Iron Age stage of development were Scythian, Celtic, Germanic, Sarmatian, Roman, Avar, Vlach and Baltic tribes.

As with other early periods areas of human history, knowledge of these times is limited, since few written ancient and medieval sources are available; research therefore relies primarily on archeology.

Written language came to the Poles only after 966 AD, when the ruler of the Polish lands, Duke Mieszko I, converted to Christianity and educated foreign clerics arrived.

Given the absence of written records, the ethnicities and linguistic affiliations of the groups living in Central and Eastern Europe at that time are speculative; there is considerable disagreement about their identities.

In Poland, the Lusatian culture settlements dominated the landscape for nearly a thousand years, continuing into the Early Iron Age.

[2] Peoples belonging to numerous archeological cultures identified with Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, and in some regions Slavic[9][10][11] tribes inhabited parts of Poland during the era of classical antiquity, from about 400 BC to 450-500 AD.

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

[12] Celtic peoples established settlements beginning in the early 4th century BC, mostly in southern Poland, the outer limit of their expansion, as representatives of the La Tène culture.

Some written remarks by Roman authors that are relevant to developments on Polish lands have been preserved; they provide additional insights in conjunction with the archeological record.