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Developed Iron Age (200 BC - AD 500)

Valuables from the Roman Empire, amber route, migrations of peoples

From the 3rd century BC to the 5-6th centuries AD, societies settling a considerable portion of Europe were under a strong influence of ancient civilizations: fifrst Celtic and later Roman. Many peoples from the continent’s interior set out on journeys in the search for new homes. When the Huns invaded Europe, the migrations intensified and contributed to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. 

By the 3rd century BC, the Celts were present over vast areas of Europe, including the south of today’s Poland. They were famous for a rich culture, used advanced technologies, took over some civilization achievements of the Mediterranean world, and were a step short of founding their own states. Under the Celtic influence, entral Europe saw fundamental cultural changes. To name one: finally, the knowledge of smelting iron became widespread. In the lands of modern-day Poland, the Przeworsk culture developed and took over some Celtic models. For several hundred years, until the 5th century AD, it occupied the centre and south of the country as far as Greater Poland. To its rise, migrations of populations from the lands of today’s Denmark and Germany contributed. 

The Celtic domination in western and central Europe was broken by Germanic peoples descending from the north and the Romans, who, in the 1st century AD, set the boundaries of their Empire on the Rhine and Danube rivers. Civilization stimuli from within the Empire penetrated the rest of Europe, the inhabitants of which were called barbarians by the Romans. The stimuli initially reached today’s Poland via Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, where the states of the Germanic Marcomanni and Quads emerged. According to written records, for instance, Germania by Tacitus (1st century AD) and Geography by Ptolemy (2nd century AD), Germanic peoples settled then a considerable portion of Central Europe. The lands of modern-day Poland were supposedly settled then, according to sparse and imprecise information, by the Burgundians, Goths, Gepids and Vandals. The Vandals are identified as a branch of the Przeworsk culture society. The Goths and Gepids, in turn, are identified with a part of the population of the Wielbark culture, which developed in Pomerania in the 1st century AD and covered also northern Greater Poland. According to the Gothic tradition, recorded in Getica by the Gothic historian Jordanes (6th century AD), they supposedly arrived on the southern shores of the Baltic from Scandinavia only to continue their journey towards the Black Sea. This direction of the migration is consistent with the territorial expansion of the Wielbark culture towards the southeast, taking place in the latter half of the 2nd century AD. Also, antique records testify to the Gothic presence on the Black Sea, beginning with the 3rd century AD. At the same time, the previous inhabitants left for the most part Pomerania and northern Greater Poland, which entered the ambit of the Przeworsk culture. 

The evidence of political and trade contacts between the lands of modern-day Poland and the Roman Empire is offered by the finds of vessels [1], [2], ornaments, weapons, coins [3], and other imports, which for the most part, do not come from Italy itself but Roman provinces: Gaul, Rhineland, Noricum, and Pannonia. The Romans took over from the Celts the control of the amber route, joining Aquileia on the Adriatic to the border towns on the middle Danube and continuing further north, across barbarian territories, towards the mouth of the Vistula River (map of Europe's trade routes in the first centuries AD). Since Roman merchants were aided by barbarians who delivered amber to Pannonia, direct contacts with the Romans must have been rare in the area occupied by Poland today. Nevertheless, such contacts could have taken place during the reign of Nero (54-68 AD). Living in those times, Pliny the Elder mentions in his Natural History an expedition to the Baltic coast by one of the Roman equites. On its way back, the expedition carried to Rome huge amounts of amber. The expedition set out from Carnuntum on the Danube and its itinerary may have crossed the territory of today’s Poland, including eastern Greater Poland. 

A considerable portion of Roman goods reached barbarians not through trade but as gifts for the tribal aristocracy, spoils of war, tributes, a ransom for prisoners of war or payments to barbarian mercenaries serving in the Roman army.

It was then that the differentiation of kinship societies advanced: tribal aristocracy emerged and the significance of warriors increased. What also developed was a supra-regional lifestyle of barbarian elites of power, who stayed in contact with each other and with the Romans. This can be seen in ‘princely graves’, in most cases under barrows, outfitted with valuable jewellery, sets of Roman metal and glass tableware for drinking wine and washing hands during and after meals, glass tokens and dice, and many other objects. Aristocratic families would hoard Roman coins and objects of precious metals, and bury them in the ground in times of danger. 

Groups of warriors emerged and clustered around enterprising commanders, forming thus military teams. They subsisted on war – made a living from taking spoils and plundering. Excellent opportunities for plunder were provided by frequent military conflicts. It is believed that many Przeworsk culture warriors took part in Marcomannic wars fought during the rule of Marcus Aurelius (AD 161-180) and started by the Marcomanni, Quads, Sarmatian Yazigs and other peoples which invaded the Empire’s lands and plundered them badly. 

The pressure of barbarian peoples on Roman borders rose steadily, but it was only the invasion of Europe by the Huns in AD 375 that triggered huge migrations of peoples who began to settle within the Empire’s borders. The itineraries of individual tribes were impressive. The Vandals, whom we met earlier in the lands of today’s Poland, travelled as far as Africa. On the ruins of the Western Roman Empire, which finally fell in AD 476, kingdoms of Ostrogoths and Visigoths arose, reflecting the division of the Goths that had taken place when they arrived on the Black Sea. Other peoples, including the Burgundians, set up their kingdoms as well (see map Migrations of Peoples from AD 375 to ca. AD 500). 

In those times, southern Greater Poland was permanently tied with central and southern Poland settled by the Przeworsk culture societies. It was there that farming innovations were introduced earlier than in the north. They included ards with iron ard-shares, crude scythes and rotary querns. Also, specialized industries developed quicker there, such as metalworking, saltworking, amber- and antler-working and wheel-turned pottery. The Przeworsk culture populations preferred iron to other materials for manufacturing various objects, including ornaments and dress accessories. Characteristic manifestations of their funerary rite include cremation and placing weapons in warrior graves as well as destroying equipment of the deceased, following the Celtic custom. 

Whereas northern Greater Poland for some time (from the end of the 1st century to the early 3rd century AD) joined Pomerania by falling within the ambit of the Wielbark culture. The societies of this culture achieved great mastery in the working of gold, silver and bronze. Characteristic metal bracelets [4], buckles, pendants [5] and beads, frequently made of silver and sometimes of gold, richly decorated with filigree and granulation, distinguished a Wielbark culture dress from that of the Przeworsk culture. The dead were cremated or buried unburned in both flat graves and barrows. Weapons were placed in graves extremely rarely. Goths themselves, certainly forming part of the multiethnic population of the culture, are associated with cemeteries, featuring stone circles. 

The finds from the period of migration (the map of migrations) of peoples point to the ties, existing between the lands occupied by Poland now and distant areas on the Danube, in Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. Once the turmoil caused by the migrations settled, Greater Poland was overrun by Slavonic peoples, opening the next period in its history, namely the Middle Ages.