Formation of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age cultural model in Wielkopolska
Formation of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age cultural model in Wielkopolska

Summary/Abstract: The start of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age was the time of a transformation of the communities residing in this region into a new civilizational quality that was radically different from the quality of the preceding period. In the interior of the continent, a certain "Celt fashion" could be noticed, which was manifested in adaptation of patterns of both material culture and, most likely, elements of Celtic rites. Its course appears to be the key to the understanding of the transformations taking place in Wielkopolska at the turn of the 2nd century B.C. In older literature, the origins of the changes taking place at that time were linked to the transformation of the community of the Pomeranian (Wejcherowo-Krotoszyn) culture as a result of influence of strong Celtic currents that resulted in formation of a new group typical of cultural currents of the younger Pre-Roman Iron Age, namely of the Przeworsk culture. Currently we know that the issue is not quite as simple and unequivocal.In order to understand the complexity of the cultural situation of Central Europe at the threshold of its La Tenization, one must go back to the time of formation of the local model of civilization of the Iron Age and of formation of cultures that individually adapted the Hallstatt cultural model. In present-day Poland, these changes were described in the literature as the Pomeranian culture. In the archeological materials, the changes taking place at that time were manifested most of all in the changes in the funeral rites and in the new style of pottery forms, present mostly in funeral groups and, in the case of the post-Nordic zone, also in introduction of production of iron based on Hallstatt traditions. This is probably the cause of the similarities between the Pomeranian culture and the central and northern German zone and partly the Scandinavian zone.

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