Prehistory · c. 4000–500 BC · Gródek, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland
6,000-year-old flint cache and Iron Age cremation found in eastern Poland
Excavations at Gródek near the Ukrainian border also found a large defensive ditch of unknown date, at a site known mainly for Goths and early Slavs.
Gródek, Poland Archaeologists excavating at Gródek in eastern Poland have found a cache of flint about 6,000 years old. They also found a cremation burial from around 2,500 years ago. The finds push the known history of the site back by several thousand years. Until now it was known mainly for remains of the Goths and early medieval Slavs.
Gródek lies in the Hrubieszów Basin, close to Poland's present-day border with Ukraine. The results were released by the Lublin Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments. The team also excavated a broad, deep ditch that appears to have enclosed an area of high ground covering more than a dozen hectares.
A bag of flint blanks
The flint deposit dates from the Neolithic. It holds partly worked pieces, or blanks, rather than finished tools ready for use. The raw material appears to have been collected and stored together on purpose. The archaeologists think the pieces may first have been placed in a leather or textile bag that has long since decayed.
The cache lay about one metre below the ground for around 6,000 years. Pottery and animal bones from the Neolithic are fairly common finds. A concentration of flint like this one is much less usual.
The second surprise came from the Early Iron Age, around 2,500 years ago. At that time a community of the Pomeranian culture set up a cemetery at the site. The researchers found a cremation burial with fragments of human bone. Pieces of a pot that had been placed upside down over the burial survived with it.
Only limited remains survived. Even so, the archaeologists say the context leaves little doubt that this was a burial. The find was entirely unexpected.
A defensive ditch, not a road
The ditch answers an old question about Site 29. A linear feature there shows clearly in aerial, drone and satellite images, including aerial photographs taken half a century ago. Researchers had wondered whether it was a road from the period of Gothic settlement. Another idea was a route used by the warriors of the Polish ruler Bolesław I the Brave before his battle on the River Bug in 1018.
An 18th-century map shows Gródek looking very different from today, so the feature might also have been a lost transport route. The surrounding hills hold many kilometres of surviving First World War trenches. However, the shape and size of the feature did not fit wartime fortifications.
Excavation showed that it was not a road at all. It appears to be part of a substantial defensive system, a fortification or reinforced boundary around the raised area. Who built the ditch, and when, is still uncertain. The researchers say they have hypotheses but are not yet ready to offer a definitive interpretation.
Site 29 was already known for its rich finds. Earlier work in its western part produced material mainly from the Goths: dozens of Roman denarii, pieces of clothing or personal ornaments, pottery fragments and animal bones. In the eastern part, farming has disturbed an extensive early medieval cemetery. Partly excavated, it has produced what researchers describe as the oldest known Slavic burials of unburnt bodies in Poland.
Different periods overlap within small areas. One early medieval refuse pit held hundreds of pottery fragments and animal bones, along with lost glass beads. A storage pit several thousand years older lay nearby. The same small trench, dug where the team expected a Gothic settlement, also produced a Roman coin and a fragment of a Gothic comb.
The excavation is part of the project "At the Crossroads of Goths and Slavs: Non-invasive Investigation of Multicultural Site No. 29 at Gródek, Hrubieszów Municipality". The team chose where to dig using aerial photographs and, above all, magnetometer surveys. These map buried features by measuring small changes in the earth's magnetic field. Three evaluation trenches, covering several dozen square metres in total, tested anomalies found in the survey.
Dr Michał Jakubczak and Robert Ryndziewicz carry out the geophysical work. They are from the Laboratory of Bio- and Archaeometry at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. So far 11.5 hectares have been surveyed without digging. The magnetometer survey began in August and continues alongside the excavation and surface surveys.
Archaeology students from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin helped for several days, supervised by Professor Barbara Niezabitowska-Wiśniewska. The work is done in continuing consultation with the Lublin Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments. Excavations for the current season are not yet over.
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