DOI: 10.33547/PraceArch.69.09
Early Bronze Age hoards from the Wielkopolska-Kujawy Plain in context of the cultural milieu
by Maciej Kaczmarek 
1
1 – Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland
In: M. S. Przybyła, K. Dzięgielewski (eds.), Chasing Bronze Age rainbows. Studies on hoards and related phenomena in prehistoric Europe in honour of Wojciech Blajer, Prace Archeologiczne 69, Kraków: Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University / Profil-Archeo, 2019, pp. 157-176.
Abstract: In the beginnings of the Bronze Age, the occupation of the Wielkopolska-Kujawy Plain presents a relatively clear picture, with distinct settlement clusters separated by stretches of uninhabited land, some quite vast. One can assume certain settlement stability, favouring the economic and cultural development of local populations which, from the close of the 3rd until nearly the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, remained under the overwhelming influence of the Únětice culture, or simply was part of its northern range. In the archaeological record, the process is manifested primarily by a mass inflow, from the beginning of phase Br A2, of bronze artefacts typical of Únětice metallurgy. The Wielkopolska-Kujawy Plain was not culturally homogenous at that time, and the process of local populations becoming acquainted with bronze metallurgy was considerably stretched over time. Key factors here were the formation in south-west Wielkopolska of a settlement cluster associated with the Czech-Saxony-Silesian province of the Únětice culture, and the uneven occupation and settlement dynamics throughout the region, dating back to the Neolithic. The appearance of bronze metallurgy, followed by hoards of metal objects, was connected with the appearance of the Únětice culture settlement in these territories.
Key words: Early Bronze Age, hoards, Wielkopolska, Kujawy, Únětice metallurgy