Breslau-Hartlieb Revisited: New Light Cast on the Amber Deposits from the Pre-Roman Iron Age Site of Wrocław-Partynice 1 (Woj. Dolnośląskie / PL)

Abstract

Breslau-Hartlieb Revisited: New Light Cast on the Amber Deposits from the Pre-Roman Iron Age Site of Wrocław-Partynice 1 (Woj. Dolnośląskie / PL)

The three enormous amber deposits discovered in 1906 and 1936 in Wrocław-Partynice (Breslau-Hartlieb) have until now been dated to the 1^st century BC, i. e. the time of the collapse of the La Tène culture settlement structures in this part of Europe. The deposits were first linked to the »Germanic« inhabitants of the site and later to the Przeworsk culture. The study of the pottery finds available in the Archaeological Museum of Wrocław, however, made us revise the site’s chronology and modify its cultural interpretation. We identified two settlement phases, which shall be dated to the time around the turn of the 3^rd and 2^nd century BC. The finds from the earlier phase displayed features typical of the late Jastorf horizon in the Polish Lowlands, the later phase was already early Przeworsk in character. Thus, the site seems to have been a major transportation hub on the Amber Road in the Middle La Tène period. It was chronologically contemporaneous with La Tène culture sites with amber finds, such as Nowa Cerekwia, Samborowice and the initial phase of Staré Hradisko.