The North European elements of the Dębczyno group of the later Roman empire

Abstract

This paper deals with the northern European cultural elements which individually exist in the periods C1b- C2 in the so-called Dębczyno group. Based on the distribution of some variants of fibulae with high pinholder
and the neck-rings with piriform clasp, one can deem that in the periods C1b-C2 contact was made between members of the north European population, especially that of Bornholm, and the inhabitants of Pomerania. Traces of these contacts are to be seen in the area of the Dębczyno group mainly in rich burial assemblages which can be associated with local elites. Because the areas in which the Dębczyno group appears from period C1b onwards represent a zone of renewed colonization following the previous emigration of the population of the Wielbark Culture, it cannot be ruled out that the population of Bornholm, also including members of the elite, took part in the first stage of this colonization, at least in part. The elements typical of Bornholm cannot be explained purely by exogamy (assuming the patrilocal family model for »Germanic« societies), since the known grave inventories of »Bornholm character« in the Dębczyno group include both male and female graves. In the area of the Dębczyno group the self-representation typical of the elites from Bornholm was adapted, developed further and reformed. Certain altered »Bornholm« elements of dress – the variants of neck-rings with piriform clasp – were soon integrated into the form spectrum connected with the Elbe-Germanic cultural region. This may possibly be connected with the rapid incorporation of Pomerania into the sphere of influence of the Elbe-Germanic cultural region, which can partly be explained by the migration of the new population groups.