Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1978 - 52

2

fifteen years. The distribution of the bodies in the
pit seems deliberate: the oldest male was in the
center and the females at the edge. The cause of
death is unclear, since no skull or skeletal injuries
were evident. The burial goods consisted mainly of
personal ornaments such as pendants made of
boar's tusks and animal bone, necklaces made of
animal teeth and mussels and a bead made of
animal bone. Animal bones, potsherds and pieces
of flint and burnt clay were also recovered from
this mass grave. The pottery indicates that the
burial belongs to phase IV of the Bronocice
occupation.
A number of Lublin-Volynian burials were also
found. The richest of these was unearthed in area
C; it contained an adult male and female together
with many artifacts, among which were a handful
of well preserved pots. In addition, a Corded Ware
burial, dating to 2100-2000 b.c. and belonging to
the Kraków-Sandomierz group of the Corded Ware
culture in Poland, was found in area B. A man of
about fifty was buried in this grave with an
abundance of burial goods - an axe and flint
blades, boar's tusks, a battle axe, amphora, two
beakers and a tiny pot. The first Corded Ware
material in southeastern Poland seems to appear
after phase III of the Bronocice occupation.
Moreover, with the exception of one so-called
Corded Ware Pan-European amphora the forms
of Corded Ware pots are similar to certain Funnel
Beaker pots. But it still remains unclear what kinds
of interaction existed between these two cultures in
southeastern Poland during the Late Neolithic
Period.
It is abundantly clear, however, that trade
relations existed between the people of Bronocice
and other cultures in Central Europe. Indeed, the
archaeological evidence suggests that there was an
extensive trade system linking Bronocice with other
Neolithic sites. Flint was an important commodity in
this system. There are no flint sources in the
vicinity of Bronocice and yet several types of flint

were uncovered at the site. The majority of the
tools were made of flint found in Jurassic limestone
formations some twenty-five to thirty kilometers
due west of Bronocice. Other types of flint
included Šwieciechów, banded, "chocolate" colored
and Volynian or Bug flint. Their sources occur
much farther away from Bronocice; for example,
Šwieciechów is located over one hundred kilometers
and Volynian or Bug is located over two hundred
kilometers away. Jurassic flint occurs both as cores
and as finished products at Bronocice and accounts
for the majority of the flint supply at the site.
Artifacts and tools made of the other types of flint
seem to have come into the settlement as either
finished or half-finished products. The single piece
of obsidian found at Bronocice probably comes
from southeastern Slovakia or northeastern
Hungary, and the small amounts of copper
discovered probably come from the Carpathian
area of Slovakia. Nonlocal ceramics such as those of
the Pit-and-Comb Pottery culture suggest an
interrelationship with populations inhabiting the
sandy areas to the east of Bronocice. Sandstone,
granite and other stone materials may also have
been imported into the Bronocice settlement.
The settlement system of the Funnel Beaker
culture in the Nidzica River basin seems to indicate
an increase in social and political complexity during
the Middle and Late Neolithic Periods. The
existence of a site as large as Bronocice amid small
and medium-sized settlements may suggest that the
Funnel Beaker peoples of the area had begun to
develop a social hierarchy in the form of the
so-called ranked societies or simple chiefdoms
during the Middle Neolithic Period. As in tribal
societies, social and political relations were still
based on kinship, but status differentiation became
more prominent. The rich and large site of
Bronocice may well have been a product of this
new development, providing a higher status
settlement and regional center for the members of
the more elite segment of Neolithic society.

For Further Reading on the Funnel Beaker
culture: J.A. Bakker, J.C. Vogel, T. Wislañski,
"TRB and other C14 Dates from Poland," Helinium
9(1969):3-37, presents and discusses radiocarbon
dates for the Funnel Beaker and other cultures in
Poland; Konrád Jazdžewski, Kultura puharów
lejkowatychw Polsce zachodniej i šrodkowej (Pozna
1936), a synthesis of the Funnel Beaker culture in
western and central Poland with a lengthy summary
in German; "Das Verhältnis des nördlichen,
südlichen und westlichen Einschlages zueinander
Prae i
innerhalb der Trichterbecherkultur,"

Materiafy Museum Archeologicznegoi Etnograficznego w
itödzi 17 Çtódz 1970):67-76, discusses the
relationship between different Funnel Beaker
groups in Central and Northern Europe; Jan
Kowalczyk, "The Funnel Beaker Culture," The
Neolithic in Poland, edited by T. Wislañski (Wroclaw
1970): 144-177, a general description of Funnel
Beaker finds in Poland with special emphasis on
the origin of this culture in Europe.
On European prehistory in general:
Sarunas Milisauskas, European Prehistory (New
York 1978).
Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1978

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1978
