Lusatian settlement near Brzezie in Southern Wielkopolska (Greater Poland)

The aim of this paper is to look at the cultural situation in the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in the vicinity of Brzezie in southern Wielkopolska. Brzezie, the district of Pleszew, has been known in the archaeological literature as a place of the discovery of a hoard of gold items of adornment and the largest thoroughly examined Lusatian cemetery in that part of Poland. Through the analyses of selected grave assemblages from the cemetery and deposits of imported goods I point to the contact character of the Pleszew settlement concentration. Both macro- and micromorphological traits of pottery as well as characteristic features of the burial rites may suggest the existence of a contact zone in this particular part of the Prosna River valley of communities representing groups from western Wielkopolska, Górny Śląsk-Małopolska and central Poland. The recorded syncretic cultural picture of the area, as reflected by material evidence, might have been also influenced by the Early Bronze Age tradition known from this territory in the form of the mixture of the Trzciniec and Tumulus cultures. In this context I address the already discussed issue of the existence of the so called eastern Wielkopolska (wschodniowielkopolska) group of the Lusatian culture. The remarks presented in the paper introduce further microregional studies to be undertaken in order to recognise cultural processes in S-E Wielkopolska in the period of the Lusatian Urn Fields