Przeworsk Culture Cemetery at Kurki, Działdowo County, Site III

In 2009 and 2011, artefacts from destroyed graves from the Roman Period (Fig. 3) were accidentally discovered in the village of Kurki, Działdowo County (Fig. 1, 2). Archaeological excavations at the site took place in 2009 and 2011. They covered an area of about 500 m2 (Fig. 4, 5). A total of 33 archaeological features were discovered, including five graves from the Roman Period. The graves discovered at Kurki can be attributed to the Przeworsk Culture. They are all cremation burials. Feature 1 (Fig. 6) is a pit cremation burial with remains of a funeral pyre and several vessels (whole or in fragments) lying close to an urn covered (?) with another vessel. Such graves are commonly encountered in the region. Features 23 (Fig. 10, 11), 30 (Fig. 12) and presumably 10a (Fig. 9) are pit graves, with bone material scattered in the pits together with remnants of a funeral pyre. In feature 2 (Fig. 7, 8), human remains were located at the bottom of the pit and covered with three vessels placed upside down. Such an arrangement is characteristic of the graves of the Przeworsk Culture from northern Mazovia. Adult individuals were buried in features 1 and 2, and an older child or adolescent (9–15 years) was interred in feature 23; the sex and age of the person from feature 30 could not be determined. In the case of one grave (10a), osteological material could not be classified. Burnt animal bones were also recorded in two graves (2, 23). Grave goods were fairly modest. Clay vessels (whole or in fragments), usually secondarily burnt, were found in all graves. They mostly represent forms typical of the early Roman, northern Mazovian pottery of the Przeworsk Culture. They find numerous analogies at neighbouring cemeteries, e.g. at Niedanowo, Nidzica County, and Gródki, Działdowo County. Among the less typical forms, a footed cup (Fig. 6:3), a bowl with a low shoulder (Fig. 6:5), and a ribbed bowl imitating Roman glass vessels (Fig. 10:3) are worth mentioning. Other artefacts were registered in two graves only: lumps of melted glass, most probably from a melted glass vessel (Fig. 6:7), were found in the cinerary urn from feature 1, and an iron handle of an organic container was discovered in feature 30 (Fig. 12:4). The examined graves come from phases B1b–B2. The cemetery at Kurki belongs to the local Nidzica-Działdowo settlement cluster of the Przeworsk Culture (Fig. 13). Several sites of this group, most often cemeteries, are known in the vicinity. Most of them are poorly explored archaeologically or studied on a small scale; some are purely accidental discoveries (Kurki – Fig. 14; Rutkowice – Fig. 15)