Vessels from the settlement of the Wielbark culture from the Cecele phase in Warlubie, site 1, Świecie district, Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodship

Abstract

In the village of Warlubie (Świecie district), on sites 1, 2, 3 and 4, remains of settlements from the Roman period were discovered, with numerous features and cultural layers rich in finds from that period. They formed a complex with a surface of approximately 3 ha. During the excavation works carried out in 1998–1999,
an area of 155.7 ares was unearthed. The aforementioned complex was situated on a peninsula, formed within the outwash plain, with an average altitude of 80 m above sea level. The outwash plain is located between the basin of Lake Zawada in the east and the parallel basin filled with biogenic sediments on the western side of the peninsula.
At the sites and in their vicinity there are leached brown soils, formed from light loamy sands. The depressions are filled with mucky soils developed over sands (Bienias 2001).
Warlubie is situated within the Osiek settlement cluster, distinguished within the settlement structures of the Wielbark culture (Przewoźna 1974, pp. 72–73). According to Abraham Lissauer, from this locality originates a single urn grave, in which a bronze coin of Julian the Apostate (361–363 AD) was found (Lissauer 1887, p. 155; see also Łęga 1958, p. 78).
From site 1, in total 6167 fragments of pottery vessels from the Roman period were obtained, including 3451 from features. The material was largely fragmented; among the vessels, both remains of wheel thrown and handmade specimens were observed.
This article is devoted to handmade vessels, while the items made on a potter’s wheel are discussed elsewhere (Struwe 2015). The pottery material is stylistically and chronologically compact. It lacks the forms typical of the early Roman period, but there occur ones typical of the Cecele phase of the Wielbark culture. One of the
basic components of the collection are the wide rim vessels of the C/D series according to Ryszard Wołągiewcz, which appeared in the phase C1a and remained in use up to and including the phase D. These include the bowls of groups VI and Xa and their miniaturised counterparts of types XIIA, XIVA and groups XI and XVIII. There
are numerous vessels with rims inclined towards the inside. Some of them probably originate from pots of the IA or Ia types, which, according to R. Wołągiewicz, are no longer used in phase C2, but the forms identical to those in Warlubie, in the Cherniakhiv culture area are dated to the 4th century AD (Terpilovs’kij 1989, fig. 4: 18–21;
fig. 5: 2, p. 243). These vessels, classified as type I of group D in the Dębczyn group, are observed in all its horizons, and in the Elbe River area they are characteristic of the period from the 4th to about the mid-5th century AD (Machajewski 1992, p. 87–89, 195, plate VII – there further references).