Archival cemetery in Stare Marzy, Świecie county

Abstract

In Stare Marze, Świecie County, box graves were discovered several times. The first discovery took place before 1894, followed by others in 1903 and 1915. The vessels from before 1894 ended up in the collection of the former German Society in Toruń - Coppernicus - Verein für Wissenschaft und Kunst, then in the Municipal Museum, and are currently in the collection of the District Museum in Toruń, while those from 1903 went to the German Municipal Museum in Grudziądz (Städitsches Museum Graudenz), and after 1920 to the Polish Museum in that city.

The current collection of the District Museum in Toruń includes three vessels: a funerary urn, a bowl and a cup (Fig. 3:1-3), while the collection of the Rev. Dr Władysław Łęga Museum in Grudziądz contains seven vessels (Fig. 4: 1-4a; Fig. 5: 1-3a), which probably date back to 1903. The fact that the vessels come from Stare Marzy is evidenced by paper labels with the description Alt-Marzau, which have been preserved on four funerary urns, while two vessels were selected on the basis of a preserved photograph of a box grave from Stare Marzy (Fig. 9: 4-5) and on the basis of two sketches from Józef Kostrzewski's files (Fig. 6: 7; 7:4). The vessels discovered in 1903 are mentioned in the Dziennik Korespondencji Towarzystwa Starożytności [Journal of Correspondence of the Society of Antiquities], with entries dated 4 and 20 April (Fig. 1). We learn about the discoveries made in 1915 from a publication by H. Günther (1922, 101) and from Gazeta Grudziądzka newspaper (1915, vol. XXI, no. 121). The authors of these publications emphasised that the discoveries took place in Stare Marzy on the hills above the Vistula River. Based on reports from 1903 and 1915, it is known that three box graves were discovered. From the discoveries made in 1903, several vessels from two graves may have ended up in the Museum, but their exact number is unknown. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to determine whether any vessels from 1915 ended up in the collection in Grudziądz. In 1941, vessels from Stare Marzy and Marzy from the Grudziądz collections were transported to the Museum of Western Prussia in Gdańsk: Alt Marsau - 2 urnen, 6 Falzdeckel, 1 Stöpseldeckel, 1 schale der frühen E.Z (aus dem Stadmuseum Graudenz (Neueingänge und Fundnachrichten 1941, 105), while from Marzy the following were transported: 2 Urnen der frühen E.Z. (aus dem Stadtmuseum Graudenz) (Neueingänge und Fundnachrichten 1941, 106). These were probably the vessels presented in the sketches from J. Kostrzewski's file (Fig. 6: 8,9; Fig. 7: 10-14).

Analysing the above source material, it appears that the vessels from the grave dating from before 1894 and those from 1903 are quite similar in character and can be dated to the Hallstatt D period and the earlier pre-Roman period.

In 2006, a box grave was accidentally discovered in the Vistula riverbank in Nowe Marzy (Kurzyńska 2011, 277-284, fig. 1). The discovery took place near a settlement of the Pomeranian culture, site 4, and the border with Stare Marzy (fig. 10), and is located close to the IR 10 infantry shelters built in 1914 (fig. 2). It is worth considering whether discoveries were made in the vicinity of the shelter during the construction of trenches in 1915, and it cannot be ruled out that the discoveries of 1903 may have also taken place in the same location. It is highly probable that the latest discoveries from 2006 should be linked to these older discoveries and that we may be dealing with one large burial ground of box graves stretching along the Vistula escarpment from Nowe Marzy to Stare Marzy (Fig. 10).