MISCELLANEA: Ethnicity in Archaeological Studies, based on a Case Study of East Pomerania during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (1100–400 BC)

The study of ethnicity is an exceptionally controversial subject in current archaeologicalinvestigations. This issue has also frequently appeared in polish prehistoric literaturefrom the very beginning of archaeology till the present. The problem is that archaeologyin Poland is still under strong influence from a conservative, culture-historical paradigm.This methodological approach leads to the desire to make simple connections betweenmaterial remains, discovered by archaeologists, with specific categories of ethnicity. If weadd to this various efforts to use archaeology in the legitimation of modern ethnic andnational claims, we can imagine how complicated these sorts of studies can become.The main aim of this paper is to show the history of investigations set to define theethnic character of the people who inhabited polish lands in prehistory. The author willfocus especially on the area of East Pomerania during the Late Bronze Age and Early IronAge due to the live discussions among scholars concerning the ethnic origin of societiesfrom that area. At the end of this article a new perspective in research into ethnicity will beoutlined with special attention to the need for an interdisciplinary approach to this topic.