Amber treatment workshops of the Rzucewo Culture in Żuławy

ill. ; 29 cm

Amber treatment workshops of Rzucewo culture communities have been discovered in recent years at the mouth of the lower Vistula in the Żuławy depression. Following morphological, technological and raw material classifications of discovered amber relics, the author discussed ceramic, flint and stone finds. Reconstructions of the production process of various forms of amber ornaments from the late Neolithic in the lower Vistula region have been based on the author's findings and on experimental studies. A comparative analysis of relics with well investigated assemblages of the Rzucewo culture on the south coast of the Baltic made it possible to date the Żuławy sites to the end of the III and beginning of the II millennium. There occurred in those times significant climatic changes resulting in a rather rapid draining of areas so far covered by the Vistula Gulf. Its western bank line shifted several kilometers to the east. This created advantageous conditions for the development of seasonal settlement of Rzucewo culture groups arriving from morainic plateaus. An inviting factor was the relatively easy access to amber the popularity of which rose rapidly in those times in distant inland areas. This led to the development of an animated barter in amber

il. ; 29 cm