Northern settlers by the Ślęza River at the dawn of the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age

Abstract

Until recently, the earliest horizon of Lower Silesia’s late pre-Roman Iron Age settlement was difficult to identify. Outside the Gubin Group area on the Middle Oder, few settlements and burials originating from this period were found. The paper presents a new interpretation of the archival records and pre-war settlement finds from Bielany Wrocławskie (Bettlern), Wrocław-Muchobór Mały (Klein Mochbern), and Wilczków (Wiltschau), as well as evidence from relatively recent rescue excavations in Wrocław-Muchobór Wielki. All of them are situated no further than a few hundred metres from the Ślęza River. Our interpretations shed new light on the initial stage of the late pre-Roman Iron Age around Wrocław and fill the settlement hiatus between the latest La Tène Culture settlement and the earliest Przeworsk Culture assemblages.