Stone-Age Poland - Neolithic - Neolithic Cultures Developed By Native Populations

Neolithic Cultures Developed By Native Populations

After 4500 BCE the Ertebølle culture of northwestern origin entered a ceramic phase with its own forms of pottery (characteristic pointed bottoms). They lived by the Baltic Sea shores and were specialized in utilizing the resources of the sea, thus still representing the Mesolithic ways of life. At their settlement in Dąbki near Koszalin Stroke-ornamented pottery was found, obtained probably through trade with the Danubian people.

The native Mesolithic populations were slow in gradually assimilating the agricultural way of life, beginning with just the use of ceramics. It took a thousand years into the Neolithic period before they adopted animal husbandry (which became especially important to them) and plant cultivation to any appreciable degree. When they eventually developed interest in the more fertile areas utilized by the late Danubian cultures, they became the threat that compelled the Danubian farmers to fortify their settlements. The native post-Mesolithic groups expanded beyond the traditional Danubian areas of agricultural development, moving also into ecologically less favorable environments, which included utilization of sandy soils.

The first truly native Neolithic culture was the Funnelbeaker culture, named after the shape of their typical clay vessels. It developed starting around 4400 BCE and lasted some two thousand years. Like other post-Mesolithic cultures, the Funnelbeaker culture was Megalithic. They built tombs of large stones, some of them huge (for example trapezoidal structures up to 150 meters long) and resembling pyramids. Few survived until now because of the demand for stone as building material, but a well-preserved one from the first half of 4th millennium BC was found in Wietrzychowice near Włocławek. From this place and period came the skull, on which the trepanation procedure was performed for medical or magic reasons. Timewise the beginnings of the post-Mesolithic cultures in Poland coincide with the beginnings of the Eneolithic period in the Balkans. Copper objects, mostly ornamental or luxurious items, were traded and then developed locally, first by the Danubian and then by the indigenous people. Copper metallurgy facilities were identified in Złota near Sandomierz. Clay decorative objects include realistic representations of animals and containers with images engraved on them. A pot from Bronocice, Pińczów County (3400 BCE) has a unique narrative scene and the world's oldest semblance of a four-wheeled cart drawn on its surface. Stone tools became most highly developed and acquired their then characteristic smooth surfaces. Well preserved settlements with rectangular buildings were unearthed in Gródek Nadbużny near Hrubieszów (where remnants of a vertical loom for weaving were found), in Niedźwiedź near Kraków, and in northern Poland in Barłożno, Starogard Gdański County, where the structures are similar to the ones in Niedźwiedź. In Barłożno three post supported houses were discovered, the largest of which had the main part 16 meters long and 6.5 meters wide. As dated from the ceramics found, they represent the developed, "Wiórecka" phase of the Funnelbeaker culture.

Originating from central European lowlands, the Funnelbeaker people were able to utilize large expanses of less fertile soils, obtained by extensive reduction of forested areas, with the increased role of livestock.They moved south into the regions previously developed by the Danubian cultures, all the way to Bohemia and Moravia. Being more numerous, better fit for the environment, organized and economically more productive, the Funnelbeaker culture people replaced the Danubian cultures in their late phase.

The Globular Amphora culture was the next major Neolithic culture. It originated in the Polish lowlands during the first half of 4th millennium BC, lasted to about 2400 BCE in parallel with the Funnelbeaker culture, and is named after the bulging shape of its representative pottery. They specialized in breeding domestic animals and lived in a semi-settled state, seeking optimal pastures and moving as needed. This semi-nomadic lifestyle was probably necessitated by the poor condition of the soils, by that time depleted and rendered infertile because of the preceding centuries of forest burning and extensive exploitation. Globular Amphora were the first culture in Poland known for utilizing the domesticated horse, and swine became important as the source of food. Ritual animal, especially cattle burial sites, often with two or more individuals buried together and supplied with objects as strange as drums have been discovered, but their role is not well understood. Globular Amphora people were involved in the north-south amber trade. Their megalithic burials included ceramics, stone tools and ornamental gifts.

The Baden culture in southern Poland was the latest of the Danubian ancestry cultures and continued between 3200 and 2600 BCE. They made vessels with characteristic protruding radial ornaments. A large fortified Baden culture settlement of around 3000 BCE was found in Bronocice near Pińczów.

Finally there were still in existence the forest zone cultures, representing the ceramic phase of hunting and gathering communities. Some of them lasted into the early Bronze Age.

The major industry of this period was flintstone mining. One of the largest Neolithic (middle to late periods) flint mines in Europe with over 700 vertical shafts and preserved underground passages was located in Krzemionki Opatowskie near Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. The axes produced from the material obtained there were exported to distant parts of the continent.