Zagadnienia wstępne / Introductory remarks

The cemetery at Świbie (site 16), in the district of Gliwice, Upper Silesia (southern Poland), is a large biritual necropolis associated with communities collectively known as the Upper Silesia-Lesser Poland group (Pl.: grupa górnośląsko-małopolska) of the Lusatian culture, which developed in this area and in western Lesser Poland from the Late Bronze Age. This regional grouping stands out among other Central European groups of the Urnfield culture by the prevalence of the inhumation rite. The site itself is located about 2 km north of the buildings of the village of Świbie, on the eastern side of a dirt road, on the top and southern slope of a small sandy dune. While the site was discovered in 1936 and the initial excavations were carried out at that time, the main archaeological research was carried out by archaeologists from the Museum in Gliwice, Anna Stankiewicz-Węgrzykowa and Halina Wojciechowska, from 1961 to 1992. As a result, an extensive cemetery was uncovered, occupying an area of approximately 55 acres, in which, following a reinterpretation of the sources, 548 archaeological features were identified, including 420 inhumation graves, 28 biritual graves (inhumation graves with cremation burials) and 100 cremation graves (including 49 urned cremations, 50 cremations in pits and one urn-pit grave). Prior to the establishment of the large early Iron Age biritual cemetery at Świbie, the area had been used repeatedly by Stone Age and aarly Bronze Age communities. The few ceramic remains discovered in the southern zone of the necropolis have been classified as Nemun culture (Neolithic of the forest zone), Corded Ware culture, and Mierzanowice culture. The late Stone Age and early Bronze Age materials discovered at Świbie, although few in number and poorly preserved, document a trend in the development of communities living in the forest zone that is quite rare in Silesia. These groupings were largely an ‚alternative’ world to the ‚classical’ Neolithic societies. They grew out of traditions different from those of communities sharing the Anatolian-Balkan model of the Neolithic, and formed primarily on the basis of early Holocene Mesolithic traditions.