page_title: Prehistory and protohistory of Poland
section_title: Bronze and Iron Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistory and protohistory of Poland / Bronze and Iron Ages
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Biskupin - archeopark, rekonstrukce osady z doby bronzové. Brána od vnitřní strany. Polski: Stanowisko archeologiczne w Biskupinie z epoki brązowej.
context_page_description: The prehistory and protohistory of Poland can be traced from the first appearance of Homo species on the territory of modern-day Poland, to the establishment of the Polish state in the 10th century AD, a span of roughly 500,000 years.
  The area of present-day Poland went through the stages of socio-technical development known as the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages after experiencing the climatic shifts of the glacial periods. The best known archeological discovery from the prehistoric period is the Lusatian-culture Biskupin fortified settlement. As ancient civilizations began to appear in southern and western Europe, the cultures of the area of present-day Poland were influenced by them to various degrees.
  Among the peoples that inhabited various parts of Poland up to the Iron Age stage of development were Scythian, Celtic, Germanic, Sarmatian, Roman, Avar, Vlach and Baltic tribes. In the Early Middle Ages, the area came to be dominated by West Slavic tribes and finally became home to a number of Lechitic Polish tribes that formed small states in the region beginning in the 8th century.
context_section_description: Poland's Bronze Age comprised Period I, c. 2300–1600 BC; Period II, c. 1600–1350 BC; Period III, c. 1350–1100 BC; Period IV, c. 1100–900 BC; and Period V, c. 900–700 BC. The Early Iron Age included Hallstatt Period C, c. 700–600 BC, and Hallstatt Period D, c. 600–450 BC.
  Poland's Bronze- and Iron-Age cultures are known mainly from archeological research. Poland's Early Bronze Age cultures began around 2300-2400 BC, whereas the Iron Age commenced c. 700-750 BC. By the beginning of the Common Era, the Iron Age archeological cultures described in the main article no longer existed. Given the absence of written records, the ethnicities and linguistic affiliations of the groups living in Central and Eastern Europe at that time are speculative; there is considerable disagreement about their identities. In Poland, the Lusatian culture, which spanned the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archeological discovery from that period is the Biskupin fortified settlement (gród) that represented early-Iron-Age Lusatian culture.
  Bronze objects were brought to Poland around 2300 BC from the Carpathian Basin. The native Early Bronze Age that followed was dominated by the innovative Unetice culture in western Poland and the conservative Mierzanowice culture in eastern Poland. These were replaced in their respective territories for the duration of the subsequent Older Bronze Period by the (pre-Lusatian) Tumulus culture and the Trzciniec culture.
  Characteristic of the remaining bronze periods were the Urnfield cultures, in which skeletal burials were replaced by cremation throughout much of Europe. In Poland, the Lusatian culture settlements dominated the landscape for nearly a thousand years, continuing into the Early Iron Age. A series of Scythian invasions beginning in the 6th century BC, precipitated their demise. The Hallstatt Period D was a time of expansion for the Pomeranian culture, while the Western Baltic Kurgan culture dominated Poland's Masuria-Warmia region.
caption: Reconstructed Biskupin
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A710 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:14 12:24:31", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4539", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:14 12:24:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:07:14 12:24:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "22763/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3080", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1944000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}