page_title: Early history of Pomerania
section_title: Wielbark (Willenberg) Culture (Eastern Pomerania, 1 - 450 AD)
hierarchical_section_title: Early history of Pomerania / Roman Iron Age and Migration period / Wielbark (Willenberg) Culture (Eastern Pomerania, 1 - 450 AD)
caption_attribution_description: map based on Image:Europe plain rivers.png my own map, based on en:User:Dbachmann's blank map. The extensions of the cultures are based on Zbigniew Babik: "Najstarsza warstwa nazewnicza na ziemiach polskich" Cracow 2001. The map shows the extent of the Wielbark culture (Goths) in red, a Baltic culture (Aesti?) in yellow, and the Debczyn Culture, pink. The Roman Empire is purple.
context_page_description: After the glaciers of the Ice Age in the Early Stone Age withdrew from the area, which since about 1000 AD is called Pomerania, in what are now northern Germany and Poland, they left a tundra. First humans appeared, hunting reindeer in the summer. A climate change in 8000 BC allowed hunters and foragers of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture to continuously inhabit the area. These people became influenced by farmers of the Linear Pottery culture who settled in southern Pomerania. The hunters of the Ertebølle-Ellerbek culture became farmers of the Funnelbeaker culture in 3000 BC. The Havelland culture dominated in the Uckermark from 2500 to 2000 BC. In 2400 BC, the Corded Ware culture reached Pomerania and introduced the domestic horse. Both Linear Pottery and Corded Ware culture have been associated with Indo-Europeans. Except for Western Pomerania, the Funnelbeaker culture was replaced by the Globular Amphora culture a thousand years later.
  During the Bronze Age, Western Pomerania was part of the Nordic Bronze Age cultures, while east of the Oder river the Lusatian culture dominated.
context_section_description: The Willenberg or Wielbark culture appeared during the first half of the 1st century AD and replaced the Oksywie culture. This culture dominated the area of Farther Pomerania northeast of the Ihna river, most of Pomerelia and northern Mazovia.
  The ethnic background of the Wielbark people is not certain. While in the past, German and Polish historians had associated them with the Goths or Slavs, respectively, recent hypotheses suggest they were a heterogeneous people, though scholarship is divided on whom to include therein; suggestions include the Veleti, Germanic peoples (Goths, Rugians, and Gepids) and possibly Slavs.
  From this period, many influences are recorded from the Roman Empire. Coins were in use abundantly. Imported Roman goods and their native imitations, though poorer in quality, were common. Roman luxury goods were also found, but those were most probably reserved for the elite. Besides the import of Roman goods, the society also to a lesser degree copied the social differentiation of the Romans. Many princely graves are known from this period.
  Between 170 and 260 AD, settlement in Pomerania became less dense. The Wielbark culture continued to exist in the Oder and Vistula estuaries, in parallel to and under mutual influence of the Dębczyn (Denzin) culture that evolved in its midst. Numerous imported goods found from this period in the Oder estuary, originating in the Black Sea area, the Roman provinces, and Scandinavia underline the contemporary importance of the Oder estuary.
caption: Willenberg culture (red) and Debczyn culture (pink), late 3rd century
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