Session: #469

Regular session

The southern Baltic Sea coastal area is a supra-regional contact zone in all epochs, including the Roman Iron Age and the Late Antiquity. A special feature is the fact that the communications lead on the one hand by sea to Scandinavia, on the other hand by land to Western and Central Europe as well as the Eastern Baltic States. They connected the drainage basins of important European rivers - the Elbe, the Oder, the Vistula up to the Düna (Daugava) and the Neva. During the period under consideration here, the archaeological characteristics of these greater areas are very different. At present, countless metal detector finds enrich our knowledge of the contacts between North and South and East and West that can be made with components of costume and jewelry, but also with personal equipment and armament. The session will discuss how research reacts to the associated challenges. What new findings does the current flood of base and precious metal finds provide on questions of the availability of the raw material non-ferrous metal, the development of style and costume provinces, as well as the analysis and interpretation of regional and supra-regional contacts? Are there any research opinions that are confirmed by new discoveries? Does this have any consequences for the description, e.g. the archaeological phenomena known as the “Elbgermanen”, Wielbark and Dollkheim-Kovrovo cultures, and if so, which ones?

early history, southern Baltic region, supraregional connections, mobility, exchange, metal finds

yes

no

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Hans-Ulrich Voss (Germany) ¹

Jan Schuster (Poland) ²
Jens-Peter Schmidt (Germany) ³