Field research at Suchań, July 2013
On 28 June – 28 July 2013, armed with a permit from the Monuments Protection Office in Szczecin, archaeologists opened the first fieldwork season at Suchań.
Under the agreement concluded with the University of Warsaw the fieldwork was supervised by Dr Bartosz Rogalski of the National Museum in Szczecin, MPOV Team Member, in charge of 15 students from the UW Institute of Archaeology, with Aleksander Bursche as consultant. This year’s research was made on the property of the municipality of Suchań, on the edge of an upland rising in the ice-marginal valley of the Reczyca near a spring which feeds that river.
A few small pits exposed by the excavation trenches yielded pottery dated to the mature Migration Period. This is a crucial piece of evidence confirming that the deposit of Scandinavian bracteats and pendants may have been hidden within a settlement then in use.
The investigation identified the western margin of the Migration Period settlement associated, presumably, with a short-lived presence of arrivals from Scandinavia, most likely from Bornholm; this is indicated by the pottery finds and the earlier recovered metal finds. Samples were taken to verify the chronology of the excavated features by C14 analysis. If our deductions are confirmed by C14 dating we may have to revise the current interpretation of circumstances of influx to Pomerania of Roman solidi and Scandinavian imports (gold bracteats and neckrings). In fact they may be associated with a physical presence of settlers from the North.
The findings from paleobotany, Carbon 14 and comparative studies will be regularly reported on here. Preliminary results of research will be presented in September at the 64th international Sachensymposion in Paderborn http://www.sachsensymposion.org/en/64-internationales-sachsensymposion
There are plans to present the archaeology of Suchań and its vicinity in 2014 at the National Museum in Szczecin. Professor Aleksander Bursche, Dr Bartosz Rogalski and mgr Krzysztof Kowalski, head of the Archaeology Department National Museum in Szczecin, had a meeting with mgr eng. Stanisława Bodnar, to discuss the details of the future exhibition and invite the Mayor of Suchań to extend honorary sponsorship over the exhibition. The invitation was graciously accepted with an offer of assistance in securing the local landowner consent for the next year’s excavation season. The exhibition is to accompanied by an introductory analysis of the prehistory of Suchań published for this occasion.
The archaeologists were accommodated in the Primary and Middle School Complex at Suchań. All the team members were grateful for the hospitality, friendliness and the welcoming atmosphere offered them by members of the local community.
The fieldwork is to continue over at least two more seasons
You will find the photo gallery here http://www.mpov.uw.edu.pl/pl/badania/badania-archeologiczne/suchan-2013-sprawozdanie-z-badan