Field research in Suchań, August 2014
The second season of regular archaeological fieldwork at Suchań, site 18, distr. Stargard Szczeciński, completed 1st-31st August 2014, had been anticipated with some excitement in because of a permission obtained from the owner of property no. 366 at Suchań on which site 18 lies. The year before no permission was given and the fieldwork had to be limited to the outlying area of the site. However the permission limited the number of the archaeological trenches to two – of 400 and 200 m2. True to this condition jointly 600 m2 were excavated in 2014.
The excavation exposed traces of an Oksywie Culture settlement, dated provisionally and rather broadly to the Late Pre-Roman Period. Currently the only chronologically diagnostic material is pottery but specialist analyses are also planned..
Oksywie Culture occupation is documented by the presence of eight archaeological features (nos. 33 through to 41, with feature 35 struck off the record). The trenches were laid out using the 10x10 m grid from season 2013 and the features recorded using numbers continuing the catalogue started the year before.
The eight features fall into the following functional categories: a pit-house (no. 33); three hearths (nos. 34, 37, 38), a stone pavement (no. 39), a posthole (no. 40) and a furnace with a recessed feature (blacksmith’s forge?) (no. 41). Less easy to interpret was feature no. 36: a pit with a maximum diameter of 1.6 m and a depth of around 0.8 m containing some burnt matter, the remains of a stone construction in its fill and traces of a clay lining on the walls and bottom; small finds included pottery, objects associated with weaving (a loomweight and a spindlewhorl) and a large quantity of animal bone. Definitely more interesting were features such as the pit-house (no. 33) and the feature interpreted tentatively as a blacksmith’s forge (no. 41). The pit-house, oval of shape, with a maximum diameter of 2.8 m and a depth of 0.7 m, contained, next to pottery, a fragment of an ornamented bone object and a spindlewhorl. A stone pavement was discovered in its top. The furnace with a recessed feature, unfortunately, greatly eroded, is a valuable piece evidence on ironworking activity in the region of today’s Stargard Szczeciński dating back to the Late Pre-Roman Period. The bulk of the small finds was pottery which included some datable rim sherds with facetting, in quite a few of them, also on the inside. Selected finds include two spindlewhorls and the loomweight (ornamented), the ornamented bone object and two iron ones. Samples were taken from the feature fill and from the natural layer. At the end of the excavation the trenches were regraded.
In conclusion, the archaeological record secured at Suchań may be recognized as typical for Oksywie Culture settlements, with numerous analogies recorded in the Parsęta and the Wieprza river valleys (e.g., Głuszyno, site. 1; Rogowo, site. 4; Śmiechowo, site. 1; Warszkowo, site. 26, 27, 30; Śmiechowo, site. 6).
BR
The gallery with pictures from the site: Suchań 2014 - end of excavation season