Od środkowej epoki brązu do końca wczesnej epoki żelaza – igołomska część zachodniomałopolskiej wyżyny lessowej pomiędzy XVIII a III wiekiem p.n.e. / From the Middle Bronze Age till the end of the Early Iron Age – the Igołomian part of the Western Lesser Poland loess upland between the 18th and 3rd centuries BC

Abstract

The Bronze Age, which lasted for almost two thousand years, together with the Early Iron Age (2300–300 BC), is the last section of the prehistory of Igołomia region on the Vistula River. In this region, as in the entire loess upland of the western Lesser Poland, it was an era of dynamic demographic and cultural changes. Apart from the adaptation of new raw materials – first copper, then its alloys (bronze) and finally iron – the hallmarks of those times were constant contacts, migrations and confrontations of human groups of different origins. This trend was started by the community of the Trzciniec culture shaped in the lowlands, infiltrating the environment of local farmers of the Mierzanowice culture. After settling in and successfully adapting their economic strategies, they also had to share Lesser Poland „loess pie” after several centuries (in the 13th-12th centuries BC) with the people from Silesia, representing the Lusatian culture, and with visitors from beyond the Carpathians, who used characteristic fluted pottery. This mosaic of cultures affected the specific cultural face of the region during the Late Bronze Age. The Early Iron Age (after 800 BC) was the period of crossing of influences from the East, North and West and gradual depopulation, until the next wave of settlers appeared here in the 3rd century BC.