The Pomeranian culture, also Pomeranian or Pomerelian Face Urn culture[1] was an Iron Age culture in Pomerania, northern Poland. About 650 BC, it evolved from the Lusatian culture,[2] often associated with the Nordic Bronze Age,[3] and subsequently expanded southward. Between 200 and 150 BC, it was succeeded by the Oksywie culture in eastern Pomerania and the Przeworsk culture at the upper Vistula and Oder rivers.[4]
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The most characteristic feature was the use of burial urns with faces. The urns were often contained in stone cists. The face-urns have lids in the form of hats, often miniature ear-rings of real bronze are added. The faces are sometimes modelled very naturalistically, and no two urns show the same face. Incised drawings on the urns show hunting scenes, chariot races or riders. Brooches of Tłukom-type and necklaces of multiple bronze rings are typical examples of metal work.
The economy was similar to that of the Lusatian culture. Rye was systematically cultivated for the first time, but still formed a minor component of the cereals. There were fewer hill forts than in the area of the Lusatian culture further west. Southern imports were sparse as well.
A related culture of the same age was the House Urn culture in central Germany.[5]
In the later Iron Age, the Pomeranian culture spread southward, into areas formerly belonging to the Lusatian, Wysoko- and Milograd cultures. In Masovia and Poland this mixture led to the development of the group with bell-shaped burials (Glockengräbergruppe).
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