A fabric from the Hallstatt period yet unseen in Central Poland – some remarks on the find from Dąbrowa, Wieluń County

Abstract During excavations carried out in 2023 at the cemetery of the Lusatian culture in Dąbrowa, site 2, Wieluń County, an urnless cremation burial was discovered (Object 24), which is dated generally to the Hallstatt period. Burnt human bones were scattered throughout the object, which form a relatively compact cluster in the central part of the grave. Ceramic fragments from various vessels were found in the fill of the grave cavity. Metal objects, both bronze and iron, showed signs of being smoldered in the fire. This fosters the conclusion that they had been burned with the deceased on the pyre and placed in the grave together with burned human bones. At the same time, such a state of preservation of the grave offerings made it impossible to specify the dating of the tomb. Within the grave, a fragment of an iron plate was found, on which mineralized remains of fabric were preserved. Technological analysis showed that it was a half-basket weave fabric of a very high quality, made of thin z-single yarn (0.25–0.30 mm and 0.40–0.50 mm) and of surprisingly high thread count (32–34/12–14 threads per cm). In the basin of the Vistula and the Oder rivers, none of the fabrics discovered so far had similar parameters. On the other hand, textiles from the main canters of weaving production at the time, such as the Hallstatt culture and the Scandinavian area, showed similar characteristics, but only in rare examples. This highlights the importance of the weaving product presented here. It is difficult to answer conclusively whether we are dealing in this case with an imported object or one produced in a local weaving workshop, although much points to the first option. Given the context of the find and the accompanying offerings, it can be assumed that the fabric belonged to a person of a higher social status. The local community’s custom of accumulating and then depositing imported items of quality into graves also makes such a hypothesis plausible. On the other hand, certain foreign patterns were adopted and creatively developed in local craft workshops of the Lusatian Culture. Most likely, involvement in long-distance trade routes allowed this society to achieve a high position in the aforementioned exchange. It was important to settle and control areas located in the basin of the upper Warta and Prosna rivers, i. e., on the southern borderlands of central Poland. It was here, through Silesia, that foreign patterns flowed in, which were then transmitted further along the Warta river basin in the northern direction, towards the “Lusatian interior”. The communication route created for the Baltic amber trade played an important role here. Finds of this raw material were recorded both in the Hallstatt circle, in areas of northern Italy, and present-day Slovenia.