Pottery vessels found at the settlement at Dziedzice

1 – a hand-built vessel, plain, with a coarse surface;
2 – a hand-built vessel, plain, with a slightly coarse surface.

Both vessels are identified as the oldest vessel type of the early medieval North Polabian and West Pomeranian Slavs. Its chronology is still unclear (the 6^th - the first half of the 8^th century AD). This type is known from sites like settlements at Derczew, Dziedzice, Łobżany, Dębczyno near Białogard and on Salt Island in Kołobrzeg. The vessels were identified as Sukow type in E. Schuldt’s Mecklenburg classification, whereas in West Pomeranian classification by W. Łosiński and R. Rogosz as type VI (no. 1) and III (no. 2) in the family of A-B vessels.

Both vessels were found during the regular archaeological excavation carried out in 1969 by Antoni Porzeziński from the National Museum in Szczecin at the site of an early medieval settlement at Dziedzice (site 4) which had been accidentally discovered in 1960 by a resident of the village, S. Leszkiewicz. The aim of the excavation was to identify the earliest phases of the early medieval settlement in West Pomerania, connected with the formation of the early Slavic culture. Both vessels were found in pit-huts.

Chronology:

Formerly dated to the 6^th century and the 7^th century AD, nowadays dated more often to the first half of the 8^th century AD.

Museum collection:

the National Museum in Szczecin

by A. Kowalówka