mgr Marcin Szpila

ORCID: 0000-0002-4133-0538

The topic of my dissertation is “Between the San, the Dniester and the lower Danube. Contacts of the Przeworsk culture population with the communities of south-eastern Europe in the pre-Roman and the Roman period”.

The doctoral dissertation aims to study the nature, dynamics and chronology of contacts between the Przeworsk culture population and the peoples of the Dniester and lower Danube basins in the pre-Roman and Roman period, i.e. from around the end of the 3rd century BC. until the end of the 4th century AD. One cannot ignore the issues related to the presence of finds from the Jastorf culture, because it was the population of this cultural unit that moved in the 3rd century BC down the Dniester to contribute to the uprising the Poieneşti-Lucaşeuca culture on the Prut and Siret rivers. However, it will not be the main theme of the dissertation. Its subject matter will mainly include the problem of the impacts of the Bastarnaes associated with the Poieneşti-Lucaşeuca culture, Daks and Sarmatians, but also imported items from the Bosporan Kingdom, which came to the lands of today's Poland through the above-mentioned populations. The youngest horizon considered in the dissertation will be the influence of the Chernyakhov culture, reaching in the late Roman period of the vicinity of Przemyśl. Such a comprehensive approach to the problem of impulses flowing to Poland from south-eastern Europe is innovative.

The San-Dniester route is a natural communication corridor connecting the Vistula basin with the Black Sea. This route was used in the Younger Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, but also in later times, e.g. in the Middle Ages. However, little is known about its functioning in the pre-Roman and the Roman period. Presumably in the third century BC the population of the Jastorf culture, which gave rise to the Poieneşti-Lucaşeuca culture on the Prut and Seret, followed this route, then (for a considerable part of this route) the population of the Wielbark culture.

It seems, however, that the functioning of the route along the Dniester and San should be related to the issue of "returning Bastarnaes", the influx of Sarmatian finds, and even individual coins from the Bosporan State. Of particular importance are the Dacian impacts, which could have reached Polish territory from the lower Danube basin via the Carpathian passes or the road leading outside the Carpathian arc, i.e. along the Dniester and then along the San.

Recognition of intercultural contacts between the San basin and the basin of the Dniester and Lower Danube in the pre-Roman and the Roman will fill the research gap and allow for better understanding of the interactions influencing the shaping of the cultural image of the Polish lands in the 2nd century BC - 4th century AD. We will also obtain a comprehensive view of cultural changes in the area of the Carpathian Arc, and above all, the shift of the Przeworsk culture towards the south and south-east, into the Tisza river basin. This phenomenon is already partially recognized, but our knowledge is fragmentary and contributory. Perhaps it will also be possible to estimate the scale of the influence of the Chernyakhov culture in south-eastern Poland.