Fire walk with me: Looking through the Lusatian mass grave at Wartosław (Poland, 1100–900 BCE)

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science, reports Vol. 38; p. 103090
• Main Authors: Kowalski, Łukasz, Kaczmarek, Maciej, Krzyszowski, Andrzej, Kowalski, Andrzej Piotr, Garbacz-Klempka, Aldona, Szczepaniak, Małgorzata, Ścibior, Dominik, Gaweł, Adam, Targowski, Piotr, Ćwikliński, Łukasz, Szczepańska, Grażyna, Wardas-Lasoń, Marta, Wrzesińska, Anna, Perek-Nowak, Małgorzata, Długosz, Piotr
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2021
• Subjects: Archaeometallurgy; Bronzesmithing; Central Europe; Late Bronze Age; Lusatian culture; Petrography; Urnfield culture; Petrography; Archaeometallurgy; Lusatian culture; Urnfield culture; Bronzesmithing; Late Bronze Age; Central Europe
• ISSN: 2352-409X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103090

•Metallographic, chemical and petrographic investigations of mortuary goods.•People buried at Wartosław could be the members of a lineage or clan associated with metalworking.•Status and organization of Lusatian metalworkers.•A strict symmetry between metal casting and funeral rites-of-passage. In 2009, an exceptional discovery was made in west-central Poland. At the Late Bronze Age necropolis in Wartosław, tools used in metalworking were unearthed from a mass grave belonging to the Lusatian people that can be dated to 1100–900 BCE. Twelve out of over 70 ceramic vessels from the burial pit were identified as urns that contained the ashes of at least eight deceased individuals, including two adult men, one young woman, one unspecified adult, and at least four children. Metallographic, chemical, and petrographic investigations of mortuary goods were used to determine their provenance and use in metalworking. The results of these investigations were used as a proxy to analyze the mass grave according to the ritual and social strategies of the era, including the status and organization of Lusatian metalworkers, and to consider the possibility of identifying their burials in the archeological record.