Istvánovits Eszter: International Connections... (Jósa András Múzeum Kiadványai 47. Aszód-Nyíregyháza, 2001)
Halina Dobrzanska: Contacts between Sarmatians and the Przeworsk Culture community
ones that were relatively unknown but lived somewhere between Germanic and Sarmatian lands. The doubts that the ancient authors had in attempting to determine the ethnicity of particular tribes are well illustrated by Tacitus in his Germania: "Here Suebia ends. As for the tribes of Peucini, Venedi, and Fenni, I am in doubt whether to count them as Germans or Sarmatians. Though the Peucini, whom some men call Bastarnae, in language, culture, fixity of habitation, and house-building conduct themselves as Germans, all are dirty and lethargic: thefaces of the chiefs, too, owing to intermarriage, wear to some extent the degraded aspect of Sarmatians: while the Venedi have contracted many Sarmatian habits; they are cater ans, infesting all the hills and forests which lie between the Peucini and Fenni" (Tac. Germania, 46). What can be tentatively said is that Sarmatian peoples played a significant role in Central Europe, particularly from the 1 st to the 2 nd c. As mentioned above, Sulimirski made a strong case for the presence of Sarmatians on Polish territories. According to him, as early as the end of the 2 nd c, and particularly at the beginning of the 3 rd c, Lesser Poland, Silesia and the southern part of Greater Poland were subjected to the rule of the Anti, a Sarmatian tribe. In his view, the Anti, who were being expelled by the Goths from Bessarabia, moved onto the territory of Poland. The archaeological evidence for these events was to be found in richly furnished "princely" graves, particularly in Silesia, hoards, and the local production of wheel-made grey pottery, as well as spearheads decorated with tamga signs (SULIMIRSKI 1961/62; 78 ff; SULIMIRSKI 1979,188 ff). No debate took place in Polish archaeological publications on Sulimirski's views, which was tantamount to a complete rejection of his arguments, and the whole issue of Sarmatian presence was forgotten. Having identified some finds of eastern origin in the cremation grave of high-status, elite character in Giebultów (DOBRZANSKA 1996, 7-9; DOBRZANSKAWIELOWIEJSKI 1997, 90-94), we are compelled to reconsider our views regarding the contacts between the Przeworsk Culture community and Sarmatians. Among the finds in that grave, there were as many as nine Roman bronze vessels, and a glass vessel may have been present as well. There were also seven clay vessels, only one of which belonged to local handmade pottery; the other specimens had been made on wheel at locations far away from the territory of the Przeworsk Culture. Particularly noteworthy is a terra sigillata bowl (fig. 2: 2) classified as the so-called eastern sigillata B, which originated from the ancient city of Tralles (now Aydin in Turkey) in the western part of Asia Minor (DOMZALSKI 1997). Among the vessels placed in the grave, there was a large wine amphora that served as an urn (fig. 2: 1), a ring-necked flagon (fig. 2: 6), two stemmed bowls called "incense bowls" (fig. 2: 4-5) and a small jug with a short tubular spout (fig. 2: 3). In the assemblage there was also a fragment of a necklace braided of gold threads, a decorated bone comb, 2 knives, metal trimmings and three keys, probably for the three wooden caskets, one of which came from Pannónia. The grave under discussion is one of the most richly furnished burials of the Early Roman Period commonly known as "princely" graves discovered in Central Europe, and it can be dated to the last quarter of the 1 st c. A.D. It is a multiple grave, probably double, of a man and a woman. The buried couple must have enjoyed a very high social status and may have been representatives of the "tribal aristocracy". While the man, a local chieftain (as indicated by the presence of a bronze kettle), was a
