Graves of Vandal warriors found in southern Poland

Two cremation burials of Vandal warriors have been unearthed at a previously-unknown archaeological site in the town of Glinka in southeastern Poland’s Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. They contain the burned remains of iron weapons and armor. Based on the objects, the graves date to the late 3rd or 4th century A.D.

The graves were discovered by accident during agricultural work in a field. The landowner stumbled on an iron sword, shield boss and spearhead and alerted the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments who dispatched archaeologists and a licensed metal detectorist to survey the site. The metal detector located a second group of iron weapons, and the excavation revealed a sword, shield boss, spearhead and a pair of scissors. Fragments of burned clay vessels and burned bones were also found.

Traces of fire patina on all of the iron objects are evidence that the armaments were burned on a pyre with the clay pots and the body of the deceased. After the fire burned out, the remains placed in shallow pits. Both of the swords were deliberately bent before cremation, a ritual that “killed” the weapon, allowing the deceased to take it with him to the afterlife. The practice had the ancillary benefit of deterring looters who would desecrate the graves to steal the valuable swords.

The cremation burials in pit graves and bent swords indicate the deceased belonged to the Iron Age Przeworsk culture identified with the Germanic Vandal people. They occupied a large parts of modern-day southern and central Poland, but only a few of their warrior graves have been found in the Sandomierska Highlands area, making these two burials particularly significant.

Archaeological excavations are on hiatus now as crops have been sown on the field, but archaeologists will employ non-invasive methods like geophysical surveys to map the site in anticipation of a follow-up dig that they hope will reveal a whole Vandal cemetery from the Roman Imperial era.

The objects recovered from the two pit graves are now undergoing conservation. Several museums have expressed interest in exhibiting them when conservation is complete, including the Historical and Archaeological Museum in Ostrowiec and the Castle Museum in Sandomierz.

* This article was originally published here