EN
The site at Stodzew, comm. Parysów, woj. mazowieckie, lies at a distance of about 300 m NE from farm buildings, at a distance of some 500 m from the present-day channel of the Świder river on the highest elevation in the area (141.6 m above the sea level), in the moraine range of Siedlce Heights (Wysoczyzna Siedlecka) (Fig. 1). As in the past, the dune is at present mined for sand and gravel. The site at Stodzew came on record for the first time in the 1940s, the time when the large cloche grave cemetery was being excavated at the village of Transbór in the neighbourhood (A. Kietlińska, R. Mikłaszewska 1963, p. 296, fig. 35). Research at Stodzew was ultimately spurred by recently incoming reports on random new discoveries of cloche graves made during sand and gravel extraction. Fieldwork carried out at Stodzew in 1997 covered an area of ca 190 m2 of the top of the moraine elevation (Fig. 2). In addition, some 40 m2 disused mine workings indicated as the place where a number of graves had been buried were excavated (with negative results). Trenches cut in the W section of the study area produced, under a layer of humus and subsoil, which contained pottery fragments and numerous stones, the remains of a culture layer and features of a Przeworsk culture settlement. The cloche graves were discovered lower down, at the depth of more than a meter below the ground level, under a layer of yellow sand. The present article is concerned with Cloche Grave culture material recovered during a rescue excavations (features A – grave goods preserved in fine condition and B – heavily damaged) and during stationary fieldwork (partly damaged grave 1 and undisturbed graves 2 and 3). Features discovered in situ at Stodzew were classically “cloche grave” in form. Each held an urn covered by an upturned bowl. From the point of view of its construction grave 2 was exceptional, covered with two closely fitting cloches. The urn it contained (a large mug with a broken off handle) was accompanied by a small jug with a handle set below the rim. In grave 3, the bottom of the cloche was additionally covered with a large potsherd. The urn (a small jug with a broken off handle) stood on a ceramic support, a sherd from the same pot as the one used to cover the cloche. Urns from graves A, B, 1 and 2 held the remains of women aged 20–35 years, in grave marked as feature A, deposited together with the cremated bones of an infant. The remains of another child, presumably a baby, were buried inside grave 3, of unusually small dimensions 3. Grave 1 was deposited in a pit filled with ashes, graves 2 and 3 in pits dug in clean sand, their lower section only with difficulty distinguishable from their surroundings. In the upper section of the pit of grave 2 there was a concentration of burnt animal bone and potsherds. Species composition of the remains from grave 2a closely corresponds (except for the horse, not noted at Stodzew, and birds, rarely noted at other Cloche Grave culture sites) to animal species deposited in human graves (T. Węgrzynowicz 1982, p. 221, fig. 44). The most noteworthy items discovered among the grave furnishings were bone pendants. Two such specimens, fashioned from dog’s teeth roots (Fig. 4g.h), found inside the urn in grave 3, occurred together with the remains of earrings ornamented with beads made of blue-coloured glass with a yellow-white wavy line (Fig. 4i.j). An openwork comb-pendant (Fig. 4d, 5) was discovered in the urn in grave A among burnt human bones next to an iron hoop and the upper section of the arms of bronze tweezers. Any of the archaeological finds recovered at Stodzew may serve as a base for precise dating of the grave assemblages. However, a number of less reliable pieces of evidence let us to determine the general chronology of this cemetery. It was noted that most of the vessels in grave 2 and 3 are fine-walled, smoothed specimens with a developed form, richly ornamented. Together with the accompanying cloches they resemble in their features forms associated with the earliest interval in the relative chronology defined for Cloche Grave culture material in Mazowsze and Podlasie, which is placed in Ha D (M. Andrzejowska 1995, p. 132–135). Furthermore, grave 3 produced fragments of ornaments containing ia beads of blue-coloured glass with a wavy white or yellow-white inclusion. Similar specimens have been recorded in the area of interest in Lusatian culture assemblages dated to Ha D (T. Węgrzynowicz 1968, p. 509). Analogous dating is adopted for this ornament form with regard to the evidence from Pomeranian culture (cf M. Matthaus, Ch. Braun 1983, p. 56–58, maps 1, 2). Consequently, it may be concluded that at least some of the features at the cemetery at Stodzew originate from Hallstatt period D, the earliest period of the development of the Cloche Grave culture in Mazowsze.