EN
Waplewo lies about 11 km to the south of Olsztynek (Olsztyn distr., warmińsko-mazurskie voiv.). The archaeological site is situated near the rim of the valley of the Marózka, left-hand tributary of the Łyna River (Fig. 1). Archaeological excavation of 6300 m2 made in the spring of 2011 helped in recording a total of 49 features of different use (storage pits, post-holes and hearths) and chronology among which there were just four graves from the Roman Period of interest to us here (Fig. 2). One grave is attributed to Przeworsk Culture (feature no. 4 – the pit cremation of an adult individual). The rest were Wielbark culture burials (2 cremations: male, aged 25–50, and of undetermined sex, age 15–50; and an infans II inhumation, age 7–8 years). The cremation graves were furnished with pottery only. The inhumation (no. 49) next to a number of vessels contained a silver fibula, close to A VI 161–162 (Fig. 5:1). The grave pit retained traces identified as remains of wooden shoring, or some other timber construction, and stones from a setting or from a destroyed stone construction. Fragments of the cranium and long bones of a child lay at the bottom of the pit in its northern area, their arrangement evidently disturbed. Intruding on the inhumation was a feature containing stones and an upper layer of dark coloured humus which yielded animal bones and ceramics (see Annex). Its purpose is hard to determine, other than robbery it may document some ritual practices which are not unknown from Wielbark Culture cemeteries. At the same time, these are rarely observed in case of burials of children. Basing on the four surviving graves it is hard to establish the actual chronological confines of the cemetery all the more so because they mostly yielded ceramic material. A Przeworsk Culture cemetery presumably is documented by feature no. 4, dated by the form and ornamentation of its pottery inventory to phase B2, whereas features nos. 25 and 49, and possibly no. 23, may be associated with a later, Wielbark culture use. In this case an object useful for dating was the fibula from feature no. 49 (grave 4). Its chronology fits in phases C1b–C2. The form and ornamentation of the pottery is typical for phase B2/C1, and the idiosyncratic zigzag motif, for phases C1b–D. Thus, we have insufficient data to establish when the grave-field ceased being used by the Przeworsk community and the time of appearance of the first Wielbark Culture burials. The construction of the inhumation grave pit and the surviving items of its inventory such as the silver fibula suggest high social status of the dead child. Material symbols of special status within Wielbark culture society are not a common occurrence in the burials of children.