EN
One of the most effective tools in the repertoire of archaeology is the term of “archaeological culture" which allows for putting archaeological finds in order by means of combining them into assemblages of finds which co-occur in a distinct territory (cf. GODŁOWSKI 1976: 378; 2000: 67). An omission of this stage of analysis often results in identifying one, apparently characteristic and permanently present phenomenon, which would be supposed to decide on its unequivocal classification - for the Sudovians such a role was supposed to be played by barrow cemeteries (cf. SEDOV 1964). Historians are now to a great degree unanimous concerning the location of the territories of the Sudovians. The Teutonic chronicler Peter of Dusburg mentioned the land of Sudua, identified with Sudovia, among Prussian territories. This was the Prussian tribal territory which was the most distant from the Baltic and at the same time the easternmost one. Its southern frontier was constituted by backwaters and marshes of the River Biebrza (KAMIŃSKI 1953: 45-51, 60-62; 1956: map; 1963; TYSZKIEWICZ 2003; cf. WIŚNIEWSKI 1981). Previous attempts at extending the territory of Sudovia to Podlachia on the eastern ex¬tremities of Masovia were completely rejected by historians already in the mid-20th c. (TYSZKIEWICZ 1975: 176-191; 2003). Furthermore, there are no grounds to accept the concept of V.V. Sedov (1964; 1987: 411-419; 1989), ac¬cording to which so-called Rostołty type barrows could be attributed to the Sudovians. This identification was based on the similarity of construction. However, it completely neglected the cultural context: finds from Rostołty type barrows unequivocally point to their pertinence to the Wielbark Culture, whose population is commonly identifi¬ed with the Goths in a broad sense (WOŁĄGIEWICZ 1981). A certain excuse for undertaking such attempts at archaeologically defining Sudovia can be a poor archaeological recognition of early medieval Prussia (cf. WRÓBLEWSKI 2006b), with special reference to the territories where early medieval Sudovia was supposedly located. The reason for this unsatisfactory state of research is no doubt the lack of cemeteries in the eastern part of the Masurian Lake District and the basin of the River Czarna Hańcza. Sites of this kind provide the greatest number of finds which could serve to establish systems of periodisation or cultural divisions. Due to this lack of early medieval necropoles from the 10th-13th c., that is, from the time which is covered by historical sources mentioning the Sudovians under dif¬ferent names, and especially due to the total absence ofsites which could be considered as barrow necropoles, the assumption that barrows are an indicator of “Sudovian identity” (cf. SEDOV 1964; 1987: 411-419; 1989) must be considered as a complete misunderstanding. A question also emerges: what was actually the origin of the assumption that the early medieval Sudovians buried their dead under the barrows ? It seems that it may have chiefly resulted from the attribution of all archaeological finds dated to the Roman Period and the Migration Period which are known from eastern Masuria and the basin of the River Czarna Hańcza to the “Sudovians” (cf. KAMIŃSKI 1956; KOSTRZEWSKI, CHMIELEWSKI, JAŻDŻEWSKI 1965: 268-269, 281-282, 304; cf. JAŻDŻEWSKI 1981: 551, 560). This, on its part, resulted from a rather indiscriminate identification of the Soudinoi people, mentioned by Ptolemy, with the Sudovians. This identification was also related to a theory of complete cultural and settlement stabilisation (cf. JAŻDŻEWSKI 1981: 628-629). This identification, however, does not consider the fact that the relation of Ptolemy, which described this part of European Sarmatia, was taken from an earlier work ofMarinus ofTyre (PoLASCHEK 1965: col. 695-696,753¬757; cf. REICHERT 2003: 569) and it concerns circumstances from the late 1st c. From this period only sparse and dispersed finds from settlements are known from the eastern extremity of Masuria and the basin of the River Czarna Hańcza (cf. OKULlCZ-KożARYN 1993: fig. 5), while there are no necropoles. Therefore, even if the discussed area in the late 1st c. was in fact the homeland of Ptolemy’s Soudinoi, it is not possible, either, to relate barrow cemeteries to this people. Necropoles with earth and stone barrows appeared in the territory of the upper Czarna Hańcza in Phases B2/C and Cla of the Roman Period (cf. ANTONIEWICZ 1961; 1963; ANTONIEWICZ, KACZYŃSKI, OKULICZ 1956; 1958; JASKANIS, JASKANIS 1961; JASKANIS 1961; 1962; ZIEMLIŃSKA-ODOJOWA 1958; 1961a; 1961b; 1966; ŻUROWSKI 1958; 1961; 1963), that is, in the second half of the 2nd and in the early 3rd c. This means that they are some dozen years later than the relation of Marinus of Tyre. Even later, that is perhaps only in the developed phase of the Late Roman Period (C2 - ca. AD 250-300), barrows with stone coatings and numerous cremation burials appeared in the north-western extremity of the territory which was related to the Sudovians - upon the River Gołdapa (cf. BUJACK 1885; STADIE 1919; SZYMAŃSKI, GODZIEBA 2006; SZYMAŃSKI 2008; cf. also ENGEL, IWANICKI, RZESZOTARSKA-NOWAKIEWICZ 2006a: 200; 2006b: 25). This archaeological situation finds its analogy in the territories to the east of the River Neman (cf. SADAUSKAITE 1959; ANTANAVICIUS 1969; BLIUJUS 1983; SVETIKAS 1983), and farther off to the north-east, in Selonia (GRICIUVIENE, BUZA 2007: 9-17; cf. MICHELBERTAS 2006). In the earlier period, that is, in the Early Roman Period, this entire territory was a “no cemetery” zone. It was perhaps to a various degree related to the Stroke--Decorated Pottery Culture, whose population also used burial rites which left no archaeologically recordable traces (cf. EGOREJCENKO 2006: 57-119). It seems therefore that the appearance of necropoles in this vast territory at the end of the 2nd c. and the fact that in the subsequent decades these necropoles assumed a rather similar form of barrow cemeteries may have resulted from similar cultural processes. Thus, it cannot be excluded that it was, at least at the beginning of the Late Roman Period (the first half of the 3rd c.), one cultural zone (NOWAKOWSKI 1995a: 76-80). Its individual parts - retaining the “common” bar¬row form of graves - may have formed their own nature later on, thus creating the Sudovian Culture (KACZYŃSKI 1976: 261-267; cf. ENGEL, IWANICKI, RZESZOTARSKA- -NOWAKIEWICZ 2006a: 185, fig. 2; 2006b: 24-25, fig. 8), the East Lithuanian Barrow Culture (cf. TAUTAVICIUS 1980: 83, fig. 3; 1996: 44-57, fig. 1; BLIUJENE 2006; VAITKEVICIUS 2006), and the so-called Selonian barrows (cf. KAZAKEVICIUS 2000; SIMNISKYTE 2006; GRICIUVIENE, BUZA 2007: 9-26). A broad range of occurrence of bar¬rows, which goes far beyond the putative “cradle” of the Sudovians, excludes the recognition of this form of graves as an unambiguous archaeological determinant of this people. In conclusion, it must be said that there are no grounds to relate barrow cemeteries to the Sudovians. In the area where this people is located by written sources there are no early medieval sites which could be unequivocally considered as necropoles. For exactly the same reason, putative ancestors of the Sudovians - Ptolemy’s Soudinoi - cannot be related to barrow cemeteries, either. “Barrows of the Sudovians” must therefore be considered as a scholarly myth, with resembles an equally a priori idea of “Great Sudovia.” Both these concepts, which were based on constructs which neglected chronology and geography, and almost completely disregarded archaeological evidence, should fall out of scholarly use at the same time. However, hitherto sad experience suggests that they will be fated to live for long.