European Pond Turtle Remains Found in Poland's Ancient Grave Offers New Knowledge About Wielbark Culture

The remains of a European pond turtle were discovered in a cemetery in Czarnówko in 2010. According to a study, the rare find presents new information about the Wielbark culture, a Roman Iron Age culture associated with Gothic and other Germanic peoples who lived in the Barbaricum between the 1st and 5th century AD.

European Pond Turtle Found in Ancient Grave in Poland

Kalina Skóra of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology at the Polish Academy of Sciences examined the remains of a turtle in terms of the post-burial disturbance of the grave and relation to other species from the central and eastern European Barbaricum.

The remnants reportedly belong to a medium-sized freshwater turtle known as the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis), still present throughout much of modern-day Europe. Northern Poland would have been a suitable home during the Roman era, and the discovery reveals the type of climatic conditions present there at the time because pond turtles need dry, warm summers to reproduce.

It was the first pond turtle discovered at the Czarnówko site, which is unusual for cemeteries in the Barbaricum in central and eastern Europe. The remains were found in a secondary (or "robber") trench, a pit formed when excavated for several reasons, such as removing the deceased's grave goods or frequent post-burial customs. Nearly 90% of the inhumation burials at Czarnówko have been disturbed.

Turtles were occasionally kept as pets, but there is no proof that they were ever eaten or utilized in funeral rituals. Skóra said the turtle appeared close to the buried child's skull.

It might have been intentionally positioned as part of the funeral rites or transferred there when the grave was disturbed. It's also possible that the turtle wandered into the secondary trench to hibernate or fell in accidentally and could not escape, as secondary ditches frequently remained vacant for some time.

She added that the study's findings show unequivocally that pond turtles typically entered the burial pits at some point after burial.

Unless there is compelling proof, the pond turtle should be deleted from the animals used as presents in Wielbark cultural rites. Other tombs from the central and eastern Barbaricum support the same conclusion.

The turtle remains were always discovered in tombs that had been opened sometime after burial, indicating post-funeral intervention, which is scarcely a coincidence.

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What Is Wielbark Culture?

The Wielbark culture or East Pomeranian-Mazovian is an Iron Age archaeological complex active on the present-day Polish border between the 1st and 5th centuries AD. The Wielbark civilization was linked to the Goths and other related Germanic peoples and was crucial to the development of the Amber Road.

It exhibits cultural ties with southern Scandinavia as well as its neighbors. On the lower Vistula, the Wielbark culture replaced the Oksywie culture in the first century AD.

Later, it extended south at the expense of the Vandal-related Przeworsk culture. Historians like Peter Heather have connected this expansion to the current Marcomannic Wars. By the end of the 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture had reached the upper Dniester region. It may have impacted the Chernyakhov culture, which occupied a sizable region between the Danube and the Don River.