Since the second half of the 1st century AD, settlement in Western Pomerania became more dense. The highest density was reached in the 2nd century. Artefacts, settlements and tombs from this period belong to the coastal group of theRoman Iron Age and are heavily influenced by the material culture of theOder andVistula area. Influences from theElbe area and Scandinavia are found in ceramics artefacts.[3]
Slag from the smelting of iron was found in many settlements, also imported goods, primarily from the Roman provinces, as well as silver and gold.[4] After an archaeological site inGustow onRügen, this western Pomeranian culture is referred to as Gustow group.[5][6] The Gustow group comprised the coastal territories between theDarß peninsula in the West, and theRega river in the East, while the adjacent LowerOder area in the South belonged to the relatedLebus group.[7] The Gustow group was closely related to the contemporaryElbe cultures.[8]
In the 3rd century, as in all ofPomerania,[5] many settlements were abandoned, and fewer settlement traces are found in the following period.[9] Though rather scarce, Gustow group settlements were located on better soil due to the increasing importance of plant cultivation.[10]
^Magdalena Ma̜czyńska, Tadeusz Grabarczyk,Die spätrömische Kaiserzeit und die frühe Völkerwanderungszeit in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Łódź, 2000, p.127,ISBN83-7171-392-4
^Horst Keiling,Archäologische Funde von der frührömischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter aus den mecklenburgischen Bezirken, Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Schwerin, 1984, pp.8:12
^Horst Wernicke,Greifswald, Geschichte der Stadt, Helms, 2000, pp.19ffISBN3-931185-56-7
^abJohannes Hoops, Hans-Peter Naumann, Franziska Lanter, Oliver Szokody, Heinrich Beck, Rudolf Simek, Sebastian Brather, Detlev Ellmers, Kurt Schier, Ulrike Sprenger, Else Ebel, Klaus Düwel, Wilhelm Heizmann, Heiko Uecker, Jürgen Udolph, Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Walter de Gruyter, p.281,ISBN3-11-017535-5
^Karl-Heinz Otto, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Ost Universität (Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Völkerkunde und deutsche Volkskunde,Ethnographisch-archäologische Zeitschrift (EAZ), v.43:no.1-4, Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2002, p.384
