The site at Dziecinów, distr. Otwock (central Poland) was discovered in 1990 during fieldwalking. Starting from 1999 it came under two seasons of regular rescue excavation. At present, the site largely has been lost to unauthorised sand extraction (Fig. 3). The investigation covered a total area of 1020 m2 and secured evidence on occupation during the late Bronze Age and early Hallstatt Period (Lusatian Culture settlement) as well as early Iron Age (Pomeranian Culture cemetery, Cloche Grave Culture cemetery) (Fig. 5). Of 56 features identified within the settlement (central and western part of the investigated site) 44 came under closer analysis. Finds recovered from the features (pits) included mainly pottery fragments as well as a smaller frequency of animal bones (7 features), flints (10 features) and daub. Basing on their size and fill the features were classified into a number of groups. Particularly interesting is a group of several pits which may be described as hearth pits or the remains of bonfires. Their fill, basin-like in shape and depth, contained charcoal, fragments of daub, sherds and, in feature 28, also small pieces of flint waste and numerous animal remains and mussel shells. The remaining settlement pits mostly were basin- or trapeze-shaped in cross-section, varied in size and the colour of their fill. They cannot be interpreted as dwellings and are likely to be the result of different types of economic activity not associated with production or processing. Presumably, most of these pits were used for stockpiling and storing food. This function of temporary granaries could have been served mainly by larger pits with a flat bottom (feature 73 and other features in its neighbourhood) which were found to contain traces of postholes, most likely from posts which supported the roofing or a primitive superstructure protecting their interior (Fig. 32). A number of mostly smaller pits with an irregular fill contained concentrations of burning possibly (Fig. 14, 22, 31, 39), the effect of partial burning of the contents of the pit (26, 82) or of dumping the remains of a fire into a pit (43, 67). A recessed area infused with charcoal in the lower part of feature 82 contained large lumps and sherds; in pit 67 on the periphery of the burning was found a small vessel (a cup without handle) and mollusc shells. Feature 50 (Fig. 25), an oval pit situated in the S area of the site away from the concentration of other settlement features, may have been used for storing clay but no evidence of pottery-making activity was discovered in its neighbourhood. Only a few small lumps of daub originated from the surface of the site and (possibly except for feature 82) no evidence that clay had been used for construction. A concentration of bog ore was discovered in the settlement (feature 49), of unknown purpose (Fig. 24). Animal remains recovered from the humus and the culture deposit included small fragments of teeth of cattle, horse, sheep/goat. Unburnt bones occurred in the hearth pits: in feature 28 – cranium and limb fragments of at least two horses; in feature 44 – bones of a large bovine; in features 28 and 67 – concentrations of mussel shells (genus Unio). The selection, number and manner of deposition of the animal remains suggest a purpose not related to economy (consumption or production) but rather, a ritual significance of the discovered animal remains. Flint finds (a total of 59) mostly originate from the surface and the settlement layer, mainly in the area of the concentration of the pits. In the whole assemblage the dominant form are chips of erratic flint. The most striking specimen is a stray find of a triangular arrowhead of erratic flint (Fig. 16d). Except for a small number of finds attributable to the Neolithic (among them flakes of Świeciechów and chocolate flint) flints representative of bipolar technique are characteristic for a younger age. Settlement ceramics were substantially fragmented and could be classified only very broadly. When it could be identified, the dominant form was ovoid or barrel-shaped (Fig. 9, 17, 29, 37, 40, 41). In a few specimens a slightly receding section under the rim gave them an S-shaped form. A common distinguishing feature in ovoid and barrel-shaped vessels is the roughening of the outer surface of most sherds, which tends to cover the whole surface of the vessel wall, except, at times, for a narrow strip just under the vessel rim, particularly, in specimens with a thickened or lightly everted rim. In most rim sherds, under the rim, irrespective of its form, are found rows of small openings. Just one specimen (from feature 44) could be classified as a vase, with a defined neck (Fig. 17n). A small number of sherds belonged to hemispherical or conical smoothed bowls, ladles and cups. The settlement pottery assemblage from Dziecinów included small sherds from eight flat dishes – of which only two occurred in the fill of feature 28 and 44 (Fig. 9n, 17h). Strainers were represented by a small rim sherd from a heavy vessel discovered in feature 43 (Fig. 17g). Noticeable in the settlement ceramics from Dziecinów is that ornamentation was very little in evidence. Just a few pottery fragments with surviving designs of ornamental character were recorded (Fig. 9a.c, 37b.z). The identified vessel forms and their technological attributes find numerous counterparts in the pottery of the Mazowsze-Podlasie Group of Lusatian Culture dated to Bronze Age V and early Iron Age (T. Węgrzynowicz 1973, p. 30–44, 53–62, 73, 79; U. Kobylińska 2003, p. 8–73). The abundance of sherds with openings under the rim, domination of ovoid and barrel-shaped forms and the presence of fragments of vessels with attributes typical for the Hallstatt Period (vessels with a profiled smoothed rim section, graphite-burnished ladles with carefully smoothed surfaces, ornament of hatched triangles) indicate that to a great extent the settlement was in use during this specific period. The type of features and the archaeological material originating both from the pits and from the surface of trenches indicate the non-residential character of the area. Conceivably, this part of the settlement was used for storing supplies. Traces of fires and hearths discovered in the N area of a concentration of features and on the borders of the settlement may be linked to various household jobs carried out by the villagers, including safeguarding their goods. The content of some of the features suggests the carrying out of magic practices, perhaps motivated by the wish to secure special protection for this place. Among the features investigated at the site 30 were identified as being associated with the functioning of a cemetery. They are graves of various types: cloche (15), single urned (3), collective urned (3) and pit (9) burials. They occurred across the entire investigated area, except for its north-western part (Fig. 5). Two certain graves with multiple urns were situated close to each other, in the eastern outlying area of the cemetery. Grave 1 contained at least fifteen vessels, in feature 2 there were eleven of them. In both cases the vessels had been deposited in a legible arrangement of rows, inside large pits lacking stone constructions (Fig. 42, 47). The features visibly differed in their furnishings. The pottery fragments from the inventory of the heavily damaged grave 1 were later reassembled into at least 4 urns. Originally they probably had lids which had largely deteriorated. The remaining vessels are of accessory type, including 3 cups and a bowl; the latter was discovered with one of the cups inside (Fig. 43). All the pottery is thin-walled, graphite-burnished, well smoothed and ornamented. One of the lids is hat-like, with no flange, 3 are conical or bowl-shaped, with broad indented grips. Non-ceramic grave furnishings included 3 bronze pins and fragments of a possible fourth, and another iron specimen– all of them swan-necked and loop-headed (Fig. 44a–d). The second group burial (grave 2) had the form of an oval pit, ca 2.6×1.1 m aligned approximately E-W. For lack of stone the walls of the pit were probably shored up with wood – this is suggested by darker smudges running along its sides; the bottom was of natural clay. The grave contained 10 vessels placed in two rows – 6 and 4 vessels to a row. Some of these (9) are strikingly similar in appearance, with no ornament and a low-set biconical rounded body. All had domed hat-like lids without a flange and with a small single finger indentation at the top (Fig. 49). Three urns contained the remains of small ornaments, eg, fragments of earrings of bronze wire and two bronze pins – a complete specimen, swan-necked and loop-headed (Fig. 44e–h.k–m.w.y). The only accessory vessel (or possibly, symbolic urn) stood next to a small bowl-like hollow--footed beaker (Fig. 50). The spatial relationship of the surviving bottom layer of features 14 and 15 suggests that they also are the remains of two burials (in urns?) deposited in a single pit. All the other graves were individual burials. In the class of single urned graves were classified heavily disturbed features 6, 47, 66 (Fig. 53, 72, 77). Next to pottery they yielded very small fragments of bronze objects. The urn from feature 6 was accompanied by several accessory vessels. The character of the ceramic inventory from this grave indicates its association with the collective burials, grave 1 in particular. Cloche graves (features 5, 13, 16, 29, 31, 34, 41, 46, 48, 62, 84, 85 and presumably, graves 1 and 2 and feature 37) occurred on their own, deposited in, on the whole, poorly defined pits; only two pits (29, 48) contained pyre remains. In a few burials the urns had been placed on supports and additionally set about with sherds. In two (62 and 48) base of the urn was set inside a bowl, in one (34) – on the base section of a vessel, and in grave 46 – on sherds from two vessels which also supported the rim of the cloche. The urns were accompanied by accessory vessels – jugs or cups. A special distinctive feature of a number of graves was the surrounding of the cloche with a ring of broken, at times, burnt vessels, mostly jugs, cups and bowls (Fig. 62, 67, 70a, 75). Most cloches are ovoid pots with a roughened outer surface and notched rim. In feature 85 the function of the cloche was taken by a large bowl with a roughened body and smoothed neck (Fig. 79j). Urns tended to be roughened ovoid vessels; in an exceptional number of cases, they were vase-like forms with a distinct neck. Of special note is a vessel from feature 84, with two solid handles set on its upper body (Fig. 79g). In the group of cups and jugs the dominant form are well-fired, thin-walled ornamented ‘vase-like’ ornamented specimens with a light brown smoothed surface. Of non-ceramic furnishings, seven graves yielded small burnt fragments of bronze, glass, bone and antler ornaments. The pit of a heavily damaged feature 29 contained fragments of bronze springs coiled around iron axles, the remains of fibulae (Fig. 44n.o). Unurned burials (21, 27, 39, 56, 24, 45) were deposits inside small pits with a ‘setting’ of sherds of partly burnt vessels (Fig. 68, 70b). Without exception, they all contained the remains of children and adolescents. Attributes of a ‘typical’ pit grave were exhibited also by feature 24 containing the remains of a child. The fill, next to the bone remains contained charcoal fragments and small potsherds. Feature 68 (Fig. 78), another pit grave (together with feature 68A) contained pyre remains and cremated remains of domesticated animals – cattle, sheep/goat and horse and (traces) of game animals – roe deer and a small mammal the size of a weasel (Mustela nivalis). This species composition is consistent (except for the absence of pig) with the set of species most commonly encountered in collective animal graves in cemeteries of Cloche Grave Culture (T. Węgrzynowicz 1976, p. 271–272, table 5; 1982, list 5, fig. 44a). In the 33 reliably determined human burials deposited within urns or grave pits, 43 individuals were identified. A half of this number are the remains of juveniles (infans I and II), in a number of cases, foetuses or newborns. Bones of children were also discovered in the neighbourhood of urns in cloche graves and in one of the multiple burials (feature 2). The graves held the remains of 12 women (4 uncertain determination) and 8 or 9 men (3 or 4 uncertain determinations). Single burials prevailed, the rest were double burials containing pairs of individuals: woman-child, man (uncertain)-child, man-woman. Cremated animal remains added to the human remains occurred in a number of burials in collective graves (grave 1, feature 2 – urns 2, 9 and 10, feature 14) and in some cloche graves (feature 13, 16, 31, 34, 48). A small quantity were crania of domesticated animals: cattle, sheep/goat ad pig, red deer; a larger quantity – the remains of undetermined species. Some could have been added to the human burials by accident. An intentional addition were presumably the fragments of red deer antler with traces of cutting discovered together with the remains of a child in urn 10 from feature 2. Description of the funerary ceramics was made using the classification of T. Węgrzynowicz (1984). In keeping with the adopted system analysis was made of over 90 vessels. Ultimately, 51 vessels were classified to the subgroup of pots (A1). Type I (smoothed vessels with a distinct neck), the most frequent, was represented mostly by specimens with a low-set body, recovered from collective graves. The next large set are vessels of type IV (roughened forms with no neck) originating from cloche graves. Subgroup B1 included 18 hemispherical or conical bowls. Most of them are unprofiled, representing type II. A few (type I) had been modelled with a light receding section under the rim forming a short neck. Type V is represented by a large bowl with a roughened neck which was used as a cloche in feature 85. Eight vessels were classified in the subgroup of jugs (A2), eleven – in the subgroup of cups (B2). The dominant form in these two subgroups are profiled, ornamented vase-like specimens of type I. Cups and jugs were uncommonly numerous at Dziecinów and accounted for ca 20% of all forms in general, their participation in ceramic material from Cloche Grave Culture deposits does not exceed 10%, and in graves of Pomeranian Culture they are even more rare. Outside the above classification are the distinctively shaped lids (grave 1, feature 2) and the hollow-footed beaker discovered in feature 2. These rare forms, encountered only exceptionally in ceramic inventories of Pomeranian Culture and Cloche Grave Culture, presumably take their origin in pottery of Lusatian Culture (M. Gedl 1973, p. 40, pl. I ff.; F. Hufnagel 1941, fig. 10:3, 16:8, 17:11; J. Janowski 1958, p. 283, pl. LXXI:2; L. Długopolska 1968, p. 290, fig. 12ł, 13c; S. Jasnosz 1983, fig. 128:2.3). Also the two-handled pot from feature 84 has direct Lusatian references (J. Kostrzewski 1926, p. 55–58; Z. Kaszewski 1975, pl. VI:7, VII:6, IX:8). Nearly a half of the funerary ceramics are ornamented. The largest number of ornamented vessels was noted in the group of cups and jugs. Richest decorations occurred on urns and lids from the collective grave 1. One of the lid fragments features a radiating pattern of ornaments executed using the technique of pricking or grooving (Fig. 45). A distinctive and rarely encountered design, seen on the upper body of four urns from grave 2, is a zigzag line. Ornamentation in the form of a wavy or zigzag line, not encountered in ceramics in Mazowsze, is known from a small number of specimens from Pomerania and a number of vessels from graves of Pomeranian Culture from central Poland (I. Jadczykowa 1975, pl. VI:1; 1992, pl. II:3.4, III:4, IV:7, X:3, XI:2). Among vessels classified to the subgroup of pots stands out a set of ‘pear-shaped’ urns from the inventory of the collective graves (grave 1, feature 2) and feature 6. The presence of this form, considered characteristic for Pomeranian Culture, in company of hat-like lids, in graves with a rite also attributed to Pomeranian Culture, is an important confirmation of the culture identification of these features. The domination of type IV and V vessels originating from cloche graves substantiates the earlier conclusions on the evident separate typological character of vessel sets of Pomeranian Culture and Cloche Grave Culture in the subgroup of pots (T. Węgrzynowicz 1984, p. 12–13, fig. 5–7). Cups, jugs and bowls found in number in the cloche graves, are represented in graves of Pomeranian Culture by isolated specimens (grave 1, feature 6). The great number in the deposits of Cloche Grave Culture of strongly profiled and richly ornamented jugs and cups combined with the domination in the cemetery of the cloche form of burial points to an early (Hallstatt) beginning of the cemetery (cf M. Andrzejowska 1995, p. 132 ff.). The only chronologically diagnostic items of grave furnishings are the fibula fragments from feature 29. Most probably they are remains of late Hallstatt brooches, known earlier as Certosa, the local variant of fibulae with a decorative foot (Fig. 44n.o), which help date feature 29 to the close of Hallstatt Period (phase D3), possibly, early La Tène Period (Z. Woźniak 1995, p. 202). Analysis of differences in the construction of the graves and their furnishings, of grave 1 and feature 2 in particular, as compared to the other features in the cemetery, leads to the conclusion on cultural differences of the burial rite at Dziecinów. The cemetery may be classified to the category of ‘mixed, Pomeranian-Cloche Grave’ cemeteries, containing graves with a distinct culture character (cf M. Andrzejowska 2005). It may be justified to claim that the site was used by two communities – representatives of the Pomeranian Culture and the Cloche Grave Culture. The majority of the graves were deposits made by the people of Cloche Grave Culture who presumably started burying their dead not later than at the time of transition from Hallstatt phase D to the La Tène Period. Collective graves are relics left by the people of Pomeranian Culture who, coming to Mazowsze presumably from central Poland, kept the cardinal features of their distinctive burial rite, at the same time, contributing elements of material culture indicative of a considerable degree of assimilation with the Lusatian substrate and the local environment of Cloche Grave Culture. The two cemeteries were situated on a site occupied earlier at least partly by a Lusatian Culture settlement. It seems that that the remains of settlement features were still visible on the surface of the land since no evidence of their disturbance was found. Even if we accept the view that Cloche Grave Culture developed in Mazowsze from a local Lusatian substrate (cf T. Węgrzynowicz 1995, p. 14), the time caesura separating the cemetery and the settlement remains undetermined. In the archaeological material from the settlement and the cemetery we find no clearly linking elements which could testify to the direct take over and continuation of local traditions.