Burial grounds discovered on the Samland Peninsula often form clusters. One of the larger clusters, including also cemeteries from the Roman Period, was found slightly west of Królewiec (Germ. Königsberg, Rus. Kaliningrad), near the former villages of Groß Friedrichsberg and Juditten, as well as Friedrichswalde (Fig. 1).

I. Juditten site 1

The first discoveries in the area in question took place around the mid-19th century. In 1868, the Physical-economic Society (Physikalisch-ökonomische Gesellschaft) donated to the Antiquity Society (Alterthumsgesellschaft Prussia) a spur previously received from Charisius, a landowner from Friedrichswalde. The artefact had supposedly been found in the forest. A little later, in 1887, the Prussia-Museum purchased an amber bead as well as bronze tongs and an “ear spoon”, suspended on a bronze ring, likewise found by chance in the forest (Fig. 2). Thus, it is most likely that the Juditten forest contained a Roman Period cemetery, which should be attributed to the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture.

II. Juditten site 2 (Gottschedstraße 13)

A note by the then director of the Prussia-Museum, Wilhelm Gaerte, shows that on 10 May 1933, the aforementioned Charisius informed him that 21 pottery sherds (II/1) and a fragment of amber (II/2) had been found between Gottschedstraße and Kirchenstraße. Three days later, Gaerte wrote a letter to Bachler, the owner of the area, requesting that he agree to conducting test excavations before commencing his planned construction work. The survey was carried out between the 7th and 9th of June by Fritz Jaensch, and the 9th and 10th of August by Walter Nowothnig. Jaensch probably discovered eight features (Fig. 3, 4), most likely graves (II/4−10), while Nowothnig uncovered further features (II/11–18; Fig. 5, 6). In September 1933, in response to a letter from the local authorities, Gaerte stated that the excavations had been concluded, and further research would not be carried out, as the site had already been built over. The excavated site was most likely a severely damaged cemetery. The researchers uncovered several (three to eleven) graves. All but one were probably destroyed cremation graves, containing fragments of burnt bones and pottery. The earthenware recovered from one of the graves (feature II) was described by Nowothnig as ordenzeitlicher Scherben, providing the basis for dating the grave to the Middle Ages. The chronology of the other cremation graves cannot be established. They may have been associated with the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture, as one inhumation grave was also discovered at the site (feature 7; Fig. 4:3). On the basis of a Prussian series eye brooch found within (II/9.1), the grave in question should be dated to phase B2.

III. Juditten site 3 (Am Stadtwald)

A few days after concluding his excavations at Gottschedstraße, Nowothnig returned to Juditten, where, on the 16th and 17th of August, he investigated a site located in an undeveloped area on Am Stadwald Street, near its intersection with Hammerweg. Nowothnig established eight test trenches (Fig. 7), in all of which he observed scattered pottery sherds, whose chronology, however, he was unable to determine. In the same year, while digging the foundations of a house near this site, the building contractor Steputat noticed an oval pit with a dark fill, containing pottery fragments and charcoal. He reported the discovery to Gaerte, who visited the site and concluded that there had once been a settlement there. He also identified the aforementioned pit as the remains of the basement of a burnt-down house (III/4). Gaerte undertook excavations at this place, which yielded the remains of two similar houses (III/5.6). Gaerte’s work probably covered another part of the same site previously investigated by Nowothnig—most likely the remains of a medieval or modern settlement, probably the same settlement as the one discovered and explored during World War I on both sides of Am Stadtwald Street, near the Packhäuser café (Fig. 8).

IV. Groß Friedrichsberg site 1

The best-known site from this area is a flat cremation cemetery from the Early Middle Ages, with features that should be interpreted as Aschenplatz. It was located near the village of Juditten, however, in the literature, material from this cemetery is labelled as Friedrichsberg or Gross (Groß) Friedrichsberg. First artefacts, discovered during the sand digging in the late 19th century, were donated to the Ostpreussischer Provinzialmuseum in Königsberg (IV/1), as well as to the former Museum für Vorgeschichte in Berlin (IV/2−71), by the local landowner Douglas. In 1888, sand extraction at the site was already under the supervision of Otto Tischler from the Physikalisch-ökonomische Gesellschaft in Königsberg. He found the presence of the so-called Aschenschicht, i.e. a layer of burnt debris containing scattered cremated human bones as well as artefacts—primarily elements of weaponry (including swords and spearheads), horse bits, stirrups, but also penannular brooches, buckles, fragments of scales, weights, pieces of bronze bowls and, what Tischler thought was unique, an unusually large number of earthenware vessels and their sherds; the most spectacular find was a gilded bronze helmet (V/72; Fig. 16). What is more, the site yielded human and horse inhumation graves, which, according to Tischler, were of the same chronology as the aforementioned Aschenschicht. The material obtained by Tischler was given to the Ostpreussischer Provinzialmuseum (IV/72−124) and the Museum für Vorgeschichte.

Cemeteries with features described as Aschenplatz or Aschenschicht are dated to the 10th/11th−13th century. They are known primarily from the Samland Peninsula and Courland; however, they are also encountered sporadically in other regions, including the Elbląg Upland, the Masurian Lakeland and, possibly, the Middle Nemunas Basin. The cemeteries feature layers of burnt debris, containing cremated human bones and numerous elements of weaponry and horse tack, as well as less numerous adornments, elements of scales and pottery sherds. It is assumed that only warriors were buried at such cemeteries. It is assumed that only warriors were buried at such cemeteries. Sometimes horse graves were found underneath the burnt layer. On the Samland Peninsula, Aschenplatz are often discovered within older cemeteries of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture, where they destroyed graves from the Roman and Migration Periods. This indicates that the people who buried their dead there in the Early Middle Ages were either unaware of the existence of older graves or were aware but considered them unimportant.

V. Groß Friedrichsberg site 2

In July 1922, Wilhelm Gaerte received information that a cemetery had been discovered near the houses of farm workers in Groß Friedrichsberg near Juditten. The local landowner Douglas then presented to the Prussia-Museum artefacts dating to the Roman Period (V/1–3), including two coins and a bronze brooch, found during ploughing that further revealed patches of black soil (schwarze Stellen) and stones—presumably destroyed cremation graves. According to Gaerte, who visited the site on 22 October 1922, other finds (from the Late Roman Period), namely two large amber beads (V/4) and four small clay vessels (V/5), also came from the same spot.

A few years later, on 11 and 12 June 1929, the site—a flat cemetery of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture—was excavated by Carl Engel, member of the Alterthumsgesellschaft Prussia in Königsberg. The material he discovered came from the entire Roman Period as well as the early phase of the Migration Period. He uncovered 35 thirty features, most of which were graves destroyed by ploughing (Figs. 15–24). 19 of them, with feature 10 (Pls. 17–22) containing two cinerary urns (burials 10a and 10b), were urn graves. In five or six urn graves, the urns were large, bucket-shaped vessels (Eimerurnen) (features 1, 8, 9, 14?, 16, 20); two or three of them were accompanied by accessory vessels (features 9, 14?, 16). Among the urns, there were also a vessel with a double handle (feature 10a; Fig. 21:1), a vessel decorated with an applied strip of clay and handles arranged around the body (feature 10b; Fig. 22:3), and a vessel with a globular body (feature 5; Fig. 15:2). At least one of the explored features (No. 11) should be interpreted as a cremation pit grave, while six other features (H, I, K, L, M, N) were cremation graves, but it cannot be determined whether they were urn or pit burials. Feature 10 is especially worthy of note, as, in addition to the urned cremation burials (10a, 10b), it contained a human (10c) and horse (10d) inhumation burials. These are the only such burials discovered at Groß Friedrichsberg. The human skeleton lay underneath a stone pavement on which the aforementioned two urns were placed; the horse burial was located below it. The grave is dated to phase B2/C1–C1a. Additionally, five pits filled with the remains of a pyre (features A–E), without bones or grave goods, may have been either destroyed graves or pyres (However, so far the latter are unknown in the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture area). Feature 18 contained only a stone pavement (Fig. 23:2) and was probably not a grave. The same applies to features 21a, F, and G which yielded only vessels or their fragments.

It seems that the cemetery of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture was established in phase B2/C1–C1a or, perhaps, slightly earlier, already in phase B2 (features 5, 10 and 21). Grave 16 should probably be dated to phase C1, grave 9 most likely to phase C2, grave 20 to phases C1–C2, and graves 1, 8 and 14 only broadly from phase B2/C1–C1a to phase E. However, the dating of as many as 26 of the 35 explored features cannot be determined.

VI. Groß Friedrichsberg site 3

On 7 October 1927, a fragment of a stone quern (VI/1) was found on the road to Juditten. A mention of this find as well as a map marking the place of its discovery have been preserved in the archives of the Prussia-Museum. The dating of the artefact cannot be determined.

VII. Friedrichswalde site 1

On 27 November 1903, Heinrich Kemke from the Prussia-Museum and Dr. Strehl, unknown to us, conducted a one-day excavations at a destroyed cemetery presumably from the Early Roman Period. The site was located about 120 m west of an old mill. In 1910, Charisius sent a letter to Kemke informing him that while ploughing a field east of the road, he had discovered a number of dark spots of about one square meter and earlier, near the same road, he had found many black (burnt?) stones and three pottery sherds (VII/1). It is highly likely that Charisius described the site investigated by Kemke and Strehl seven years earlier—most likely a destroyed cemetery of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture.

VIII. Friedrichswalde site 2

In August 1936, Charisius donated to the Prussia-Museum a fragment of a stone axe (VIII/1) discovered while harrowing a field.

IX. Friedrichswalde site 3

Also from Friedrichswalde comes a bronze bowl (IX/1), known only from brief mentions. Engel dated it to phase I. Possibly It was a Hanseatic bowl. In the areas inhabited by Prussians in the 11th–13th centuries, such bowls were used by local elites as tableware.

Conclusions

The oldest find from the area in question is the stone axe discovered at Friedrichswalde 2. It may date back to the Stone Age, Bronze
Age or Early Iron Age. Four or five sites should be associated with the Roman Period and perhaps also the Migration Period—these are the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture cemeteries at Juditten 1 and 2, Groß Friedrichsberg 1 and 2, and Friedrichswalde 1. All these sites were destroyed and, with the exception of Groß Friedrichsberg 2, yielded few finds. Other material from the analysed area should be linked to the Early Middle Ages. The most abundant finds come from the Aschenplatz at Groß Friedrichsberg 1, dated to the 9th/10th–13th century. The remains of a destroyed medieval cemetery were perhaps also encountered at Juditten 2. The chronology of these sites corresponds to the dating of the possible Hanseatic bowl discovered at Friedrichswalde 3. The remains of medieval or modern settlements were probably found at Juditten 2 and 3.

The above summary shows that the analysed area, currently located within and slightly west of Kaliningrad, was intensively settled at least from the Early Roman Period up to modern times. It is usually assumed in the literature that the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture cemeteries established in the Early Roman Period were used continuously for about a thousand years. It has been repeatedly pointed out, however, that very little material from these sites comes from the period between phases E and H. It seems then that it is not possible to speak of continuous use of cemeteries from the Roman Period to the Early Middle Ages. From around the 8th century, cemeteries on the Samland Peninsula disappear. It is not until the end of the 10th/beginning of the 11th century that new Prussian cemeteries, featuring, among others, Aschenplatz-type structures, begin to be established there, destroying the older cemeteries of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture in the process. So far, such a hiatus in the use of the site has been proven, for example, for the Putilovo cemetery. Studies on the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture are difficult due to the nature of the sources, which are still primarily archival materials—incomplete and scattered over many institutions. However, their analysis is important and, as in the case of the studies presented in this text, each time sheds new light on the “old” discoveries.