From 1300 - 500 BCE, during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages of Europe, the culture of the Lusatians dominates the Baltic coast. In Scandinavia and surrounding areas the Nordic Bronze Age is in full swing. South of the Baltic the people form a widespread community in regions now east Germany, Poland, parts of Czech Replublic, Slovakia and Ukraine.
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Lusatian culture is influenced by the advances in metllurgy of the Nordic Bronze Age, shown in jewelry, tools and weapons. In the 12th century BCE, the rise of the Halstatt Culture has artistic and technical influence.
The Lusatians develop from the preceding Trzciniec culture. A Celtic culture also occupies the area. Along the Baltic coast the people find precious amber, called Gold of the North, and elbow in on the lucrative amber trade.
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Of course at the time they aren't called Lusatians. The term comes from the first area their grave sites, homesteads and settlements are found, in Saxony, northern Germany. It was adopted in the 19th century by scientist Rudolf Virtchow to distinguish the people who gathered in this part of the world.
He describes several burial sites in Germany as being pre-Germanic. Among the Lusatians are ancestors of the first Germans, who form German language settlements along the northern coast by about 500 BCE. German shepherd dogs came into existence more recently, in the 19th century CE.
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Some burial sites contain funeral urns, some ashes with no urns, showing the Lusatians practice cremation. Other sites are earth burial or inhumation. Trends of burial types can change within a society as time goes by. The funeral urns or burial pits may be accompanied by grave goods.
Villages are fortified with fences and towers with a few habitations outside the walls. Reconstructions of the original habitations have been created near Berlin and Biskupen in Poland. Settlements include longhouses and outbuildings. Mediterranean imports such as glass, turquoise and beads are found with urns in graves.
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Grave sites don't include much metal ornamentation, but can be richly decorated. Metal moulds are found in some sites, indicating the use of metallurgy. Graveyards or Cities of the Dead could be immense, some with over 1,000 graves.
Based on advances in agriculture, the economy includes wheat (emmer), barley, millet, rye, oats, peas, beans, lentils and flax. Fruit trees produce plums, pears and apples. The large and plentiful storage pits indicate the high level of agriculture, and the effects of a climate slightly warmer than today's.
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Domestic animals kept by the Lusatians include cows and pigs, sheep, goats, horses and dogs. Equestrianism, horse riding are depicted on Iron Age urns from Silesia. Horses are also paired with chariots in art and burials.
The people are hunters too, with archaeologists finding bones of red and roe deer, boar, bison, elk, hare, fox, and wolf. Judging from the frog bones at Biskupin, frogs or frogs' legs might have been on the menu as well.
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