Nowa Cerekwia is one of the most important La Tène period sites in southern Poland. Its significance does not come from a single spectacular discovery, but from the exceptional diversity of finds recorded there over more than a century of research.

The site has yielded settlement features, pottery, metal objects, coins, glass ornaments, stone tools, animal bones and small figurative artefacts. Together, they show that Nowa Cerekwia was not an ordinary rural settlement, but a large and complex agglomeration connected with craft production, exchange and long-distance contacts. Among the most important archaeological features are pit houses, storage pits, hearths and traces of production activity. These remains allow researchers to study not only where people lived, but also how they worked, stored goods, processed materials and organised daily life within the settlement.

Pottery is one of the largest and most informative categories of finds. The assemblage includes thousands of fragments of La Tène vessels, many of them made in specialised workshops. This is important because pottery from Nowa Cerekwia can be studied not only as a dating tool, but also as evidence of production, technological choices and everyday practices. Particular attention is given to graphite-tempered pottery, one of the most characteristic ceramic traditions of La Tène communities. Graphite improved the heat resistance of vessels and gave them a dark surface, but its exact role in pottery use is still discussed. The detailed analysis of La Tène pottery from Nowa Cerekwia allows researchers to reconstruct vessel forms, manufacturing techniques and chronological phases of settlement activity. Pottery, together with brooches, glass ornaments and coins, helps date the site and place it within the broader development of La Tène culture in Central Europe. A separate and especially important category consists of non-La Tène pottery. These vessels were found in La Tène settlement features, particularly in pit houses, but their forms and technological traits connect them with northern cultural traditions, usually linked with Jastorf and early Przeworsk environments. This makes them crucial for understanding contacts between the inhabitants of Nowa Cerekwia and communities from the north.

Metal finds form another major part of the assemblage. They include brooches, belt elements, bracelets, ornaments, tools and small copper-alloy objects. Some of them are useful for dating, while others provide information about dress, social display and craft. Specialist analyses of selected copper-alloy artefacts from Nowa Cerekwia have identified traces of casting, hammering, grinding, polishing and wire drawing. These observations show how much information can be obtained even from small objects, especially when traditional archaeological study is combined with microscopic analysis and XRF spectrometry.

Coins, glass objects and imported or non-local raw materials point to wider connections. They place Nowa Cerekwia within broader communication and exchange networks linking Silesia with Moravia, the Danube region and areas further north. This is also why the site is so relevant to the project “Between the Celts and the Northern People”, focused on interactions between La Tène communities and northern populations in Central Europe. The finds from Nowa Cerekwia therefore tell a story of a settlement where many aspects of Iron Age life can be studied at once: craft, exchange, food economy, everyday objects, symbolic artefacts and cultural contacts.

Source: Dulęba P. (red.) 2026, Nowa Cerekwia. La Tène Culture Agglomeration on the Amber Road, t. 1-2, Wrocław.