Alleged burial mounds from the late Roman Period at leśnictwo Sacharewo site 3, Białowieża Primeval Forest

The article presents results of excavations carried out at an alleged barrow cemetery located in the western part of the Białowieża Primeval Forest, Poland. The site, discovered in 1996 and verified in 2016, consists of 10 mounds. In 2017, the first excavations were carried out when the mound no. 3, with a diameter of c. 9 m and a relative height of c. 0.7 m, located on the northern edge of the site, was chosen for research. In the mound 39 potsherds were found. The scarcity of ceramic material and the high degree of its fragmentation make the stylistic analysis difficult. The technological and stylistic features of the discussed pottery are typical for ceramics from a wide timespan, ranging from the Pre-Roman Period to the Late Roman Period. Their precise dating and cultural affiliation are difficult to determine due not only to the small size of the collection but also to the lack of well-dated comparative materials from the Białowieża Forest and its surroundings. A 14C analysis of charcoal obtained from the embankment of the mound yielded an approximation which fits between the second half of the 3rd century and the early 6th century. The cul- tural situation of north-eastern Poland in the Pre-Roman and Roman periods remains insufficiently recognised. Excavations carried out over the past dozen years have revealed many settlements related to the local culture group of the Hatched Pottery Culture and the Wielbark Culture, with some influences flowing from the postZarubintsy circle. In the course of the excavations, no human bones were found which would unambiguously confirm the sepulchral function of the mound. The Sacharewo mound is a part of a wider category of objects known from throughout the Białowieża Forest in which no bones were discovered but only fragments of clay vessels or charcoal layers.