Oksywie culture

The Oksywie Culture, also known as Oxhöft culture, was an archaeological culture which existed in the area of modern day Eastern Pomerania around the lower Vistula river, from the 2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD.

The Oksywie culture is named after the village Oksywie, part of the city of Gdynia in northern Poland, where the first archaeological finds typical of this culture were discovered.

The replacement of the Oksywie culture by Wielbark culture in the areas surrounding the mouth of the Vistula is associated with Jordanes' account of the migration of the Goths from Scandza (Scandinavia), when Berig and his party defeated the Rugians, and settled on their land.

Archaeological research of last decades near Pomerania in Poland suggests the transition of Oksywie culture into Wielbark culture was peaceful after. Its timing coincides with the appearance of new population of Scandinavians in a previously uninhabited area ("no man's land") between the Oksywie and Przeworsk culture areas (Kokowski 1999). It appears likely that the new population which appeared on southern coast of the Baltic in the early first century AD catalyzed the transformation of Oksywie culture into Wielbark culture and can be identified with the Berig party described by Jordanes. The area where they settled suggests that those northmen of Berig could have been invited to settle as a buffer bulwark to defend the tribes known as Oksywie culture against their southern (probably Vandal) neighbors.