Not far from the village Węsiory there is a burial ground of the Goths, who inhabited these lands two thousand years ago. Estimated to be from the 1st to 3rd Centuries, the excavation site contains three stone circles, partial fragments of the fourth one and twenty burial mounds.
The circles, the biggest of which is 26 metres in diameter, consist of vertically-placed stones, approx. 1.5 metres in height. There are additional stone pillars inside the circles. The presence of a burial ground with skeletal and crematory remains, found in various parts of the site without any visible order to their placement, was discovered in the area encircled by stones.
It allowed the scientists to come up with a theory about the cult and social (mass meetings, courts) function of the stone circles and acknowledge the burial mounds as secondary to their primary functions. The sizes of the burial mounds vary from four to sixteen metres. Some of the burial mounds are covered with small stones, while others are complemented by boulders placed on the top.
The creation of the burial grounds is connected with the so-called Wielbark culture, the representatives of which, Goths and Gepids, came to lands of the current Polish north in the 1st Century, leaving their settlements in the south of Sweden. The burial grounds in the form of stone circles and the accompanying burial mounds are characteristic of the travel path of Goths and Gepids through Europe, which ended on the Iberian Peninsula. Numerous artefacts discovered during the dig in the area of the circles in Węsiory can be viewed in the collection of the Archaeological Museum in Gdańsk.
Stone Circles in Węsiory, photo: Pomorskie Travel
