Oksywie culture

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The Oksywie Culture (Oxhöft culture) 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. Both it and a closely related Przeworsk culture are identified by most researchers as East Germanic tribes.

The Oksywie culture is named after the village Oksywie, nowadays part of the city of Gdynia in northern Poland, previously Oxhöft near Gdingen in Prussia, the location of the first archaeological finds typical for the culture.

The replacement of the Oksywie culture with the Wielbark culture around the Vistula mouth is linked to Jordanes' account of the migration of the Goths from Scandza (Scandinavia), when they under their King Berig defeated the Rugians and the Vandals and drove many of them from their settlements (note that the Vandals are generally associated with the Przeworsk culture).

Archaeological research of last decades conducted in present day Pomerania in Poland shows that the transition of Oksywie culture into Wielbark culture was peaceful. Its timing coincides with the appearance of new population of Scandinavian origins in previously uninhabited area ("no man's land") between the Oksywie and Przeworsk culture areas (Kokowski 1999). It is highly probable that the new population which appeared on southern coast of the Baltic in early first century AD catalyzing the transformation of Oksywie culture into Wielbark culture (the historical Goths) can be identified with the Berig party described by Jordanes. The area where they settled suggests that Berig could be invited to defend the tribes known as Okywie culture against their southern (probably Vandal) neighbors.