The Wielbark culture (Wielbark-Willenberg-Kultur; Kultura wielbarska) is an Iron Age archaeological complex which flourished on the territory of today's Poland from the 1st century AD to the 5th century AD.
The Wielbark culture is associated with the Goths and related Germanic peoples, and played an important role in the Amber Road. It displays cultural links not only with its neighbours, but also with southern Scandinavia. The Wielbark culture replaced the preceding Oksywie culture on the lower Vistula in the 1st century AD, and subsequently expanded southwards at the expense of the Przeworsk culture, which is associated with the Vandals. This expansion has been associated by historians such as Peter Heather with the contemporary Marcomannic Wars. By the late 3rd century AD, the Wielbark culture had expanded into the area of the upper Dniester, where it possibly influenced the Chernyakhov culture to its south, which encompassed a large area between the Danube and the Don River.
In the 5th century AD, the Wielbark culture was replaced by the Sukow-Dziedzice group, which is associated with the Early Slavs.
The Wielbark culture was named after the once-Prussian village, known in German as Willenberg, where a burial place with over 3,000 tombs, was discovered and partially recorded in 1873.
The "first modern description" of the culture was not until the work of Ryszard Wołągiewicz in the 1970s. The cemetery's completeness and long period of use was the reason this site was chosen to name the culture, which "spans all the phases of Wielbark culture as well as phases predating its emergence and thus dating to the earlier, pre-Roman period".
Many of the cemetery stones were moved, and many graves were damaged by the early discoverers, particularly during the Second World War.
Before 1 AD, when the Roman empire began to be more influential in northern Europe, there was relative consistency in burial practices between the Rhine and Vistula. Bodies were normally cremated and there were few grave goods, if any.
