At the 15th Amberif colloquium Marcin Staporek, an archeologist from the office of the Regional Conservator in Gdansk presented a creation, development and influence of civilization of the commertium in Pruszcz Gdanski.
A distribution of more important trade centres in the Bay of Gdansk and the Vistula delta, where
the main amber rute was heading at the time of the Roman Empire in the last part, from the Vistula bend near Fordon, constitutes a topical subject thanks to analogies of A1 route, being built surprisingly fast and called the Amber Motorway. Northern end of this motorway is situated in Pruszcz Gdanski, exactly in the place where 2000 years ago functioned one of three main centres of the raw material trade, and later also ready-made amber products, described in Latin as commercia.
A favourable location of
the settlement on the cone of Radunia river at its outlet to a lagoon, situated on the area of present-day Zulawy Wislane, provided economic success during the first few centuries of our era. It was the only important trade centre west of the Vistula outlet, from where the amber route was heading towards Pomeranian coast of the Baltic Sea.
The most distinct evidence of the activity of this commertium provide things imported from the south: Celtic products from the last century before Christ, Roman coins and products made by the craftsmen working in the provinces of the Empire in the subsequent centuries.
With passing time the centre near Pruszcz was able to take control over amber processing as too many ready-made products and lack of foreign agents brought much higher profits than selling the raw material on the local market. The buyers of amber products were sought not only in the provinces of the Roman Empire but also on the areas of Barbaricum. And e.g. characteristic, produced on large scale figure
eight beads made of amber are found in Pomerania, but also in Scandinavia, in Ukraine, near Rhine, middle Danube, in Gaul and Britain.
The authorities of Pruszcz Gdanski made an attempt to refer to ancient trade traditions of the settlement at the Radunia outlet – in a few previous years they created a project of reconstruction of a trade settlement from the period of Roman influences, called in promotional materials “Roman factory”. This name is not entirely true because the old commertium was created by venturesome local people, and the Roman merchants were only its customers.
A successful promotion resulted in a noticeable increase of interest of the locals in the ancient issues and let’s hope that it will result in future in further more detailed studies of these important issues.
