Stone Circles of Pławno

The Stone Circles of Pławno are a cemetery of the Wielbark culture on the southern shore of Lake Krzemno, in Drawsko County. It lies south of the village of Stare Kaleńsko, within the Świerczyna Forest District. The name comes from Pławno, a village lying further east, beyond the lake, and it is used in this way in the archaeological literature. The site is dated from the end of the 1st century to the first decades of the 3rd century AD.

What is here

According to the state of research, the site consists of three stone circles, three burial mounds and flat features that are not visible on the surface. The centre of the structure is marked by a large boulder, now toppled, 2.7 m long. The circles are formed by boulders set every three metres, partly worked, 1.2-1.8 m long, most of them fallen over. Between them lie rows of tightly packed cobbles. The diameters of the circles are 21, 26.5 and 19 m. Two burial mounds are about 8 m in diameter and half a metre high, and the third is 19 m in diameter and a metre high.

Research

Excavations have been carried out since 2016 by Andrzej Kasprzak of the Archaeology Department of the Museum in Koszalin, with the support of the Sports and Recreation Centre in Stare Kaleńsko, the Świerczyna Forest District and the municipality of Czaplinek. In the first year, among other things, an urn burial of a woman and three pit graves were discovered. After the research was extended in 2020, a burial mound and twenty graves in a circle were investigated. The circles were not burial structures, and the dead were buried outside them. Tribal assemblies and funeral ceremonies took place in them. Researchers probably link the site with the Goths. The complete absence of weapons in the graves is notable.

Today

The place is visited by excursions, and the creation of an archaeological reserve here is planned. In 2021 the cemetery was entered in the register of archaeological monuments as "Pławno, site 11". In the area lies, among others, the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Czaplinek.

Practical information

• Location: the southern shore of Lake Krzemno, south of Stare Kaleńsko, forest terrain.
• This is an archaeological site in a forest, not a site with facilities: check information on access and the rules of visiting with the Sports and Recreation Centre in Stare Kaleńsko or with the municipality of Czaplinek.