Zastosowanie analizy fenomenologicznej Ch. Tilleya w praktyce badawczej na przykładzie wybranych stanowisk z kręgami kamiennymi na Pomorzu

Abstrakt

In my paper, I intended to present the interpretational possibilities of a selected theoretical model, taken from the comprehensive landscape current, focusing on three burial grounds with stone circles in Pomerania, which present considerable analytical potential. These sites have a long standing record of research, relatively well explored acreage, substantial literature and, fortunately enough, some data on the possible past natural environment, provided by palinological research. 

I have conducted phenomenological analysis of the space according to the tenets of its creator, Ch. Tilley. It is a two-stage analysis, combining empirical description and theoretical interpretation. The sites I have selected, i.e. Odry, Węsiory and Grzybnica, approached as phenomena found in the Wielbark culture, were, in my opinion, perfectly suited to be subjected to such analysis. The latter confirmed the sacral and symbolic character, while thanks to the detailed description at the interpretation stage, I managed to outline their significance as an important site where the worlds of the living and the dead came into contact. A site chosen in the past by the human chiefly due to its location in the natural surroundings, which points to presence of an important relation between man and environment, a relation which made burial grounds become sites, experienced and created by man in the landscape.

I am of the opinion that the work in which I utilised phenomenological analysis advanced by Ch. Tilley provides a positive answer to the question concerning the relation between man and his surroundings.

The model proved valid in my research, allowing to obtain something in the shape of a picture of the past landscape. At the beginning, I wrote that “I would like to find man behind the silent stones of forgotten necropolises.” I have no doubt that I have managed to accomplish it. Even if the discovered, yet unspeaking man, who lived almost 2000 years ago, was presented by means of contemporary language of the researcher. No theoretical model can produce concrete, verifiable and conclusive answers. Thanks to my analysis I arrived at a probable depiction of past reality, which nevertheless will remain yet another interpretation of the same research material.

In my opinion, this is precisely what constitutes the work of an archeologist, who ceaselessly poses questions and looks for the answer, trying to divine the silent past and to revive it in his/her words.