Area 5

Near to the shore of the lake where by geological drillings in March 2006 was localised a settlement layer this year a small test pit of 2 x 3 m was applied (fig. 1). Under a modern disruption the expected cultural layers with pieces of pottery, animal bones, a millstone as well as fragment of a crucible as an indicationof handicraft production were retrieved in approx. 60 cm depth (fig 2)

In total three layers can be distinguished. Between the middle and the uppermost horizon a burned layer of 5 cm thickness was documented. It can be interpreted as a destruction horizon.

The excavation was situated near a little river which flows to the suggested coastline of the former lake. By C14-analysis the discovered occupation layers can now be dated to the 7^th and 8^th cent. A.D.

So it can be suggested that already before the arrival of the Scandinavians a local Prussian settlement of larger scale existed at Wiskiauten. Simultaneously this occupation layers represent one of the few settlement proofs out of this time in the entire region. Early burials fitting to this early settlement so far are not known from the vicinity of Wiskiauten.