Biconical bead from Lubowidz

The bead was part of the rich grave goods from skeletal burial no. 268 at the Wielbark culture cemetery in Lubowidz (Pomeranian Voivodeship), dated to phase B1-C1a of the Roman influence period. It was likely a female burial, as the deceased was buried with a necklace composed of glass, amber, and two identical silver beads, including the specimen on display. Additionally, the grave contained two fibulae, a buckle and belt fittings, a pair of spindle whorls, fragments of a casket lock with its key, and a clay cup. The cemetery in Lubowidz was discovered by chance in 1898 at a local gravel pit. However, systematic excavations did not take place until 1938–1939, led by *Pommersches Landesmuseum in Stettin* under the direction of Associate Professor Dr Helmut Agde (1909–1940), an archaeologist and lecturer at the teacher training college in Lębork. A total of 75 ares of the site were investigated, uncovering 308 graves: 241 skeletal burials and 60 cremation burials. Artefacts found by chance in the years before the excavations were catalogued by Eduard Stielow (active c. 1925–1946), director of the District Office of Social Welfare and, in the 1930s, the heritage custodian for Lębork County. Materials discovered in 1898, 1926, 1932, 1934, and 1938 were sent either to Pommersches Landesmuseum in Stettin or Westpreussisches Provinzial-Museum in Gdańsk. Some of these finds were published in the local journal *Heimatkalender für den Kreis Lauenburg in Pommern*. The first monographic study of the Lubowidz cemetery was written in 1938 as a term paper by H. J. Freyrat under Agde’s supervision. Another study, authored by Hermann Hinz (1916–2000), one of the pre-war heritage custodians, was published in 1969. The most comprehensive monograph, detailing the full results of excavations, was written by Polish archaeologist Ryszard Wołągiewicz (1933–1994) and published in the Monumenta Archaeologica Barbarica series in 1995. Bartłomiej Rogalski