Seal Hunters' Settlement in Rzucewo

On the Rzucewo headland above the shallow Bay of Puck, Stone Age people hunted seals, caught fish and worked amber. Their settlement proved so important that archaeologists named an entire culture after the village – the Rzucewo culture. Today the excavation site is home to the "Seal Hunters' Settlement" Cultural Park: reconstructed prehistoric huts stand exactly where traces of the originals were found, and a thatched Kashubian Cottage houses an exhibition of the finds.

History: from a chance discovery to a park

The settlement was discovered in 1894, but the first excavations were only carried out in 1927–1929 by Professor Józef Kostrzewski. The finds were so distinctive that in 1930 the term "Rzucewo culture" entered archaeology. Research resumed in 1984 under the Archaeological Museum in Gdańsk and was led for many years by Danuta Król. It showed that the headland was settled very early – the oldest traces go back to the middle of the 5th millennium BC – and that in the Late Neolithic, roughly 2500–1700 BC, a distinctive seal-hunting culture developed around the bay, known for its characteristic pottery, amber objects and stone tools. In 2008 the Puck municipal council protected the area as a cultural park, and in June 2013, after construction funded partly by an EU fisheries programme, it opened to visitors.

What to see

• The Kashubian Cottage – a historic thatched building with the exhibitions "Rzucewo in the Stone Age" and "Archaeological Sites in the Kashubian Landscape", including a model of the ancient settlement on the shore.
• The "Seal Hunters' Trail" with reconstructions of a hut, a pit house, a kiln and a grave. Each stands where the original was found and has an information board.
• The headland landscape – grassy slopes running down to the Bay of Puck, with views over the water.

Did you know?

The Rzucewo culture stretched from the Bay of Puck to the mouth of the Neman. Its people grew cereals and kept cattle and goats, with seal hunting supplementing the economy. The culture is also known for amber workshops, a network of which was found in the Vistula delta. Rzucewo itself has a neo-Gothic palace from 1840, built by the von Below family and run as a hotel since 1996. A 17th-century lime avenue, the Sobieski Avenue, leads to Osłonino – according to tradition it was planted by King John III Sobieski himself, when the village belonged to his sister Katarzyna.

Tripto tip

According to the Puck municipality website the park is open 9:00–17:00 and closed on Mondays; it is worth confirming before you go, especially out of season. About an hour is enough for the exhibition and the trail. The blue Kępa Pucka Edge Trail from Puck to Wejherowo and the European long-distance path E9 pass right by, so the visit combines easily with a walk along the bay or along the lime avenue to Osłonino. The paths in the park are grassy and hilly – sturdy shoes help after rain.