In Poland the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) was first the subject of L. Kozłowski's works (1920; 1921). The next stage and the considerable progress in this research was made by K. Jażdżewski's publications (1931; 1932; 1936a), which indeed cannot be overestimated. Up to this day they have constituted a rich compendium of information and give the most numerous set of source information. Jażdżewski specified the range of four territorial TRB groups, and divided the southern group into two chronological phases: Wiórek and Luboń. Publication of W. Chmielewski's research results (1952) in Sarnowo allowed to distinguish the oldest developmental phase of TRB, which is regarded as the equivalent of the AB phase by C. J. Becker. In the sixties L. Gabałówna (1960) discovered materials which she numbered among the stages younger than the Luboń phase, and divided the Wiórek phase of the Eastern TRB group into the early one, called early-Wiórek (Pikutkowo) phase and the classical Wiórek phase (1968).

Fig. I. Excavations of research of the TRB sites in Great Poland and adjacent regions (according to Informator Archeologiczny with supplement)

In a most essential work T. Wiślański (1979) summed up a forty-year period of TRB studies in Poland. The TRB development in the Oder and Vistula basin he divided into four basic chronological stages, of which the last (Luboń) in Kuyavia, he agreed to divide into two parts.

Another very important step in the TRB research, mainly in the regions of Kuyavia and Great Poland, is made thanks to works by A. Kośko and other representatives of the so-called Kuyavia School. The first essential work of this series was the publication of the materials from the Sierakowo settlement. The first full presentation of the rules of pottery analysis and the synthesis of development („auto-genesis”) A. Kośko published in 1981. As he has it, this culture comes into being as a result of adaptation of the features of the Linear Band Pottery Culture by the local epimesolithic population. This model of TRB was generally accepted with two very controversial exceptions: the Mątwy group genesis and the dating of the very beginning of TRB separate existence. According to S. Kukawka hypothesis (1987; 1991a; 1991b), the Mątwy Group isolated itself as a result of contacts with the Chełmno Group TRB, which, in turn, appeared as the effect of its own contacts with the Narva Culture. The results of the discussion on the other questionable problem, concerning mainly the credibility of the Sarnowo radiocarbon date allowed to accept generally A. Kośko's opinion on the so-called TRB long chronology, although it results rather from the general vision of the changes taking place at that time within the region of Polish Lowland great valleys than from the direct source data. However, the more moderate opinion of T. Wiślański still finds many supporters; it namely ascribes the TRB beginnings to the years 3300/3200 bc. Nevertheless, since L. Czerniak and A. Kośko has recently (1993) also ceased from the concept of the participation of the Linear Band Pottery Culture population in the accumulative process which led in result to the TRB isolation, one may state, that finally very similar standpoints in this question were accepted.

S. Kukawka also presented his own opinion concerning the process of appearing of the Funnel Beaker Culture. As he suggests, TRB might either have started in the South of Poland as a result of transformation of one of the Lengyel-Polgar Cycle and, through migration into the Polish Lowland or it started within the Lowland zone from the fraction of the late-band group, which came to this region from the South. A view very close to this was presented earlier by Czerniak (1989) and L. Czerniak and A. Kośko (1993). As the most credible possibility they regard the version that the most adequate would be to date the TRB beginnings to the years 3700/3600 bc. The proto-beaker features, then, were taken from the Lengyel-Polgar population from south-easterly Poland, whereas the traces of the first contacts with the late-Lengyel populations (from the Jordanów Group) appear as late as in the IIB phase of TRB.

Fig. II. TRB sites registered within the Archaeological Picture of Poland in Poznań voivodeship. Legend: 1 – up to 30 findings, 2 – from 30 to 100 findings, 3 – over 100 findings, 4 – unexamined regions

In the research on the Lowland TRB version one generally accepted the five-stage developmental scheme. It namely associates the TRB origin with the acculturation of the mesolithic groups (represented mainly by the Chojnice-Pieńki Culture population) by the late band pottery cultures (Brześć Kujawski Group or from the Lengyel-Polgar Cycle from the South-eastern region of Poland). A considerable progress was also made for the Luboń phase, which nowadays almost totally is associated with the influence of the South. To those impulses not only the genesis of the Luboń style is ascribed but, moreover, one emphasizes the influence of the Radial Decorated Pottery Culture on the whole period of its existence.

The current state of TRB research in Great Poland is very poor. Great Poland is one of the main centers of the cultural trends and migrations from Silesia and Slovakia to the East and North, and also from the basin of the middle and lower Elbe river to the East and South-East. The information gap between the Kuyavia region and the Doer river territories, due to the lack of more important excavation research, leads to deforming of the general picture and, consequently, to the false estimation of the role of Great Poland and Kuyavia in the TRB development. Therefore, one of the most urgent postulates should be to undertake excavation works on a large scale in the Great Poland Lowland and the publication of its results.