The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland

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Andrzej Buko

The Archaeology of Early Medieval PolandIntroduction

The book presents the most interesting archaeological discoveries, hypotheses and interpretations concerning the archaeology of the Polish lands between the sixth and middle of the  thirteenth century. These concern the stages of the settlement of these areas by Slavic peoples, the transition from tribal organization to early state ones, the rise of towns, rural centres and ecclesiastical organization. The work also provides an overview of the archaeology of Polish lands in the Early Medieval period, illustrated by discoveries, the interpretation of which sometimes has divided the scientific milieu.

The geographical scope of the book covers the area of modern Poland, excepting the territories occupied by Balt peoples - that is the present districts of Warmia and Mazury in the northeast corner of the modern country. This is therefore and area which is roughly the same as the Poland which was occupied in the times of the early monarchy of the Piast dynasty. The author goes beyond the tenth century in which the stage of the formation and consolidation of state structures ended in western Europe, but in Poland was marked by the beginnings of Christianisation and the building of the structure of the Piast state. This is why the book considers the processes of the chartering (lokacja) of Polish towns on German Law which was initiated about the middle of the thirteenth century. The book is addressed to students of archaeology, archaeologists, historians as well as to a wider readership interested in the archaeology of the Early Middle Ages. Each chapter is accompanied by a list of the most important literature.

1. The Archaeology of early Medieval Poland: Beginnings of Interest, Birth and Development

This chapter describes the most important periods connected with the beginnings of interest in Early Medieval sites and objects, beginning in the Later Middle Ages when attention was first paid to elements of the landscape connected with legendary events (for example the monumental barrows of Małopolska - Little Poland, the southeast corner of the area of modern country) through to the nineteenth century, when the distant roots of a Slavic identity were being sought and the first archaeological scientific institutions were born.

The first decades of the twentieth century may be defined as a period of the birth and slow growth of archaeology as a scientific discipline. It was in this period that the first academic centres at Cracow, Warsaw and Poznan were created, centres which in subsequent decades played an important role in Poland. In this period, we observe a large number of field investigations carried out. These tendencies, which were favourable for the growth of Early Medieval archaeology in Poland, intensified in the 1930s. The debate over the cradles of the Slavs and Germans took on a greater significance in the run-up to the Second World War and in the confrontation with the so-called 'ethnic school' of G. Kossinna.

After the end of the Second World War, the study of the archaeology of Polish lands experienced an unprecedented development connected with the approach of the 1000^th anniversary of the foundation of the Polish state. It was also a period of the methodological revolution (though one unwanted by the scientific milieu) which aimed to adapt scientific methodology to the needs of the new Marxist ideology. But at the same time, the scale of the programme of fieldwork initiated created favourable conditions for the development of interdisciplinary co-operation and international contacts.

The 1970s and 1980s have been regarded as a period marked by the successful development of the gains of the Millennium Project period. It was in these decades that we meet the first large synthetic publications of the sites excavated earlier. The origin of the Slavs remained a topic of considerable interest (though a problem which remained unresolved by the organization of many conferences and discussions). The last decade of the twentieth century was also an exceptionally fruitful period for the archaeological study of the Early Medieval period. Due to the wider use of dendrochronology, many earlier ideas about the chronology of the construction of strongholds in the tribal and early state period underwent considerable modification.

A new impulse to the undertaking of research was found in the preparations for the 1000th anniversary in the year 2000 of the Gniezno Summit. The programmes of scientific investigation carried out on this occasion led to the critical verification of many earlier conclusions. A new element of research in the last decade has been the carrying out of investigations (abandoned after the Millennium Project period) of early centres in Poland's borderlands. From the very beginning, they have revealed the complexities, but also richness of the Russian-Byzantine culture of frontier communities. The last decade of the twentieth century saw above all a stiffening of positions of investigators engaged in the (already traditional) conflicts over the origins of the Slavs.

An indicator of the good condition of Early Medieval archaeology at the beginning of the third millennium is the increasingly closer collaboration with Medieval historians, which symbolises a return to the inspiration of its origins and development. These connections have borne fruit in increasing numbers of joint research initiatives and consequent publications.

2. Sources and Methods

This chapter characterises the most important types of evidence used in this research: material from excavations, including their context (broadly understood), the records of chroniclers, preserved sacral and secular architecture and information from other disciplines. Much space is devoted to the definition of the concept of an archaeological site. These include both historical spatial organizations in Polish towns, the remains of ancient fortifications, sites of pagan cult practices, sacral architecture, deserted settlements, former production sites, communication routes, cemeteries and also surviving elements of the primeval landscape. Each of these types of site is presented in the context of their stratification, manner of using them as sources of evidence and the characteristics of fieldwork on them (Fig. 2.1-2.7).

Especial attention is paid to archaeological layers, the manner of their investigation, the stratigraphical method (Fig. 2.8-2.13). The cultural components and contents of layers are discussed, including mass finds (pottery animal bone ) and small 'finds' (Fig. 2.14-2.15, 2.18, 2.20). More space is devoted to archaeozoological investigation and the use of the methods of the natural sciences (Fig. 2.17, 2.19, 2.21). In the final part of the chapter, the different types of written sources and iconographic material are characterised and their significance for the study of the Early Medieval period are indicated (Fig. 2.22-2.25).