THE PAST SOCIETIES POLISH LANDS FROM THE FIRST EVIDENCE OF HUMAN PRESENCE TO THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Przemysław Urbańczyk, editor 500 AD – 1000 AD 5 Maciej Trzeciecki, editor Warszawa 2016 Published by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences www.iaepan.edu.pl This volume has been edited with respect for Polish-language geographical terms and other no- menclature. Thus, the regions otherwise known as Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Pomerania, and Silesia are here given as Wielkopolska, Małopolska, Pomorze, and Śląsk. The same goes for rivers (e.g., the Oder is found here as the Odra), personal names (not Boleslaus, but Bolesław), and so on. English translation Julita Mastalerz Language editor Philip Earl Steele Typesetting and layout Bartosz Dobrowolski Cover design and photo Albert Salamon Wawrzyniec Skoczylas Artefacts on the cover photo, thanks to the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw Printed and bound by Sowa Sp. z o.o. ISBN: 978-83-63760-77-9 Work financed by the National Program for Development of the Humanities – 2012-2017 © Copyright by the authors and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences Contents 9 Preface 169 Chapter 4 10 I 169 Baltic communities present in today’s Polish territory 13 II between 700 and 1000 AD 17 III 170 Abstract 19 Bibliography 172 1. Introduction 173 2. The end of the world as they knew it: the post-Olsztyn- group horizon? 21 Chapter 1 177 3. Early-mediaeval settlements 21 Early-Slavic culture 183 4. Everyday life 22 Abstract 191 5. Traces of cults: burial customs and other rites 23 1. Introduction – the sources and the state of research 212 6. Wars, warlords, warriors 27 2. The context for the emergence of early-Slavic culture 215 7. Conclusion 32 3. The natural environment 217 Bibliography 35 4. The characteristics of early-Slavic culture 58 5. The model of early-Slavic culture 60 6. Conclusion 223 Chapter 5 62 Bibliography 223 Intercultural relations of the inhabitants of Polish territory in the 9th and 10th centuries 75 Chapter 2 224 Abstract 225 1. Introduction 75 Baltic communities present between 500 and 700 AD 238 2. Influx of oriental silver into the territory of Poland in the in today’s Poland 9th and 10th centuries 76 Abstract 248 3. Exiles, emigrants, or adventurers? Selected examples 77 1. Introduction of foreign enclaves 80 2. Settlements and the economy 265 4. Summary and conclusions 86 3. Burial customs 267 Bibliography 100 4. Male and female attire 106 5. Contacts and connections 116 6. Conclusions 277 Chapter 6 118 Bibliography 277 The emergence of the territorial state 278 Abstract 279 1. Introduction 123 Chapter 3 281 2. The question of origins, or the history of research 123 From a tribe to a state 287 3. Strongholds, or the cultural landscape 124 Abstract 312 4. Christianization, or a modernization project 125 1. Introduction 328 5. Conclusion 130 2. The natural environment 330 Bibliography 132 3. The landscape of settlement 148 4. The economic landscape 153 5. The symbolic landscape 162 6. Conclusion 164 Bibliography Chapter 6 The emergence of the territorial state 278 Abstract 279 1. Introduction 281 2. The question of origins, or the history of research 287 3. Strongholds, or the cultural landscape 312 4. Christianization, or a moderni- zation project 328 5. Conclusion 330 Bibliography Chapter 6 The emergence of the territorial state Abstract The present work offers an overview of the key issues in the study of the emergence of state structures in Polish territory between the beginning of the 10th century and the middle of the 11th century. The introduction outlines the history of re- search and describes its current state. Particular emphasis is placed on issues related to the millennium research program and its impact on contemporary trends and areas of study. The development of the territorial state is demonstrated using the example of the changes in the structure, form, and function of defensive sites. The article also presents a brief descrip- tion of early-Piast central strongholds and an outline of the process of the emergence of a network of central sites in the territories controlled by the Piast monarchy. The development of early state structures is closely linked with the adoption of Christianity. The present work discusses issues related to the archeologically discernible evidence of Christianization, namely sacral buildings, changes in burial customs, and items associated with liturgy or individual worship. The conclusion Maciej Trzeciecki points to the small (both territorially and socially) scale of religious conversion and the close links between the early Church and the structures of the state. 278 “...the country of the Poles is far from the 1. Introduction routes of travelers and known to few, apart from persons crossing to Rus’ for the purposes of trade” (Gallus Anonymus) The adjacent sentence, taken from the oldest Polish chronicle, grounds for the belief, still held today, that to arrive at knowl- which was compiled in the early 12th century, constitutes an edge it would be sufficient to collect enough such material, apt metaphor for the geopolitical location of Poland – one classify it, date it, and let it ‘speak’. equally applicable today as it was nine centuries ago. From the However, the increase in the amount of sources and modern perspective, the author’s remark is important primarily the development of analytical methods have yet to bring us as the documented opinion of a member of the intellectual closer to the magic moment when the material remnants of elite of Latin Europe, one who observed the political entities the past might speak, thereby presenting us with a full and that had emerged on its eastern periphery. Let us emphasize impartial image of historical events. The formation of archae- two aspects of this opinion: 1) the location of this “country of ological records is, naturally, a process that may be objectiv- the Poles” in the marginal sphere, and 2) the lack of interest ized, primarily due to the repetitive nature of routine acts that in the events occurring on these outskirts when they were not constitute everyday life, and the similar repetitiveness of the related to the role of Poland as a transit area in the network influence of predictable environmental factors. This does not of trade relations connecting the West of Europe with the change the fact that an archaeological layer with its mineral East. These two factors explain why our current knowledge and anthropogenic content is not a fossilized fragment of regarding the beginnings of the state located to the north of ancient social structure or evidence of a specific event ‘frozen the Carpathians and the Sudetes is based on a very small in time’. Excavation works can only reveal the material traces and selective body of documents, one further thinned by the of everyday activities, ones only partially preserved and sig- passage of time. Incidentally, that statement is true of all the nificantly changed by centuries of phenomena referred to as regimes which emerged in the 10th century in the ‘younger’ part ‘post-depositional processes’. Archaeological sources have of Europe, regarded as new lands to capitalize on and hence been and will remain ‘silent’ – it is scholars who speak in their the object of power struggles between the main ‘players’ of name, by interpreting the data collected during excavation the epoch: the German state, Byzantium, and the expansive works. The current version of the story of the beginnings of world of Islam (Cf. Berend, Urbańczyk, Wiszewski 2013). the Polish state is as subjective and rooted in contemporary The events related to the emergence of the stable events as the narratives presented by mediaeval chroniclers. state organism from the 11th century onwards labeled Polonia These issues would merit a separate article (Cf.: Wy- still constitute a topic for debate. Given the small number of rozumski 2003; Banaszkiewicz 2006; Brather 2008a: 14ff; relevant documents, much hope was – and still is – associated Rębkowski 2008; Urbańczyk 2008: 16-24; Kurnatowscy 2012; with archaeological sources. On the one hand, archaeologists Sikorski 2012c; Kara 2013: 306-308; with further literature). In and historians agree that such sources are ‘silent’ – i.e., can- the present text I shall attempt to concentrate on the archaeo- not provide answers to questions related to political events, logical analysis of the beginnings of state structure in Poland. diplomatic schemes, the geopolitical strategies followed I deliberately make no attempts at presenting a synthesis – or by successive rulers, or the intellectual makeup of the elite even an image that would be a close approximation. I also try classes of this early state. On the other hand, this anonymity to refrain from referring to historical discourse, especially its makes archaeological sources ‘impartial’, in contrast to the ‘political’ or ‘event-related’ aspects. It is my considered opinion subjective narratives left by chroniclers. This latter fact is the that archaeology has very little to offer in this respect, and The Past Societies 5: 500 ad – 1000 ad 279 Chapter 6 The emergence of the territorial state archaeological divagations on the ‘geopolitical strategies’ of The possibilities and limitations of archaeology will first rulers, or the lamentably common practice of matching be illustrated using the example of two phenomena which ‘stratigraphic data’ collected from excavation sites to the few appear to be closely related to the development of territorial dates recorded in chronicles, are indicative of some incom- authority and are clearly discernible in archaeological sources. prehensible inferiority complex archaeologists display towards The first concerns the settlement structure, especially its focal historians sensu strictiori, and also of their unwillingness to points (i.e., strongholds), and the changes observable in the explore the cognitive potential of their own discipline.