Poland in the Early Middle Ages

Slavic beginnings of Poland The origins of the Slavic peoples, who arrived on Polish lands at the outset of the Middle Ages as representatives of the Prague culture, go back to the Kyiv culture, which formed beginning early in the 3rd century AD and is genetically derived from the Post-Zarubintsy cultural horizon (Rakhny–Ljutez–Pochep material culture sphere) and more broadly speaking the Chernyakhov culture, were destroyed by the Huns. This process was facilitated further and gained pace, involving at that time the Kyiv's descendant cultures, when the Hun confederation itself broke down in the mid-5th century. == Slavic differentiation and expansion; Prague culture ==

Kolochin culture, Penkovka culture and Prague–Korchak culture The final process of the differentiation of the cultures recognized as early Slavic, the Kolochin culture (over the territory of the Kyiv culture), the Penkovka culture and the Prague-Korchak culture, took place during the end of the 4th and in the 5th century CE. Beyond the Post-Zarubintsy horizon, the expanding early Slavs took over much of the territories of the Chernyakhov culture and the Dacian Carpathian Tumuli culture. As not all of the previous inhabitants from those cultures had left the area, they probably contributed some elements to the Slavic cultures. Early settlements, economy and burials in Poland s c. 700 AD In Poland, the earliest archeological sites considered Slavic include a limited number of 6th-century settlements and a few isolated burial sites. The material obtained there consists mostly of simple, manually formed ceramics, typical of the entire early Slavic area. It is on the basis of the different varieties of these basic clay pots and infrequent decorations that the three cultures are distinguished. The largest of the earliest Slavic (Prague culture) settlement sites in Poland that have been subjected to systematic research is located in Bachórz, Rzeszów County, and dates to the second half of 5th through 7th centuries. It consisted of 12 nearly square, partially dug-out houses, each covering the area of 6.2 to 19.8 (14.0 on the average) square meters. A stone furnace was usually placed in a corner, which is typical for Slavic homesteads of that period, but clay ovens and centrally located hearths are also found. Poorly developed handicraft and limited resources for metal working are characteristic of the communities of all early Slavic cultures. There were no major iron production centers, but metal founding techniques were known; among the metal objects occasionally found are iron knives and hooks, as well as bronze decorative items (as can be found in 7th-century finds in Haćki, Bielsk Podlaski County, a site of one of the earliest fortified settlements). The inventories of the typical small open settlements also normally include various utensils made of stone, horn and clay (including weights used for weaving). The settlements were arranged as clusters of cabins along river or stream valleys, but above their flood levels, they were usually irregular and typically faced south. The wooden frame or pillar-supported square houses covered with a straw roof had each sides of 2.5 to 4.5 meters in length. Fertile lowlands were sought, but also forested areas with diversified plant and animal environment to provide additional sustenance. The settlements were self-sufficient; the early Slavs functioned without significant long-distance trade. Potter's wheels were used from the turn of the 7th century on. Some villages larger than a few homes have been discovered in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region from the 6th to 9th century, for example a complex of 11 settlements on the left bank of the Vistula in the direction of Igołomia. The original furnishings of Slavic huts are difficult to determine, because equipment was often made of perishable materials such as wood, leather or fabrics. Free- standing clay dome stoves for bread baking have been found on some locations. Another large 6th– to 9th-century settlement complex existed in the vicinity of Głogów in Silesia. The Slavic people cremated their dead, typical for the inhabitants of their region for centuries. The burials were usually single, the graves grouped in small cemeteries, with the ashes placed in simple urns more often than in ground indentations. The number of burial sites found is small in relation to the known settlement density. The food production economy was based on millet and wheat cultivation, hunting, fishing, gathering and cattle breeding (swine, sheep and goats bred to a lesser extent). was a part of the great Slavic migration during the 5th-7th centuries from originating lands in the east to various countries of Central and Southeastern Europe. Another 6th-century route, more southern, took the Prague culture of the Slavs through Slovakia, Moravia and Bohemia. The Slavs also reached the eastern Alps and populated the Elbe and the Danube basins, from where they moved south to occupy the Balkans as far as Peloponnese. which in his times would correspond to the Proto-Slavic Zarubintsy cultural sphere. Jordanes, to whom the Venethi meant Slavs, wrote of past fighting between the Ostrogoths and the Venethi that took place during the third quarter of the 4th century in today's Ukraine. At that time, the Venethi therefore would have been people of the Kyiv culture. The Venethi, Jordanes reported, "now rage in war far and wide, in punishment for our sins", he added sarcastically. The "bravest of these peoples", Byzantine writers held the Slavs in low regard for the simple life they led and also for their supposedly limited combat abilities, but in fact they were already a threat to the Danubian boundaries of the Empire in the early 6th century, where they waged plundering expeditions. Procopius, the anonymous author of Strategicon, and Theophylact Simocatta wrote at some length on how to deal with the Slavs militarily, which suggests that they had become a formidable adversary. John of Ephesus actually goes as far as saying in the last quarter of the 6th century that the Slavs had learned to conduct war better than the Byzantine army. The Balkan Peninsula was indeed soon overrun by the Slavic invaders during the first half of the 7th century under Emperor Heraclius. Invasions of the Avars in Europe and their presence in Poland In the 6th century, the Turkic-speaking nomadic Avars moved into the middle Danube area. Twice (in 562 and 566–567), the Avars undertook military expeditions against the Franks, and their routes went through the Polish lands. The Avar envoys bribed Slavic chiefs from the lands they did not control, including Pomerania, to secure their participation in Avar raids, but other than that, the exact nature of their relations with the Slavs in Poland is not known. The Avars had some presence or contacts in Poland also in the 7th and 8th centuries, when they left artifacts in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region and elsewhere, including a bronze belt decoration found in the Krakus Mound. This last item, from the turn of the 8th century, is used to date the mound itself. == Tribal differentiation ==

8th-century settlements With the major population shifts of the Slavic migrations completed, the 8th century brought a measure of stability to the Slavic people settled in Poland. About one million people actively utilized no more than 20–25% of the land; the rest was mainly forest. Normal settlements, with the exception of a few fortifications and cult venues, were limited to lowland areas below 350 meters above the sea level. Most villages built without artificial defensive structures were located within valley areas of natural bodies of water. The Slavs were very familiar with the water environment and used it as natural defense. A large-scale building effort took place in the 8th century. The gords were differently designed and of various sizes, from small to impressively massive. Ditches, walls, palisades and embankments were used to strengthen the perimeter, which often involved a complicated earthwork besides wood and stone construction. Gords of the tribal period were irregularly distributed across the country (there were fewer larger ones in Lesser Poland, but more smaller ones in central and northern Poland), This larger scale building activity, from the mid-8th century on, was a manifestation of the emergence of tribal organisms, a new civilizational quality that represented rather efficient proto-political organizations and social structures on a new level. They were based on these fortifications, defensive objects, of which the mid-8th century and later Vistulan gords in Lesser Poland are a good example. The threat coming from the Avar state in Pannonia could have had provided the original motivation for the construction projects. Society organized into larger tribal units From the 8th century on, the Slavs in Poland increasingly organized themselves in larger structures known as "great tribes," either through voluntary or forced association. The population was primarily involved in agricultural pursuits. Fields were cultivated as well as gardens within settlements. Plowing was done using oxen and wooden plows reinforced with iron. Forest burning was used to increase the arable area, but also to provide fertilizer, as the ashes lasted in that capacity for several seasons. Rotation of crops was practiced as well as the winter/spring crop system. After several seasons of exploitation, the land was being left idle to regain fertility. Wheat, millet and rye were most important crops; other cultivated plant species included oat, barley, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax and hemp, as well as apple, pear, plum, peach and cherry trees in fruit orchards. Beginning in the 8th century, swine gradually became economically more important than cattle; sheep, goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, geese and ducks were also kept. The agricultural practices of the Slavs are known from archeological research, which documents progressive increases over time in arable area and resulting deforestation, and from written reports provided by Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, a 10th-century Jewish traveler. Ibrahim described also other features of Slavic life, for example the use of steam baths. The existence of bath structures has been confirmed by archeology. An anonymous Arab writer from the turn of the 10th century mentions that the Slavic people made an alcoholic beverage out of honey and their celebrations were accompanied by music played on the lute, tambourines and wind instruments. Until the 9th century, the population was separated from the main centers of civilization and self-sufficient with primitive, local community and household-based manufacturing. Specialized craftsmen existed only in the fields of iron extraction from ore and processing, and pottery; the few luxury items used were imports. From the 7th century on, modestly decorated ceramics were made with the potter's wheel. 7th– to 9th-century collections of objects have been found in Bonikowo and Bruszczewo, Kościan County (iron spurs, knives, clay containers with some ornamentation) and in the Kraków-Nowa Huta region (weapons and utensils in Pleszów and Mogiła), among other places. Slavic warriors were traditionally armed with spears, bows and wooden shields. Axes were used later, and still swords of the types popular throughout 7th– to 9th-century Europe were also used. Independent of distant powers, the Slavic tribes in Poland lived a relatively undisturbed life, but at the cost of some backwardness in civilization. A concept of agricultural land ownership was gradually developing, at this point a family, not individual prerogative. Several or more clan territories were grouped into a neighborhood association, or "opole", which established a rudimentary self-government. Such a community was the owner of forested land, pastures, bodies of water and within it took place the first organization around common projects and the related development of political power. A big and resourceful opole could become, by extending its possessions, a proto-state entity vaguely referred to as a tribe. The tribe was the top level of this structure. It would contain several opoles and control a region of up to about 1500 square kilometers, where internal relationships were arbitrated and external defense organized. When social and economic evolution reached this level, the concentration of power was facilitated and made possible to sustain by parallel development of a professional military force (called at this stage "drużyna") at the ruler's or chief's disposal. Burials and religion Burial customs, at least in southern Poland, included raising kurgans. The urn with the ashes was placed on the mound or on a post thrust into the ground. In that position, few such urns survived, which may be the reason why Slavic burial sites in Poland are rare. All dead, regardless of social status, were cremated and afforded a burial, according to Arab testimonies (one from the end of the 9th century and another one from about 930). A Slavic funeral feast practice was also mentioned earlier by Theophylact Simocatta. According to Procopius, the Slavs believed in one god, the creator of lightning and master of the entire universe, to whom all sacrificial animals (and sometimes people) were offered. The highest god was called Svarog throughout the Slavic area, but other gods were also worshiped in different regions at different times, often with local names. Natural objects such as rivers, groves or mountains were also celebrated, as well as nymphs, demons, ancestral and other spirits, who were all venerated and appeased by offering rituals, which also involved augury. Such beliefs and practices were later developed and individualized by the many Slavic tribes. The Slavs erected sanctuaries, created statues and other sculptures, including the four-faced Svetovid, whose carvings symbolize various aspects of the Slavic cosmology model. One 9th-century specimen from the Zbruch River in modern Ukraine, found in 1848, is on display at the Archeological Museum in Kraków. Many of the sacred locations and objects were identified outside Poland, for example in northeastern Germany or Ukraine. In Poland, religious activity sites have been investigated in northwestern Pomerania, including Szczecin, where a three-headed deity once stood, and the Wolin island, where 9th– to 11th-century cult figurines were found. Archeologically confirmed cult places and figures have also been researched at several other locations. == Early Slavic states and other 9th-century developments ==

Samo's realm The first Slavic state-like entity, the realm of King Samo, originally a Frankish trader, flourished close to Poland in Bohemia and Moravia, parts of Pannonia and more southern regions between the Oder and Elbe rivers during the period 623–658. Samo became a Slavic leader by helping the Slavs defend themselves successfully against Avar assailants. What Samo led was probably a loose alliance of tribes, and it fell apart after his death. Slavic Carantania, centered on Krnski Grad (now Karnburg in Austria), was more of a real state, developed possibly from one part of the disintegrating Samo's kingdom, but lasted under a native dynasty throughout the 8th century and became Christianized. Borivoj's grandson Prince Wenceslaus, the future Czech martyr and patron saint, was killed, probably in 935, by his brother Boleslaus. Boleslaus I solidified the power of the Prague princes and most likely dominated the Vistulan and Lendian tribes of Lesser Poland and at least parts of Silesia. Poland was populated by many tribes of various sizes. The names of some of them, mostly from the western part of the country, are known from written sources, especially a Latin document written in the mid-9th century by the anonymous Bavarian Geographer. During this period, smaller tribal structures were disintegrating while larger ones were being established in their place. Other finds include the 8th-century Krakus, Wanda and other large burial mounds, and the remnants of several gords) Vistulan gords, built from the mid-8th century on, were typically very large, often over 10 hectares in size. About 30 big ones are known. The 9th-century gords in Lesser Poland and in Silesia were likely built as a defense against Great Moravian military expansion. The largest one, in Stradów, Kazimierza Wielka County, had an area of 25 hectares and walls or embankments 18 meters high, but parts of this giant structure were probably built later. The gords were often located along the northern slope of the western Carpathian Mountains, on hills or hillsides. The buildings inside the walls were sparsely located or altogether absent, so for the most part, the role of the gords seems to have been something other than that of settlements or administrative centers. Besides the mounds, the degree of gord development and the grzywna treasure point to Kraków as the main center of Vistulan power (instead of Wiślica, as also suspected in the past). The fragment speaks of a very powerful pagan prince who resided in the Vistulan country, reviled the Christians and caused them great harm. He was warned by emissaries speaking on behalf of the missionary and advised to reform and voluntarily accept baptism in his own homeland. Otherwise, it was predicted, he would be forced to do so in a foreign land. According to the Pannonian Legend, that is exactly what eventually did happen. This passage is widely interpreted as an indication that the Vistulans were invaded and overrun by the army of Great Moravia and their pagan prince captured. This would have had to have happened during Methodius' second stay in Moravia, between 873 and 885, during the reign of Svatopluk I. The Vistulans were probably also subjected to Magyar raids as an additional layer of embankments was often added to the gord fortifications in the early part of the 10th century. In the early or mid-10th century, the Vistulan entity, like Silesia, was incorporated by Boleslaus I of Bohemia into the Czech state. The Wolin settlement was established on the island of the same name in the late 8th century. Located at the mouth of the Oder River, Wolin from the beginning was involved with long distance Baltic Sea trade. The settlement, thought to be identical with both Vineta and Jomsborg, was pagan, multiethnic, and readily kept accepting newcomers, especially craftsmen and other professionals, from all over the world. Being located on a major intercontinental sea route, it soon became a major European industrial and trade power. Writing in the 11th century, Adam of Bremen recognized Wolin as one of the largest European cities, inhabited by honest, good-natured and hospitable Slavic people, together with other nationalities, from Greeks to barbarians, including the Saxons, as long as they did not demonstrate their Christianity too openly. Established as a seaport by the Vikings and Danish traders at the end of the 8th century in the Prussian border area previously already explored by the Scandinavians, Truso lasted as a major city and commercial center until the early 11th century, when it was destroyed and replaced in that capacity by Gdańsk. The settlement covered an area of 20 hectares and consisted of a two-dock seaport, the craft-trade portion, and the peripheral residential development, all protected by a wood and earth bulwark separating it from the mainland. The port-trade and craftsmen zones were themselves separated by a fire control ditch with water flowing through it. There were several rows of houses, including long Viking hall structures, waterside warehouses, market areas and wooden beam covered streets. Numerous relics were found there, including weights used also as currency units, coins (from English to Arab) and workshops processing metal, jewelry or large quantities of amber. Remnants of long Viking boats were also found, the whole complex being a testimony to Viking preoccupation with commerce, the mainstay of their activities around the Baltic Sea region. The multi-ethnic Truso had extensive trade contacts not only with distant lands and Scandinavia, but also the Slavic areas located to the south and west of it, from where ceramics and other products were transported along the Vistula in river crafts. Ironically, Truso's sudden destruction by fire and subsequent disappearance was apparently a result of a Viking raid. This connection to the Baltic trade zone led to an establishment of inner-Slavic long-distance trade routes. Lesser Poland participated in exchange centered in the Danubian countries. Oriental silver jewelry and Arab coins, often cut into pieces, "grzywna" iron coin equivalents (of the type used in Great Moravia) in the Upper Vistula basin and even linen cloths served as currency. == 10th-century developments in Greater Poland; Mieszko's state ==

Tribal Greater Poland The 10th century brought a notable development in the form of settlement stability on Polish lands. Short-lived prehistoric settlements gradually gave way to villages on fixed sites. The number of villages grew with time, but their sites rarely shifted. The population distribution patterns established from that century on are evident on today's landscape. Mieszko's state and its origins What was later to be called the Gniezno state, also known as Mieszko's state, was first expanded at the expense of the subdued tribes in the era of Mieszko's father and grandfather. Writing around 965 or 966 Ibrahim ibn Yaqub described the country of Mieszko, "the king of the North", as the most wide-ranging of the Slavic lands. The results of archeological studies of 9th- and 10th-century gords in Greater Poland are at odds with the timing of this story. There was no Gniezno settlement in the 9th century; there was a pagan cult site there beginning only at the turn of the 10th century. The Gniezno gord was built around year 940, possibly because the location, of great spiritual importance to the tribal community, would rally the local population around its building and defense. The early Piast state and its expansion gord in Giecz Under the old tribal system, the tribal assembly elected a chief in case of an external threat to lead the defense effort, and it was a temporarily granted authority. The Piast clan was able to replace this practice in the Gniezno area with a hereditary ruler, in line with trends in other locations at the time. This allowed the Piast clan to create a state that they could over generations. The development of the Piast state can be traced to some degree by following the disappearance of the old tribal gords, many of them built in Greater Poland during the later part of the 9th century and soon thereafter, which were destroyed by the advancing Gniezno tribal population. The gords in Spławie, Września County and in Daleszyn, Gostyń County, for example, both built soon after 899, were attacked and taken over by the Piast state forces, the first one burned during the initial period of the armed expansion. The old gords were often rebuilt or replaced beginning in the first decades of the 10th century by new, large and massively reinforced Piast gords. Connected by water communication lines, the powerful gords of the mid-10th century served as the main concentrations of forces of the emerging state. Parallel with the gord building activity of ca. 920–50, the Piasts undertook military expansion by crossing the Warta River and moving south and west within the Oder River basin. The entire network of tribal gords between the Obra and Barycz rivers, among other places, was eliminated. The conquered population was often resettled to central Greater Poland, which resulted in partial depopulation of previously well-developed regions. At the end of this stage of the Piast state formation new Piast gords were built in the (north) Noteć River area and other outlying areas of the annexed lands, for example in Santok and Śrem around 970. During the following decade the job of unifying the core of the early Piast state was finished—besides Greater Poland with Kujawy it included also much of central Poland. Masovia and parts of Pomerania found themselves increasingly under the Piast influence, while the southbound expansion was for the time being stalled, because large portions of Lesser Poland and Silesia were controlled by the Czech state. The expanding Piast state developed a professional military force. According to Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, Mieszko collected taxes in the form of weights used for trading and spent those taxes as monthly pay for his warriors. He had three thousand heavily armored mounted soldiers alone, whose quality according to Ibrahim was very impressive. Mieszko provided for all their equipment and needs, even military pay for their children regardless of their gender, from the moment they were born. This force was supported by a much greater number of foot fighters. Numerous armaments were found in the Piast gords, many of them of foreign, e.g. Frankish or Scandinavian origin. Mercenaries from these regions, as well as German and Norman knights, constituted a significant element of Mieszko's elite fighting guard. Revenue generating measures and conquests To sustain this military machine and meet other state expenses, large amounts of revenue were necessary. Greater Poland had some natural resources used for trade, such as fur, hide, honey and wax, but those surely did not provide enough income. According to Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, Prague in Bohemia, a city built of stone, was the main center for the exchange of trading commodities in this part of Europe. From Kraków, the Slavic traders brought tin, salt, amber and whatever other products they had, most importantly slaves; Muslim, Jewish, Hungarian and other traders were the buyers of the Prague slave market. The Life of St. Adalbert, written at the end of the 10th century by John Canaparius, records the fate of many Christian slaves sold in Prague as the main curse of the time. The Piast state reached the mouth of the Vistula first. Based on the investigations of the gords erected along the middle and lower Vistula, it appears that the lower Vistula waterway was under Piast control from about the mid-10th century. A powerful gord built in Gdańsk, under Mieszko at the latest, solidified Piast rule over Pomerelia. However, the mouth of the Oder River was firmly controlled by the Jomsvikings and the Volinians, who were allied with the Veleti. The so-called Baptism of Poland and the attendant processes did not take place through Mieszko's German connections. At that time, Mieszko was in the process of fixing an uneasy relationship with the Bohemian state of Boleslaus I. The difficulties were caused mainly by Czech cooperation with the Veleti. Already in 964, the two parties arrived at an agreement on that and other issues. In 965, Mieszko married Boleslaus' daughter Doubravka. Mieszko's chosen Christian princess, a woman possibly in her twenties, was a devout Christian and Mieszko's own conversion had to be a part of the deal. This act in fact followed in 966 and initiated the Christianization of Greater Poland, a region that up to that point had not been exposed to Christian influence, unlike Lesser Poland and Silesia. In 968, an independent missionary bishopric, reporting directly to the pope, was established, with Jordan installed as the first bishop. The scope of the Christianization mission in its early phase was quite limited geographically, and the few relics that have survived come from Gniezno Land. Stone churches and baptisteries were discovered within the Ostrów Lednicki and Poznań gords, and a chapel in Gniezno. Poznań was also the site of the first cathedral, the bishopric seat of Jordan and Bishop Unger, who followed him. The early expansion of the Piasts, Great Moravian and Norman contributions Newer research points out some other intriguing possibilities regarding the early origins of the Polish state in Greater Poland. There are indications that the processes that led to the establishment of the Piast state began during the period ca. 890–910. During these years, a tremendous civilizational advancement took place in central Greater Poland, as the unearthed products of all kinds that have been discovered are better made and more elaborate. The timing coincides with the breakdown of the Great Moravian state caused by the Magyar invasions. Before and after its fall in 905–07, many Great Moravian people, fearing for their lives, had to escape. According to the notes made by Constantine VII, they found refuge in neighboring countries. Decorations found in Sołacz graves in Poznań have their counterparts in burial sites around Nitra in Slovakia. In the Nitra area, there was also in medieval times a well-known clan named Poznan. The above indicates that the Poznań town was established by Nitran refugees, and more generally, the immigrants from Great Moravia contributed to the sudden awakening of the otherwise remote and isolated Piast lands. Early capitals, large scale gord construction There is some disagreement as to the early seat of the ruling clan. Modern archeology has shown that the gord in Gniezno did not even exist before about 940. This fact eliminates the possibility of Gniezno's early central role, which is what had long been believed, based on the account given by Gallus Anonymus. The relics found in Giecz (including a great concentration of silver treasures), where the original gord was built some 80 years earlier, point to that location. Other likely early capitals include the old gords of Grzybowo, Kalisz or Poznań. Poznań, which is older than Gniezno, was probably the original site of Mieszko's court in the earlier years of his reign. The first cathedral church, a monumental structure, was erected there. The events of 974–78, when Mieszko, like his brother-in-law Boleslaus II of Bohemia, supported Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, in his rebellion against Otto II, created a threat of the emperor's retribution. The situation probably motivated Mieszko to move the government to Gniezno, which was safer due to its more eastern location. Completion of Poland's territorial expansion under Mieszko could have had belonged to Mieszko, or, as is considered more likely now, to Bishop Jordan Around 980, in the west, Lubusz Land also came under Mieszko's control and another important gord was built in Włocławek much further east. Masovia was still more loosely associated with the Piast state, while the Sandomierz region was for a while their southern outpost. == See also ==