Migration Period
between Odra and Vistula

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Main tasks

To address the above research issues we undertake the following tasks:

  • Re-investigate three Migration Period sites in Western Pomerania and Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, treated as case studies, to recognize their cultural and palaeo-environmental context, chronology and function as compared to other Migration Period settlement sites in the two regions:
    • Kostkowice, distr. Zawiercie, cave site discovered around 2000, rich in evidence, interpreted as a late 4th – early 5th century refuge,
    • Suchań, distr. Stargard, settlement site, with surface finds from Late Migration Period, suggesting close ties in late 5th – early 6th century with Bornholm and areas west of the Odra R.,
    • Karsibór, distr. Świnoujście, the find-spot of a scattered deposit of early 6th century solidi (incl. two Ostrogothic imitations).
  • Comprehensive scientific description, against a comparative background, of Migration Period assemblages published or known from archival records, including elite ancestral hoards, type Zagórzyn or Karlino, moreover, groups of artefacts recovered by the National Museum in Szczecin; Scandinavian bracteats, including their latest finds, and a large group of recently recorded Migration Period finds. This material needs to be examined for its attribution to cultures, established during the Roman Period in Poland but not recorded in the Migration Period, and to Balt cultures, which continued the Roman Period culture model into the Migration Period, as well as their intercultural contacts.
  • Developing the results of palaeo-environmental studies, also in cartographic form, in high resolution (i.e., accurately dated) pollen profiles from lake sediments from the Odra and the Vistula basin suspected of having a dissimilar rhythm of changes of settlement during the Migration Period (incl. the territory of the Olsztyn and the Elbląg groups). They will be the point of departure for analysing the natural environment, the extent of its destruction and regeneration, and also, for palaeodemographic studies of population density during individual phases spanning Antiquity and early Middle Ages.