4 - Polish medieval excavations and the Harris Matrix: applications and developments

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development and application of Harris matrix in Polish medieval excavations. A prominent role in initiating the process of change in medieval excavations in Poland was played by scholars at Warsaw. The group of young archeologists, led and inspired by Professor Stanislaw Tabaczynski, was the first in Poland to learn of the ideas contained in the publications of Edward Harris. The reception of Harris's concepts happened to coincide with the independent realization by Polish archeologists of the inappropriateness of previous methods of exploring and recording multi-layer sites, which often contained nonhorizontal stratification, as in the deposits of a rampart. The introduction and acceptance of Harriss ideas in Poland also gave way to a renewed interest in local traditions of stratigraphical studies, especially in the works by Holubowicz and Zurowski of the late 1940s. A crucial role in the dissemination of this approach was also played by the publication in 1989 of a Polish translation of the Harris's Principles of Archeological Stratigraphy. Moreover, Polish archeologists have also played an important part in the exportation of the Harris matrix to other countries.