Lacustrine islands in the cultural and natural landscape of Western Slavs in the early Middle Ages

Abstract

Recent research on central West Slavic sites in the Polish Lowlands (Poland) dated to the Early Middle Ages conducted within the framework of the Man in the Borderland project (NP DH) has shown that settlements located on small lake islands (Pomerania, Lubusz land) were of particular importance, alongside settlements performing complex social and political functions. Their physiognomy relates in many cases to British crannogs, as they have an anthropogenic (artificial) structure and their characteristic feature is the presence of wooden relics of structures in the form of embankments, piers and bridges. The occurrence of artifacts characteristic of social elites (militaria, merchant's accessories, jewellery) further indicates the importance of many of these sites. As a rule, they were located on the borders of former tribal territories and on the periphery of the early Piast state (8th/9th–11th century).