Studia Lednickie, tom XVIII (2019)

The present article shows synthetic reflections on the history of the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica, which as an Archaeological Sanctuary at Ostrów Lednicki, described as a Historic Monument of the Nation’s Culture, initially named the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State (until 1975), was legally established in 1969. All the activities on the basis of which this museum was created, which aimed at the preservation of the ruins of Roman architecture at Ostrów Lednicki — the residence of the first Piasts from the 2nd half of the 10th century — had started already in the second half of the 19th century. The present outline to the history of this museum, which was created on the 50th anniversary of the institution and 30th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Studia Lednickie (Lednica Studies), presents in short the most important moments in the history of this centre since 1856 as well as its contemporary position on the cultural map of Poland.

The notion of unsuccessful town foundations is still not well known in the Polish historiography. It refers to various kinds of urban centres, which after being granted town rights either did not exercise them, or otherwise did it only partially, with yet others abolished with the state act, aft era longer period of existence, due to the loss of their basic urban characteristics. This particularly concerns small towns which did not differ much from rural habitats. Seven such towns located in the middle Warta basin and lower Wełna basin, i.e. on the former Castellan territories, with the centres in Rogoźno, Radzim and Ostrów (Lednica) were discussed. They include the following towns: Budzyń, Dzwonowo, Głęboczek, Obrzycko, Ryczywół, Sławkowo (Parkowo) and Stobnica. The functioning of each chosen town was first described with reference to the prelocation period and then in reference to the time aft er they were given the town rights. Archaeological materials and available written sources were mainly used.

In 1499 in Cracow an indulgence privilege for the parish church of St. Nicolas and St. Barbara in Radzim was issued. The Archbishop of Gniezno, the Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon, the archbishop of Lviv Andrzej from Boryszewice, the bishop of Włocławek Krzesław Kurozwęcki, the bishop of Poznań Jan Lubrański, the bishop of Oradea Mare (Gran Varadino, Nagyvárad) Domokos Kálmáncsehi, the bishop of Warmia Łukasz Watzenrode, the bishop of Chełm Lubelski Maciej from Stara Łomża, and the titular bishop of Aenus and the Poznań suffragan Wojciech from Bydgoszcz were the issuers of the document. They all met in Cracow at the time of the sejm. The document was issued on the request of Jan from Góra, the provost in Radzim and the Canon of Poznań. The obtained conditions of 140 days of indulgence were very attractive and they significantly distinguished the shrine in Radzim against the surrounding network of parishes, which was no doubt supposed to increase the activity of the congregation and ensure the parish greater incomes. As a result of turbulent changes, which appeared in religious life in the next decades, the retention of the received indulgence quickly receded. The document itself was kept in the archive of the Joannites Commandery in Poznań, and then was included in the family collection of the Radziwiłł’s. Together with this collection it was handed over to The Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, where it is kept under the signature Dok. Perg. 7410.

During the course of archaeological excavations at Ostrów Lednicki where early medieval gord is located, a piece of a wooden object was found. However, it is difficult to identify, due to its condition. The artefact underwent a detailed analysis, which was conducted by a team consisting of an archaeologist, a musicologist and a re-constructor, and it also underwent a material analysis of the wood. The object found on the west abutment of the Lednica east bridge can be dated to the 2nd–3rd quarter of the 11th century. As a result of the search for analogies and similarities, it was assumed that it was a headstock of a wooden stringed musical instrument.

The article presents the results of noninvasive surveys of Lednica lake in the project Kolebka Piastów — archeologiczne prospekcje podwodne w rejonie jeziora Lednickiego conducted by the Department of Underwater Archaeology in the Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, in cooperation with the Maritime Institute in Gdańsk, the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica and the Scientific Association of Polish Archaeologists (Warsaw branch) in 2017. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the following programme: Cultural heritage, priority: protection of archaeological monuments. Non-invasive prospections with the use of multibeam probes, sub-bottom seabed sediment profilers and a magnetometer were conducted. Data obtained in the prospections were analysed, and where the conditions and the assumption of the project allowed, they were verified by a direct underwater prospection.

The paper provides information about the field conservation of the archaeological finds made of glass from the 2018 archaeological excavation on the territory of the National Reserve “Sophia Kyivska”. The author emphasizes the necessity of cooperation between the restorers and archaeologists. It makes it possible to save invaluable artefacts from destruction.

281 graves were uncovered and searched at the site in the years 1959 and 1999–2008. Those graves where coins were found are of particular interest. The archaeological and numismatic analyses, described in the present article, refer to funeral rituals, the chronology of the burial ground and various cultural phenomena connected with coins. The usefulness of coins in social analyses both with regard to social hierarchy as well as family bonds in Giecz were also indicated.

This article is dedicated to eleven medieval bracteates, donated by count Albin Węsierski to the collection of the British Museum in 1873. Bracteates are a small part of the treasure of coins discovered in October 1872 in the village of Głębokie, municipality Kiszkowo, Gniezno county, Wielkopolskie voivodeship in Poland. Soon after the discovery of the first coins, Węsierski arrived and found a few dozen coins and a ceramic vessel. Some of the old coins were donated to the British Museum collection through the agency of John Baker Greene, a journalist from the London newspaper “The Morning Post”, who was hosted in Węsierski’s house in the palace in Zakrzewo in January 1873.

The article describes three early medieval vessels found on Ostrów Radzimski, including an early medieval vessel which depicts human figures, which is unique in Poland. On the basis of the observed technical and technological characteristics, as well as morphological and stylistic characteristics, it can be assumed that the vessels were made by the same potter on the same potter’s wheel.

The article presents the results of an archaeological rescue research conducted in 2018 next to St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev at the site of ground subsidence which appeared as a result of ground being washed out by water. On the basis of the analysis of the cultural layers stratigraphy and finds connected with them, a hypothetical reconstruction of some historical stages of the use of a researched area over the centuries was conducted.