SOME THOUGHTS ON THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF THE POLISH STATE (Kilka przemyslen o najwczesniejszych dziejach Panstwa Polskiego)

• Authors: Hensel Witold
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The sacred water place at Lednica cannot be excluded as a votum commemorating the baptism of Poland and the so-called palace ruins on the island may well have been a monastery offered in the tradition of the Eastern Church. To the author mind, this idea, which has not been put forward yet in topic literature, merits discussion. It would be interesting also to consider whether there is a closer relation with the cathedral church of St Peter in Poznan. There is a distinct possibility that the same building guild could have worked at both Lednica and Poznan. The fact that the stone wall of the first pre-Romanesque cathedral in Poland - which the author discovered in 1946 - was preserved maybe due to it being part of some ancient memorial. An installation for mixing lime mortar from gypsum and lime have been found in the Poznan cathedral and they could have been used for building similar memorials, explaining at the same time why they were located in a sacred place. It is also a known fact that Poznan Bishop Unger took part in the Gniezno synod, possibly as Lednica's custodian and protector. We are witnessing now a revival with papal blessing of the Lednica legend. The author should think it beneficial that the new branch of the Poznan Society of Friends of Science organizes a Conference for discussing the credibility of different opinions. The Gniezno capital medal that was struck in all probability for the synod in Gniezno is an important witness of Polish state history for a number of reasons. Firstly, the word civitas on it can be interpreted more broadly as a state and not merely a city. The medal also appears to have referred to the name of the town, 'gnez', although this could also be understood as 'kres'. The state would seem to be organized as a duchy. Interestingly, it gives information about the ruler (the head of most likely Boleslaus the Brave is portrayed on it) and that the capital was located in a 'dun', that is, a 'Venetic' 'gnezdun'. The importance of this lies in the fact that a 'Venetic' word meaning a fortified settlement was used to refer to the capital. Just one medal and so much important information about the state, its name and the existence of a capital presumably in the year 1000.

Keywords

EN

'GNEZDUN CIVITAS' MEDAL; BAPTISM OF POLAND; LEDNICA

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Archeologia Polski
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 109-110
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Hensel Witold

• Witold Hensel, ul. Marszalkowska 84/92 m. 109, 00-514 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA060911