Ewa Pawlak

Badania archeologiczne, które objęły niemal trzecią część grodu, pozwoliły na zadokumentowanie zabudowy mieszkalnej i gospodarzej majdanu oraz pozostałości umocnień. Rozpoznano także bramę prowadzącą na gród od północy, oraz w niewielkim zakresie fosę.

Badania w Dąbrówce przyniosły szerego odkryć, które można wiązać ze sferą duchową ówczesnych mieszkańców grodu. Należą do nich przede wszystkim szczątki ludzkie, kości koni (szczedgólnie depozyt dwóch czaszek) oraz pozostałości budowli o parametrach i rozwiązaniach konstrukcyjnych odbiegających od standardów lokalnego budownictwa.

Z badań, które objęły dużą część grodu oraz w niewielkim zakresie osadę przygrodową pochodzi bardzo liczny zbiór ceramiki. Widoczne w stylistyce naczyń rożnice wskazują nie tylko na ich zróżnicowaną chronologię, ale przede wszystkim ilustrują wpływy kulturowe, którym w dobie plemiennej podlegała część Wielkoposlki położona między wartą a Obrą.

The article is devoted to the oldest discoveries that can be associated with the Slavic settlement in Wielkopolska. It describes forms, sizes and constructions of houses, as well as the size of settlements, the way of spatial development, environmental preferences. The dating of the materials was based mainly on the results of dendrochronological analysis and to a lesser extent on 14C (as a reliable method).

Recent investigations in the middle Oder region have uncovered numerous assemblages of vessels from the older phases of the Early Medieval period. This pottery is characterized by a specific set of formal, stylistic and technological traits. Finds were dated by the thermoluminescence and radiocarbon dating methods and by the dendrochronological method in singular cases. The oldest pottery assemblages were dated to the 6th c. Numerous petrographic analyses helpedto determine the technology used to produce the vessels

In the oldest stages of the early Middle Ages, the settlements located between the Warta and the Obra were concentrated predominantly in a few areas: between the Warta, the Sama and the Samica Stęszewska, in the vicinity of Pniewy and Lwówek, and to the west of Sieraków. The resulting structure, over time supplemented with settlement clusters in Opalenica Plain, formed the basis for a network of gords established in the 9th and the early 10th centuries. The arrangement of hamlets and gords allowed to reconstruct long-range transport routes connecting these regions with south Wielkopolska, Lusatia as well as the north-western Slavic domains.

In late November and early December 2012, emergency archaeological and architectural research was carried out in the Parish Church of the Holy Apostles in Rąbiń, Kościan county. The relics of a stone Romanesque church were studied thoroughly; it is a clear-span building with a deep apse/chancel dating back to the first half of the 13th century. The subsequent phases of the church’s renovation from the 13th century until today have also been identified.

Relikty wczesnośredniowiecznych osad położone były na przeciwległych stokach niewielkiego garbu terenowego otoczonego od południa i wschodu podmokłymi łąkami.  Z najstarszą fazą, datowaną od końca VII w. do końca VIII w. łączymy 20 obiektów, w tym studnię datowaną na 764/765 AD. Kolejne 25 obiektów stanowi pozostałość młodszej, regularnie rozplanowanej osady, datowanej na okres od X/XI do 2. poł. XI w. Najmłodszą fazę reprezentuje zaledwie 11 obiektów, stanowiących zasadniczo pozostałość pracowni metalurgicznej, datowanej na 2 poł. XIII w.

W 2017 r. kontynuowano prace prowadzone w latach 2012-13 na terenie posesji przy ul. Śródka 7. W najniżej położonych warstwach dokumentowano pozostałości osady z X w. Szczególną uwagą zwracały relikty budynku z glinianym klepiskiem oraz piwniczki, na której dnie umieszczono niewielką łódź.  Odkryliśmy 26 nowych pochówków oraz 20 kolejnych, które zostały częściowo rozpoznane w poprzednich sezonach. Dzięki pożarowi w bardzo dobrym stanie zachowały się piwnice domu mieszczańskiego z 2 poł. XV i 1 poł. XVI w.

Na stan. 39 w Krąplewie odsłonięto relikty osadnictwa z wczesnej fazy późnego okresu przedrzymskiego. Na ten sam okres datujemy dwa groby położone w pobliżu osady, stanowiące zapewne część większego zespołu. Na okres od schyłku XII do poł. XIII w. przypada funkcjonowanie osady, związanej z wydobywaniem z pobliskiej rzeki rud żelaza i ich obróbką. Najmłodsze obiekty stanowią pozostałość okopów, z których Armia Czerwona prowadziła ostrzał wycofujących się wojsk niemieckich.

Archaeological research on site 1 in Bytkowo, Rokietnica commune, was carried out in 2010 as part of the works preceding the construction of
a western section of the Poznań bypass. 1738 items, mostly related to settlements of the Lusatian culture, were discovered on the area of 295.77 ares. Relics of an early Slavic settlement were unearthed in the southern end of the excavated area; they consisted of 17 residential and outbuildings buildings located on the western slope of the Samica River valley. They constituted a continuous line of structures with the length of 110 m and the width of 18 m, stretching transversely to the valley. 1105 fragments of earthenware vessels, 687 fragments of drying pans, 105 animal bones, an iron spur with inward hooks, and a fragment of an iron sickle were acquired from the fills of the settlement pits. On the basis of the portable monuments, it was established that the discovered part of the settlement dated back to the 8th century.

The article presents the results of archaeological field survey carried out by the Archaeological – Conservator’s Studio Alina Jaszewska on site 20 in Bnin in 2013. In the area with the width of 65 m, length: 75 m 60 features were uncovered related to population settlement of the Lusatian Culture (45), the Przeworsk culture (5) and from the early Middle Ages (10) and the modern times (2). The oldest phase of inhabiting this land falls in the Neolithic period, which links only single pieces of ceramics. The next, dated to the 5th EB and HaC, contains most numerous features forming a compact utility zone of the settlement and a set of 342 fragments of dishes. Late Roman period is the period of the residential feature and several utility buildings open in dispersion and 104 pieces of dishes. With regard to the early Middle Ages two phases are distinguished: older, connecting at least 5 features in a period from the 2nd half of the 7th –1 half of the 8th century, earlier to the 2nd half of the 8th century and 1st half of the 9th century. Dating an early-medieval settlement uses the 14C analysis.

During the excavation research in 2007 on the Przeworsk Culture’s cemetery at Osiek (Jarocin county), there were discovered barrow grave relics. The area of 60 ares were excavated so far, containing 211 graves all of them cremation graves, mainly (80%) pit graves (Pawlak 2011). In 2007 barrow grave No. 5 was discovered. The coating of the barrow has not preserved. Only enclosing ditch, 11-12 m in diameter, filled with stones, which probably came from the coating of the barrow, was retained. In the central part of the barrow there was a grave pit, with the dimensions of 3,5 x 2,5 m (fig. 3). There were no human bones within the pit, but its luxurious character indicate that it was inhumation grave. The lack of the bones was probably caused by natural soil conditions, as well as remains damage in the later period.
Inventory grave included: mandible and tibia of the roe deer, pottery, bronze fibulas of type A2 and with animal head (fig. 4) as well as drinking horn with bronze ferrules in form of ox head (fig. 5), which were placed on the bunch of spadixes of Typha. Preserved dimensions of the relics of Typha concentration measured 20 x 30 cm. The using of Typha during ceremonies as well as its medicinal properties have not been mentioned in the available literature so far. Typha associates with the water environment, so it could have been placed beside the deceased as a symbol of the water and rituals of passing. It`s using could also have been determined by esthetical or practical reasons, connected with the physiology of death.