Written sources in archaeology (on the exaple of research of Middle-age cities)

Abstract

Between the world wars and after WW II Greater Poland saw extensive archaeological research on strongholds from the times of early Piast rulers. Written sources were treated as chronological ‘indicators’ of the sites to be explored. One of the incentives was the upcoming millennium of the Polish state. In 1948 the Central Office for Museums and Monument Conservation initiated a research project concerning the early history of Poland, involving historians and archaeologists, coordinated by a specially appointed body, the Management of Research on the Beginnings of the Polish State. Both academic and organizational considerations facilitated a closer cooperation between historians and archaeologists at that time, which was particularly discernible in research on towns. Discussions with German scholars were initiated to investigate urbanization processes and Magdeburg-Law based colonization in Poland. Historians’ studies on the emergence of towns were supplemented with valuable archaeological and architectural data from excavations and conservation works, which expedited progress in research on urbanization in the area between the Rhine and the Elbe, and to the east of the Elbe.