Late-mediaeval buildings in the eastern part of the city-quarter of Szczecin (Stettin) located on the Oder River. The stratigraphic analysis of the finds from the trench in quarter 6

Abstract

The influx of ethnically alien settlers to Szczecin (Stettin) in the mid-12th c. resulted in major changes in the town, witnessed already in the middle of the following century. The foun-dation of the chartered town in 1243 was just the written confirmation of previous developments, sanctioning the Magdeburg Law, which had probably been applied in the town informally. Until the mid-14th c. the basic structure of the municipal authorities had solidified, and the town had changed radically, in the social, economic and cultural spheres as well as in spatial planning. Yet, it has not been established so far whether the changes in the urban space structure resulted from a single decision or from a prolonged process. New light on this issue, crucial for the history of the town, was shed by large-scale excava-tions in the Old Town, carried out in the 1980s in connection with the reconstruction of the Podzamcze area (fig. 1). Excavations were also carried out at that time in the eastern part of the area, in a trench in quarter 6, between Rybaki Street, Mała Odrzańska Street, Środkowa Street and the Vegetable Market (fig. 2).The remains of cultural layers and buildings uncovered in that trench had earlier been described in an initial report, but a new stratigraphic analysis made it possible to revise the conclusion about the time of the changes induced by the functioning of the chartered town and to look anew at the dynamics of spatial planning in that part of mediaeval Szczecin. The changes took place within a relatively short period: from the mid-13th c. to the first half of the 14th c. This dating was based on the dendrochronological analysis of samples from wooden structures (fig. 1). The aforementioned stratigraphic analysis, confirmed by the dendrochrono-logical dating, made it possible to identify six phases of development after the foundation of the chartered town (fig. 3). Those data indicate that a new spatial arrangement emerged soon after the chartering of the town, in the fifth decade of the 13th c. The area was levelled at that time, and probably parcelled out anew. At least two building lots had been demarcated earlier, facing the Fish Market (later renamed the Vegetable Market). One of them was revealed in the southern part of the aforemen-tioned trench; for research purposes it was labelled 1A Vegetable Market. Within that lot, the works uncovered buildings marked 1A, 1B and 1D, and the supposed house no. 1C. Traces of the other lot, labelled 1B Vegetable Market, with building 1E, were found in the northern part of the trench. On the basis of the buildings revealed in those excavations, and a later Swedish cadastre, it is possible to hypothesize that the original plots were rectangles measuring c. 200 m2(c. 20 m × 10 m). The third plot revealed, 25 Środkowa St, was of a similar size.The findings concerning the time of the parcelling out of that area are convergent with the town charter of 1243 and with the results of research in other parts of this city-quarter. Therefore, it seems that a new parcelling had been planned together with the chartering of the town in the years 1237–1243. In the area on the Oder River, the plan was probably carried out in 1243 or slightly later, but still in the 1240s.