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Biała Góra: the forgotten colony in the medieval Pomeranian-Prussian borderlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Aleksander Pluskowski ,
Zbigniew Sawicki ,
Lisa-Marie Shillito ,
Monika Badura ,
Daniel Makowiecki ,
Mirosława Zabilska-Kunek ,
Krish Seetah  and
Alexander Brown
Aleksander Pluskowski
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: a.g.pluskowski@reading.ac.uk; author for correspondence)
Zbigniew Sawicki
Affiliation:
2Muzeum Zamkowe w Malborku, Starościńska 1, 82-200 Malbork, Poland
Lisa-Marie Shillito
Affiliation:
3School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK
Monika Badura
Affiliation:
4Department of Plant Ecology, Laboratory of Palaeoecology and Archaeobotany, University of Gdańsk, Wita Stwosza 59, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland
Daniel Makowiecki
Affiliation:
5Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Mirosława Zabilska-Kunek
Affiliation:
5Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Szosa Bydgoska 44/48, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Krish Seetah
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: a.g.pluskowski@reading.ac.uk; author for correspondence) 6Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Main Quad, Building 50, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94035, USA
Alexander Brown
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AB, UK (Email: a.g.pluskowski@reading.ac.uk; author for correspondence)
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Abstract

Biała Góra 3 is a small settlement founded in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century AD in the disputed Christian borderlands of Northern Europe. The incorporation of Pomerania into the Polish state in the tenth century was followed by a process of colonisation across the lower Vistula valley, which then stalled before resuming in the thirteenth century under the Teutonic Order. Biała Góra 3 is unusual in falling between the two expansionist phases and provides detailed insight into the ethnicity and economy of this borderland community. Pottery and metalwork show strong links with both Pomeranian and German colonists, and caches of bricks and roof tiles indicate durable buildings of the kind associated with the monastic and military orders. Evidence for the presence of merchants suggests Biała Góra 3 was one of many outposts in the commercial network that shadowed the Crusades.

Keywords

Pomeranialower VistulaTeutonic OrderCrusadesGreywareethnicitydark earth
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 863 - 882
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

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