The first academic book concerning the most interesting archaeological discoveries of Medieval date (6th-mid 13th centuries) in Poland. The book is meant mainly for students, archaeologists and historians. It will also interest a wider audience interested in the history and archaeology of central Europe.

Bodzia is one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of the post-war period in Poland. It is one of the few cemeteries in Poland from the time of the origins of the Polish state. The unique character of this discovery is mainly due to the fact that a small, elite population was buried there. The burials there included people whose origins were connected with the Slavic, Nomadic-Khazarian and Scandinavian milieus. For the first time the evidence from this area is given prominence. This book is designed mainly for readers outside Poland. The reader is offered a collection of chapters, combining analyses and syntheses of the source material, and a discussion of its etno-cultural and political significance. The authors formulate new hypotheses and ideas, which put the discoveries in a broader European context. Contributors are Wiesław Bogdanowicz, Mateusz Bogucki, Andrzej Buko, Magdalena M. Buś, Maria Dekówna, Alicja Drozd-Lipińska, Władysław Duczko, Karin Margarita Frei, Tomasz Goslar, Tomasz Grzybowski, Zdzisław Hensel, Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke, Michał Kara, Joanna Koszałka, Anna B. Kowalska, Tomasz Kozłowski, Marek Krąpiec, Roman Michałowski, Michael Müller-Wille, T. Douglas Price, Tomasz Purowski, Tomasz Sawicki, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Stanisław Suchodolski and Kinga Zamelska-Monczak.

This volume is the first comprehensive study of the material imprint of slavery in early medieval Europe. While written sources attest to the ubiquity of slavery and slave trade in early medieval British Isles, Scandinavia and Slavic lands, it is still difficult to find material traces of this reality, other than the hundreds of thousands of Islamic coins paid in exchange for the northern European slaves. This volume offers the first structured reflection on how to bridge this gap. It reviews the types of material evidence that can be associated with the institution of slavery and the slave trade in early medieval northern Europe, from individual objects (such as e.g. shackles) to more comprehensive landscape approaches. The book is divided into four sections. The first presents the analytical tools developed in Africa and prehistoric Europe to identify and describe social phenomena associated with slavery and the slave trade. The following three section review the three main cultural zones of early medieval northern Europe: the British Isles, Scandinavia, and Slavic central Europe. The contributions offer methodological reflections on the concept of the archaeology of slavery. They emphasize that the material record, by its nature, admits multiple interpretations. More broadly, this book comes at a time when the history of slavery is being integrated into academic syllabi in most western countries. The collection of studies contributes to a more nuanced perspective on this important and controversial topic. This volume appeals to multiple audiences interested in comparative and global studies of slavery, and will constitute the point of reference for future debates.

The papers in this volume, which were presented in 2011, at the first conference the British Archaeological Association held in Poland, explore the medieval art, architecture and archaeology of the city of Cracow and the surrounding region of Lesser Poland, as well as venturing into southern Silesia and the Baltic coast of the country.

This volume deals with the neglected problem of the Olsztyn Group. The prosperity and long-distance contact revealed by this cemetery shows that the West Baltic tribes had considerable influence in early medieval Europe, much more than scholars had been ready to admit until now.