The purpose of this paper is to review the idea of strongholds as church centres, put forward by Tadeusz Lalik in 1967. The paper also seeks to determine how advanced was the process of the Christianisation of the Polish lands in the second half of the tenth and throughout the eleventh centuries.

Eleventh-century cemetery in Morawy

This article deals with the issues of an 11th century grave field in Morawy village in Kuyavia. In the first Piasts times, the area was an integral part of the dynasty’s dominion. Discovered in the 1930s, the grave field is of great importance from the point of view of considerations of ethnically foreign settlement in Poland.

Konary and Kobylniki. The role and use of horses in the Piast realm

The paper on the role and use of horses in the Piast realm explores one of the key sectors in the Piast state’s economy. The studies on horse breeding in the early medieval Piast domain were based on the findings of history and archaeology.

Ruthenian influences in the Piast realm in the tenth and eleventh centuries in the context of interdisciplinary research on eastern Wielkopolska and Kujawy

This paper discusses the problem of Polish-Ruthenian contacts at an early stage of the Piast realm (from the rule of Mieszko I to the end of Mieszko II’s rule), focusing on the significance of written sources. It also looks at place names, possibly related to the Ruthenian population, and archaeological sources.

Northern (Scandinavian) and western influence in the centre of the first Piasts’ state

The article deals with the issues concerning an extent and nature of cultural contacts between the early Piasts’ populations and Scandinavia, as reflected by archaeological evidence. The contacts with Carolingian and Ottonian cultures were recorded in sociotopography of leading fortified settlements and also in reception of secular and sacral forms of pre-Romanesque architecture.