Report on an academic conference Archaeological and historical confrontations, “In search of the origins of the Slavs”, Dziekanowice, 27–28 June 2024

Report on a national academic conference entitled “Student-Doctoral Congress of History Didactics »Contemporary challenges of history education«”, Poznań 9–10 May 2024

Once again on the “double” zbruch border, i.e. the answer to Serhiy Humenny’s “Open letter”, published in HSO 2024, No. 2

The challenges and prospects of community archaeology in Poland based on the book „Community Archaeology – Learning About the Past, Not Forgetting About the Present” edited by Kornelia Kajda, Dawid Kobiałka, and Arkadiusz Marciniak

In the book described here, its authors address the issues of protecting and popularising archaeological heritage. With contributions from 14 authors across 10 chapters, the book discusses the theoretical aspects and examines Polish experiences of relations between archaeologists and local communities. The topics include depopulation of villages, reconciling with the heritage of former adversaries, and exhuming World War II mass graves. Long-term cooperation between archaeologists and communities started in Poland before the term „community archaeology” was coined. Community archaeology has a practical dimension for society, and can meet the challenges of the modern world. This is, after all, a story of its emergence as a science. Today, archaeology can address challenges such as economic problems by increasing archaeo-tourism; lack of attachment to the local heritage through education and raising awareness, especially in rural areas and the so-called Recovered Territories; and as therapy on an individual, local or national scale to recover from crises and work through difficult chapters of history.

Social and cultural activity of Poles in the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia (Grenzmark Posen Westpreusen) between 1933 and 1939

The article presents social and cultural activities taking place in the Frontier March of PosenWest Prussia (Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen, Borderland) which operated between 1922 and 1938 in the first, short period of the existence of the Third German Reich – until the outbreak of World War II (1933–1939). The paper discusses the activities of various Polish organizations and institutions in the Nazi German state, including people’s banks, farming organizations, minority schools, scout troops, libraries, community centres, music institutions, and sports clubs. Although the Third Reich was a nationalist and totalitarian state, these organisations and institutions were allowed because the Third Reich pretended to be in good relations with the Republic of Poland. After the outbreak of the war between the two countries in September 1939, any separate socio-political and cultural activity of Poles in Germany, including the Borderland, was banned, and all the institutions and organisations presented in the article were dissolved.

The Minsk Agricultural Society as an organizer of food aid for the rural population in 1907–1908

A crop failure in the Minsk governorate in 1906 caused famine in the districts of Barysaw, Mazyr, Pinsk, Rechytsa, and Slutsk. The article presents a little-known fragment of the history of the Minsk Agricultural Society from 1907–1908, when Polish landowners organized food aid for starving peasants. It was their own initiative, non-commercial, philanthropic, and independent from the state authorities. The landowners bought over 950 tons of rye in southern Russia and Siberia with their own money, transported it to the Minsk governorate and sold it to the peasants at purchase prices. For this purpose, they had to organize special committees dealing with the distribution of rye in the districts. The grain they supplied was cheaper and of better quality than grain imported by state institutions (zemstvo), therefore the peasants preferred to buy rye from the landowners’ committees. The food aid for peasants showed how well Polish landowners were organised and how effective this type of activity was.

The circumstances of writing and publishing “Diadochos” by Bartłomiej Paprocki

In July 1602 in Prague, under the patronage of Emperor Rudolf II, Bartłomiej Paprocki published “Diadochos” , the greatest book written in exile, devoted to the history and nobility of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Paprocki’s experiences while preparing his work were similar to what he experienced while working in Poland. Intrigues by Czech elites to discredit Paprocki led to the withdrawal of the patronage in 1597. Among Paprocki’s opponents was Jiři Bořita of Martinice, the Supreme Chancellor of the Kingdom of Bohemia. After his death in 1598, the opportunities for Paprocki arose again. In 1600, the Archbishop of Prague, Zbyňek Berka of Dubé, suspended the publication of the first volume of the Czech Chronicle. Paprocki won him over by dedicating a work entitled “Ecclesia” to him. He dedicated similar texts to representatives of powerful Czech families to win their approval of his work.

Late Romanesque crypt under the presbytery of the Dominican church in Krakow in the light of archaeological and architectural research

In 2010–2011, archaeological and architectural research was carried out in the crypt room located under the eastern part of the presbytery of the Dominican church in Krakow. The crypt is among atypical architectural solutions adopted in the earliest 13th-century churches of preachers. In fact, the only parallel (and highly presumed) structure may be a possible crypt reconstructed on the basis of an analysis of the differences in the usable levels of the chancel and nave, and the very residually preserved architectural elements that have been identified in the western part of the chancel of the Dominican church in Wrocław. Research on the crypt also made it possible to determine the mutual stratigraphic relations between the individual elements of the spatial system of the Dominican complex. The research results clearly showed that the crypt under the presbytery is not only the oldest element of the monastery’s spatial structure but also one of the first architectural structures in Krakow built from new building material, namely ceramic brick, in the second quarter of the 13th century. The research findings supported by historical sources also allowed to formulate hypotheses regarding the purpose of the crypt and its subsequent transformations.

Three three-apse transept-less basilicas in early Piast Poland. Searching for the source of the inspiration

When deciding on an architectural design for his project, the founder of a church could refer to quite a repertoire of models developed within Christianity over the centuries. Among them were more prestigious models and ones that enjoyed less recognition; those dating back to antiquity and those that developed quite recently. In the 2nd half of the 11th century, Casimir the Restorer and his son Bolesław founded the cathedral in Gniezno, and two Benedictine basilicas in Lubiń and Tyniec. They were built based on a plan of a transept-less three apse basilica. The builders of the Piast churches drew artistic models directly from the imperial architecture of the Rhineland, Lorraine and Saxony. The Benedictine monastic community played an important role in this process. Polish churches of that time are filled with quotations from their architecture. By combining an analysis of written sources with historical and artistic retrospection of the occurrence of this architectural model in Europe, the author attempts to determine where this type of architectural concept could have reached the Piast court around the mid-11th century and who could have been the intermediary in its transfer to Poland.

Sexuality of the inhabitants of 12th-century Ruthenia in the light of “The Life of (St) Moses the Hungarian”

As a research issue, sexuality of Ruthenians in the Middle Ages has not aroused special interest of medievalists. In historiography, considerations of the mentioned issue appeared marginally in works devoted to the institution of marriage, and in studies on the development of canon law. The aim of the article on „Sexuality of the inhabitants of 12th-century Ruthenia in the light of »The Life of (St) Moses the Hungarian«” is to analyse intimate life in Ruthenia in the pre-Mongol period in the light of „The Life of (St) Moses the Hungarian”. The juxtaposition of the mentioned hagiographic work with its plot almost entirely set in the context of sexual behaviour, with other Old Russian writings (both normative and narrative in nature) has led to a conclusion that Old Russian customs were not only the result of local tradition and the effect of adopting Byzantine legal norms, but that contacts with Latin Europe also played an important role. The close family affinities of the Rurikids with other European dynasties, the influx of people from the Latin cultural milieu into the local elite, were conducive to the persistence of phenomena considered in literature on the subject to be typical of the Latin culture.