Archaeologia Baltica

Ostrow Lednicki, an island situated in Lake Lednica between Gniezno and Poznań, is an important archaeological site from the period of the beginnings of the Polish state. In the tenth and 11th centuries, apart from Gniezno, Poznań and Giecz, the town, which has been preserved together with the remains of a stone palace, was one of the main towns of the state of Mieszko I and Bolesław I the Brave. The significance of Ostrow Lednicki in the Early Middle Ages is also emphasised by two bridges leading to the island, the Gniezno bridge from the east, and, the Poznań bridge from the west, which mark an important communication route in that period between Poznań and Gniezno. With the exception of towns, bridges like this were the largest engineering constructions of the epoch in the Slavic world. Systematic underwater studies of the remains of the bridges were undertaken in 1982, and have been carried out with intervals until today. In 2000 and 2001, the exploration of the west bridge was supported financially by the Foundation for Polish Science. It was concerned in particular with building a special apparatus for the conservation of movable monuments after excavating them during underwater studies in the area of the bridge’s location and found by means of metal detectors used in the close vicinity of the west bridge. These studies yielded a large number of artefacts, enriching our knowledge of the material culture of the Early Middle Ages. The military finds, consisting, so far, of over 150 axes and several dozen spearheads and javelins, are exceptionally important. This unique collection of military objects has no counterpart in European archaeology.