Prehistory and protohistory of Poland

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Prehistory and protohistory
Middle Ages
Piast period10th century–1385
Jagiellonian period1385–1572
Early Modern
Early elective monarchy1572–1648
Deluge and decline1648–1764
Three partitions1764–1795
Modern
Partitioned Poland1795–1918
World War I1914–1918
Second Republic1918–1939
World War II1939–1945
Communist Poland1945–1989
Contemporary
Third Republic1989–present

Timeline of Polish history

The prehistory and protohistory of Poland can be traced from the first appearance of Homo species on the territory of modern-day Poland, to the establishment of the Polish state in the 10th century AD, a span of roughly 500,000 years.

The area of present-day Poland went through the stages of socio-technical development known as the

fortified settlement. As ancient civilizations began to appear in southern and western Europe, the cultures
of the area of present-day Poland were influenced by them to various degrees.

Among the peoples that inhabited various parts of Poland up to the Iron Age stage of development were

Germanic, Sarmatian, Roman, Avar, Vlach and Baltic tribes. In the Early Middle Ages, the area came to be dominated by West Slavic tribes and finally became home to a number of Lechitic Polish tribes
that formed small states in the region beginning in the 8th century.

Historiography

As with other early periods areas of

Mieszko I, converted to Christianity and educated foreign clerics arrived.[1]

Stone Age

Main article: Stone-Age Poland

Poland's Stone Age is divided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.

The Paleolithic era extended from c. 500,000 BC to 8,000 BC and is subdivided into four periods: the Lower Paleolithic, c. 500,000 to 350,000 BC; the Middle Paleolithic, c. 350,000 to 40,000 BC; the Upper Paleolithic, c. 40,000 to 10,000 BC; and the Final Paleolithic, c. 10,000 to 8000 BC.

The Mesolithic era lasted from c. 8000 to 5500 BC and the Neolithic from c. 5500 to 2300 BC.

The Neolithic is subdivided into the Neolithic proper, c. 5500 – 2900 BC, and the

Copper Age, c. 2900 – 2300 BC.[2]

Poland's Stone Age lasted approximately 500,000 years and saw the appearance of three distinct

humans). The Stone Age cultures ranged from early human groups with primitive tools to advanced agricultural and stratified societies that used sophisticated stone tools, built fortified settlements and developed copper metallurgy
.

As elsewhere in Central Europe, the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic stages of Poland's Stone Age were each characterized by refinements in stone-tool-making techniques. Paleolithic human activities (whose earliest sites are 500,000 years old) were intermittent because of recurring glaciations. A general climate warming and a resulting increase in ecologic diversity were characteristic of the Mesolithic era (9000–8000 BC).

The Neolithic era ushered in the first settled agricultural communities, whose founders had migrated from the

Danube River area beginning about 5500 BC. Later, the native post-Mesolithic populations would also adopt and further develop the agricultural way of life (between 4400 and about 2000 BC).[3]

Bronze and Iron Ages

Main article: Bronze- and Iron-Age Poland

Poland's Bronze Age comprised Period I, c. 2300–1600 BC; Period II, c. 1600–1350 BC; Period III, c. 1350–1100 BC; Period IV, c. 1100–900 BC; and Period V, c. 900–700 BC. The Early Iron Age included Hallstatt Period C, c. 700–600 BC, and Hallstatt Period D, c. 600–450 BC.[2]

Reconstructed Biskupin

Poland's Bronze- and Iron-Age cultures are known mainly from

gród) that represented early-Iron-Age Lusatian culture.[6]

Bronze objects were brought to Poland around 2300 BC from the

Unetice culture in western Poland and the conservative Mierzanowice culture in eastern Poland. These were replaced in their respective territories for the duration of the subsequent Older Bronze Period by the (pre-Lusatian) Tumulus culture and the Trzciniec culture
.

Characteristic of the remaining bronze periods were the

Kurgan culture dominated Poland's Masuria-Warmia region.[7][8]

Antiquity

Main article: Poland in antiquity

The period of the

Slavic) Migration Period.[2]

Peoples belonging to numerous

ethnic composition of archeological cultures is often poorly recognized. Short of using a written language to any appreciable degree, many of them developed a relatively advanced material culture and social organization, as evidenced by the archeological record, for example by richly furnished, dynastic "princely" graves. Characteristic of this period were high rates of migration, often involving large groups of people.[12]

Celtic peoples established settlements beginning in the early 4th century BC, mostly in southern Poland, the outer limit of their expansion, as representatives of the La Tène culture. With their developed economy and crafts, they exerted a lasting cultural influence disproportionate to their small numbers in the region.[13]

Germanic peoples lived in what is now Poland for several centuries, during which many of their tribes also migrated southward and eastward (see Wielbark culture). With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes came under Roman cultural influence. Some written remarks by Roman authors that are relevant to developments on Polish lands have been preserved; they provide additional insights in conjunction with the archeological record. In the end, as the Roman Empire was nearing its collapse and the nomadic peoples invading from the east destroyed, damaged or destabilized the various Germanic cultures and societies, the Germanic peoples left Eastern and Central Europe for the safer and wealthier southern and western parts of the European continent.[14] According to Tacitus and Ptolemy, the Goths left the lower Vistula region in the mid-2nd century AD.[15]

The northeast corner of what is now Poland remained populated by Baltic tribes. They were at the outer limits of any substantial cultural influence from the Roman Empire.[16]

Slavic peoples may have lived in the southern and southeastern regions, some perhaps associated with the ancient Przeworsk and Zarubintsy cultures of the 3rd century BC[17][18] (with the Przeworsk culture being considered likely of Slavic or of mixed Slavic and Germanic origin[19][20][21]). It has been suggested that the early Slavic peoples and languages may have originated in the region of Polesia, which includes the area around the Belarus–Ukraine border, parts of Western Russia, and parts of far Eastern Poland.[11] More of Poland would be settled by Slavic tribes in later periods, in the early centuries of the common era.

See also

References

  1. ^ Archeologia Żywa (Living Archeology), special English issue 2005; a publication commissioned by the Centre for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage in Warsaw
  2. ^
    ISBN 83-08-02855-1
    .
  3. ISBN 83-7023-954-4
    , pp. 8-53.
  4. ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 55, Sławomir Kadrow
  5. ^ U źródeł Polski, p. 68, Bogusław Gediga.
  6. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 54-85.
  7. ^ Kalendarium dziejów Polski (Chronology of Polish History), ed. Andrzej Chwalba, pp. 10-11, Jacek Poleski.
  8. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 54-83, Sławomir Kadrow, Bogusław Gediga.
  9. doi:10.1163/187633004x00116
    .
  10. ^ Trubačev, O. N. 1985. Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics. Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES), 13: 203–256.
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-0-521-36291-7
    .
  12. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 86-121.
  13. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 86-93.
  14. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 94-115.
  15. ^ Lampe, G. W. (1975). "The vernacular scriptures. The Gothic Bible.". The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 2, The West from the Fathers to the Reformation. Cambridge University Press. p. 338.
  16. ^ U źródeł Polski, pp. 116-119.
  17. doi:10.1163/187633004x00116
    .
  18. ^ Trubačev, O. N. 1985. Linguistics and Ethnogenesis of the Slavs: The Ancient Slavs as Evidenced by Etymology and Onomastics. Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES), 13: 203–256.
  19. ISBN 1-884964-98-2
    .
  20. ^ "Land and People, p.25" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2007. Retrieved July 30, 2005.
  21. ^ Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia. New York 2013. The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic. "The Przeworsk Culture has most often been considered to be Germanic or of mixed Slavic and Germanic nature." Page 64.

Further reading

Main article: Bibliography of the history of Poland

External links

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