VIKING WARRIORS IN POLAND? OVERCOMING AN IDENTITY CRISIS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- Since the discovery of a richly furnished Viking Age weapon grave in the cemetery at Ciepłe in Pomerania in the year 1900, there has been an uncritical tendency among many Polish archaeologists to consider male graves with opulent goods and military equipment as belonging to Scandinavian warriors. To this day, numerous scholars are convinced that the people buried with lavishly decorated spurs and horse tack in the cemetery at Lutomiersk in Central Poland also came from Northern Europe or at least that they had strong connections with Scandinavia or Rus. The same conviction pertains to rich weapon graves from places like Luboń and Łubowo in Greater Poland. This paper will challenge these interpretations, demonstrating how the weak foundations they are built upon have led to serious misconceptions about social identities and cross-cultural interactions in the Viking Age. By re-analysing the most iconic graves from these sites, it will be demonstrated that their contents can provide fascinating insights not into Scandinavian but actually into West Slavic warrior identity. This interpretative shift can have serious implications not just for Polish archaeology but also for the understanding of the much wider Viking world.
Author(s): Gardela, Leszek (Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures, Bonn University; Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, Bergen University)
Excellent presentation of such an interesting topic to those of us of western Slavic ancestry. I've often wondered about if Polish warriors were participants in the Viking age of Europe. Paradigm shifts in archaeology regarding shifting interpretations of cultural identities challenging long held dogma is as much as a battle as the people you are studying. As a retired archaeologist, from my own experience I can say that what I was taught in college about many aspects of archaeological cultures were later re-evaluated and determined to be incorrect when new evidence emerged which challenged previously accepted paradigms. What I have discovered in my 40 years in my archaeological career is, that the more I learned about the archaeological record, the more I realized that we actually know so little about the past. Best wishes and keep working to set the record straight!
Excellent presentation, i never comment on youtube videos at all. but i have a polish background, the fact that we have had our identities mistaken for such a long time is exciting. i hope to see more presentations here and to see more information and evidence become more well known to the rest of the world and to me. Extremely interesting. Thankyou !
Wonderful lecture. Thank you.
Well well well. Considering at its closest northern Poland Baltic region is about a stones throw from Jutland it makes sense that Poles were more Viking than so called Rus or even Germans. Face facts Polish warrior history was always whitewashed to deny its very existence. Thank you Professor. Polish warriors sit in Valhalla not German or Rus.
R1a M458 L1029 Y chromosomes found in Viking graves, ×2 L1029 found in Cieple Viking Piast 938ad, a West Slavic chromosome. Don't rule out an "eastern connection" regarding the West Slavic Viking style from the Urals, looks like a Steppe Sarmatian, Scythian zoomorphic influence interaction in Eastern Europe, Schlachta! Looks Ostrogothic too! Ostrogoths are also regarded Scandinavian, Polish origin looks more likely from N. Poland where the Goths came from. Try your research skills for the Ostrogoths and you will see.
West Slavs and Norse are blood Brothers. Not Rus not German not Brits. Thank you Professor.
The Norse Vikings were decendants of Germanic tribes, they were very much northern German as well as Slavic.
There are several mentions of Slavic warriors following great kings like Olof Tryggvarson so not very suprisingly. He according to the sagas mounted assults from Vendlands against parts of Sweden and raiding so I do not find this new. I do not think vikings were against using foreign mercenaries as long as they obeyed the king. But overall the West slavs were never under the same level of domination as in Starya Ladoga. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_Age The vikings never dominated the Polish lands in the same way as in Russia or England. It is never mentioned that vikings conquered the Polish lands. But Rather the opposite the vends or poles are described as constant raiders against Scandinavia. But also Swedish king Erik Emundsson sometime early 900 ad conquered Russia or laid the foundation for it Danish king Cnut conqered England and Norway according to Heimskringla. But it never mentions Poland as a tributary under any Scandinavian king. Rather the alliance between poles, danes and swedes seem to be shifting all the time. quote Heimskringla
"Now, as ye know, the Danes have this summer become my men, so that when I am absent from the country it is without a head; and it is not unknown to you how it is ravaged by the people of Vindland (Poland), " quote Heimskringla
Earl Sigvalde was apparently a jarl from Poland that helped Olav Tryggvarson in his defence of Norway.
There are also examples of the Northmen going on raids in Poland but it never seem to be a tributary or under any Scandinavian king. Curonians, Finns, Estonians, Lithuanians and East slavs all described as the Upsal kings puppets. Some Jomsborg vikings in Prussia. But they most likely were very multicultural being a bunch of pirates with diverse ethnic backgrounds. Slavs, Scandinavians and Balts. Never is Poland mentioned as a vassal just that Swedes and Danes sometimes raided the place. But never anything permanent. Which most likely was also vice versa poles raiding in Sweden and Denmark.
The Vendland people, Kurland people, and others from the East countries,-who infested the Danish dominions; and he lay out with his ships of war both winter and summer.
The heathens took prisoner a young man of Danish family and carried him to Vendland
The poles tortured him severely; put him in a dark room,
in which there lay already sixteen Christian men; and bound him both with
iron and other tyings, as fast as they could. Then he began to think that
the misery and pain he had endured before were but shadows to his present
sufferings. He saw no man before his eyes in this prison who would beg for
mercy for him; no one had compassion on his wretchedness, except the
Christian men who lay bound with him, who sorrowed with him, and bemoaned
his fate together with their own misfortunes and helplessness. One day
they advised him to make a vow to the holy King Olaf, to devote himself to
some office in his sacred house, if he, by God's compassion and Saint
Olaf's prayers could get away from this prison. He gladly agreed to this,
and made a vow and prepared himself for the situation they mentioned to
him. The night after he thought in his sleep that he saw a man, not tall,
standing at his side, who spoke to him thus, "Here, thou wretched man, why
dost thou not get up?"
" Thirteen loaded merchant ships made ready to leave the town, intending to
proceed to Bergen; but eleven of them were lost, men and goods, and all
that was in them; the twelfth was lost also, but the people were saved,
although the cargo went to the bottom. At that time the priest Lopt went
north to Bergen, with all that belonged to him, and arrived safely. The
merchant vessels were lost on Saint Lawrence eve (August 10). The Danish
king Eirik and the Archbishop Assur, both sent notice to Konungahella to
keep watch on their town; and said the Vendish people had a great force
on foot with which they made war far around on Christian people, and
usually gained the victory "
Showing that the poles defnietly were not under any Scandinavian kingdom even thou the danes tried and won some battles against them. But also that the poles were frequently raided by Northmen sometimes succesfully.
This is the best comment I have ever seen.
In Poland lived Vagrians, not "Vikings" (should not be equated with Varangians who were simply a slavic tribe called Vagri, with their capital city of Stargard or "Old city"). With the unification with Ilmen Slovenes who built their capital city called Slovensk, with the center called Gorodishche, they moved their capital to Slovensk and renamed it into "Novgorod" or "New city" (Novo Gorodishche). Also in Ukraine, the city of Kiev was named after price Kiy which means "Scepter" still today in slavic langauges... His brothers were Shchek (later Czech), Horiv (could be Horvat or Croat) and sister Lybid or Libid or Labod or Labud (Swan)... Symbol of Kiev is also a swan, which was the symbol of goddess Zorya (in Vedas known as Saraswati (=Zorya Sveta; later "Sarah" or "Sara" in the Bible) or Danica (=Irish Danu; her symbol is also a swan; 3rd sister was btw called Severnitsa (Polaris star))... Also city of Ladoga (where were found so called "runes") was simply named after goddess Lada (Lady) , also known as Lad-Yaga (Yaga, like "Baba Jaga / Yaga"); Yag like "Ygdrasil"