21.09.2014 change 21.09.2014

Large-scale archaeological research started near Grunwald

Large-scale archaeological research began in the vicinity of the village of Grunwald. The project objective is to locate the Great Stream Valley, where battle was fought in 1410, and find the traces of the battle.

On September 14, archaeologists and enthusiasts searching began for traces of the past in the area surrounding Lake Lubień. "We want our research to cover approx. 500 hectares of land, including fields, two lakes and the settlement. Time will tell if we succeed in this, but for now the weather on our side" - Director of the Museum of the Battle of Grunwald Szymon Drej said at the inaugural meeting of the search for the Great Stream Valley.

Museum workers obtained the permission to search the area from the regional conservation office in Olsztyn and the owners of the fields. "We did not have any problems, which clearly shows that they appreciate the importance of the Battle of Grunwald in Polish history" - said Drej.

The work of archaeologists and explorers from several countries is supervised by an archaeologist from the University of Łódź, Dr. Piotr Nowakowski. He told PAP that the search area had been selected also on the basis of descriptions of Jan Dlugosz.

"It will not be a classic archaeological search using shovels, although we will use these as well. We will search the area using tools including metal detectors and scanners, we also plan to take pictures using a drone" - said Nowakowski, who participated in the search projects in Grunwald as a teenager, when his father headed the archaeological work in Grunwald.

The methodology of this year\'s research will include transferring all the information obtained during fieldwork to a mobile center on a regular basis, where the information will be assessed and verified.

Participants in the research projects include archaeologists, historians, metal detector surveyors and students from Poland, Denmark, Norway, the UK and Lithuania. The core of the group are members of the Danish association Harja. This is one of the oldest and most experienced of such groups not only in Denmark, but also in Europe. Founded in 1971, it brings together more than one hundred experienced members. Once a year, the group carries a large research expedition, called Bifrost.

President of Harja Abramsson Glenn said that the members of the expedition to Poland are the most experienced members of the group, who have been preparing for this since last year: studying literature, maps and materials provided by the museum. "It is no secret that we are joining this project hoping to find artifacts related to the battle" - admitted Abramsson.

At the inaugural meeting, historian from the University of Warmia and Mazury Prof. Jan Gancewski told PAP that a number of positive surprises can be expected, because a large part of the area to be covered by exploration had never been searched. "Previous studies were carried out in other areas, using different methods" - said Prof. Gancewski and added that the prevailing soil conditions (sand and withered bogs) give a good chance to preserve the objects remaining after the battle in good condition.

Fields of Grunwald have been studied by archaeologists in the past; the studies started in 1958 in connection with the 550th anniversary of the battle. In the 1960s, about 200 skeletons were discovered in the vicinity of the Teutonic chapel. They had traces of injuries. Some of the discovered remains came from secondary burials, they were transferred from other places. They were probably the remains found over time on the battlefield during field work and moved to the "consecrated ground" in the vicinity of the chapel.

Because during the communist era soldiers "helped" in the excavations, many finds ended up in their hands. Employees of the Grunwald museum recently received a phone call from a widow, who said that at home she had "metal junk brought by her husband from Grunwald", but she did not give these objects to the museum.

Recently Paweł Grochowski, who worked with a metal detector near Grunwald, found a battle ax that Dr. Nowakowski dated to XIV-XV century. Grochowski donated the find to the Grunwald museum.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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