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THE PAST SOCIETIES. Polish lands from the first evidence of human presence to the Early Middle Ages

Project information

 

Project title: THE PAST SOCIETIES. Polish lands from the first evidence of human presence to the Early Middle Ages

Project No: 11H 11 0186 80

Project lead: Prof. dr hab. Przemysław Urbańczyk

Project lead, institutional: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Project financing: Research financed within the National Humanities Programme, a project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in 2012–2015

Contact:

e-mail: uprzemek@iaepan.edu.pl
phone (22) 620-28-81 do 86

Project implementation:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

 

 

Characteristics

 

The aim of the project is to write and publish a synthesis of the prehistory of Polish lands in English. It will be an up-to-date compendium of knowledge on cultural processes in the period from more than 0.5 million years ago, when the first settlers came to these lands, to the establishment of a stable state organization which around the year 1000 became an integral part of Latin Europe. In recent years, due to intensified excavations throughout the country, there has been a rapid increase in the number of new archaeological finds that led to many, often revelatory discoveries. There have been also considerable changes in archaeological research methods. They have been partly due to the development of the theoretical basis and methodological perspectives in the field which provided a new insight into both social and historical processes as well as the classification and chronology of available sources. Furthermore, our knowledge on all historical periods has fundamentally changed since “The Prehistory of Polish Lands” (1975-1979) was published. A new synthesis of the prehistory of Polish lands should go beyond offering a potential new classification and chronology of the past events and take up the challenge of presenting a new interpretation of this distant past. The resulting monograph will be addressed both to archaeologists and to representatives of other disciplines (mainly historians). The final result of the project will be a 5-volume book in English. It will be published as well in an electronic version (e-book).