Wolin. The Old Town I. Settlement Structure, Stratigraphy & Chronology

The town of Wolin has for several decades occupied a special place in the historiography of the early Middle Ages of northern Europe, especially the Baltic region. One can even say that this small town located in the Oder estuary has even become a historiographic myth. The reasons for this phenomenon are quite easy to explain. The first of these is the rich archaeological discoveries that have been taking place in Wolin for a long time. Initially, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they were made accidentally, and from the second half of the nineteenth century various archaeological excavations were carried out. At the beginning, before World War II conducted by German researchers, and since then by Polish researchers, they have actually continued, with some interruptions, up to the present day.



The second reason for the specific mythologisation of Wolin has its roots in the acceptance by most of the scientific community of the hypotheses that connect the archaeological sites of Wolin with two legendary sites (toponyms) recorded in medieval records: the sunken city of Iumne/Vineta and the mythical Jomsborg.



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