Archeologia wobec przełomu cywilizacyjnego w XIV-wiecznej Polsce

Abstract

In the cultural development o f humanity, the long-lasting periods o f social stabilization were interrupted by turning events. The concepts o f continuity and change o f tradition are central for archaeology, enabling research on the historical dynamics o f civilization. The most significant global turning points are even called revolutions: agricultural, urban, and industrial. The rapid transformations taking place in the lands o f Poland in the thirte en th and fourteenth centuries are sometimes also called revolutionary. The changes involved n o t only the materiał culture and handicraft technologies in the strict sense bu t also the whole area of culture, including the architectural landscape o f towns and stone strongholds. Historical archeology has a specific approach to the civilization breakthrough in fourteenth-century Poland. The approach concerns some new categories o f archaeological sources and the development o f new research specializations rather than the synthesis o f cultural phenomena. The new diverse fields are taken into consideration: archaeology o f towns, castles, late medieval pottery, and obseąuies. The late Middle Ages in particular archaeology compares the results o f its research with historical sources th a t were n o t accessible to this extent in the older periods. Considering that, the ąuestion arises whether archaeologists who deal with the late Middle Ages can reach eąually essential model Solutions as the pre-historians - using anthropological theories and the methodology o f social research - have already had for a long time.