The origins of the Polish state in new light

Abstract

Dendrochronological analyses undertaken in the 1990s allowed for the establishment of a new time-line in determining a more precise date for the origins of the Polish state. It appeared from these data that the creation of the Polish state occurred much later than it had been thought before. The formation of the early medieval state was initiated by vast and multi-faceted cultural changes occurring on the territory of the Gniezno plateau at the turn of the 9th and the 10th century. As the culminating point of that process, one can consider the consolidation of the local population in reaction to the threat posed by the outbreak of the great uprising of the Slavs along the Elbe River in 936-940.