River archaeology and the search for a harbour in Mikulčice

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081758%3A_____%2F19%3A00521444" target="_blank" >RIV/68081758:_____/19:00521444 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

River archaeology and the search for a harbour in Mikulčice

Original language description

Early medieval Mikulčice (Moravia, Czech Republic) used to be a prominent centre of Great Moravia. This 9th century AD power-political centre of the western Slavs was situated north of the central part of the River Danube. A typical characteristic of Great Moravia was the positioning of its main power centres in the floodplain of two great rivers, the Morava and Thaya. The centres were island strongholds built on hillocks above the rivers or between the many distributaries. The Mikulčice settlement agglomeration was originally located on several river islands. The fortified core of the agglomeration was protected by a continuous ring of - nowadays silted up - river channels. In the backfill of these distributaries, under the level of underground water, wooden constructions, anti-erosion barriers, palisades, and other water constructions were excavated. The wooden finds discovered during the excavations of the riverbeds provide a wider picture of the material culture of the Great Moravian centre and are absolutely unique in this area. Mikulčice is the only archaeological site in the Czech Republic where river archaeology has been employed systematically. Several large-scale excavations of riverbeds were conducted between 1964 and 1984. Revision and additional excavations of »riverbed 1« were conducted in 2012. At present, the evaluation of older excavations is carried out. As a tributary of the Danube, the River Morava was of significant geopolitical and economic importance to Great Moravia and the Mikulčice power centre. The importance of this transport and trade route is evidenced indirectly by written sources. The existence of navigation on the River Morava in the 9th century AD is a matter of course, it is evidenced by archaeological finds from Mikulčice, such as boats / logboats and paddles. It is highly likely that a river harbour in the area of the power centre existed in the 9th century AD. From among the areas of the Mikulčice river distributaries excavated so far, »riverbed 2« can be considered a likely location. The sluice gate and the adjoining protected area inside the stronghold do not rule out such an interpretation. The verification of this hypothesis depends on a future complex post-excavation analysis of the »riverbed 2« excavation area.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Inland harbours in Central Europe: Nodes between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea

ISBN

978-3-88467-318-8

ISSN

1862-4812

e-ISSN

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Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

179-189

Publisher name

Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums

Place of publication

Mainz

Event location

Dijon

Event date

Dec 1, 2016

Type of event by nationality

EUR - Evropská akce

UT code for WoS article

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