fieldwork.
The Medieval Cemetery at Żelewo
Several collaborators from the Bezławki field program (see below) have begun a new bioarchaeology field school at the site of Żelewo in Northwest Poland in 2023.
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The site of Żelewo is located in the medieval region of Western Pomerania. This was one of the first regions of contact between the Western Slavic people (who would become part of the Polish State) and Germanic settlers.
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The region of Western Pomerania was occupied by Germans during WWII, where families were displaced and historical connections to their land were severed. Landscapes and other points of memory for Polish people were altered to destroy regional identity. A large part of our work in Żelewo focuses on supporting Polish community members in reconnecting to this region.
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Little is known about the site of Żelewo itself. It is located on a hill overlooking Lake Miedwie near a medieval monastery associated with the Cistercian Order. Monks at this site ran an apiary, and excelled at agricultural innovation. Evidence from our first season at the site indicates occupation during the paleolithic, Roman, and Medieval Periods.
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The goal of our bioarchaeological investigations at this site is guided by community interest, as well as a general focus on human-environment interactions across the various occupations of the site.
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Get more information and join us in the field here!
2014-2018: The Late-Medieval Cemetery at Bezławki
(mid-14th to mid-15th c.)
The Bezławki archaeological site is a late Medieval (mid-14th to mid-15th c.) cemetery in what is today North-East Poland. During the Medieval period, this region was home to the Old Prussians, a group of indigenous tribes living around the Baltic. The Old Prussians were some of the last indigenous people of Europe prior to their colonization and conversion by the Teutonic Order. The cemetery at Bezławki dates to the time period surrounding this colonization event, and thus provides unique insight into the heterogeneous experiences of Old Prussian individuals during this time of extreme transition.
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The goal of the Bezławki Bioarchaeology Project has been to better understand the history and life ways of the region and its people through an investigation of the mortuary site. This project stems from years of previous archaeological work on the nearby Medieval castle and surrounding area. It has been an international collaboration between archaeologists and osteologists through the Slavia Foundation, the University of Gdańsk, Poland, and Humboldt State University, CA, USA. We have been honored to be welcomed by the local community, and look forward to continued research collaborations for years to come.
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The cemetery at Bezławki is a unique site with hundreds of burials, including single and multiple burials of adults, and a large number of juveniles and infants. Old Prussian burial sites are rare to find intact, and so a main goal of this project is analyze burial practices and osteological remains to illuminate the unique features of Prussian life and death.
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From 2014-2018 Bezławki and the nearby village of Wilcowo hosted the Bezławki Bioarcheology Field School. Over these years, the program trained roughly 100 undergraduate and graduate students from across the US in bioarchaeological methods and theory. We are forever grateful for the hospitality of the people of Wilcowo, Bezlawki, and surrounding areas. Their passion for understanding the past of their region has been a joy to experience.
