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reached Romę. Perhaps the last tracę of Sventovit’s treasure can be found in the testament of bishop Absaion, who died in 1201 and bequeathed “two cups of Rans’ idols,” un-doubtedly madę of pretious metals, to a relative (PUB, vol. 1, No 139). They cannot, however, be identified with fuli certainty as part of the Arcona treasury; altough that treasury, was most important, by no means was it the only tempie treasure on the island.

Archaeological data seem rather limited if compared with the rich writ-ten sources, but they should not be neglected. First excavations in Arcona were undertaken in the 1860s (Baier, 1872). In 1921 Carl Schuchhardt Fig. 7. Schuchhardfs reconstructed plan of (1926, p. 13—24) after three weeks of the stronghold in Arcona; C. Schuchhardt, excavations announced that he had 1926, p. 19.    found the remains of Sventovit’s tem

Fig. 8. The alleged remains of the tempie in Arcona discovered in 1921; C. Schuchhardt, 1926, p. 21.

pie. Some time later W. Petzsch and G. Martiny (1930) excavated the remains of the stronghold’s only gate. The excavations carried out in the years 1969-1971 by H. Berlekamp (1974) and J. Herrmann (1974) falsified Schuchhartd’s claims. The alleged traces of the tempie were actually the remains of the stronghold’s internal rampart. It tumed out that the area where the tempie really used to stand had long before tumbled down to the sea, eroded by waves. It was not the only conclusion of the investigation.

It was proved that the beginnings of Arcona went back to the first half of the 9th century. At that time an embankment constructed of timber and earth, accompanied by a moat, was built. Its remnants were inter-preted by C. Schuchhartd as the foun-dations of the tempie. It is uncertain whether the extemal embankment, preserved until now, comes from the same time, but it was undoubtedly erected before the mid lOthc. At the tum of the llthc. the internal

Fig. 9. A possible reconstruction of the gate in Arcona (based on Petzsch and Martiny’s excavations); W. Petzsch, G. Martiny, 1930, p. 263, cf. ibid. p. 242, 243, 2S4 - plans and profiles of the gate and the rampart)

embankment was levelled and the extemal one heightened. The tempie area was supposedly separated from the rest of the town with the hollow left by the former internal embankment moat. Between the embankments there were disorderly situated houses. An analysis of the excavated animal bones (H.-H. Muller, 1974, 1980) showed that the inhabitants ate mainly young livestock, which was usually slaughtered in autumn. As we remember, according to Saxo Grammaticus, it was the season when a great celebration was organized in Arcona to worship Sventovit. Apart from animal bones some human ones were found, among them skulls with signs of injuries, which, according to H. Berlekamp, proves that people were really sacrificed to Sventovit.

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