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Fig. 22. The location of the stronghold in Gross Raden. 1 - the stronghold in Gross Grónow; 2 - the stronghold in Gross Raden; 3 - the Sternberger Burg stronghold; 4 - Slavonic settlements on the islands on Trennten lakę. After E. Schuldt, 1985, p. 6.

omamental anthropomorphic planks, toppcd with schematic images of heads. Morę than fifty have survived, while the whole construction contained probably over a hundred. Together with other discovered fragments the planks can be combined into a reconstruction of a fragment of the double wali of the original building, whose face was madę up of the anthropomorphic planks. The walls of the second house consisted of a single row of boards.

Fig. 23. Gross Raden. A scheraatic plan of the settlement in phase A; after J. Herrroann, 1983, p. 254.

The building from Gross Raden should be interpreted as a cult hall or tempie. No traces of dwelling or any secular usage have been found there. No fireplaces have been revealed. Neither statues nor their remnants have been discovered, which however, does not necessarily mean that such objects did not exist there. No proof of any division within this huge building is conspicuous. The plan of the house lacks any hollows left by pillars, which must have supported the roof. The building probably had a roof, which may be inferred from the existence of a five-metre-long beam that might have originally supported the roof, and was later used in paving the road to the new tempie. The artifacts found in the site include a uniąue day cup, six horse skulls and a buli skuli, those from the neighbourhood - two spear-heads, a wooden handle of a shield and an etching needle for writing (Schuldt, 1985; Voss, 1991). In another interpretation, which is interesting but less probable, the building from Gross Raden and a similar object from Parchim are reconstructed as enclosures constructed of anthropomorphic planks without roofs (Gabriel 1992), which would resemble the decorative fence around the yard (atrium) of the Prove grove in Vagria, mentioned by Helmold (I, 84). Such a type of yard (this time called yestibulium) is also mentioned in the descriptions of the temples in Arcona and Garz (Saxo Grammaticus, XIV, p. 822-823, 827, 841-842).

In Schuldfs opinion (1985) in the initial phase of the settlemenfs exist-ence some huts were situated on an island, which is nowadays a part of the

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