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was situated at Triglav’s Hill, where the prince’s manor was built as well. We should also place there “the elevated town square” called “the central market,” where the mould - “the pyramid” and the constructions connected with it, from which Otto preached to the crowd, stood (Banaszkiewicz, 1990). We can suppose that in that square, in front of the tempie, the prince’s manor and the mould, counselling assemblies and religious ceremo-nies, such as divination through Triglav’s horse, were held. Thus, it would be morę of an agora than of a market square.

The Lives mention the statues of Triglav. One of them, with three silvered heads joined to a breakable trunk, stood in the main tempie. The information that it was broken may suggest that it had been madę of stone or clay, but most probably it had been carved of wood. The golden statuę of Triglav - if we believe Ebo’s relation - must have been much smaller, though valuable. The existence of that type of statuettes has been coniirmed by archaeological finds of figures madę of wood or clay. A golden statuette, however, must have been worshiped in the tempie or a cult hall in a morę private atmosphere, which would point to the development of sophisticated forms of pagan devotion. The statues that were found somewhere by the Szczecinians when they abandoned Christianity might have come from the tempie deconstructed by Otto. We might even hypothesize that they were the anthropomorphic poles from the shrine exterior, as the elements of the old building incorporated into the new construction would provide continu-ity of cult. A similar action was performed by Thorolf, who transferred a pole from Thor’s tempie in Norway to Iceland. It was not a coincidence that in 1124 bishop Otto admonished the Szczecinians against building temples for idols. After the apostasy the priests promoted their reconstruc-tion and were not unsuccessful, as the relation from the 1128 mission again contains information about destroying temples (The Life from Prufening, II, 21; Ebo, III, 1; Herbord, III, 22). We do not know whether one of them was “a big house suitable (...) for counselling,” situated at Triglav’s Hill next to the prince’s manor, so quite near to the old tempie. In that place, facing the protesting pagan priests, Otto persuaded the nobles of Szczecin to accept Christianity again. In view of the opposition of the priests, who had some right to it, the nobles left the house and the decision about conversion was taken in front of its door (Ebo, III, 16; Herbord, III, 20; The Life from Prufening, III, 10). It was most probably a cult hall.

In the main tempie gold and silver pots were stored. They were used for divination and feasts. The information that the vessels were carried out of the tempie for banquets proves that the tempie was subject to a tabelo. Feasts were organized in cult halls and attended by nobles. The crowd was probably contented with the yard in front of the tempie. Other interesting tempie artifacts were aurochs homs used for drinking and playing, which indicates that musie had some role in the cult. It is worth noting that a lot of weapons were stored in the tempie.

The description of Szczecin oracie is the most elaborate relation concem-ing Slavonic horse divination (Słupecki, 1991c). The horse had to be sad-dled, which symbolized the divine presence. There is some interesting iconography relevant to the issue: smali bronze figures of saddled horses, found by archaeologists in Brandenburg and Wolin, which may present oractdar steeds (Grebe, 1969, p. 124; Filipowiak, 1955, p. 182). Triglav’s horse, as Herbord says, was bred at one of the temples, probably at the main shrine, as the analogies from Arcona and Radogość suggest. It was cared for by a special priest. Its saddle, richly adomed with gold and silver, described by The Life from Prufening and Ebo, was probably stored in Triglav’s tempie as one of the god’s insignia. Horse-divination was always accompanied by lot-casting. The mention about using gold and silver vessels for divination suggests that in Szczecin rituals similar to the ceremony of prophesying from Svantevit’s hora in Arcona were held.

The priests of Szczecin seem to be an organized group. In 1124 there were four of them, which corresponds to the number of temples and perhaps of hills, although Ebo was undecided whether there were three or four hills in Szczecin. Four temples and four priests is not an accidental arrangement. The division in four is the perfect way of organizing the life space of a people, apparent for instance from the description of the Lutizian Union, which comprised four tribes.

One of the priests took care of the oracular horse. He died faithful to the old religion, having rejected baptism. The others stepped out of Otto’s way, but fanned the pagan opposition outside the town. One of them, whose name is not mentioned, appears in the relations as the instigator and spiritus movens of the pagan reaction that took place after Otto's departure in 1124. Ali the Lives blame the priests in generał for the apostasy, but point to the special role of one of them, who tried to destroy St Adalbert’s church and then proposed the syncretic cult. In 1128 Otto’s main antagonist was thas person, the obese vir belial (deyilish man), obviously showing some charisma if he was able to oppose the unusual personality of the bishop of Bamberg. First he called the Szczecinians to cutting Otto in pieces and annihilating his companions, then he tried to organise an assassination (The Life from Prufening, III, 5, 8, 10; Ebo, III, 1, 16; Herbord, III, 16, 18). According to The Life from Prufening (III, 12) and Herbord (III, 24), he was rightly punished for that and he expired exactly at the moment when Otto was supposed to be murdered. We can assume that the priests who opposed Christianization were punished with death. The Lives surrounded the death of the pagan leader with an aura of miracle, but The Life from Prufening gives also a concrete detail: “The second of the priests, who approved of both the [planned] assassination of the bishop and other vile deeds, in a short time died a horrible death on a cross.” According to Helmold (I, 52, 84) it was a punishment commonly administered in Polabia, and reseryed for the worst criminals. According to Herbord (III, 24), the priest

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