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Fig. 26. The profile and plan of the remains of Ihe south-ea&tem wali base of the tempie in Gross Raden. 1 - remnants of the first, destroyed building; 2 - remnants of the new building; A - sand filling under the fioor of the new building; B - sand filling under the fioor of the destroyed building; C - peat; D - a wali of the older building; E - the passage; F - a layer of stabilizing materia] around the building. AfLer E. Schuldt, 1985, p. 37.

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predecessors (SSS, vol. 6, 1977, p. 335-336), they must have occupied this territory for a long time. We can assume with high degree of probability that Gross Raden was their main cult centre at the turn of the lOth c. When the excavations were finished, an archaeological open-air museum was opened in the village.

In spite of sonie rather insignificant reservations concerning the dating of the Gross Raden complex and the division of its history in two phases (e.g. some researchers do not exclude the possibility that the stronghold and the building at the peninsula were contemporary with each other, cf. Herrmann, 1983; Zoll-Adamikova, 1989), it is impossible to overestimate the signiflcance of this discovery. The objection that the complex does not fulfill the category of recurrence, assumed by Makiewicz and Prinke (1981) as a necessary condition for an object to be considered as a place of cult, raised by M. DuLinicz and J. Łoźny (1987) was refuted after ex-cavations in Parchim.

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Fig. 27. Omamental anthroporaorphic planks from the front of the tempie wali in Gross Raden (selection); after E. Schuldt, 1985, p. 39.

Very soon after the discovery in Gross Raden, Horst Keiling (1980; 1982; 1984) found remains of a similar building, unfortunately preserved in a worse condition, near Parchim, which is situated within the area of old Varn settlements as well. Inside a fortified settlement from the llth-13thc., located in an island in the former (now completely overgrown) Lóddig lakę, he discovered an outline of a large building with sides orientated towards the four ąuarters of the world. Its walls, unlike the walls of the older hall from Gross Raden, were constructed of a single row of vertical poles. Also in this case no other constructions, apart from fortifications, intervened between the lakę shore and the large building (Becker, 1991). No traces of any intemal division or explicit remnants of roof-supporting pillars have been detected. Inside the hall there was a heap of Stones, interpreted as remains of an altar, which seems a rather far-fetched conclusion, and two not very distinct post-holes. Movable artifacts were represented by two pottery yessels, pincers for castrating horses, a key and two spearheads. North of the hall a horse skuli was found. As in Gross Raden, an obliąue path led to the narrow entrance in the western wali.

Some references to the sanctuary upon Loddig-See can be inferred from written sources. The incorporation document of Parchim, which was the Capital of one of Mecklemburg dukedoms in the 13th c., issued in 1225/1226 by Henry Borwin, Niklofs grandson, describes the area of the founded town as “the land devoted to the cult of demons” (MUB, vol. 1, 1863, no. 319, p. 311-313). In the 16thc. Mecklemburg erudites even invented a Slavonic god Parchum (Kuhl, 1962, p. 13). We also know the name of the settlement

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