image058

The building from Chodlik may be ascribed to the tribe of Lendzans or Vislanians, while the one from Lubomia to the Golęszyce tribe. No objects of that type have been attested in central Poland, which was the core of Piasts’ State.

Information about Ruthenian temples is limited to the mention about shrines destroyed by Vladimir which does not refer to any concrete location, and a vague mention about “Turova bozhnitsa” in Kiev (Ipatevskaya letopis, year 1146; cf. Rożniecki, 1901, p. 473). Several cases of constructions inter-preted as pagan temples have been discovered in Ruthenia, but the finds are not properly documented (Timoshtchuk, Rusanova, 1983, p. 165-172; 1984; 1986; 1988; Rusanova, 1986; 1992; Rybakov, 1987, p. 224-230, 250-251). In the territories of Southern Siavs no traces of temples have been found. The alleged remains of a shrine in Ptuj in Slovenia are not convincing, as they have been identified as a cult building by analogy to a plan of Arcona based on Schuchhardfs error (Korośec, 1948; cf. Gieysztor, 1982, p. 174; SSS, voL 4, p. 418).

The catalogue of finds is constantly supplemented with new objects. In Spandau, a part of Berlin, Adriaan von Muller (1986, p. 280-286) excavated a smali building erected in a depression between a stronghold and a settlement at the point where the Spree joins the Havel. It was built of wattle supported by poles. At its eastem wali a spearhead thrust into the ground, and at the south-westem coraer a figurę of duck was found. According to the archaeol-ogist, who did not present any documentation of the excavations, there was a sacrificial place inside. The building, dated to the mid lOth c., was destroyed, and substituted by a smali wooden church around 980.

The remnants of a supposed cult building from Góra Chełmska (Golenberg) near Koszalin (Janocha, 1974, p. 130-147; 1988) are too minutę to be studied seriously, while interpreting the traces of a stone construction discovered there as remains of a pagan tempie seems a misconception (V. Schmidt, 1993, p. 56-59). Most probably they are remnants of the Christian chapel that existed there. The alleged cult buildings from Hanfwerder and Usadel have been discussed above. Some interesting materiał is contained in the recently pub-lished (Filipowiak, 1993, p. 42-44) documentation of amateur excavations carried out in 1934 in Trzebawie (central Pomerania), which revealed a stone outline of a building sized 10 x 11 metres with traces of some construction inside. It was situated in a stronghold on a Woświn Lakę peninsula. The object is interpreted as a tempie. The pottery found there dates from the 10th-15th c. Certainly, the site should be reexamined in order to confirm the claim about the cult function of the building. It seems to have been a log construction, and that type of construction have not been attested among Slavonic sacred buildings, which were usually palisadę or framework constructions, leaving archaeologi-cally detectable traces. The latter types were used in the Scandinavian archi tec-ture of the relevant period (Ruszczyk, 1993), and known very well to the Slavs (Schuldt, 1988, p. 102-110).

119