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The groves, subject to taboo, bestowed their sanctity on all creatures that entered them, therefore asylum was sought there. Single trees were usually connected with springs. We know one example of an oak tree connected with a tempie, in Szczecin. There was also a bridge next to the nut-tree in this town, a construction that may have served cult purposes.

Least of the available Information concems worshiped waters. Only Glomać, surrounded with myths, is known as a separate sanctuary. As for rocks, nonę has been convincingly related to a shrine so far, but we know the role of enthroning Stones, originally situated in open fields, like the throne of Carinthian princes.

Sacred mountains were surrounded with stone walls lacking any military significance, which formed fuli or - as in Ślęża and Łysieć - semi-circles. The walls remain the only well-examined elements of mountain sanctuaries, except of a fire-place from Góra Puszcza, the sculptures from Ślęża, which are of unsettled provenance, and the constructions on the mountains Bok-hod and Zamczysko-Zvenigorod, which are still being explored.

Another type of special cult places, which have been left aside here so far, were burial grounds, located at the borders of the inhabited area, at some distance from human settlements, most often at the fringes of woods (Zoll-Adamikowa, 1979, vol. 2, p. 250). We have left out of the present discussion also the places of private cult: home and croft, as well as cross--roads, frontiers, field-borders and similar spots, which were always at-tributed special significance and inhabited by multitude of lower-rank spirits, worshiped in various ways. This area, like the problem of burial rituals, calls for a separate study.

Some shrines, regardless of their type, functioned as main cult centres of tribes, tribe unions or States. They could be temples (e.g. Arcona, Radogość, Szczecin), but also groves (Prove grove), water shrines (Glomać), sacred mountains (Ślęża) or open-air sanctuaries with idols (Kiev). The main sanctuaries often housed public oracles, which decided about the common affairs by lot and horse-divination. They were also scenes of the most important rituals, including human sacriflces: Vladimir celebrated the victory over the Jatvings by sacrificing some Varangians, chosen by lot, in Kiev. The tri-umph of the Abodrite uprising in 1066 was marked by offering the head of bishop John to Svarożic-Radogost. Human sacrifices in Ru gen are men-tioned in connection with the cult of Sventovit in Arcona.

We can try to delineate the spheres of dominance of some main shrines. In the cases of Arcona, Radogość and Szczecin they are delimited: firstly, by the area where the relevant deity was worshiped, enlarged sometimes by force, and secondly, by the extent of political authority of the priests, which was recognized at least by the tribes that participated in the all-nation assembly at the tempie yard, and temporarily by allied tribes (which may be inferred from the fact that bishop John, seized by Abodrites, was executed in Lutizian Radogość). Following K. Modzelewski (1987, p. 261) we should notę that foreign rulers “treated the leading pagan temples as subjects of intemational relations.” Thirdly, we should mention the sphere of the tempie^ fiscal influence. The main shrines had treasuries, which functioned as State financial resources, collecting the due share of spoils from the dependent tribes (in Rugen even a regular poll-tax), tributes from the dependent tribes, political gifts from allies, and offerings from the deity’s worshipers. The main tempie controlled sanctuaries of lesser rank, whose priests recog-nized its authority. Such tempie influenced the policy of the dependent tribes through divination. The media were horses led by priests, and in the case of the Abodrites a priest in oracular trance. Other methods of foretelling the futurę were lot-casting and divination from beverages. The cult of gods from supreme sanctuaries is sometimes remotely reflected in toponomastics (e.g. the stream Radegast and perhaps the village Trzygłów near Gryfice).

Many of those elements may be traced also in Vagria. Prove, worshiped in the grove near Starigard/Oldenburg, was regarded as the sovereign god of the country and his priest enjoyed the supreme authority. In front of the grove justice was administered, consequently it must have been the seat of counselling assembly. Such events cannot have taken place without the advice of the oracie. In Ruthenia the most important shrine was undoubted-ly the sanctuary of Perun in Kiev. The mention about Dobrynia, who erected a statuę of Perun in Novgorod by Vladimir’s order, may be regarded as a proof of Kiev’s supremacy in Ruthenia in religious matters. The fiscal role of temples, however, seem to have been limited to Polabia and Pomerania (Modzelewski, 1987, p. 263).

The main cult centres were simultaneously tribal capitals or places very close to them. Arcona was considered the Capital of the Rans. Radogość dominated among the Lutizens. There are no doubts about the primacy of Szczecin in the twelfth-century Pomerania, or of Kiev in the tenth--century Ruthenia. The grove of Prove grew at a short distance from Starigard/Oldenburg, Glomać lay near Gana, and Perynia was near Nov-gorod, the most important town of northem Ruthenia. Smaller tribes and towns had their own shrines as weli, those that joined tribal unions retained their sanctuaries. As the example of Kessiners and Zirzipans shows, such State of affairs could facilitate their emancipation from the overwhelming influence of the supreme tempie. The sanctuaries in Wolgast and Gutzkow seem to have been independent shrines belonging to smali towns. Abbot Herbert in De miraculis libri tres mentioned a statuę under a tree, which was the shrine of a smali village, supposedly situated in Rugen.

Written sources supply the following names of gods worshiped in temples: Sventovit (Arcona), Svarożic-Radogost (Radogość), Triglav (Szczecin), Rugevit, Porenut and Porevit (Garz), Gerovit (Wolgast) and Podaga (Plon). Some of them were accompanied by other, unnamed deities, among which we should notę the anonymous war goddess of the Lutizens. The god of Wolin is hidden behind the mask of Julius Caesar. In Kiev and Novgorod

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