What insights can archeology provide to understand the emergence of a state? This fundamental question is at the center of the study, which deals with the formation of the Duchy of Pomerania—a research topic that historians have not yet been able to satisfactorily clarify due to the lack of written evidence. It was not until the missionary journeys of Bishop Otto of Bamberg in the early twelfth century that a quantitative and qualitative increase in documentary records took place. In order to shed further light on the genesis of the Pomeranian state, Marian Rębkowski, director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, therefore critically examines the archeological sources and places them alongside the scarce and fragmentary written information. Pomerania, which lies on the southern Baltic coast, today consists of a Polish and a German part. This has the negative effect of research results not always being sufficiently received and brought together due to the existing language barrier. With his book, which first appeared in Polish in 2020 (Jak powstało Pomorze? Warszawa: Instytut Archeologii i Etnologii PAN. http://ksiegarnia.iaepan.vot.pl/monogr/jak-powsta%C5%82o-pomorze-978-83-66463-38-7-detail#informacje-bibliograficzne [21.07.2024]), Rębkowski offers not only a synthesis of Polish and German research on the genesis of Pomerania but also a welcome translation preparing the ground for joint international discussions. The study has two main aims: first, to describe the emergence of statehood in medieval Pomerania and, second, to evaluate the dynamics of this transformation process (26).

In Polish historiography, the origins of statehood are one of the most intensively discussed research topics of the postwar period (16). This is largely due to the extensive archeological and historical research carried out in preparation for the 1000th anniversary of the Polish state in 1966. After discussing the terminological issues of the concept of early statehood in medieval studies, Rębkowski identifies associated key features (Chap. 1.2): (1) stable and permanent central government exercised by one single person, (2) dynastic succession, (3) exclusive right to use force, (4) a retinue, (5) group identity of the people subject to a central power, (6) existence of a separate territory in which centralized power was exercised, (7) institutions enabling governance and control, (8) social differentiation, (9) rituals and symbolic communication of the elite, and (10) Christianity as a basis for legitimizing the establishment of state structures comprising ideological characteristics.

Using these elements as a frame of reference, Rębkowski examines the development of the Pomeranian area from the ninth to the end of the twelfth century, focusing on the evidence of material culture (Chap. 2–4). He thereby does not conceal the weaknesses of the archeological sources, such as their limited informative value about political and ethnic structures and their sometimes challenging chronological classification. However, archeology is predestined in respect to analyzing landscapes as socially constructed spaces. Regarding early statehood, the organization and dynamics of cultural landscapes can provide important indications about evolving power structures. Rębkowski argues that dominion generates certain points of reference within a territory leading to new hierarchical systems. A particular important feature hereby is centralization. Central places were not only vital for administration but also important stages for symbolic communication (by means of representative architecture, coinage, jurisdiction) essential for the social positioning of power holders. The author also forms the assumption that new elites emerged in early state societies that legitimized themselves through the possession of certain goods and material expressions, which are reflected in the archeological record.

Marian Rębkowski analyzes excavation results from settlements, castles, and burial sites from the entire area of Pomerania. The most visible and relevant manifestations of dynamic power structures are undoubtedly the castles. While a large number was built from the eighth century onward, many were abandoned toward the end of the tenth/beginning of the eleventh century. This change of castle landscape was apparently linked to the Piast rule in Pomerania in the second half of the tenth century, which marked a turning point, ushering in lasting social, economic, and political changes. After the collapse of Piast control in the early eleventh century, a process of centralization began, with novel power centers. These were linked to a new system of domination which, according to archeological research, extended from east to west between Rega and Leba and reached from the Pomeranian Lakeland to the Baltic Sea. The author sets the beginning of the state-building process in Pomerania precisely in this time horizon, in the 1030s at the latest. Therein, the castles of Kolberg and Belgard formed one new center of power; Stolp, Schlawe, and Bütow may be identified as a second. In these areas, a concentration of archeological features is observable in the eleventh century, which can be interpreted as potential indicators of new, centralized sociopolitical structures: a high number of elite burials with weapons, the introduction of local coinage, and numerous silver deposits (treasure troves). Notably, the collapse of Piast rule also coincides with the first written mentions of the Pomeranian dukes (Annales Altahenses). In the course of Pomeranian expansion, a shift of power to the Oder estuary took place, which also changed the local castle landscape there and led to a centralization toward the duke’s administrative seats in the twelfth century.

Considering all sources, Rębkowski concludes (Chap. 5) that Pomerania showed the characteristics of an early state already before the middle of the twelfth century: a stable rule with dynastic succession (after Wartislaw [† before 1148], all successors belonged to the same family, who ruled the Duchy of Pomerania until the seventeenth c.), selected castles as main seats of ducal power, and an administrative system with territorial centers organized by appointed officials (praefecti). From the 1120s onward, Christianity formed an important ideological basis for ducal rule; the founding of churches and monasteries (e.g. Cammin, Kolbatz, Belbuck, Broda) and the establishment of dynastic burial sites (Stolpe and Grobe Abbey) emphasized the close connection to the church and had legitimizing functions. Coins and seals representing the dukes as sovereign rulers served as a means of symbolic communication.

With his compact (133 text pages), however, comprehensible book, Marian Rębkowski demonstrates how archeological sources can be used to answer complex research questions and achieves to add important aspects to the limited insights visible from the written sources on the genesis of the Duchy of Pomerania. By carefully combining and discussing the different source groups, he develops a model of Pomerania’s formation as a dominion in the Early and High Middle Ages that has to be tested and refined through further research.