SLAGFÄLTSARKEOLOGI VID GRUNWALD (TANNENBERG/ŽALGIRIS) (1410). ETT POLSK-SKANDINAVISKT FORSKNINGSPROJEKT UNDER ÅREN 2014–2017

Abstract

SummaryThe paper describes the search for the field of the battle of Grunwald / Tannenberg / Žalgiris (1410) with metal detectors in the years 2014–2017. In February 2014, a joint project of the Grunwald Museum (Polish: Muzeum Bitwy pod Grunwaldem w Stębarku) and the Danish Archaeological Society Harja was agreed upon and signed in Odense, Denmark. According to the agreement, Harja was to provide the main group of metal detectorists that were to scan the areas chosen by the Museum. The main goal of the project was to try and locate the area named ‘Valley of the Great Stream’ (Dolina Wielkiego Strumień) to the south and east of the village of Stębark (German: Tannenberg), which, according to Andrzej Nadolski (1921–1993), a Polish archaeologist and historian, was supposed to be one of the most important places of the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, where the allied Polish-Lithuanian forces clashed with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. However no battlefield was found in that area. For the next three years, the search was therefore extended to other fields to the south and east of the village of Grunwald (German: Grünfelde), that time with excellent results. There is now no doubt that the main battle took place in the area which is situated about 2–3 kilometers to the west of the ‘Valley of the Great Stream’. For 180 years historians and archaeologists have accepted a fallacious theory about the march routes and battlefield deployment of the armies, the theory created by the famous Prussian historian Johannes Voigt in 1836. The paper provides information about the successful international project and its findings.

Keywords

• Battlefield Archeology
• Grunwald (Grünfelde)
• Polish-Scandinavian research project.