Before the first Slavic states, a world existed in the lands of present-day Poland, a world almost unfamiliar to us from textbooks. For hundreds, and then thousands, these lands belonged to peoples who either disappeared, were absorbed, or were pushed far to the north, south, and west. What did the ethnic map of Polish lands really look like at the end of antiquity and in the first centuries AD? Who built the fortified settlements on the Oder and Warta rivers, who bequeathed names to the rivers, forests, and hills that still bear Slavic or even non-Slavic names? What do excavations, Ptolemy's maps, the language of streams and mountains, and modern population genetics reveal about this? And what about the legends of the Germanic Bastarnae, the Celtic migrations, the Baltic Prussians, and the Yotvingians—were these the true first settlers, or merely snapshots of a larger puzzle? In subsequent episodes, we will examine how much of what "everyone knows" about the past of Polish lands actually stems from historical sources, and how much has been built up over the centuries by national myths. Tell us in the comments which people, stronghold, or mysterious name you would like to hear about in the next video. Subscribe so you don't miss the next investigation.

1. Prehistory of Polish Lands – ed. J. Wielowieyski, University of Warsaw Publishing House
2. The Slavs – F. Curta, Cambridge University Press
3. Primitive and Early Medieval Archaeology of Polish Lands – collective works edited by A. Nadolski, Ossolineum
4. The Germans – H. Wolfram, C.H. Beck (along with works by R. Wenskus and H. J. Eggers on the archaeology of the Przeworsk and Wielbark cultures)
5. Historical Atlas of Poland – ed. W. Czapliński, T. Ładogórski, PPWK / Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

#Polishhistory
#Slavs
#ethnogenesis
#antiquity
#Polishlands
#archaeology
#prehistory