Researchers from the University of Gdańsk have discovered relics of a lost medieval town near the present-day village of Dąbrówno, in an area once covered by the Galindian Forest in northeastern Poland.
The team said geophysical surveys confirmed the remains of an organized settlement with a centrally placed market square and rows of buildings stretching along a rise above Lake Dąbrowa Mała.
Several hundred artifacts were also found on the surface.
The researchers, led by Arkadiusz Koperkiewicz, said the find allowed them to identify the original location of Dąbrówno on high ground below Castle Hill.
They believe the first settlement later became a village known for generations as Stare Miasto (Old Town). The date and reason for the move remain unclear.
The work was carried out at the request of the regional monument conservator in the northeastern city of Olsztyn.
Magnetic surveys revealed anomalies forming a clear urban layout adapted to the shape of the land.
'Lost medieval towns'
The work adds to growing research into what Polish archaeologists call “lost medieval towns,” early urban settlements that were relocated, destroyed, or abandoned.
Koperkiewicz said advances in non-invasive methods, especially geophysics, had made such work possible in the last decade.
The discovery is the latest lost medieval town identified in the former Galindian Forest.
Between 2014 and 2024, an international team led by Koperkiewicz investigated the original site of the present-day town of Barczewo, about 20 km east of Olsztyn.
That abandoned settlement, known as Alt Wartenburg, is sometimes called the “Warmian Pompeii” because it was destroyed by Lithuanian forces in 1354 and never resettled, and now preserved as a rare medieval snapshot.
He said these sites act as time capsules preserving the earliest stages of urban life, including the first forms of local self-government, early town planning, and traces of the original landscape and population.
He argued that such places deserve protection as cultural parks.
Burial customs of the first Christians
The team also found a human skeleton and grave pits on a small rise near the original town site at Dąbrówno.
Archaeologists said the remains were part of a medieval cemetery, which under the customs of the time would have stood beside a church. The dead person was buried with the head to the west and hands folded, and fragments of medieval pottery were found nearby.
Koperkiewicz said the cemetery reflected the burial customs of the first Christians in the area. He added that the graves likely included settlers from German and Polish lands as well as local Prussian converts.
More than 500 artifacts dating from the mid-14th century to the turn of the 15th century were recovered during the initial survey. They included fittings from a knight’s belt, arrowheads, crossbow bolt heads, horse grooming tools and fragments of spurs.
Archaeologists said large amounts of pottery pointed to intensive settlement, while iron objects found in one trench suggested the presence of a Teutonic forge.
Tests in areas marked by magnetic anomalies confirmed the remains of burned timber-frame buildings filled with clay. Preliminary analysis suggests the wood dates from the late 13th or early 14th century. Oak appears to have been the main building material.
The researchers linked the site to the early history of Dąbrówno, known in German as Gilgenburg.
The settlement is mentioned in records from 1316, and Dąbrówno received town rights in 1326. The team believes the location document probably referred to this original site.
Dąbrówno was destroyed in 1410 by the forces of King Władysław Jagiełło in the campaign leading up to the Battle of Grunwald, one of the biggest medieval battles in Europe.
The newly confirmed site points to an earlier chapter in the town’s history, tied to the Teutonic Order’s conquest of Prussian lands and the people who lived there before, and after it.
(rt/gs)
Source: dzieje.pl