Union Académique Internationale

Project nº57, adopted in 1997

The Moravia Magna project was brought to life in 1998. Its goal has been to gradually work through and publish key overlapping thematic areas that are related to the Great Moravian and post-Great Moravian period (8th – 10th /11th centuries). Great Moravia, an important early medieval phenomenon of Central European region which had an indisputable influence on shaping the so-called successor states (Czech, Hungarian, and Polish ones) belongs to the key topics of Central European archaeology. For this reason, three countries participate on this project: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, represented by their top research institutions. The project was initially led by Alexander Ruttkay, the director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra, and later, in 2011, was taken over by Pavel Kouřil who currently works as a research worker at the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno. Polish archaeology is represented by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków and led by Jacek Poleski, a research worker at the Jagiellonian University. The main focus of this project is thus on the Great Moravian period, namely the questions arising from long-term research at burial grounds, both in central localities (e.g. Mikulčice) and in the country (peripheries are included as well). The issue of rich burial grounds is related to our knowledge of the material culture itself, the emerging and establishing elites, origins of the Christianity, Church architecture, etc. Anthropological observations benefit from the high informative value of relatively well-preserved bone material. The project also closely monitors country cemeteries, especially barrow cemeteries. Strongholds make up an important thematic area: one studies their creation, development, destruction, functions, position in the settlement structure, size and structure, nature of the built-up area, fortification system, subsistence base, etc. Country settlements remain a rather marginal topic due to their insufficient archaeological research. The project also pays attention to early Slavonic period by dealing with the questions related to the arrival of the Slavs and the nature of their material culture in context of their scarce cremation burial grounds and small settlements. At the other end of the timeline stands the period after the downfall of Great Moravia (10th and 11th centuries) which is marked with significant structural changes resulting in a dramatic transformation of the geography of the whole Central Europe. This project design is followed mainly by the Czech and Slovak teams; the Polish participant logically focuses mainly on fortified localities in areas of presumed Great Moravian influence, and on selected categories of the relics of material culture. Our briefly annotated thematic areas have been cited in dozen of studies, namely in complete monographs dedicated to the discussed project. The Czech team has published 15 monographs and 5 thematic collections, the Slovak team 3 monographs and 3 thematic collections, and the Polish team 5 monographs so far. Some of these works have been written in domestic languages, but always with a detailed résumé in a foreign language. Other works (especially the more recent ones) have been written in English or German. Results of ongoing research were used for the monumental “Central Europe Around 1000” exhibition held in 2000. It is worth mentioning that the project has never been funded by the UAI. Our upcoming activities will focus mainly on the assessment of catalogue compendiums of selected burial grounds both in the centres and in their hinterlands, the lifestyle and identity of the Great Moravian aristocracy, and on monitoring the post-Great Moravian horizon and its manifestation in archaeological records.