Bodzia is one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries of the post-war period in Poland. It is one of the few cemeteries in Poland from the time of the origins of the Polish state. The unique character of this discovery is mainly due to the fact that a small, elite population was buried there. The burials there included people whose origins were connected with the Slavic, Nomadic-Khazarian and Scandinavian milieus. For the first time the evidence from this area is given prominence. This book is designed mainly for readers outside Poland. The reader is offered a collection of chapters, combining analyses and syntheses of the source material, and a discussion of its etno-cultural and political significance. The authors formulate new hypotheses and ideas, which put the discoveries in a broader European context. Contributors are Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Mateusz Bogucki, Andrzej Buko, Magdalena M. Bus, Maria Dekowna, Alicja Drozd-Lipinska, Wladyslaw Duczko, Karin Margarita Frei, Tomasz Goslar, Tomasz Grzybowski, Zdzislaw Hensel, Iwona Hildebrandt-Radke, Michal Kara, Joanna Koszalka, Anna B. Kowalska, Tomasz Kozlowski, Marek Krapiec, Roman Michalowski, Michael Muller-Wille, T. Douglas Price, Tomasz Purowski, Tomasz Sawicki, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Stanislaw Suchodolski and Kinga Zamelska-Monczak.

This is the first academic book which concentrates on the discoveries of medieval date (6th- 13th centuries) from the territory of modern Poland. The book covers the principal research questions, such as the origins of the Slavs, societies of the proto-state period and the origins of the Polish state. The volume also includes a discussion of the most interesting, sometimes controversial, archaeological discoveries or issues. These include pagan Slavonic holy places, the monumental mounds of Little Poland, the first traces of medieval writing, exceptional strongholds, the origins of Polish towns, rural landscapes, archaeology of the oldest monastic complexes, and the question of locals and aliens viewed through archaeological evidence and many other topics. The book is meant mainly for students, archaeologists and historians. It can also be useful for a wider audience interested in the history and archaeology of central Europe. In November 2006 "The Archaeology of Early Medieval Poland" received the KLIO Award from the Association of Polish History Publishers.