| The 10th century AD witnessed material and social changes that accompanied the emergence of complexity among Western Slavs in Europe, specifically in the area that would come to be known as the first Polish state. Some of these transformations involve the shift from a kin-based loosely stratified society to hierarchized and centralized state institutions. Strategies of domination and historical conditions were decisive elements in this transformation. Exchange behavior in particular played an important role as a mode of production during this period of emergent complexity.;Elite strategies of political centralization, military monopolization, and ideological management are reflected in historical sources and settlement patterns of the region of Great Poland and at the capital site of Ostrów Lednicki. This area witnessed the unification of tribal groups around a core Polanie tribe and ruling Piast dynasty in the late 10th century and official conversion to Christianity.;Trade behavior as a political strategy is reflected in the material record of long-distance trade at Ostrów Lednicki. Spatial, contextual and quantitative analysis of trade imports in the state formation period (9 th to 11th centuries AD) demonstrates that elites fostered international, symbolic and diplomatic exchange, and exacted tribute by military force and restricting access to exotic goods. This provided the emergent state with a power base supported by ideological legitimacy obtained through Christianization. In contrast, in the established state of the 11th to 12 th centuries, import patterns are more reflective of forces of supply and demand, interregional contacts, an emerging market economy, and new social classes. Newly permanent regional administration and trade networks led to new dynamics between merchants, producers, elites, and non-elite consumers.;Comparative analysis of the results at Ostrów Lednicki with other sites in the central European/Baltic region reveals similar patterns of elite state-building strategies of centralization, militarization, Christianization, and commercialization. Bohemian, Moravian, Slovakian, and German patterns are the most similar, while Scandinavian sites reflect more emphasis on military raiding. The picture in Baltic Russia is the reverse of the Polish case, with early commercialization replaced by later military leadership and centralization. |
