fbpx
Wikipedia

Gord (archaeology)

April 10, 2024

A gord is a medieval Slavonic fortified settlement, usually built on strategic sites such as hilltops, riverbanks, lake islets or peninsulas between the 6th and 12th centuries in Central and Eastern Europe. A typical gord consisted of a group of wooden houses surrounded by a wall made of earth and wood, and a palisade running along the top of the bulwark.

Etymology edit

 
Section of a reconstructed hilltop gród at the village of Birów near Ogrodzieniec, Poland
 
Reconstructed West Slavic fortified settlement (gord) in Groß Raden, Germany
 
Towns and villages in Poland with names derived from gród (magenta circles)
 
A cross section of early Slavic gród bulwarks and wharf in Gdańsk, Poland

The term ultimately descends from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root ǵʰortós 'enclosure'. The Proto-Slavic word *gordъ later differentiated into grad (Cyrillic: град), gorod (Cyrillic: город), gród in Polish, gard in Kashubian, etc.[1][2][3] It is the root of various words in modern Slavic languages pertaining to fences and fenced-in areas (Belarusian гарадзіць, Ukrainian horodyty, Slovak ohradiť, Czech ohradit, Russian ogradit, Serbo-Croatian ograditi, and Polish ogradzać, grodzić, to fence off). It also has evolved into words for a garden in certain languages.

Additionally, it has furnished numerous modern Slavic words for a city or town:

The names of many Central and Eastern European cities harken back to their pasts as gords. Some of them are in countries which once were but no longer are mainly inhabited by Slavic-speaking peoples.

Examples include:

The words in Polish and Slovak for suburbium, podgrodzie and podhradie correspondingly, literally mean a settlement beneath a gord: the gród/hrad was frequently built at the top of a hill, and the podgrodzie/podhradie at its foot. (The Slavic prefix pod-, meaning "under/below" and descending from the Proto-Indo-European root pṓds, meaning foot, being equivalent to Latin sub-). The word survives in the names of several villages (Podgrodzie, Subcarpathian Voivodeship) and town districts (e.g., that of Olsztyn), as well as in the names of the German municipalities Puttgarden, Wagria and Putgarten, Rügen.

From this same Proto-Indo-European root come the Germanic word elements *gard and *gart (as in Stuttgart), and likely also the names of Graz, Austria and Gartz, Germany. Cognate to these are English words such as garden, yard, garth, girdle and court.[4][5] Also cognate but less closely related are Latin hortus, a garden, and its English descendant horticulture. In Hungarian, kert, the word for a garden, literally means encircled. Because Hungarian is a Uralic rather than an Indo-European language, this is likely a loanword. Further afield, in ancient Iran, a fortified wooden settlement was called a gerd, or certa, which also means garden (as in the suffix -certa in the names of various ancient Iranian cities; e.g., Hunoracerta). The Persian word evolved into jerd under later Arab influence. Burugerd or Borujerd is a city in the west of Iran. The Indian suffix -garh, meaning a fort in Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, and other Indo-Iranian languages, appears in many Indian place names.[6] Given that both Slavic and Indo-Iranian are sub-branches of Indo-European and that there are numerous similarities between Slavic and Sanskrit vocabulary, it is plausible that garh and gord are related. However, this is strongly contradicted by the phoneme /g/ in Indo-Iranian, which cannot be a reflex of the Indo-European palatovelar /*ǵ/.[7]

Construction edit

A typical gord was a group of wooden houses built either in rows or in circles, surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood, a palisade, and/or moats. Some gords were ring-shaped, with a round, oval, or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow. Others, built on a natural hill or a man-made mound, were cone-shaped. Those with a natural defense on one side, such as a river or lake, were usually horseshoe-shaped. Most gords were built in densely populated areas on sites that offered particular natural advantages.

As Slavic tribes united to form states, gords were also built for defensive purposes in less-populated border areas. Gords in which rulers resided or that lay on trade routes quickly expanded. Near the gord, or below it in elevation, there formed small communities of servants, merchants, artisans, and others who served the higher-ranked inhabitants of the gord. Each such community was known as a suburbium (Polish: podgrodzie). Its residents could shelter within the walls of the gord in the event of danger. Eventually the suburbium acquired its own fence or wall. In the High Middle Ages, the gord usually evolved into a castle, citadel or kremlin, and the suburbium into a town.

Some gords did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed, gradually turning into more or less discernible mounds or rings of earth (Russian gorodishche, Polish gród or grodzisko, Ukrainian horodyshche, Slovak hradisko, Czech hradiště, German Hradisch, Hungarian hradis and Serbian gradiška/градишка). Notable archeological sites include Groß Raden in Germany and Biskupin in Poland.

Important gords in Central and Eastern Europe edit

Poland edit

Czech Republic edit

Slovakia edit

Ukraine edit

Russia edit

Belarus edit

Germany edit

Rügen edit

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania edit

Berlin-Brandenburg edit

  • Brandenburg Castle
  • Spandau Castle (Berlin)
  • the Römerschanze near Potsdam
  • the Reitweiner Wallberge, fortanlage near Reitwein in the Landkreis Märkisch-Oderland
  • the Slavic fort of Lübben
  • the Slavic fort of Raddusch near Vetschau/Spreewald
  • the Slavic fort of Tornow
  • Lossow Castle, Frankfurt (Oder)
  • the fort near Kliestow

Saxony-Anhalt edit

  • the fort of Altes Dorf in the Magdeburg subdistrict of Pechau
  • Wust Castle

Schleswig-Holstein edit

  • List of Early Middle Ages castles in Hamburg und Schleswig-Holstein [de] including:
  • the fort of the Slavic settlement of Starigard in present-day Oldenburg – Oldenburger Wall [de]

Bavaria edit

Austria edit

  • Thunau am Kamp

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Taylor, Isaac (1898). Names and Their Histories: A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature. Original from the University of Michigan: Rivingtons. p. 331. wall Grad gorod.
  2. ^ Taylor, Isaac (1864). Words and Places, Or, Etymological Illustrations of History, Ethnology, and Geography. Original from Oxford University: Macmillan. p. 128. wall Grad gorod.
  3. ^ Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien (1880). Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien. Original from the University of Michigan: F. Berger & Söhne. p. 40. Gord wall Grad gorod.
  4. ^ ON. garðr; goth. gards; den. -gaard; island. -gard; cimb. -garthur; aleman. -gardo; welsh. -gardd; holln. -gaerde; span. -gardin; pomern. -gard; slav. -grod, -hrad
  5. ^ A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Oxford. 1911; Jane Chance. "Tolkien and the invention of myth". 70
  6. ^ "Urban vocabulary in Northern India – City Words WP No. 4". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2016-05-09.
  7. ^ "Sanskrit and Russian: Ancient kinship". in.rbth.com. Retrieved 2016-05-09.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gords.
  • Reconstruction of a gród at Grzybowo, Poland – images of a typical ancient Slavic settlement with suburbium, earth-and-wood wall and moat; by Tomek Birezowski (Polish text)

April 10, 2024
gord, archaeology, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, gord, archaeology, news, newspapers, books, schol. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Gord archaeology news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2008 Learn how and when to remove this template message A gord is a medieval Slavonic fortified settlement usually built on strategic sites such as hilltops riverbanks lake islets or peninsulas between the 6th and 12th centuries in Central and Eastern Europe A typical gord consisted of a group of wooden houses surrounded by a wall made of earth and wood and a palisade running along the top of the bulwark Contents 1 Etymology 2 Construction 3 Important gords in Central and Eastern Europe 3 1 Poland 3 2 Czech Republic 3 3 Slovakia 3 4 Ukraine 3 5 Russia 3 6 Belarus 3 7 Germany 3 7 1 Rugen 3 7 2 Mecklenburg Western Pomerania 3 7 3 Berlin Brandenburg 3 7 4 Saxony Anhalt 3 7 5 Schleswig Holstein 3 7 6 Bavaria 3 8 Austria 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksEtymology edit nbsp Section of a reconstructed hilltop grod at the village of Birow near Ogrodzieniec Poland nbsp Reconstructed West Slavic fortified settlement gord in Gross Raden Germany nbsp Towns and villages in Poland with names derived from grod magenta circles nbsp A cross section of early Slavic grod bulwarks and wharf in Gdansk PolandThe term ultimately descends from the reconstructed Proto Indo European root ǵʰortos enclosure The Proto Slavic word gord later differentiated into grad Cyrillic grad gorod Cyrillic gorod grod in Polish gard in Kashubian etc 1 2 3 It is the root of various words in modern Slavic languages pertaining to fences and fenced in areas Belarusian garadzic Ukrainian horodyty Slovak ohradit Czech ohradit Russian ogradit Serbo Croatian ograditi and Polish ogradzac grodzic to fence off It also has evolved into words for a garden in certain languages Additionally it has furnished numerous modern Slavic words for a city or town Polish grod plural grody toponymic nowadays a town or city is termed miasto but remnants of a grod are known as grodzisko Ancient Pomeranian and modern Kashubian gard Slovak and Czech hrad castle in the modern language or hradisko hradiste hradec which are terms for gord Slovene grad castle in modern Slovene Belarusian gorad horad Russian gorod gorod Ukrainian gorod horod dialectal and toponymic nowadays misto Bulgarian Serbo Croatian and Macedonian grad gradThe names of many Central and Eastern European cities harken back to their pasts as gords Some of them are in countries which once were but no longer are mainly inhabited by Slavic speaking peoples Examples include Horodok Gorod toponymy Hrod toponymy Hrud Horod Hrad toponymy Gard Slavic toponymy Grod toponymy Grad toponymy The words in Polish and Slovak for suburbium podgrodzie and podhradie correspondingly literally mean a settlement beneath a gord the grod hrad was frequently built at the top of a hill and the podgrodzie podhradie at its foot The Slavic prefix pod meaning under below and descending from the Proto Indo European root pṓds meaning foot being equivalent to Latin sub The word survives in the names of several villages Podgrodzie Subcarpathian Voivodeship and town districts e g that of Olsztyn as well as in the names of the German municipalities Puttgarden Wagria and Putgarten Rugen From this same Proto Indo European root come the Germanic word elements gard and gart as in Stuttgart and likely also the names of Graz Austria and Gartz Germany Cognate to these are English words such as garden yard garth girdle and court 4 5 Also cognate but less closely related are Latin hortus a garden and its English descendant horticulture In Hungarian kert the word for a garden literally means encircled Because Hungarian is a Uralic rather than an Indo European language this is likely a loanword Further afield in ancient Iran a fortified wooden settlement was called a gerd or certa which also means garden as in the suffix certa in the names of various ancient Iranian cities e g Hunoracerta The Persian word evolved into jerd under later Arab influence Burugerd or Borujerd is a city in the west of Iran The Indian suffix garh meaning a fort in Hindi Urdu Sanskrit and other Indo Iranian languages appears in many Indian place names 6 Given that both Slavic and Indo Iranian are sub branches of Indo European and that there are numerous similarities between Slavic and Sanskrit vocabulary it is plausible that garh and gord are related However this is strongly contradicted by the phoneme g in Indo Iranian which cannot be a reflex of the Indo European palatovelar ǵ 7 Construction editA typical gord was a group of wooden houses built either in rows or in circles surrounded by one or more rings of walls made of earth and wood a palisade and or moats Some gords were ring shaped with a round oval or occasionally polygonal fence or wall surrounding a hollow Others built on a natural hill or a man made mound were cone shaped Those with a natural defense on one side such as a river or lake were usually horseshoe shaped Most gords were built in densely populated areas on sites that offered particular natural advantages As Slavic tribes united to form states gords were also built for defensive purposes in less populated border areas Gords in which rulers resided or that lay on trade routes quickly expanded Near the gord or below it in elevation there formed small communities of servants merchants artisans and others who served the higher ranked inhabitants of the gord Each such community was known as a suburbium Polish podgrodzie Its residents could shelter within the walls of the gord in the event of danger Eventually the suburbium acquired its own fence or wall In the High Middle Ages the gord usually evolved into a castle citadel or kremlin and the suburbium into a town Some gords did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed gradually turning into more or less discernible mounds or rings of earth Russian gorodishche Polish grod or grodzisko Ukrainian horodyshche Slovak hradisko Czech hradiste German Hradisch Hungarian hradis and Serbian gradiska gradishka Notable archeological sites include Gross Raden in Germany and Biskupin in Poland Important gords in Central and Eastern Europe editPoland edit Bnin Cherven grods Gdansk Giecz Gniezno Grudziadz Grzybowo Kaldus Kolobrzeg Krakow Ostrow Lednici Poznan Przemysl Rozprze Stradow Szczecin Szprotawa Wloclawek Wolin WroclawCzech Republic edit Bilina Budec Chotebuz Kourim Levy Hradec Libice nad Cidlinou Libusin Mikulcice Valy Prague Castle Rubin de Stara Boleslav Stare Zamky cs Tetin Uherske Hradiste Vysehrad Prague Slovakia edit DucoveUkraine edit KyivRussia edit NovgorodBelarus edit GrodnoGermany edit Rugen edit the fort at Cape Arkona the Jaromarsburg Garz Castle the fort of Charenza near Venz in the municipality of Trent the Herthaburg near the Stubbenkammer in the Jasmund National ParkMecklenburg Western Pomerania edit Mecklenburg Castle in the village of Dorf Mecklenburg near Wismar origin of the state name the fort of Gross Raden near Sternberg the fort of Behren Lubchin partly reconstructed in the Gross Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum Gadebehn Castle Gemeinde Knorrendorf in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Ganschendorf Castle Gemeinde Sarow in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte the fort of Grapenwerder Gemeinde Penzlin in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Quadenschonfeld Castle in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Neu Niekohr Castle Gemeinde Behren Lubchin in the county of Rostock the fort of Neu Kentzlin Gemeinde Kentzlin between Demmin und Stavenhagen Molln Castle Gemeinde Molln Mecklenburg in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Mollenhagen Castle Gemeinde Mollenhagen in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte the Ravensburg Neubrandenburg the forts at Kastorfer See near Neubrandenburg the island fort in the Teterower See the Schlossberg near Feldberg the Slavic fort near Menkendorf a village in the parish of Grebs Niendorf Wittenborn Castle municipality of Galenbeck in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Kieve Castle in the county of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte Wulfsahl Castle in the county of Ludwigslust ParchimBerlin Brandenburg edit Brandenburg Castle Spandau Castle Berlin the Romerschanze near Potsdam the Reitweiner Wallberge fortanlage near Reitwein in the Landkreis Markisch Oderland the Slavic fort of Lubben the Slavic fort of Raddusch near Vetschau Spreewald the Slavic fort of Tornow Lossow Castle Frankfurt Oder the fort near KliestowSaxony Anhalt edit the fort of Altes Dorf in the Magdeburg subdistrict of Pechau Wust CastleSchleswig Holstein edit List of Early Middle Ages castles in Hamburg und Schleswig Holstein de including the fort of the Slavic settlement of Starigard in present day Oldenburg Oldenburger Wall de Bavaria edit Rauher KulmAustria edit Thunau am KampSee also editOppidum a type of similar but often much bigger fortified wooden settlement used by ancient Celts and Germanics Gordoservon in Asia Minor 680 AD Gardariki Varangian name for Kievan Rus interpreted as cities Biskupin a life size reconstruction of a gord like Lusatian culture settlement in Poland Kraal South Africa Motte and bailey Western Europe Burgh Borough Burg or bjerg Scotland England Germany Denmark Ringfort Ireland Britain Scandinavia References edit Taylor Isaac 1898 Names and Their Histories A Handbook of Historical Geography and Topographical Nomenclature Original from the University of Michigan Rivingtons p 331 wall Grad gorod Taylor Isaac 1864 Words and Places Or Etymological Illustrations of History Ethnology and Geography Original from Oxford University Macmillan p 128 wall Grad gorod Anthropologische Gesellschaft in Wien 1880 Mittheilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien Original from the University of Michigan F Berger amp Sohne p 40 Gord wall Grad gorod ON gardr goth gards den gaard island gard cimb garthur aleman gardo welsh gardd holln gaerde span gardin pomern gard slav grod hrad A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language Oxford 1911 Jane Chance Tolkien and the invention of myth 70 Urban vocabulary in Northern India City Words WP No 4 www unesco org Retrieved 2016 05 09 Sanskrit and Russian Ancient kinship in rbth com Retrieved 2016 05 09 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gords Reconstruction of a grod at Grzybowo Poland images of a typical ancient Slavic settlement with suburbium earth and wood wall and moat by Tomek Birezowski Polish text Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Gord archaeology amp oldid 1212483106, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.