On display: 29 November 2022 - 19 February 2023
Exhibition organisers:
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Łódź
Professor Konrad Jażdżewski Foundation for Archaeological Research
Local authorities of Izbica Kujawska and Lubraniec communes
Authors of the exhibition:
Piotr Papiernik, PhD; Elżbieta Górska (Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Łódź)
Curator of the exhibition on behalf of the Archaeological Museum in Poznań:
Magdalena Felis
The exhibition presents the oldest architectural monuments in Poland in the form of monumental Kuyavian tombs built in the Stone Age, about 5,500 years ago. For millennia, these structures constituted a characteristic and distinctive element of the landscape of Kuyavia, Pomerania, Chełmno Land and eastern Greater Poland. Unfortunately, most of them were destroyed in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, few have survived to our times. Currently, the megaliths can be seen in the Wietrzychowice Cultural Park and the Sarnowo Cultural Park.
The Kuyavian monuments, often called megaliths (from the Greek words megas - great and lithos - stone), were built as burial sites for the religious or political elite of Stone Age farmers. Above the graves, earthen mounds were erected, often more than 100 m long. These mounds were bounded by stone enclosures built of large multi-ton boulders, which gave the tombs the shape of an elongated trapezoid or triangle.
Since the middle of the 20th century, the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Łódź has played a particularly important role in the study and preservation of Kuyavian tombs. In 1934-1974, under the direction of Professor Konrad Jażdżewski, the investigations of the best-preserved megaliths located in southern Kuyavia were carried out. Subsequently, the Museum participated in the creation of archaeological reserves in Sarnów and Wietrzychowice, where the tombs were fully reconstructed, i.e. restored to the size and appearance they had in the Stone Age. In 2006 and 2010, these reserves were transformed into the Wietrzychowice Cultural Park and the Sarnowo Cultural Park.
In addition to the artefacts discovered in the tombs (from the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography in Łódź), the exhibition features a model of the megalithic cemetery, a reconstruction of the tomb and large-format photo prints documenting the history of research and the current state of the megaliths.
Admission:
The objects displayed in the courtyard of the Górka Palace are available for visitors free of charge. Admission to the second part of the exhibition (in the Museum cellars) is possible after purchasing a ticket.
