POHANSKO - A Great Moravian Enclosure and Elite Settlement

Hosted by the College of DuPage in conjunction with Masaryk University-Brno

 (Get an Application)

The Field School is on for 2008!

2008 Dates ................May 21 through June 25 - Just over 5 weeks in Europe

** these dates may change slightly depending upon accommodations at the research station.

2008 Cost ...................  $3233  (includes 6 semester credits

  Cost Includes....

Five weeks in Europe, room, board (3 meals a day 5 days a week), transportation with the field school in the Czech Republic, admissions to museums and exhibitions with the field school, access to required equipment, and miscellaneous access fees to power grids and the like. Field trips include Asparn (Austria), Dolni Vestonice, Mikulcice, & Modra (CZ), and Trencin (Slovak Republic) are also included in the cost,* though students are also free to travel on their own or in small groups on the weekends.  The cost also includes Anthropology 220: Archaeological Field Methods and Anthropology 225: Field Laboratory in Archaeology through the fully accredited College of DuPage.  Airfare or other means of transport to and from Prague is not included in the cost.  Students will meet at our designated hotel in Prague on the start date and will complete their trip their at the end of the program.

All instruction is carried out in English by experienced archaeologists led by Dr. John Staeck, a veteran of over 20 field seasons.  There is a maximum of a 7.5:1 student to doctoral level faculty and we strive to maintain an overall ratio of no more than 5:1 student to faculty.  We work side-by-side with our students and emphasize excavations as learning experiences rather than as a means to conduct research cheaply.  Our goals center on training students in the fundamentals of archaeological excavation and field laboratory procedures as well as on learning about the past (and present) in general.

* These are day trips.  Transportation and admissions to destinations are included, though students are responsible for their own food and any additional fees associated with individual side trips or activities.

Aerial view of Pohansko, arrows showing points of previous and current excavation.

The archaeology faculty and staff of the College of DuPage and Masaryk University (Brno) invite you to join our joint excavations at this exceptional site in the southeastern corner of the Czech Republic.  Located near Breĉlav, just 1 km north of the Austrian border, 65 km southeast of Brno, and approximately 80 km northwest of Bratislava, Slovak Republic, Pohansko straddles major communication and transportation routes into Moravia and hence access to the Baltic.  This route, known in earlier times as the Amber Road, served as a main avenue of communication and trade from the classical world to Germanic and Slavic peoples of the north.

Pohansko itself is a 2 kilometer² earthen enclosure once faced with stone (exterior) and wooden ramparts (interior).  Dating to the 9th century AD this site was a major center of  Great Moravia and appears in Carolingian, Byzantine, and Germanic references.  Saints Cyril (aka Constantine the Scholar) and Methodius are both known to have visited the site and historical records document at least 5 major military campaigns launched by the Germanic kingdoms against their Great Moravian rivals at Pohansko. 

Excavations have thus far focused on the structure of the wall and the "acropolis" where the royal or leading lineage lived alongside its stone church.  Two pagan shrines have also been identified in the enclosure dating to just after the fall of Pohansko at the end of the 9th century.  Current research focuses on a series of undisturbed, planned and regular plots within the main enclosure that may have belonged to the warrior and crafting elite of the site.  In addition to these elements a distinct craft district and approximately 400 burials have been identified within the enclosure.  Significantly, most of this site remains unexcavated and at the heart of a major research program directed by our host, Dr. Jiří Machacek of Masaryk University (Brno).

This year teams of Czech and American students will undertake a substantial sequence of excavations across the site in order to further assess the range of activities and social statuses present in this important center.  A variety of methods will be taught, including standard, western academic excavation procedures, mapping using laser levels and total stations (laser theodolites supported by onboard computers), flotation, feature excavation, field photography, and materials recording.  A possibility exists that a series of well-preserved, extended burials may also be encountered associated with domestic structures.  These will excavated and subjected to preliminary forensic analysis at the research station pending remaining excavation time and the condition of the remains.

Lead Faculty and Researchers:

Dr. John Staeck ........Director and Principal Faculty Member, College of DuPage, Czech American Archaeological Field School

Dr. Jiří Machacek.......Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University of Brno, Pohansko Site Director and Principal Investigator

For more information and enrollment material contact:

Check out some short video and photographic clips

Schools from which participants have come

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