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The ancient Slavs were known for building wooden fortified settlements. The reconstructed
Proto-Slavic word for such a settlement is
★ '''gordъ''', related to the Germanic
★ ''gard''.
Gords were built during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages by the people of the Lusatian culture (ca. 1300 BC – 500 BC), and later in the 7th - 8th centuries CE in modern-day Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic and eastern Germany. These settlements were usually founded on strategic sites such as hills, riverbanks, lake islands or peninsulas.
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, and situated in places which presented particular natural advantages. However, as Slavic tribes united into states, gords were also built for defense purposes in less populated border areas.
Those gords which served as a ruler's residence or lay on trade routes, quickly expanded. A ''suburbium'' (Polish: ''podgrodzie'') formed near or below the gord. Its population served the residents of the gord and could shelter within the gord's walls in the event of danger. Eventually the ''suburbium'' would have its own fence or wall. In the High Middle Ages, the gord would normally evolve into a castle or citadel (kremlin); the ''suburbium'' – into a town.

Some other gords, which did not stand the test of time and were abandoned or destroyed, gradually turned into more or less discernible mounds or rings of earth (known in Russian as ''gorodische'', in Polish as ''grodzisko'', in Ukrainian as ''horodyshche'', in Slovak as ''hradisko'' and in Czech as ''hradiště''). Notable archeological sites include Biskupin, Poland and Bilsk, Ukraine (see Gelonus).

Contents

Evolution of the word

See also

External links

References

Evolution of the word

The Proto-Slavic word
★ ''gordъ'' means a "fenced area." It ultimately finds its root in the Proto-Indo-European language; a cognate is the English word "yard." In some modern Slavic languages,
★ ''gordъ'' has evolved into words for a "''garden''" (likewise a fenced area): the Ukrainian ''gorod (город)'', the Bulgarian ''gradina'', the Polish ''ogród'', the Czech ''zahrada'', the Russian ''ogorod''. In some Slavic languages,
★ ''gord'' has evolved into a word for "town" or "city": the Russian ''gorod'', the Kaszubian ''gard'', the Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian ''grad''. The Slovak and Czech ''hrad'' and Slovene ''grad'' have evolved to mean "fortified castle." The Polish ''gród'' and Ukrainian ''horod'' retain their original meaning of an "ancient fortified settlement."

The names of many Central and Eastern European cities hark back to their past as gords. Some of them are in countries which used to be, but no longer are, inhabited mostly by Slavic-speaking peoples. Examples include: Novgorod and Gorodets (Russia); Uzhhorod (Carpathian Ukraine); Hradec Králové and Vyšehrad (Czech Republic); Stargard Szczeciński; Grodzisk Mazowiecki and Grodzisk Wielkopolski (Graetz in German) (Poland); Gornji Grad (Slovenia); Biograd and Stari Grad (Croatia); Visegrád (Hungary); Belgrade (''Beograd'') (Serbia); Danilovgrad (Montenegro); Blagoevgrad, Asenovgrad and Razgrad (Bulgaria); Gradsko (Republic of Macedonia); Graz (Austria); Gartz (Germany); Pogradec (Albania), and Višegrad (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

See also

★ List of towns or cities that have grad or a similar form in their name

★ Garðaríki - Varangian name for Kievan Rus, interpreted as "cities"

★ Biskupin, a life-size reconstruction of a ''gród'' in Poland.

★ Fortified settlements in other cultures:

★
★ Kraal (South Africa);

★
★ Motte-and-bailey (western Europe).

★
★ Burgh, Borough, Burg (Scotland, England, Germany)

External links

★ 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).

References

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