hillforts

Views of most Polish archaeologists and some historians on the beginnings of the Polish state have been radically changed within the last twenty-five years. Therefore, it is possible to speak about an emergence of the new model which can explain the formation process of the state of the first Piasts better. Progress in the archaeological research have contributed to this change as well as enabled not only to distinguish new and for the early Piast period also significant sites and objects, but also to reanalyse already known material.

A state claims a monopoly over power and violence on its territory. In an early medieval state, such monopoly belonged to a prince, king, emperor or a monarch possessing a different title. This monarch was collecting taxes, demanding services, proclaiming laws and was the superior judge as well as the chief military commander. All the important decisions, even those made by the Great Moravian prince had to be approved by "all the Moravians" on a diet. Thus, the Great Moravian prince´s power was not a monarchist one and Great Moravia was still only an emerging and imperfect state.