The pottery from the early medieval settlement at Pellendorf/Gaweinstal (Lower Austria) and its relationship to the Great Moravian sites on the River March

Abstract

This paper discusses the pottery finds from the 2003–2005 excavation of the settlement at Pellendorf/Gaweinstal in the central eastern area of the Weinviertel district in Lower Austria. The early medieval settlement was occupied from the 7th to the 10th centuries. The pottery finds from the 9th/10th century are characterised by shapes typical of the Mikulčice and Blučina pottery groups and of the March pottery in southern Moravia, and thus revealing intensive contact to the Great Moravian centres on the River March in that period. The paper also mentions further sites with the same pottery in northern Lower Austria, which, taken as a whole, indicate that in the 9th century the area was culturally, economically, and thus presumably also politically, closely connected to the Moravian Empire.