and Asia in the Middle Ages. In this paper we will present new discoveries of the sphero-conical vessels fromIsaccea and discuss the current state of research on these types of 'exotic' vessels in Europe.

The decline of antiquity, the Migration Period, was in Central Europe a time of fundamental changes, the content of which we are only gradually discovering. Stable settlement structures that existed here for centuries have mostly “disappeared” from the archaeological record. A new cultural quality has appeared: the Slavs. Eleven settlements dating back to the Early Slavic phase were discovered between Kraków-Mogiła and Wawrzeńczyce. Residents of these settlements began to arrive on the upper Vistula probably after the middle of the 5th century from eastern Europe, or more precisely from the upper Dnieper basin. In Poland, the earliest early Slavic sites, including those from the vicinity of Igołomia, are referred to as Prague culture. These small settlements consisted of a few semi-sunken dwellings, free-standing ovens and household pits. Handmade pottery has survived in their relics, and much less frequently other products, including “luxury” ones, such as combs, brooches and pendants. The population engaged mainly in agriculture, and non-agricultural production satisfied only domestic needs. Pots were made, wool was spun, fabrics were woven, wood tar was made, unsophisticated ornaments were cast, and iron was smelted from the ore, mainly for tools.

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Artifacts discovered on the Japanese archipelago, which are interpreted as being of Roman and Byzantine pro-venance, are critically discussed in the following article. In light of chemical analyses, some of the glass artifacts found, including beads and vessels, are related to the glass typical of Mediterranean workshops. They were imported in the times of their production. New numismatic discoveries from Okinawa, dated to the fourth century, were found in layers associated with the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and cannot be contemporaneous with the glass imports. The silk textile from Shōsō-in, despite its superficial similarity to Early Byzantine art products, seems to be a Central Asian/Chinese imitation, probably woven in the workshops of Chang’an. Thus, finds of Mediterranean origin, produced in the Roman and Early Byzantine epochs, are insignificant in their number and their imports were isolated cases. However, their presence supports the thesis that the Japanese archipelago should be included as part of the ancient network of the Silk Road.

After the Early Slavic period a number of changes took place, which was manifested, among others, in the construction of strongholds – fortified seats of local power. This stage of Slavic development, lasting approximately 200 years from the turn of the 7th and 8th century on, is called the Tribal phase. At that time, the areas of western Lesser Poland belonged to the Vistulan tribe. Their central seat was the stronghold on Wawel Hill in Kraków. At the end of the 10th century the Piasts began to play an active military and political role in the Vistula River basin. Their successful expansion gave rise to the Early State phase. After 966, as Christianity progressed, inhumation replaced cremation as the burial rite. The oldest row-arranged cemeteries were founded on the upper Vistula from the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. They were used until end of the 12th century, or longer. Two such cemeteries were examined in the study area, in Wawrzeńczyce and Stręgoborzyce. They were abandoned with the consolidation of the parish network and the establishment of church cemeteries in the 13th century. Material culture of the Tribal phase – besides native production – yielded artifacts indicating contacts with areas south of the Carpathians, with the nomadic Avars and, after their fall, with Hungarians.