ABSTRACT
Since at least the 19th century Polish historiography and archaeology have been engaged in a discussion concerning the original seat of the Slavs before the period of their great migrations in the 6th century AD and the emergence of their name in literary sources. From the very beginning of this discussion both autochthonic views (claiming that this seat was within the present Polish lands) and allochthonic ones (usually involving the identification of this seat east of present Polish territory) were voiced. Previous discussions of the linguistic evidence (summarized recently by Manczak 1982) and historical sources ( owmianski 1963, Machinski 1976, Kolendo 1981, Jazdzewski 1982, Hensel 1984) did not lead to a strong justification of any of the competing views. In this situation all the hopes have been laid on archaeology.
