Editing Truso (section)

== Archaeology ==
[[File:Truso rekonstrukcja chaty.jpg|thumb| left| 250px|Reconstruction of a Truso house in the [[Elbląg]] Museum of Archaeology and History]]
[[File:Drużno Druzno Lake.png|thumb| left| 250px|Location of Druzno Lake]]
First attempts at finding the exact location of the town date back to the early sixteenth century.<ref name="bogucki">{{cite journal | title=Viking age trade ports in Poland | author=Bogucki, Mateusz | journal=Estonian Journal of Archaeology | year=2004 | volume=8 | issue=2 | pages=100–127| doi=10.3176/arch.2004.2.02 | s2cid=245155929 | doi-access=free }}</ref> Based on Prussian archaeological finds from 1897 and excavations which began in the 1920s, archaeologists located Truso near Elbing (since 1945  [[Janów, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship|Janów Pomorski]] near [[Elbląg]]). Found artifacts, dating from the 7th to 12th century, were stored in the Elbing Museum, now the Elbląg Museum. In the 1980s, the Polish archaeologist Marek Jagodziński had resumed excavations and cleared a site of circa 20 hectare, in which a series of structures had burnt down around the year 1,000.<ref name=Jago>{{cite web|url= https://www.academia.edu/31588836  |title= Truso between Weonodland and Witland  |publisher= Academia |author=Marek F. Jagodziński |access-date =September 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name=bonn/>

Trade must have been of great importance at the settlements, as the numerous merchant graves along the river testify. Artefacts unearthed at the site include scales, weights, silver horseshoe brooches, belt buckles, swords, coins, elaborate jewelry imported from Scandinavia, garment accessories and armament components. Scandinavian traders and craftmen lived and worked in central and port area, while peripheral area might be inhabited also by Balts and Slavs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jagodziński |first=Marek F. |url=https://www.academia.edu/30171469 |title=Truso. The legend of the Baltic Sea |publisher=Muzeum Archeologiczno-Historyczne w Elblągu |year=2015 |isbn=978-83-919291-8-6 |edition=2nd |location=Elbląg |pages=23}}</ref> The Scandinavian influence on these settlements and artefacts is particularly obvious and confirms Viking expansion of settlement activity to [[Courland]] and [[Livland]]. As early as the 8th century, the first incursions of North Germanic groups took place, which lead to the founding of the Grobin/Seeburg settlement near Liepája. Archbishop [[Rimbert|Rimbert of Bremen]] recorded the immigration of a group under the Svea king Olaf during the 9th century.<ref name=bonn/> 

Author [[Gwyn Jones (author)|Gwyn Jones]] noted that at the circa 20 ha sized area "no true town has been found and excavated" and that the identification of the site in Elbląg with Truso is based on "finds of Norse weapons" and the presence of "a large Viking Age cemetery" nearby,<ref name="Jones2001">{{cite book|author=Gwyn Jones|title=A History of the Vikings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lD74bDG3O5oC|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280134-0}}</ref> According to Mateusz Bogucki "by now, there is no doubt that the settlement really is Wulfstan's Truso"<ref name="bogucki"/> The Elbląg Museum brochure: ''Truso- A Discovered Legend'', by Marek F. Jagodziński, describes a large number of buildings found during the recent excavations, with burnt remains of posts suggesting buildings of around {{convert|5|by|10|m|ft}} and long houses of about {{convert|6|by|21|m|ft}}. A thick layer of ash, debris and numerous arrowheads suggest that the city was destroyed by pirates or invaders.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.ufg.uni-freiburg.de/studium/lehrgrab/truso  |title= Deutsch-polnische Ausgrabungen auf dem wikingerzeitlichen Seehandelsplatz von Janów Pomorski (Truso)  |publisher= Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg |access-date =September 9, 2020}}</ref>

Mateusz Bogucki of the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, states in his book <blockquote>''Coin finds in the viking Age emporium at Janów Pomorski (Truso) and the Prussian phenomenon'' about ''...the end of Truso as a port of trade...a strong political power, probably of Piast origin...sent warriors to try to take control...and destroyed the town.''<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.academia.edu/485476 |title= Coin finds in the viking Age emporium at Janów Pomorski (Truso) and the 'Prussian phenomenon'  |publisher= Academia |author= Mateusz Bogucki |access-date =September 9, 2020}}</ref></blockquote>