GDAŃSK, POLAND—New dates obtained from traces of a tenth-century Slavic settlement found in the cellars under the Main City Hall in Gdańsk have pushed back the founding of the city to A.D. 930, according to a Science in Poland report. “Radiocarbon dating gave a result between the years 911 and 951, while dendrochronology indicated the year 930,” said Waldemar Ossowski of the Museum of Gdańsk. He explained that previous dates for the founding of the city had been based upon the remains of thirteenth-century buildings and a possible tenth-century rampart found nearby in the 1970s. The wooden structures in the city hall cellars were preserved by a natural wetland, and were probably left in place to add to buildings constructed on the site in the fourteenth century, he added. The wooden structures will be reburied in the waterlogged cellars and secured with geotextiles to protect them, Ossowski concluded. To read about a 200-year-old sealed water bottle found in the Gulf of Gdansk, go to "Around the World: Poland."
