Gniezno

An early medieval town of western Poland, established during the 960s when Mieszko I united bands of Slavic tribes to form the Polish state. Excavations have been carried out on the earliest timber fortress. The old town has many buildings, including the cathedral which has 12th-century carved bronze doors. By the 10th century, the town had become a key center of the early Polish state.

Town in Poland formally established during the 960s when Mieszko I united bands of Slavic tribes to form the Polish state. Excavations have been carried out on the earliest timber fortress with its impressive system of double defences. The old town has many interesting buildings including the cathedral, which has 12th-century carved bronze doors. goat. Members of the genus Capra, distinguished from O vis (the sheep) by differences in scent glands, possession of a beard, number of chromosomes and possession of scimitar-like horns, sweeping back from the forehead. For archaeologists goats may be hard to differentiate from sheep, especially in the skeleton. Capra includes three groups of animals, (a) The wild goat and its domestic relatives. These are not really separate species, but are frequently classified apart. Capra aegagrus, the wild goat, lives as isolated communities, widely distributed through rocky, mountainous terrain around the easten Mediterranean and Asia. The domestic goat, in all its varieties, is often distinguished as Capra hircus. (b) Ibexes. Many species and subspecies, found in the most precipitous mountain areas of central Europe, Asia and northeast Africa. Difficult to distinguish in the skeleton from goat, (c) Markhor. The large, screw-homed goat of Afghanistan and the Himalayas. Goat bones first appear in Middle Palaeo lithic levels of caves. Ibexes seem to have been hunted extensively by Upper Palaeolithic man in the Pyrenees and in parts of Italy. Capra aegagrus is identified first in Mouster-ian levels of caves in the Near East. The first evidence for possible human management is at Shanidar Cave, Kurdistan, where there are high proportions of juvenile goats and sheep at c8500 be. The earliest morphological change possibly due to domestication is shown at Ali Kosh (6750-6000 be), further south in the Zagros mountains, where goat horn cores take on a form more like that of domestic animals. Goats seem to have been imported into Europe already domesticated — they appear in the Aegean before 6000 be.