Besunzane

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The Besunzane are a West Slavic tribe named only in the so-called Bavarian Geographer . Since the list-based written source, which is dated between 850 and 900, does not give any specific geographical references to the settlement area of ​​this tribe, its location is controversial. The only clue is the order in which the individual tribes are named. Besunzane follows Sleenzane, Lunsizi , Dadosesani and Milzane . Since the tribal areas are largely known and also the settlement areas of the west subsequent strains remains for locating the Besunzane just north Bohemia ( Joachim Huth , Walter Frenzel ) located east of the settlement area of Milzener subsequent Nisa valley ( Richard Jecht ) or Area of ​​the Dresden Elbe valley ( Reinhard Spehr ).

A document from 1071, in which Bishop Benno von Meißen received land in the “villa goreliz in pagus milsca” (in the estate / village of Görlitz in the Gau der Milzener) speaks against the Neisse Valley as a settlement area . The Besunzane must have lost their territorial and political independence in the 10th or 11th century. In addition to the naming of Besunzane to businc, bisenzc and further to the present day Biesnitz , the existence of a Slavic settlement area in the Neisse valley, geographically separated from the Milzenern by the Königshain mountains , speaks for the Neißetal. Today the literature largely follows Richard Jecht's localization.

In the Bavarian Geographer, two civitates are still mentioned for the Besunzane. (For the problem of the definition of a civitas, see there.) One of these civitates is probably to be found on the state crown , especially since fortifications can be found there archaeologically dating back to the Bronze Age and the state crown, as Jecht suspects, gave the tribe of the Besunzane its name: Jecht sucht states that the state crown was previously named "businc", like the town of Biesnitz at its foot, and was identical to the "urbs businc" mentioned by Thietmar von Merseburg in 1015. The second civitas could be found in the area around Ostritz ; with a fortification on the Veensberg near Blumberg ( Bratków in Polish ) as the central location . This could be meant by the "castella ostrusna", which was given to the diocese of Meissen in 1006 . However, in the Neißetal around Görlitz there are 21 to 29 Slavic and early German fortifications, so that the localization of the second civitas, according to the information provided by the Bavarian geographer, and its central location is extremely difficult.

Determining the extent of the Slavic settlement areas in the Neisse Valley is just as complicated. Since written sources were almost completely lacking up to the 13th century, the determination of the settlement area must be based almost exclusively on studies of settlement geography and names . These result, on the basis of location shape, field shape and field size investigations, two settlement chambers . On the one hand, the area along the Wittig , between Seidenberg and Neisse , as well as on the lower reaches of the Pließnitz , was relatively densely populated early on, but also the area south of the Landeskrone and perhaps today's urban area of ​​Görlitz. Joachim Huth suspected, however, that this core area was considerably expanded by Slavic colonists before the German settlement in the east (in Upper Lusatia this can be identified as a mass movement around 1200). The name of the "villa Goreliz" (old Slavic fire cities, village sub-settlement of the current city of Görlitz , possibly near the Nikolaikirche ), for example, speaks for brisk clearing activity. Furthermore, Huth suggests a gradual settlement of the Eigen from 1100 at the latest. As early as 1150, the forest on the corridor of Deutsch Ossig , which separated the two settlement areas, also disappeared and the villages along the Schwarzen Schöps also have Slavic predecessors, according to Huth.

For the area of ​​the later Nisani, the order of the listing by the Bavarian geographer, the small size with the two oldest castles Briesnitz and Leubnitz as well as the clear separation from other settlement areas by forests and mountains speaks for itself . The new crook Nisani for this area would only be assumed in the 10th century.

literature

  • Karlheinz Blaschke : Historical place directory of Saxony. Leipzig 1957.
  • Karlheinz Blaschke: On the settlement and population history of Upper Lusatia. In: Oberlausitz research. Leipzig 1961, pp. 60-80.
  • Gerhard Cheap : On the reconstruction of the oldest Slavic castle districts in the Upper Saxon-Meissnian area on the basis of the Bavarian geographer. In: New archive for Saxon history . Volume 66, 1995, pp. 27-67.
  • Lars-Arne Dannenberg : Ostritz - early urban development lines of a small town in Upper Lusatia. In: New Lusatian Magazine (NLM). New series, Volume 9, 2006, pp. 173f.
  • Walter Frenzel : Was there once a Gau Besunzane at the Landeskrone near Görlitz? In: Bautzender history books. Volume III / 1, 1925, pp. 25-31.
  • Joachim Huth : Slavic settlements in the Eigenes district. In: Work and research reports on the preservation of monuments in Saxony. Volume 11/12, 1962, pp. 89-109.
  • Joachim Huth: The Slavic pre-settlement of the Eigenes circle. In: Lětopis . Volume 9/1, 1962.
  • Joachim Huth: On medieval settlement processes in the Sorbian-German contact zone of Upper Lusatia, illustrated using the example of Dittersbach on the Eigen. In: Lětopis. Series B, Volume 11/2, 1964, pp. 181-203.
  • Richard Jecht : First mention of Upper Lusatia. - The Gau Besunzane and the urbs Businc are equal to the places Biesnitz and the Landeskrone. - Where was Sciciani? In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 97, 1921, pp. 188-199.
  • Paul Kühnel : The Slavic place and field names of Upper Lusatia. Leipzig 1982. (Reprint)
  • Johanes Lange: Settlement geographical study on the size of the fields in the southern forest zone between the Elbe and the Neisse. In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 102, 1925, pp. 77-125.
  • Reinhard Müller: The prehistoric and early historical finds and sites of the Zittau administration. In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 103, 1927, pp. 1-44.
  • Jasper von Richthofen: The state crown near Görlitz - an important Slavic fortification in eastern Upper Lusatia. In: Work and research reports on the preservation of monuments in Saxony. Volume 45, 2003, pp. 263-300.
  • Jasper von Richthofen (ed.): Besunzane - Milzener - Sorben. The Slavic Upper Lusatia between Poles, Germans and Czechs. (Series of publications of the municipal collections for history and culture Görlitz, new series, volume 37). Zittau 2004.
  • Reinhard Spehr : Christianization and the earliest church organization in the Mark Meissen. An attempt . In: Judith Oexle (ed.): Early churches in Saxony. Results of archaeological and architectural studies (publications by the State Office for Archeology and State Museum for Prehistory, Volume 23) Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8062-1094-2 , pp. 8–63.
  • Waldemar Bena: On the route of the Slavic ramparts and medieval castles. (PDF file; 553 kB)