Problematyka późnośredniowiecznych dworów na kopcu na Śląsku w świetle badań wykopaliskowych przeprowadzonych w 2009 r. w Bełczu Małym gm. Wąsosz

The paper concerns the question of research on small knight’s seats in Silesia. Results of excavations carried out in the area and in surroundings of the knight’s seat in Bełcz Mały gave rise to the research on the subject. There, the preserved complex is located on a small hill in the valley of the Barycz river, approximately 150 m northwest of the village. A quadrilateral embankment 55 x 60 m in size, surrounded by a moat 20 m wide and an outer rampart, is the main element of the castle. In the course of the excavations, cultural layers connected with an open settlement of the Lusatian culture, dated to the V phase of the Bronze Age and Hallstatt C, as well as early medieval material, dated generally to the 2nd half of the 11th – the 13th centuries, were exposed. The discovering of two phases of the knight’s seat in the type of the motte castle was the most important result of the excavations. The castle was built on the hill, elevated by the accumulation of material connected with an older settlement, just on the bank of the Barycz river. The main building, probably made of brick, as well as outbuildings, made of timber and clay, were erected at the courtyard surrounded by a palisade. On the basis of dendrochronological dating of wood samples and of the analysis of clay vessels, it can be determined that the castle functioned since the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries to around the third quarter of the 15th century. In the course of the excavations, relics of a wooden bridge, built over the river around the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries as well, were discovered.