Editing Gdańsk (section)

===Early Poland===
[[File:Brama Zuraw W Gdansku (153003103).jpeg|thumb|The world's largest medieval port crane, situated over the river [[Motława]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.nmm.pl/crane/the-crane-past-and-present |title=The Crane: past and present – Crane – National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk |website=en.nmm.pl |access-date=16 April 2019 |archive-date=16 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416081538/https://en.nmm.pl/crane/the-crane-past-and-present |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

The first written record thought to refer to Gdańsk is the ''vita'' of [[Adalbert (Archbishop of Magdeburg)|Saint Adalbert]]. Written in 999, it describes how in 997 Saint [[Adalbert of Prague]] baptised the inhabitants of ''urbs Gyddannyzc'', "which separated the great realm of the duke [i.e., [[Bolesław I Chrobry|Bolesław the Brave]] of Poland] from the sea."<ref name=Loew24>Loew, Peter Oliver: Danzig. Biographie einer Stadt, Munich 2011, p. 24.</ref> No further written sources exist for the 10th and 11th centuries.<ref name=Loew24/> Based on the date in Adalbert's ''vita'', the city celebrated its millennial anniversary in 1997.<ref name=Waznyetal>Wazny, Tomasz; Paner, Henryk; Golebiewski, Andrzej; Koscinski, Bogdan: Early medieval Gdańsk/Danzig revisited (EuroDendro 2004), Rendsburg 2004, [http://www.bfafh.de/eurodendro2004/abstracts_inet.pdf pdf-abstract] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909224137/http://www.bfafh.de/eurodendro2004/abstracts_inet.pdf |date=9 September 2013 }}.</ref>

Archaeological evidence for the origins of the town was retrieved mostly after [[World War II]] had laid 90{{nbsp}}percent of the city centre in ruins, enabling excavations.<ref name=LoewWazny>Loew (2011), p. 24; Wazny et al. (2004), [http://www.bfafh.de/eurodendro2004/abstracts_inet.pdf abstract] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909224137/http://www.bfafh.de/eurodendro2004/abstracts_inet.pdf|date=9 September 2013 }}.</ref> The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308.<ref name=Waznyetal/> [[Mieszko I of Poland]] erected a stronghold on the site in the 980s, thereby connecting the [[History of Poland (966–1385)|Polish state]] ruled by the [[Piast dynasty]] with the trade routes of the [[Baltic Sea]].<ref name=Hess39>{{cite book |title=Danziger Wohnkultur in der frühen Neuzeit |first=Corina |last=Hess |publisher=LIT Verlag |location=Berlin-Hamburg-Münster |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-8258-8711-7 |page=39}}</ref> Traces of buildings and housing from the 10th century have been found in archaeological excavations of the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archeologia.pl/en/exhibitions/permanent/95-1000-lat-gdanska-w-swietle-wykopalisk |title=1000 LAT GDAŃSKA W ŚWIETLE WYKOPALISK |last=((admin2)) |access-date=18 March 2017 |archive-date=20 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220013801/http://archeologia.pl/en/exhibitions/permanent/95-1000-lat-gdanska-w-swietle-wykopalisk |url-status=live }}</ref>