Key research topics

1. Palaeoecology of the valley floodplain in the Early Middle Ages, focusing especially on the issue of filled-up river channels (reconstruction of the river network, water regime and aquatic habitats; research − the issues of the economic and symbolic significance of rivers in the life of an early mediaeval power centre; the question of the geographical predispositions of settlement, the question of floods, and so on).
2. Economic bases of the power centre, in particular the issue of the economic hinterland (settlement structure in the economic hinterland of the centre, the level and the organisation of plant and animal production, food supply for the centre, the proportion of hunting and fishing, the question of storing cereals, subsistence strategies and so on).
3. Structure and development of the power centre, in particular the question of fortification, the organisation of internal space and the functions of different settlement components (revision of dating and the questions of fortification construction, information provided by non-destructive research in the stronghold, outcomes of the new detailed excavations of the settlement stratigraphies in the outer bailey).
4. Social structure of the Great Moravian population, particularly in the light of the study of graveyards (interdisciplinary archaeological/anthropological research employing new bioarchaeological methods).
5. Reflection of Christianisation and church organisations in archaeological sources, in particular the issue of churches and sacral areas (the form of Mikulčice church buildings, building technologies, dating, liturgical functions).