Polepa (daub)

Once widely used in construction, polepa is a clay-based material, either sun-dried or low-fired. Unlike pottery made from the same raw material, which was fired at high temperatures, baked polepa is relatively brittle. Naturally occurring clay, which varies in colour and texture, was often mixed with additives such as sand, chopped straw or hay (sieczka), or small stones. Fragments of polepa found at archaeological sites frequently bear impressions of structural elements or organic material. The specimen on display, discovered in Skalno, Gryfice County, preserves imprints of straw. Slavic domestic architecture was based on three main construction techniques: log, post-and-beam, and wattle-and-daub. Log buildings (zrębowe) were the most durable but required large amounts of timber, as they were made of horizontally stacked wooden beams joined at the corners. In areas where wood was scarce, post-and-beam structures (słupowe) were used, with walls made of woven wattle between wooden posts. To seal these walls, *polepa* was commonly applied, while roofs were thatched with straw or reeds. Baked polepa could result either from intentional firing or accidental burning. When floors of houses or storage pits were lined to make them impermeable, clay was sometimes deliberately hardened by fire. However, in cases of house fires, the polepa used for wall sealing could become baked as well. These fired fragments, more resistant to water and other post-depositional factors, are more likely to retain their original shape or preserve negative impressions of structural components. Ewa Górkiewicz-Bucka