On a hill in the Polish town of Puck, archaeologists have uncovered layers of history where an ordinary mill suddenly turned into a stronghold during wartime.
The excavations on Windmill Hill (Wzgórze Wiatraczne) were conducted by specialists from the University of Warsaw under the leadership of Dr. Michał Starski. They investigated more than five thousand square meters roughly three hundred meters west of the medieval town center.
Here, over three hundred archaeological features were discovered. Among them are fragments of granite millstones with characteristic grooves typical of the late Middle Ages, and more than a dozen stone cannonballs.
At the center of the hill, two ring-shaped ditches were identified, with diameters of about thirty and fifty meters. Each is roughly one and a half meters deep, and between one and a half and two and a half meters wide. The ditches were filled with sand and clay.
Inside the larger ring, the remains of a wooden cellar of an unknown structure and large pieces of millstones have survived. Historical sources mention two windmills in Puck in the 15th century, one of which belonged to the Teutonic Order.
According to the researchers, these ditches may have served as defensive structures. They are linked to the Thirteen Years' War of 1454–1466, when Puck twice became a theater of combat: in 1460 it was captured by the crusaders, and in 1464 it was besieged by Gdansk troops.
The hill offered a convenient elevation, so the mill and adjacent buildings were apparently surrounded by ditches and possibly a small rampart. If the dating is confirmed, these will be the first known field fortifications of that period.
Later, in the 16th century, part of the land passed to the local Protestant community. A Lutheran cemetery appeared on the hill, where about one hundred and fifty burials were found. Among the finds are coins from the 15th–16th centuries, probably connected with the custom of the "Charon's obol," and a 17th-century clay pipe.
Even earlier, people of the Lusatian culture lived in this place in the first half of the first millennium BCE, and in the early Middle Ages pits of an economic purpose were noted here. A map from 1634 already calls the hill Muhlenberg — Mill Hill.
One place over two thousand years changed roles from a settlement and a mill to a temporary fortress and a cemetery. Such finds show how people adapted the landscape to changing needs — from daily bread to defense and remembrance of ancestors.
