 Dear colleagues, dear ladies and gentlemen, in my paper, I want to give you a brief overview on the state of research on early medieval agglomerations in today's Austria, which on one hand is very easy because there is no state of research, actually, with one exception. And on the other hand, right because of that, it's very difficult to give an overview on the state of research. Also the subtitle of my presentation, a comparative study between the Alps and the Lowlands, might seem a little bit confusing because there is hardly anything to compare, but we will give it a shot anyway. So you've seen in the previous two presentations already a lot about the region we are dealing with and the studies, the research we carry out is done within a project called Frontier Contact Soon on Omen's Land. You already met two of my colleagues. Some of the other colleagues are also here. Another one will have a presentation later on. And we are dealing with the development of the region at the today border between the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. And we are looking at the differences and similarities between this region influenced by the great Moravian quality and the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, for example, also in the times before and after, but today we will focus on the 9th century more or less. If you take a look at the topography of Austria, it's obvious that it's dominated by the Alps in the western and southwestern part and by Lowlands, the Danube, Whaley, the Capacian Basin, the Wiener Basin in the northeast of it. And if we take a look at the profile of the Haydebuff Sea, there are differences of nearly 4,000 meters from northeast to southwest. And this also influences the settlement patterns, of course. If we take a look at the early medieval sites, the dots you see here are early medieval sites, burial grounds, settlements, churches and so on, not only from archaeological sources, but also from written sources known from medieval charters. And it's obvious that there are like three hotspots and we already heard a lot about the one on the top right, Moravia or Great Moravia. But another important spot is this one, which is the Bishopric of Salzburg, which has become one of the most important bishoprics in the 8th and 9th century. And in the south, in the so-called Klagenfuhr Basin, Klagenfuhr Becken, there is the Slavic Principality of Quarantania located or then later in the 9th century, as this has been incorporated into the Quarantian Empire, it's a Quarantian county with a very important center down there. And around 800, it looks like, as I explained just right now, and now we want to take a look if we can find agglomerations somehow in these areas. And if we want to find agglomerations, like Yershi defined them, and I'm very grateful for this definition, we cannot only use archaeological sources because we hardly have any large-scale excavations in the Alpine areas, so we also have to use written sources. And Salzburg is a very good example for a combination of these things. It has already been a settlement in the Roman period, an important settlement, due to the salt that is located nearby and was very important for the salt trade. And also in the early medieval period, there is a monastery, a very early monastery, for months situated on this hill. Then another monastery is funded with the church right here, and in the 8th century, at the end of the 8th century, it becomes an archbishopric, and here you see the cathedral. And these components are already there in the 8th century and in the 9th century. And what you see here, the dots here are archaeological sources. They have only been small-scale excavations. We know several burial grounds, cemeteries connected to the churches. We know some of the building remains of the churches from the early Middle Ages, but only a few. But however, after the definition that Yershi gave in his paper, we can say that we've got a certain area that has been dwelled, and we've got these components, these elements, churches. We've got written sources that tell us that there has been lots of economy, and so on. So we can call Salzburg, of course, an agglomeration. And now we take a look a bit further to the south, to Carantania. And it has been the first Slavic principality that has been mentioned by its own name, Carantania, in the 8th century, in a source from the 9th century, though. But this mentions already that there has been a dynasty of Slavic princes, of Slavic dukes, and that they inherit their leadership within the family. And we still don't know exactly where the center of this Slavic principality has been, or if there has been a center at all. And what you see here is Kamburg, a map from the early 19th century. And it is a stronghold called Karnburg. Karnburg is castle, and Karn has the same Carantania and Karn, they derive from the same root, one could say. And this stronghold is also known from several written sources from the 9th century. And we know that it has been the main headquarter for the crown, after Carantania has been incorporated into the Carangian empire. There have only been small-scale excavations and there have not been any geophysics yet. So we don't know a lot about the inner structure, but it is mentioned as a courtes, as a royal manor, as a civitas, and it's the only place where the German kings have ever been present physically in Carantania that we have proof of. So probably this would also be something that we could call an agglomeration after the definition of Yershi earlier today. And it has lost a lot of its importance during the 11th and the 12th century, as there has been a shift of power from the crown to local dukes that were more present in the country. So today it is only a village, in contrary to Salzburg for example, where the early medieval agglomeration is also today a very active and densely dwelled city. Another example from the very center of Carintia of Carantania is Phila. It's at the confluence of the two rivers, Drau, Drava and Gael. And it is also very densely settled in the early Middle Ages. We know that because of several finds, the blue dots here are cemeteries, here are church yards, cemeteries connected to churches. And we also have lots of written evidence from the 9th and 10th century for this agglomeration for this town. For example, what you see here is the structure mentioned at Kurtis, at Castellum, at Ecclesia. So we know that there has been a manner and fortification as well as a church and the red structure here remains of a rampart that has been up to five meters high until the 1960s until it was removed due to construction activities. And here you see a depiction of the town of Phila from the 17th century. And here you can see structures that were already present in the early Middle Ages. This church, that church has been existent already in the early Middle Ages. And also here we've got several cemeteries also. The bridge crossing the river is already mentioned in the written source. So also here, although we don't have complete archeological evidence, only small scale excavations, also here we could say, all right here we've got an early medieval agglomeration in the eastern region. And regarding the differences between the eastern Alps and the northeast of Austria, where Kagan has shown that probably there has been a very important Moravian influence, is not only regarding this political background, it's also regarding the sources. While we have lots of written sources for the southeast, we don't have any written sources for the southwest. We don't have any written sources for the northeast. And the only written sources that tell us about the northeast were not written there, but in the southwest. And on the other hand, we don't have any excavations of settlements, real large scale excavations of settlements in the southwest, but the written sources and here you see a chart of the terms that were used to describe larger settlements. Of course, Kurtis has been the most common term, meaning a royal manner. And most of these places mentioned in the charters are still cities, towns, or villages today, some bigger, some smaller. So this could be the beginning of what we could define as agglomeration. And on the other hand, Zivitas is mentioned twice and this points to very large settlements. And that were existing in the early, middle, period in the Eastern Alps. And as I mentioned, we don't have any excavations or hardly any excavations in the Alpine areas, but lots of excavations in the northeast. And the only agglomeration that we can find here, which really deserves this term regarding Yershi's definition discussed to now, it has already been mentioned today. It is situated on a hill next to the river Kamp. And it has been excavated for 50 years now and it shows similar structures, like in Bohansko, like in these Moravian central sites. And this is really the only site that we could define as an agglomeration for northern Austria for that time regarding the archaeological sources as we don't have any written sources for this area. And to come to a conclusion, we could sum up that, of course, we have agglomeration centers in the Eastern Alps. Most of them are still cities today, but it can also work the other way around like we've seen in Hamburg because of political changes and probable agglomeration did not become a city or town today. And we are missing excavations, but instead of excavations, we've got very many written evidence for that. While in the northeast of Austria, the situation is contrary to that. We've only got archaeological evidence. One site goes to now could be defined as an agglomeration, and the real agglomeration are just right behind the border that Yoshi has shown with Bohansko and Mikrochitse, for example, Stagymiesto, and so on. I hope I could give you some overview on the state of research, although there is not a lot that I could present to you regarding our sources, but I'm looking forward to the discussion. Thank you very much. Thank you.