Ancient Askakukalis and the Amber Route
The beginnings of Bydgoszcz are most commonly associated with the year 1346, when King Casimir the Great granted the town its municipal rights. However, settlement in this area may date back more than 2,000 years and may be linked to the Amber Road that operated during that period. The theory that modern Bydgoszcz is the ancient Askaukalis is supported by the discovery in Alexandria around 150 AD of a map created by the Greek mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, a subject that continues to be studied by scholars today.
The Amber Road functioned during the Roman period, connecting the Roman province of Pannonia (today mainly the territory of Slovenia) and Aquileia – then the center of Roman amber distribution (today the region of Venice) – with the Baltic Sea and the modern Baltic countries.
This route was illustrated on Ptolemy’s fourth map, Germania Magna, which indicated three key centers on the territory of present-day Poland: Askaukalis (identified with Bydgoszcz), Setidava (identified with Konin), and Calisia (identified with Kalisz). Ptolemy’s maps were not very precise, as the technology of the time was limited, but his work remains of great interest to researchers. In 2011, an interdisciplinary team from the Technical University of Berlin published a study titled Germania Magna – A New Look at an Old Map, in which researchers used advanced mathematics to produce a scientific interpretation of the map. Their findings identified Bydgoszcz with Askaukalis.
“According to the corrected coordinates, the towns of Arsonium, Calisia, Setidava, and Ascaucalis (from south to north) lie within the main area where Roman imports are found. Calisia is widely associated with today’s Kalisz (Greater Poland region) based on studies of its name. The course of this route is clearly visible, especially from the finds of terra sigillata from Central Gaul and Rheinzabern,” the study states (author’s own translation from German).