The Lost Viking-Age City of Truso — Wulfstan’s Forgotten Baltic Trading Port

For more than a thousand years, the trading city of Truso survived mainly as a name preserved in a medieval account. In the late ninth century, the sailor Wulfstan described a seven-day voyage across the Baltic from Hedeby to a trading port near the waterways of the Vistula. His account recorded islands, coastlines, rivers, local peoples, trade, and unusual customs—but Truso later disappeared from history. Centuries passed before archaeology began to solve the mystery. Near Lake Druzno in northern Poland, researchers identified a large early medieval settlement at Janów Pomorski. Excavations revealed houses, workshops, boat remains, iron rivets, amber working, glass production, metalworking, weights, coins, and evidence of trade connecting Scandinavia, western Europe, the Baltic world, and even the Islamic world. The location, chronology, settlement structure, maritime activity, and archaeological finds closely match the world described in Wulfstan’s account. But Truso did not remain a major port forever. Political change, shifting trade networks, silting waterways, and changes around the Vistula delta may all have contributed to its decline. This documentary follows the evidence from medieval manuscripts to modern archaeology and asks: How could a few lines written more than a thousand years ago help researchers rediscover a forgotten Baltic trading city? And how many other vanished places may still survive only as names hidden in ancient texts? Vanished Meridian explores lost cities, forgotten settlements, ancient trade networks, archaeology, historical mysteries, and places erased from memory. Subscribe for evidence-based documentaries about the places history almost forgot. The script supports the archaeological side strongly: Janów Pomorski was identified in 1981, excavation began in 1982, and research revealed a substantial planned settlement with houses, workshops and maritime activity. #VanishedMeridian #Truso #Wulfstan #VikingHistory #VikingAge #LostCities #Archaeology #BalticHistory