up to 1200

The main result for Mecklenburg of the ice or glacial periods around 18 000 B.C. was the “Inner Baltic main terminal moraine” from Wismar to Waren and Woldegk.

Germanic Langobards, Warini and Semnones left behind megalithic tombs. Later Slavic clans ran arable farms and kept livestock in cleared settlements from the 7^th century. They operated multi-field farms, used wooden scratch ploughs and traded with Scandinavia. They lived in rural family communities and worshipped various gods in cultic centres. The dead were buried in inhumation graves together with grave furniture. Hill forts were the centres of the Obotrites in the west and the Lutici in the east. Nakon was the most powerful Slavic ruler in the 10th century.

Henry the Lion, the Saxon duke, conquered the region from 1142, defeated the Obotrites in 1164 and founded the county of Schwerin. He gave Pribislav, the Slavic ruler, large parts of the state as a fiefdom. Immigrants from Lower Saxony, Westphalia and Lower Rhine and Flemish regions built villages. The cart and soil turning ploughs were an important innovation

Juniper shrubs and downy birches emerge before other fauna when the ice age ends. Pines and birches are the first trees to grow. They are followed by hazel, hornbeam and oak. Copper beech dominates in the end.

The Slavs are followed by Germanic tribes. The Rani tribes on the island of Rügen and the Pomeranians from the central areas of the Baltic Sea's southern coast build cult temples like the principal site at Cape Arkona. They lived in family communities in villages on the basis of religious beliefs. Locally available resources such as arable crops, forest fruits, game, fish and farm animals provided food and clothing. Games that could also be imported were handed down. Skills, proficiencies and knowledge were transferred orally and in the form of practical instructions. Rivers, islands, hills and the sea are used to catch fish, hunt and to trade with the Scandinavian neighbours.

Bishop Otto of Bamberg and a number of priests start building Christian churches in 1124. The Diocese of Jomsborg is established in 1140. Rügen is assigned to the Danish Diocese of Roskilde. Construction of a cathedral in Cammin begins in 1175.

Wartislaw I founds the Pomeranian House of the Griffins in 1124, expanding his dominion to the banks of the river Peene. The Slavic Prince Jaromar submits to the Danish King Valdemar on the island of Rügen in 1168.