The „stronghold phenomena” occurred in early medieval period in relatively short time over the vast area inhabited by the Western Slavonic tribes. It is among one of the most absorbing problems of contemporary medieval studies. In this paper we focus on the case study from the valley of the Barycz River. We discuss examples of the traditional approaches to early medieval strongholds in order to reinterpret their functions and define new aims of archeological studies. The main purpose of this paper are settlement processes that occurred at the turn of the tribal and early state periods. In our studies we refer to the results of archeological non-invasive methods (Airborne Laser Scanning, geophysics, aerial archeology), historical sources and archival results of earlier excavations and fieldwalkig.