Discoveries in the bodden indicate that there has been settlement here since the Stone Age. All over R�gen there are numerous stone monuments, such as megalithic tombs and altar stones that have survived to the present day. By the time around the birth of Christ, the inhabitants of R�gen were part of the East Germanic tribe of Rugii, who roughly occupied the region that was later to become Western Pomerania and who gave the island its name. The Rugii may have originated from Scandinavia or evolved from autochthonous tribes. In the Migration Period, many Rugii moved south and founded an empire in Pannonia.
From the 7th century the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) built an empire on R�gen and the neighbouring coast between Recknitz and Ryck, which decidedly affected the history of both the Baltic Sea area and the surrounding Obodritic- (in the west) and Liutician- (in the south) occupied mainland for the next few centuries. Many traces of their life can be found today. The basis of their great military strength was a combination of the Ranian navy and a favourable geographical location. Denmark, which was at that time very successful in Britain and Scandinavia, was neither able to match with its Ranian rivals in the Baltic Sea region nor to protect its coastline from Ranian armies until well into the 12th century. Meanwhile the Ranians built numerous castles and temples in the Barth-Jasmund-Gristow triangle. The temple hill of Jaromarsburg, at the northern tip of R�gen and dedicated to the god, Svetovid, was significant well beyond the boundaries of the Ranian empire. After the fall of Rethra it became the chief shrine for the pagan Northwestern Slavs. The administrative centre of the empire was Charenza (possibly identical with the present Garz or Venz hillfort). The main trading centre of the empire was Ralswiek at the southernmost point of the Gro�er Jasmunder Bodden.
In 1168, the Danish king, Valdemar I, and his army commander and advisor, Bishop
