It would probably be an exaggeration to say, that we now know everything about the Karkonosze Mountains, after all, our knowledge about them is still expanding and deepening, new discoveries are coming, research, and numerous "searchers" search for forgotten news and curiosities.
Certainly, however, we are now able to precisely locate them, give the longitude and latitude of each major point, and thanks to satellite measurements we can do it with even millimeter accuracy.
However, this was not always the case. Sudetes and Karkonosze – anyway, for centuries, these concepts were hardly distinguished and often the name of the Karkonosze Mountains encompassed the whole (or most) Sudetes – were located in various places, but – which is comforting – but always "somewhere in Central Europe". This is not surprising, because for the ancient world, thus the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean, these mountains lay "at the end of the world", on the periphery of the known, on the cold, wild north, where only the sought amber was wandered, fur coats, maybe metals. And probably it was mainly the trips for amber that resulted, that people heard about the Karkonosze and the Sudetes at that time, these mountains were a considerable obstacle in these expeditions. It was not without reason that the main routes of the "amber route" rather avoided them.
As it usually happens, after the merchants' happy return – often resembling adventurers rather than respectable traders – they reported their adventures, certainly also exaggerating and coloring the difficulties and dangers of the journey. Hence, these mountains did not enjoy a good reputation from the very beginning.
However, their fame had to be considerable, since in the 2nd c. n.e. The Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy placed them, with the name of Sudeti Montes, on its map of East Germany and Sarmatia, however, moving much to the west. This error persisted for a long time after that, the map of Ptolemy, repeatedly published and reworked, for centuries it was essential (and probably the only one) a source of geographic knowledge about this part of Euopy and only at the end …….
middle ages, or rather at the beginning of the rebirth, new cartographic studies of these areas appeared, also containing serious errors. Of course, there is no realistic representation of the terrain at all: the mountains were marked with the symbols of "mounds", the ridges stretched arbitrarily, rivers flowed "as they wanted", and the locations of the cities were not even close to the truth. Also, no heights were given, at most, the most important peaks were marked with a larger mound. This was the case, for example, on the map of Cardinal Mikołaj of Kuza, issued in 1507 r. in Rome, moreover, on the basis of Ptolemy's map, but extended to the lands of Poland, Lithuania and Russia.
Only published in 1544 r. Basel map of Silesia, contained in the famous Cosmographiae universalis Libri VI, in which, embroiled in the authentic tradition of the faith of the writers, they describe the habitable situation of all parts of the world, one's own self-doubts… Autore Sebastiano Munstero tried, although completely wrong, map Silesia and the Sudetes.
On the first, although also a mound and strange looking to us – because it is oriented to the south – the map of Silesia and the Sudetes, we had to wait for publication in 1561 r. maps of Martin Helwig. You can clearly see Śnieżka on this map (but no name), and the Giant Mountains described as Riesengebirge, of the cities, only Jelenia Góra and Trutnov were located on the other side.
Of course, these maps illustrated the state of knowledge about the area at that time, and this, in turn, reflected the degree of knowledge and interest in the mountains of the local inhabitants.
Usually, mountain areas were settled at the latest, they were learned and mastered for the longest time. To this day, the high mountains have actually remained the only mainstay (not counting water depths and polar regions) for explorers, seeking, if not virgin grounds, at least the first ascents or paths, on which a human foot has not yet stood.
It was no different in the Sudetes as well, and especially in the highest part – Giant Mountains. Settlement in this area appeared much later than in valleys and foothill valleys or lower ranges. Archaeological finds date back to the Palaeolithic, but based on them one can judge, that man would come here only from time to time, but there was certainly no form of permanent settlement.
You can also assume, that postglacial mammoth hunters could go here, and even live in these areas (since their traces were found in caves of other Sudeten ranges), but there is no confirmation of this.
Permanent settlement in the Sudetes did not appear until the turn of the Stone Age and the Iron Age, and it was related to the Lusatian culture. Certainly, there was already a settlement in the area of Jelenia Góra at that time, but the mountains were still empty, overgrown with endless forests. Only in the Kłodzko Valley, maybe Kamiennogórska and Jeleniogórska, and certainly in the foothills and foothills, settlement related to trade routes developed, usually leading through river valleys.