I po szpilkę warto się schylić. Znaleziska późnośredniowiecznych i wczesnonowożytnych szpilek z wykopalisk na zamku w Pucku

• Authors: Maciej Talaga

Title variants

EN

HE THAT WILL NOT STOOP FOR A PIN WILL NEVER BE WORTH A POUND. FINDINGS OF MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN PINS FROM EXCAVATIONS AT CASTLE SITE IN PUCK

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The ongoing progress in techniques of archaeological exploration results in increasing numbers of late medieval and early modern pins being discovered. 164 such pins were obtained during recent excavations at castle site in Puck, Poland. Since this kind of artifacts has been only rarely researched this paper aims at assessing the potential they carry for studying the culture of Middle Ages and Modern Era. It presents the archaeological literature concerned with describing, classifying or publishing pins. Since such literature is scarce outside Great Britain mainly British researchers are quoted. Due to this fact the methodology of description and classification has been based on British, most notably C. Caple’s, works. However, the typology based on forms of pin heads proposed by C. Caple proved insufficient to grasp all the examples of pins from the Puck assemblage. Thus the introduction of some additional types has been necessary. The assemblage from Puck has been characterized including the historical and archaeological context. The material used, traces of coatings visible on the surfaces of the artifacts, metric traits and state of preservation were all described. The analysis started with gathering the available information on the techniques of production employed in pin-making. Due to the limitations of the sources only the production of pins with wound-wire heads could be precisely inferred. The connection between pin-making industry and early attempts at labor division and mechanization has been briefly discussed. Then the evolution of pin forms, observed by the author and other researchers, has been examined. Moreover, an attempt at solving the problem of what craftsmen in Poland were responsible for producing pins has been made. Comparisons with the analogies from German Empire and examination of written, iconographical and linguistic sources lead author to the hypothesis that it was the iglarze (needlers), who were producing pins in Poland. Finally many written, ethnographic and iconographic sources from Western Europe and a few archaeological discoveries from Poland have been quoted in order to present the ways the pins were used in the past. Especially their sepulchral functions have been closely studied. The paper ends with an attempt at inferring the specific functions fulfilled by pins in an unusual household which was the castle in Puck.

Keywords

EN

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS; PINS; CASTLE IN PUCK

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-20

Contributors

author

Maciej Talaga