EN
Construction works related to the implementation of the project of the modernisation and extension of archaeological reserves under the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica were conducted at Ostrów Lednicki in 2010. They produced a small bronze item – a fragment of a triangular-shaped horse bit cheekpiece. Its two long edges (lower and upper) are gently arched upwards, and the shorter one was broken off. The lower edge is roller-shaped and oval in cross section. The preserved end at the contact point of the upper and lower edges is thickened, bilaterally, laterally, and diagonally bevelled (resembling a stylised snakehead). The other one, a broken off end of the lower edge, is slightly bent upwards on the inside. Thisis probably the forepart of the second part, a mirror ‘reflection’ of the preserved plate, with relief. Visible on one of its surfaces is a fragment of the relief: part of the body, a wing, tail and paw of a sitting dragon or basilisk. It has a curled wing adhering to the side and a long snakelike tail with a three-part end. One of them is spirally rolled up under the back of the torso. The dimensions of the fragmentally preserved object are as follows: length 5.31 cm, width 2.47 cm, thickness 0.35 cm, thickness with relief 0.55 cm. The bits discovered at Ostrów Lednicki and in the waters of Lake Lednica (along the bridges and in their vicinity) belong mostly to the two-part type I forms according to A. Nadolski. The find from the suburbium is a fragment of the type II bit according to A. Nadolski. They are believed to date from the tenth to thirteenth centuries, but in most cases they are considered to date back to the eleventh-twelfth centuries. The specimen from Ostrów Lednicki has a plate, cast along with an extended straight side, with a relief showing the dragon or basilisk. The item provides no clue as to when exactly and how it was brought to Ostrów Lednicki. However, this is another, after the ending of a whip handle, high-class horse tack-related object of eastern origin discovered at the site.