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Przekłuwacze typu Dresden-Dobritz / Żerniki Wielkie. Uwagi na temat narzędzi z późnego okresu rzymskiego i wczesnej fazy okresu wędrówek ludów

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Schuster J.

Wiadomości Archeologiczne

2011

vol. LXII

issue 62

65-82

The archaeological record from the Late Roman Period and early phase of the Migration Period includes iron objects of a distinct form, not observed earlier, similar to modified awls, which I propose to describe as: implements type Dresden-Dobritz / Żerniki Wielkie. The first to present them in a broader context was J. Szydłowski, some decades later A. Kokowski mapped their distribution in outline, whereas M. Piotrowski and G. Dąbrowski presented their own interpretation but not fully convincing, which persuaded me to take up their subject anew. The list presented here, based on catalogues published in the studies of J. Bemmann and J. Schuster, was updated to include the finds from recent years. Type Dresden-Dobritz / Żerniki Wielkie have a fairly simple design – a needle-like pointed lower part, and a broader upper part in the form of a elongated plate. In some specimens the plate is not markedly separate from the pin (form 1.) and then tends to be triangular, on occasion, with recessed sides. The second group (form 2.) are forms with a markedly separate grip which may be tulip-shaped (var. 2a) or roughly rectangular (var. 2b). Irrespective of their form or variant some implements have a small circular opening in the upper part of the handle, under the edge of the plate, which provides us with a clue as to how they were carried. The length is usually between 10 and 16 cm, but the longest known specimens measure c. 19 cm. The main area of distribution is between the Saale R. in the west, the Middle Danube in the south and Western Bug in the east. Isolated finds have been recorded outside this zone, even at considerable distance from it – on the Lower Weser and in Swabia, in six scattered sites of Chernyakihiv and Sântana de Mureş Cultures, in Lithuania and northern Belarus, and also on the Upper Dvina, Upper Dnieper and Upper Volga. The loose distribution of the find sites across great expanses of eastern Europe suggests that in future this area could yield a greater number of these tools. Most researchers are inclined to interpret these objects as firesteels, even though other than their material there is little to support this particular function. Their function of implement is beyond any doubt, most probably they were awls used in working soft materials. Analysis of assemblages which contained awls shows that their chronology is confined in principle to phases C3 and D1, but it is possible they were used also in phase D2. In the light of the data at hand it appears that implements type Dresden-Dobritz /Żerniki Wielkie were a part of personal equipment of armed men. Their wide distribution, taken together with the small number of specimens recovered at individual sites and the military context of discovery, suggest that their owners belonged to a special social stratum and that the significance of these implements was non-utilitarian. One gets the impression that they were symbol of rank or status of the armed men.

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1 Wiadomości Archeologiczne

1 Schuster J.

1 2011

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Przekłuwacze typu Dresden-Dobritz / Żerniki Wielkie. Uwagi na temat narzędzi z późnego okresu rzymskiego i wczesnej fazy okresu wędrówek ludów