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Nietypowe groty włóczni ze schyłku starożytności z ziem polskich

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Czarnecka K.

Wiadomości Archeologiczne

2010

vol. LXI

issue 61

111-132

The territory of Poland has yielded three finds of lanceheads with a blade recycled from a fragment of a sword blade. Cierniówka/Czerniówka, distr. Grójec, southern Masovia (Fig. 1; unpublished, collections of the State Archaeological Museum, inv. PMA VI/827). Blade lightly bent, broken. Surviving length 13.5 cm. Octagonal-sectioned socket, D. 2.3 at the mouth, with non-forged edges; socket opening bound with a heavy iron ring decorated with a facetted zigzag design. Fairly deep (8 cm) slit to insert the lancehead blade, secured using 2 rivets. The blade had a fire patina, confirmed by metallographic analysis (cf. Annex). Radawa, distr. Jarosław, Lesser Poland (Fig. 2; A. Kokowski 2000, fig. 5). Lancehead with a fire patina, bent, straightened by the finder. Socket (L. 15.5 cm), polygonal-sectioned, with non-forged edges, c. 7 cm long slot with an inserted fragment (24.3×4 cm) of sword blade (the point), secured using two round-headed rivets; socket opening bound with a ring decorated with a facetted zigzag design. Tarnówko, distr. Inowrocław, Kuyavia (Fig. 3; W. Hensel, Z. Hil¬czer-Kurnatowska, A. Łosińska 1995, p. 29, fig. 16:8). Straightened lancehead, L. 47 cm (blade 36×4.5 cm), blade secured using two rivets. Fairly narrow socket, D. 1.9 cm at the mouth, delicately facetted, with non-forged edges. No surviving ring, but there is clear evidence that originally the socket had one. All three specimens are random finds and lack context, but in each locality where they were discovered there is a cemetery of Przeworsk Culture; moreover the fire patina (Cierniówka, Radawa) and partial melting of the bronze (Tarnówko) agree with the funerary rite practiced in this culture. Swords, the blades of which went into making these lanceheads, are datable to phase C2 of the Roman Period. We may assume that they had continued in use for some time before they broke and were recycled, therefore the lanceheads of interest may be dated to the Late Roman Period – phases C3–D. The technique and details of manufacture of these lanceheads do not find analogy on territory of Przeworsk Culture or in neighbouring cultures of the European Barbaricum. The ring around the socket may have affinity with Sarmatian shafted weapons (O. V. Simonenko 1996, p. 207; A. M. Hazanov 1971, p. 44–50). Some analogy in terms of shape, but not construction, is shown by sword-like lanceheads with a long blade with parallel edges and a short, usually facetted socket, known from a small number of scattered finds dated to the close of the Roman Period and later (Fig. 4). Similar lanceheads are known from the cemetery at Čatyr-dag/Чатыр-даг, raj. Bakčisarai in Crimea (V. L. Myc et alii, 2006, p. 119, 151, fig. 7:2.3), sites of Tsebelda Culture in Abkhazia (Û. N. Voronov, N. K. Šenkao 1982, p. 126, fig. 2:5, 20, 32), cemetery of Luboszyce Culture at Dresden-Dobritz, Stadkr. Dresden, Saxony (E. Meyer 1971, p. 50, fig. 24:7.8), and somewhat later, the area of south-eastern Lithuania (V. Kazakâvičûs 1988, p. 41, fig. 15, map VII). The manufacturing technique itself – inserting the blade into a slot cut in the socket – is known from Hunnic-Sarmatian sites on the Volga and western Kazakhstan. Two lanceheads made using this technique originate from a quite rich warrior grave in barrow 1 from the cemetery near locality Lebedevka/Лeбедевка (Fig. 5), raj. Čingirlau, western Kazakhstan, dated to AD 2nd–4th c. (G. I. Bagrikov, T. N. Senigova 1968, p. 81 ff; M. G. Moškova 1982; S. G. Botalov 2006b, fig. 5:5, 75), or alternately, AD 4th–5th c. (S. G. Botalov, S. Û. Gucalov 2000, p. 121, 132). One of the lanceheads has a facetted socket bound with a ring. The blade is not too long, 27 cm, with a width of 4 cm, flat-lenticular in section. Surviving entire, the wooden shaft had a silver mount with rich ornament of band designs at bottom. The socket of the second lancehead is incomplete, missing its bottom part therefore it is unclear whether originally it also was bound using a similar ring. Its surviving length is 35 cm, the blade with long and parallel edges, 22 cm long and 3 cm wide. The grave is richly furnished with weapons, a great many ornaments and imports. The same technique was used also in making a lancehead (Fig. 6) described as Sarmatian-Hunnic discovered in Communist State Farm Voskhod/Вoсхoд, near the town of Pokrovsk/Покровск (formerly Engelsk/Eнгелск), obl. Saratov/Cаратов (I. V. Sinicyn 1936, fig. 3; J. Werner 1955, pl. 40:4; A. K. Am¬broz 1989, fig.15:4; I. P. Zaseckaâ 1994, p. 35, pl. 32:2). According to a description (I. V. Sinicyn 1936, p. 75), two projecting parts of the socket were attached to the blade, inserted between them, by welding (or soldering). These are burials described as having “Hunnic-Sarmatian” attributes (S. G. Botalov, S. Û. Gucalov 2000; S. G. Botalov 2006b, p. 38). It is important that, although quite far apart geographically, these pieces belong to the same culture environment as the lanceheads from the late phase of Przeworsk Culture. Numerous imports – bronze vessels, amphorae, ornaments – testify to regular contact with the area on the Black Sea (M. G. Moškova 1982, passim; A. Simonenko, I. I. Marčenko, N. Û. Limberis 2008). “Gothic” imports as well as objects originating from the territory of the Roman Empire discovered in “Lebedevka” barrows have been interpreted as evidence of multi-facetted cultural, commercial and military-political links with the West (Fig. 9; S. G. Botalov, S. Û. Gucalov 2000, p. 132). Lanceheads from Sarmatian and Hunnic finds from the Great Hungarian Plain from the Migrations Period, classified to group 6 of E. Istvánovits and V. Kulcsár (1995, p. 21), quite long (up to 40 cm) with a relatively narrow blade, dated from 2nd/3rd until 5th c., may have been manufactured using a similar technique, or at least, a technique resembling it (Fig. 7). They are not secured with rivets but may be – similarly as the specimen from Voskhod/Pokrovsk – welded of two elements. At least, in their appearance they imitate lanceheads produced using this technique. A lancehead from a Hunnic votive deposit from Pécs-Üszög/Pécsüszög (Fig. 8), kom. Baranya in the Hungarian Plain (J. Hampel 1905, p. 371, fig. 1a; I. Bóna 1991, p. 277, fig. 44; B. Anke 1998, p. 102, Pl.. 119:18) is made of two elements: blade and socket, forged (welded) together, although in none of the publications the method of manufacturing this lancehead is mentioned. The lancehead, some 28 cm in length, is nevertheless slightly different from pieces discussed earlier, as the split socket is hammered quite wide, reaching to the edge of the flat blade with a gently sub-triangular section, forming on both its sides noticeable protrusions. Remaking a sword into a lancehead possibly had more than just a practical reason – the aim was to preserve the damaged sword, perhaps, a valuable heirloom. Reforging a broken sword into a new one for a son and heir is an important motif in the Volsungasaga (Fig. 10), the framework of which took form during the Migrations Period (P. Vang Petersen 2003, p. 291); we may assume that the motif was present in the tradition and imagination of the people at the close of antiquity. It is not impossible that the lanceheads had no utilitarian function and were used as banners of sorts, or as ceremonial weapons. The manufacturing technique itself: a separate blade attached in a slit socket, most probably was an experiment of sorts, perhaps, made in one particular workshop (this would explain the strikingly similar lancehead finds from Cierniówka and Radawa), although we can suppose that they had been inspired by Sarmatian (Hunnic) lances.

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1 Wiadomości Archeologiczne

1 Czarnecka K.

1 2010

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Nietypowe groty włóczni ze schyłku starożytności z ziem polskich