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Skarb z Karlina w świetle archiwaliów: historia odkrycia i losy zabytków

100%

Tybulewicz R.

Światowit

2012

vol. Tom VII (XLVIII), fasc. B

165-192

The Migration Period hoard from Karlino, distr. Białogard, NW Poland (until 1945, Corlin or Korlin, in the province Westpreussen) has an enigmatic history. This applies both to its find-spot and circumstances of discovery as well as to the later fate of its constituent parts. The author undertakes to make an up-to-date and comprehensive scholarly description of the deposit from Karlino. New input to the story of the hoard from Karlino came in 2007-2008 thanks to discoveries: in Berlin (archive of the Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte), in Copenhagen (library of Nationalmuseet and private files of M.B. Mackeprang, now in keeping of dr. phil. M. Axboe), and also in the National Museum in Szczecin, Poland (archive of the Numismatic Cabinet). A detailed analysis was made also of data contained in relevant literature. There are 14 newly found, archival documents concerning Karlino hoard. They are held at present by the Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte. The earliest are two from 9 and one from 13 August 1839, followed by 11, 16 and 19 September 1839, three from 17 December 1839, one from 20 March 1867, and one from March 1934. Almost all were signed by Director Leopold von Ledebur. There are also two entries made in the inventory books from 1841 and 1867, and one “list ofwere to be evacueted objects” from the Museum in 1941 (list of objects in four cases, which at the end of the war were passed on to the Soviet Army). These objects were shipped to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Polish archival documentation concerning Karlino hoard is very poor. Reliable information on the contents was found in inventory lists of the former Antiquarisches Museum in Stettin (now, Szczecin) in Inventarium der Munzen und Medallien der Geschellschaftfur Pommerische Geschichte undAltherthums Kunde in Stettin from 1852 and in second, late 19th c. inventory list of coins and medallions held by the Museum entitled Rom und Griechenland (in the chapter Romische Munzen in Pommern gefunden). While making analyses of data provided by archi- val documentation and publications we come across many discrepancies as to the name of the locality in which the discovery was made. The name of the find-spot is given variously as, Koszalin (German Coslin or Koslin), Malechowo (German Malchow) or Lubiechowo (German Lubchow). The last of these is given as the location where some of the artefacts from Karlino were in keeping. We may accept that the hoard from Karlino had been discovered in the winter of 1838/1839 by an unknown famer, in the fields between the present-day localities Karlino and Lubiechowo. Reportedly this happened when an attempt was made to remove or blow up a large boulder lying in a peat land or its vicinity. Basing on the accounts found in literature it appears that the farmer discovered the hoard in the neighbourhood of the boulder at a depth of approximately 30 cm below surface. The subsequent fortunes of the objects from the Karlino hoard can be reconstructed only with difficulty (Table 3). This is not only because of the passage of time but mainly because so little is known about the time, place, circumstances of discovery and there is no first-hand report on the contents of the hoard. We have to assume that within a space ofno more than six months the objects were sold by their finder. Subsequently, they drew the interest of museums specialists from Berlin (Leopold von Ledebur - Director of Konigliches Kunstkammer and Julius Friedlander - Director of Konigliche Munzkabinett), antiquarians (Benoni Friedlander), dealers (Brandes - owner of a shop and a money changers’ at Kónigstrafie and Poststrasse\ and also oflocal great families (owners of the Palace at Lubiechowo, including Clara von Schuman nee Hindenburg). At present most are in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. The find consisted exclusively of gold objects, of barbarian, Roman and Byzantine provenance (Table 2). The most valuable and most striking among them were seven ‘Germanic bracteates’, type C, according to O. Montelius, belonging to the Eastern Danish-Southern Swedish subgroup. All the specimens from Karlino were made of gold sheet, impressed on one side, with a decorative rim, and fit- ted with a loop. Six were struck using the same die (IK/100) (Fig. 1:1-6). All featured a representation of a substan- tially stylised male figure on horseback, walking left. Additionally concerning first mentioned six identical bracteates, opposite the forehead of the horseman was presented a figure of a bird. The seventh (IK/329) bracteate was slightly different. Opposite the forehead of the horseman was a motif reminiscent of a letter ‘X’. Moreover, in the border between the man’s head and the animal, between two lines, can be seen a runic inscription which has been read as WAIGA (Fig. 1:7). It is also certain that the hoard from Karlino included two gold rings. One of these was chunky, pentagonal, circular on the inside, facetted and decorated with an engraved decoration, including an inscription ALU in runic script (Fig. 2). The other ring had the form of a plain band. The deposit also contained a gold bead of parabolic shape fashioned from a spirally twisted slender wire (Fig. 3), and a fragment of a heavy gold bracelet made of thick wire. Finally, there were coins: a solidus of Theodosius II (430-440, RIC 258) and a solidus of Leo I (462 or 466, RIC 605), both struck at Constantinople. In addition, there is a group of less certain objects which the author believes probably also belonged to the hoard from Karlino. This uncertainty is caused by the fact that these pieces were published only more than a century after the discovery of the deposit and without giving their source. The group opens with a gold ring twisted from a wire spiral. Next, two solidi: Valentinian I (367-375), struck at Trier, RIC I4(a) variant (Fig. 4:1) and a solidus of Valentinian III (c. 430-445), struck at Ravenna, RIC 2019 (Fig. 4:2). Both coins were provided with decorative borders and loops. The most noteworthy object in this group is a gold decorative pendant (Fig. 5) fashioned from three solidi of Theodosius II (408-420, 420-422 and 424-455), first two of the mint at Constantinople, third, from Thessalonica, respectively RIC 202, 219 and 361-365. All of coins were provided with decorative borders, and were suspended from a solid profiled rod. The chronology of the assemblage is defined by the solidi and the bracteates. We may assume that the hoard was buried in late 5* c., not later than early 6th c. This is confirmed by hoards of a similar composition and dating known from Poland: Wapno, distr. Wągrowiec, Zagórzyn, distr. Piła and Suchań, distr. Stargard, all dated to between the end of AD 5* until the early 6th c. The culture attribution of the hoard from Karlino is to the people of the Dębczyno Group, settled in Western and Central Pomerania starting around mid-3rd c. until the end of the 5th - early 6th c. All the objects belonging to the hoard from Karlino, except for the solidi, are of Scandinavian provenance. The gold coins originate from the mints in the eastern and western area of the Roman Empire (6 and 1 pieces, respectively). It is quite likely that they had found their way to the area of Western Pomerania by way of Scandinavia. The subject of the deposit from Karlino has not been exhausted. To continue the research there is need to access the collections of museums in Berlin (of the Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte and of the Munzkabinett of the Staatliche Museen) and Moscow (of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), reconstruct the fortunes of the members of the Pogge Family, fortunes of the owners of the palace at Lubiechowo, and of the two dealers - Hackbarth of Kolberg (Kołobrzeg) and Brandes of Berlin.

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1 Światowit

1 Tybulewicz R.

1 2012

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Skarb z Karlina w świetle archiwaliów: historia odkrycia i losy zabytków