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Analyses were conducted with five groups of stove tiles connected by various attributes, which are known from many locations in the Czech lands of the second half of the 15th century, from the neighbouring Austria or Poland, as well as from the nearby Hungary.
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The feast that celebrates the revelation of God (Epiphany), as the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 2.1–12) says, commemorates three Wise Men (also referred to as Magi or Kings) from the East who came to worship the newborn King of the Judeans. This motif mostly occurs on medieval relief stove tiles in the form of a compositionally unified picture, comprising Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus and three figures of Kings bringing gifts in various containers. The scene is usually framed by a simple post-built building reminding of the Bethlehem Stable and by the inevitable star that guided the Three Kings arriving either afoot, or exceptionally riding on animals’ backs. Distinguished from this concept is a series of tile reliefs, whose figures, placed mostly on a two-cusped segmental arch of a tracery, became independent and were depicted on their own separate stove tiles of rectangular format (in more detail Loskotová 2011, 14–20, 35–37, 108–112, 150–156, 246–248). The owner or builder of the given stove thus got more space to combine individual figures, especially due to additional figures who enriched the series. In the basic series, which is defined by a bordure in the form of crossed bars anchored at the foot of the above-mentioned arch, we so far completely or partially identified fourteen reliefs. In some locations, these reliefs are still supplemented by another figures that imitate the style and composition of the original collection.
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The tournament series comprises only four motifs, but it is easy to distinguish from the numerous relief depictions with similar content. Similarly as it was with the Adoration of the Magi series, the figures are not crowded together in the area of a single frontal heating panel, but appear individually on separate stove tiles. Apart from the overall visual design, these tiles are interlinked by the element of an ogee arch at the foot of the relief. The arch is topped by a transversal fess, on which individual figures are placed (Jordánková–Loskotová–Merta 2004, 582–583, 588–589; Jordánková–Loskotová 2007, 334–339, 352–355; 2007a; Loskotová 2011, 69–74). Inclined armorial shields are visible in pendentives on both sides of the arch. The main figures – two knights in full plate armour – are depicted just before the moment of their collision, with lance heads touching the opponent’s shield. The heraldic symbols (saltire raguly in escutcheon and a panache of peacock feathers with a fish in crest) enable to identify the knight riding to the left with Hynek Bítovský of Lichtenburk (Fig. 1; Stehlíková 1999, 227) – the leader of Moravian Catholic opposition against George of Poděbrady. The coat of arms on the other side of the relief and the armorial bearings on the shield on horse’s forehead belong to the Lords of Šternberk (eight-pointed star). The opponent can be identified on the basis of the figure preserved in the shield and crest as a member of the royal family of the Lords of Kunštát (Fig. 2). The coat of arms below the fess on the opposite side of this relief is unfortunately not preserved among the recorded finds. Behind this knight, there is a jester riding a hinny, donkey or mule.
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The name “knight’s stove” was introduced into professional literature by the Hungarian researcher I. Holl. He used the term to designate a set of stove tiles from archaeological excavations in the area of the royal palace in Budapest. Following the relief decoration and technological design, these tiles belonged to one and the same type of a heating device. The chosen name was inspired by the figure of a cantering knight in the middle of relief decoration in one of the tile groups. Holl dated the origins of this stove on the basis of a detailed analysis of heraldic elements in the whole collection to a short interval between 1454 and 1456, i.e. to the period of reign of Ladislaus the Posthumous. He first defined twelve types in the find collection (Holl 1958, 291–294). The subsequent processing of finds then identified another types (13–23) and variants of the original group (Holl 1971, 199–200). The finds treated in this chapter also are classified on the basis of Holl’s typology.
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The graphic design of the relief springs from an older tradition of Gothic ornaments in the form of a rosette, which is enclosed by a bordure from raguly sticks entwined with a leaved twig (Fig. 1). This motif is mainly known from the production of the royal workshop in Buda in the 2nd half of the 15th century (e. g. Holl 1971, 179, 199). Later conception replaced the raguly bordure on the sides and in the upper part by a meander (zigzag), which is interrupted by heads (putti?) in the upper corners and by small rosettes in the lower corners. Above the bottom edge of the relief, there is an inscription “scham dich” (shame on you) in Gothic minuscule, rhythmised by another rosettes. The inscription is undoubtedly related to the central figure of a hunched lion surrounded by a vegetal pattern from leaves and brier flowers that are separated from the meander by a right-angled rope (Fig. 2).
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Ceramic finds were analysed depending on the availability of individual methods and possibility of destructive sampling. Analyses were made with selected representatives of stove tile series and groups, which are frequently found on various sites in our territory during the 15th century and whose occurrence is not limited only to the Czech lands. Series are characterised as assemblages of finds with clearly definable common features, i.e. collections of thematically related stove tile motifs set into a unified architectonic frame (Adoration of the Magi, tournament) and stove tiles, whose belonging to one and the same type of heating device is determined by a characteristic application of elements of Gothic architecture in connection with heraldic and artistic components of their decoration (knight’s stove). Group encompasses stove tiles with hunting and courtly motifs with similar visual design, which is supplemented by a secondary connecting element in the form of a vegetal ornament. However, this ornament does not represent an integral part of relief decoration and its form and application are variable. A separate group is represented by a motif, which is found on various sites in the same relief design and proportions (guilty lion), but the find contexts do not indicate its possible connection to other reliefs in the body of a stove.
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Small ceramic sculptures were made in pottery workshops and people used them in everyday life for various secular as well as religious purposes. They were widespread throughout Central Europe and their origin was localised to the pottery-making centres in Rhineland, Bavaria, Saxony or Lusatia. Ceramic products from these centres were then imitated in the neighbouring countries (Hoffmann 1996, 158–160). We often find them in towns around the main square and in the area of former markets, because in the Middle Ages they became a popular market article and were brought as devotional souvenirs from pilgrimage sites.
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Due to their exceptionality and different production technology, aquamaniles and ewers with zoomorphic spouts were mostly classified as imported goods. The increasing number of finds, not only from Brno, and the use of natural scientific analyses enabled to specify the place of their origin.
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The aim of the present paper is to review some problems of the arrangement of nine monuments – seven reliefs and two drawings, proposed in two previous studies on the issue. Most of the monuments were found by Layard in 1845 within remains of the Central Palace in Kalah (Nimrud), but not on their original position because the artifacts were dismantled in the Antiquity. The circumstances of the finding are described with contradictions in the primary documentation and later works of Layard, giving opportunity to different reconstructions of the whole composition with the Arab campaign. As result two hypotheses were proposed for resolving of the problem, the first one by Barnett and Falkner in 1962, and the second by Reade in 1968 and 1979. Both hypotheses are examined critically in relation to their main schemes and arguments used in favor of the positions expressed. The physical form and the scenes of the monuments allow a sure reconstruction for only a part of composition and the exact place of five artifacts (three reliefs and the both drawings) remains uncertain. Some general and particular observations on the problems and hypotheses on relief’s order are added in the conclusion. The discrepancies in the archaeological documentation, our insuffi-cient knowledge on the principles of arrangement of Assyrian historical relief, and the missing monuments put every hypothesis on the order of the artifacts under doubt. For the present, the best way supposed for ordering the reliefs remains the direct relation between their scenes and the written narrative of the royal inscriptions.
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We have few written sources referring to the distribution of luxury textiles in medieval Bulgaria. Our knowledge on clothing is based primarily on foreign historical records, while the local Bulgarian sources (ecclesiastical texts mainly) provide general information without any details. The investigation on textiles, excavated in medieval Bulgarian lands lead to accumulation of data on silk fabrics, such as samite, twill damask, satin, velvet and partially covered the lack of written sources for this period. As a result of this study now we will have more solid grounds while comparing the distribution of luxury textiles in Bulgaria and Europe.
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The fundamental problem in the context of research on the origins of the Polish state is the moment of its emergence in the funeral rite of inhumation. Its reception, according to many researchers, is a material correlate of the beginnings of Christianity. The conventional caesura - after 966 - is marked here by the baptism date of Mieszko I, the first historical ruler of Poland. Unsettled the question remains whether and to what extent his subjects followed in the prince's footsteps and to whom in the first place this new funeral custom concerned. The author on selected examples taken from both contemporary and medieval observations cemeteries illustrates the complex issue of dating the oldest early medieval cemeteries in Poland Polish. At the same time, he draws attention to inference errors, especially when separating their initial phases. On this sub-pond states that the thesis according to which in humation appears on Polish lands only after the year 1000 requires a critical verification.
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The cemetery in Lubień belongs to the group of the oldest early medieval inhumation necropolises in Poland Central. According to the authors' findings, the cemetery in Lubień was established in the first quarter of the 11th century is important for considering the problem of the beginnings of inhumation in Poland at that time. Destruction of the central part of the establishment burial ground, which is also assumed to be the location of the first burials, seriously hinders drawing conclusions in a binding manner about its initial phase. The analysis of the archaeological material indicates that the time of the most intensive use of this place fell on the second half of 11th century, although members of the local community were buried there until the third quarter of the 12th century. Only the few products of material culture (numismatic items, earrings with a triangular bead, a ceramic vessel) allow us to wonder whether the cemetery was established at the end of the 10th century. New light on the beginnings of the necropolis and inhumation in this area may be shed by research biological material using absolute dating methods.
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In the years 2013–2015, the oldest part of the skeletal cemetery, which functioned in the 11th century on the so-called Town Hill in Sandomierz. Some of the graves dated to the end of the 10th and/or the beginning of the 11th century are in form and applied funeral ritual similar to the so-called chamber graves. They contained above-standard, as for the conditions Lesser Poland, equipment (including clay pots, an axe, horseshoe clasps, a set for striking fire). Forms of graves and equipment suggest foreign origin of some of the deceased, which is also confirmed by the results of specialist analyses on the content of strontium isotopes. Noteworthy is the relatively large number of "eastern" elements in the equipment of the dead: an ax (axe), a key reused as a flint, horseshoe clasps, whorls. Taking into account the dating of the graves and their forms and equipment, it can be assumed that we are dealing with elite burials belonging to people whose at least some of them came to Sandomierz from outside, probably representing the Piast rule. They could have been newcomers from Wielkopolska, however, it cannot be ruled out that - especially in the case of the deceased from grave 9 - we are dealing with a Varangian - Rus in the service of one of the first two historical rulers of the Piast dynasty. These graves gave rise to it probably the oldest necropolis in Sandomierz, used by its inhabitants deep into the 11th century.
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In recent years, three biritual cemeteries described as the Bilczew type have been discovered in the vicinity of Konin: Bilczew, commune of Kramsk, commune loco, and Kwiatków, commune Brudzew. This group also includes one archival cemetery at Konin, commune loco, which requires new interpretation and reanalysis. These sites are of special significance because continuity in the use of the necropolis after a change of religion, and therefore of the funeral rite, has been recorded there. It is a phenomenon that has not been noted in Greater Poland so far. The text presents and discusses most fully the cemetery at Bilczew, as it is the best recognised and published necropolis of this type to date. As a result of the excavation works, the entire preserved part of the site was examined, revealing 102 early medieval pit cremation graves and 27 skeletal ones, as well as one undetermined pit. The other cemeteries of this type were examined only by digging test pits (Kramsk), or the results of their excavations were initially misinterpreted (Konin). The largest of the recently explored cemeteries of this type (Kwiatków), where 127 cremation graves, 143 skeletal graves and 10 cenotaphs were discovered, awaits study and publication.
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The subject of this article are the beginnings of the oldest early medieval necropolis located under the mountain St. Lawrence in Kałdus. Its creation coincided with the period of building the Polish state and accompanying this process Christianization, which was expressed in the eschatological dimension by inhumation. In the case of Kałdus, it was considered the earliest chamber graves, which were to initiate the development of the first necropolis, which was then used by several generations of residents resort in Culmine. Among the issues that have been given the most attention in this place, they come to the fore Two issues arise: 1) the genesis of inhumation in the Chełmno region and 2) the moment when it began to be used.
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Cemetery in Lutomiersk, explored by Konrad Jażdżewski's team in the 1940s and 1950s, published by Andrzej Nadolski, Andrzej Abramowicz and Tadeusz Poklewski in 1959, continues to be the object of interest generations of archaeologists. This is undoubtedly one of the most important funeral sites from the first period the Piast monarchy. Publication by Ryszard Grygiel of new data in the form of radiocarbon dating for parts graves from Lutomiersk, allows us to resume the discussion on its dating. Using Bayesian modeling radiocarbon dates, analysis of burial equipment and the spatial structure of the cemetery, it is proposed to provide more detail here dating and interpretation of the development of the burial space. The presented findings are of a working nature and testify, above all, to the still significant research potential of this site.
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The author discusses the results of determining the age of the bones of skeletons buried with the use of the radiocarbon method chamber graves from the area of the early Piast state. The test samples were taken directly from the skeletons and in most cases issued using the AMS method. Radiocarbon dating showed that most of the tested burials came from the second half of 10th century and the reign of Mieszko I. So these people lived and worked during his rule, too they died and were buried during his reign. Two of the examined graves can be related to the beginning of the 11th century, that is, until the reign of Bolesław the Brave. The obtained results of 14C dating indicate that the beginnings are associated with Christianity inhumation in Poland can be associated with the second half of the 19th century. 10th century, with the reign of Mieszko I. At that time, the first one was founded skeletal cemeteries, which in many cases were used continuously until the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century.
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Until recently, the intuitive conviction prevailed that a departure from the centuries-old eschatological tradition, which required cremation of the corpse, took place shortly after the baptism of Mieszko I in 966. In this way, archaeologically confirmed the belief of medieval chroniclers that the conversion of the ruler resulted in the rapid Christianization of his subjects. Meanwhile from the time of his reign (before 963–992) there are no (except for Poznań) reliable evidence of a change in the funeral rite. The current dating of the oldest skeletal burials allows this change to be placed only in the last decade of the 10th century, that is already in the times of Bolesław the Brave. This means that our first historical ruler was not archaeologically visible successes in enforcing the Christian way of burying the dead.
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Coins are the best dater of any artifact discovered in archaeological contexts. The time of circulation must be added to the date of creation of the coins. Coin dating is also more precise than that using 14C radioactive carbon analysis. The earliest, but only sporadic, coins appear in graves at Silesia (Germany). They are more common in cemeteries in Wielkopolska (Dziekanowice, Sowinki), Kujawy (Bodzia) and Gdańsk Pomerania (Kałdus, Warm). The beginnings of depositing these coins in graves can be assessed for a period not earlier than the last quarter of the 10th century, and more certainly for the years 990–1000. This corresponds to the beginning of Bolesław's reign Brave (992–1025), i.e. a quarter of a century after the adoption of Christianity. Has this rite existed in Poland before, finally the reign of Mieszko I cannot be ruled out. For now, however, there are no numismatic arguments for this. We also don't know whether there were earlier skeletal graves, which, however, did not contain coins.
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This study covers the Hecate figurine, which is located in the region called Phrygia Paroreia in the Ancient Period and is exhibited in the Nasreddin Hodja Archeology and Ethnography Museum, which is affiliated to the Konya Akşehir Museum Directorate, in the Akşehir district of Konya province today. Although there are deficiencies in certain parts of the work, the fact that it is found as a single piece and especially the protection of the head allows us to evaluate the work. The Hecate statuette indicates the existence of local sanctuaries in the area. When evaluated together with the typological and iconographic features determined for the figurine, it is important to determine the belief structure and votive cultures in the region or settlement. The figurine most likely indicates its use either as a domestic cult or as a votive offering. The iconographic and stylistic evaluation of the Hecate figurine has been made, and it is considered suitable for dating to the first half of the 2nd century AD.
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