A 3,500-year-old bronze dagger found in a Polish forest

A rare Bronze Age dagger has been discovered in a forest near Krasnystaw in southeastern Poland. It is in good condition, with no evidence of wear on the edges. It was cast in a lenticular shape with a rib down the center.

The semi-circular base has three rivets on each side to which a handle would have been fastened. The handle, likely made out of wood, is now lost.

The dagger is believed to date to around 1500 B.C. and is the first of its kind found in the area. In fact, it is one of only a dozen or so known to have been found in all of Poland.

It was not of local manufacture but rather arrived in the region with people who inhabited the Danube area in what are now Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovakia.

It was found by a metal detectorist working with the Wolica historical association under the aegis of the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments.

They were looking for objects from the World Wars when they came across the dagger in shallow soil just a few centimeters under the surface. They took pictures and recorded the precise location to report the find, but encountered no other archaeological material at the site.

A comparable riveted dagger was discovered near Olsztyn in northern Poland in 2014. It was found in a grave just below the arable surface which, while damaged, was found to contain other valuable goods including a gold hair jewel, bronze wire beads, and glass beads.

The gold and glass were expensive imported items, and the weapon indicates this was the burial of a high-status male.

The grave was classified as one of the Smoszew type, a cemetery characterized by barrows of the Bronze Age Tumulus Culture, ca. 1600-1300 B.C.

Unfortunately, the recently-discovered dagger was not found in its original context, so we don’t know if it was part of the furnishings of a grave.

The dagger is now being analyzed and studied by the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments.

Archaeologists are exploring the find site for further information about the piece, its age, and how it got there.

A papal bull discovered in a former cemetery dated to the 14th century

A medieval bull found in 2021 in Budzistów village (Kołobrzeg district), Poland has been restored and placed on display in the Museum of Arms in Kołobrzeg.

Found by the PARSĘTA Exploration & Search Group two years back, the decree was uncovered in the area of the former cemetery in Budzistowo.

“This is the most valuable find we have made in our six years of existence,” said Jan Orliński from the PARSĘTA Exploration and Search Group.

Continuing, Orliński added: “I’ve always been interested in papal bulls and I was intrigued as to why there was nothing like that in Kołobrzeg… When I saw what I had found, I was really excited.”

The group immediately recognized what it was and handed it over to the Museum of Arms in Koobrzeg, with whom they had been working for several years. It was then transported to a specialist workshop in Kraków for a meticulous conservation process.

It was during this that scientists determined that it dated from the reign of Pope Boniface IX (1350-1404).

Dr. Robert Dziemba, the head of the Kołobrzeg History Department, said: “By studying the physio-chemical compositions of the bull, we were able to find it was original.

The most important thing for us was the reverse as it contained information as to which Pope issued the decree. Because of this, we now know that it was issued by Pope Boniface IX.”

Dziemba added: “Even the most interesting artifacts take on a different meaning when they are placed in the right historical context. We knew we had made a great discovery, but we wanted to establish its links to Kołobrzeg.”

According to historians, the bull was possibly kept in the Budzistowo monastery. Chemical compounds used in its manufacture, which were mostly pure lead, were traced to Sardinia, Cyprus, Greece, and Spain.

The bull’s potential connections to the former monastery in Budzistowo, though, have piqued researchers’ interest. It was Johann Friederich Wachsen who noted that Pope Boniface IX granted a letter of indulgence to the resident Benedictine nuns in 1397, according to the chronicles he wrote in the 18th century.

Usually attached by silk strings, papal bulls were hung on parchment and scrolls on which papal edicts, privileges, and indulgences were written as a means of authentication. Also featuring images of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Dziemba speculates that this particular papal bull may have been lost in the 16th century.

Archaeologists discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms, the interiors of which were covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art

Archaeologists of the Polish Center of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw discovered an enigmatic complex of rooms made of sun-dried brick, the interiors of which were covered with figural scenes unique to Christian art.

The discovery was made at the Old Dongola medieval monastery on the banks of the Nile, more than 500 km north of Khartoum.

Old Dongola (Tungul in Old Nubian) was the capital of Makuria, one of the most prominent medieval African states. It had converted to Christianity by the end of the sixth century, but Egypt was conquered by Islamic armies in the seventh century.

An Arab army invaded in 651 but was repulsed, and the Baqt Treaty was signed, establishing relative peace between the two sides that lasted until the 13th century.

The discovery was made during the exploration of houses dating from the Funj period (16th-19th century CE). Within the main monastic complex, the Polish mission unearthed now a second, well-preserved church with vivid mural paintings and inscriptions in Greek and Old Nubian.

Surprisingly, beneath the floor of one of the houses was an opening leading to a small chamber with walls decorated with unique representations.

The paintings inside depicted the Mother of God, Christ, and a scene with a Nubian king, Christ, and Archangel Michael. This was not, however, a typical depiction of a Nubian ruler under the protection of saints or archangels.

The king bows and kisses the hand of Christ, who is seated in the clouds. The ruler is aided by Archangel Michael, whose spread wings protect both the king and Christ. Such a scene finds no parallels in Nubian painting.

The representation’s dynamism and intimacy contrast with the hieratic nature of the figures depicted on the side walls. Similarly, the figure of the Virgin Mary on the north wall of the chamber does not fit into the standard repertoire of Mary depictions in Nubian art.

The Mother of God is dressed in dark robes and strikes a dignified pose. She has a cross and a book in her hands. On the opposite wall, Christ is depicted. His right hand is shown in a blessing gesture, and his left hand is holding a book, which is only partially preserved.

Dr. Agata Deptua of PCMA UW is currently studying the inscriptions that accompany the paintings. A preliminary reading of the Greek inscriptions revealed that they were texts from the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

The main scene is accompanied by an inscription in Old Nubian that is extremely difficult to decipher. The researchers learned from a preliminary reading by Dr. Vincent van Gerven Oei that it contains several references to a king named David as well as a prayer to God for the protection of the city.

The city mentioned in the inscription is most likely Dongola, and the royal figure depicted in the scene is most likely King David. David was one of Christian Makuria’s last rulers, and his reign signaled the beginning of the kingdom’s demise. For unknown reasons, King David attacked Egypt, which retaliated by invading Nubia, resulting in Dongola being sacked for the first time in its history.

Researchers think that the painting may have been made while the Mamluk army was approaching or the city was under siege.

The complex of rooms where the paintings were discovered, however, is what stumps people the most. The actual spaces, which are made of dried brick and covered in vaults and domes, are quite small. Although the painted room that depicts King David is seven meters above the medieval ground level, it looks like a crypt.

The structure is next to a sacred structure known as the Great Church of Jesus, which was likely Dongola’s cathedral and the most significant church in the Makurian kingdom.

According to Arab sources, the Great Church of Jesus instigated King David’s attack on Egypt and the capture of the ports of Aidhab and Aswan.

These and other inquiries about the enigmatic structure may be answered by further excavations. However, safeguarding the distinctive wall paintings was the main goal for this season. Following the discovery, conservators got to work under the supervision of Magdalena Skaryska, MA.

The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, the University of Warsaw, and the Department of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw collaborated to operate the conservation team.

17th-Century Coin Hoard Uncovered in Poland

A metal detectorist searching for discarded tractor parts on a Polish farm discovered a completely different type of valuable metal: A spectacular hoard of 17th-century coins buried beneath the soil.

The hoard — a vast stash of about 1,000 copper coins — was found in late February near the small village of Zaniówka in eastern Poland, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine, by a local man, Michał Łotys.

Łotys was using a new metal detector to find spare parts for his sister’s tractor; and so when the instrument started beeping in one of the farm’s fields, he scraped away a layer of the topsoil. That revealed the coins spilling out of a broken clay “siwak” — a jug in a local style with one handle and a narrow neck.

Using a metal detector to search for buried relics without a permit is illegal in Poland, and so Łotys contacted archaeologists in the nearby city of Lublin, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Warsaw, who visited the farm the next day.

Their investigations showed that the location of the hidden hoard was clearly outlined on the surface of the soil, which indicated it had been buried there intentionally, according to a report in the Polish news outlet The First News.

Buried hoard

Dariusz Kopciowski, the director of Lublin’s heritage conservation agency, announced in a Facebook post on March 2 that the hoard has about 1,000 Polish and Lithuanian copper coins minted in the 17th century.

Oxidation after roughly 400 years in the ground means all the copper coins are now colored green; and many have corroded together in layers. But about 115 of the coins are loose, and the entire hoard weighs about 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms), Kopciowski noted.

Investigations show most of the coins were created between 1663 and 1666 in mints in Warsaw; Vilnius in Lithuania; and Brest, which is now in Belarus but was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 

According to the Polish metal detectorist website Zwiadowca Historii, such coins are known as “boratynki” after Tito Livio Burattini, who was the manager of the Kraków mint at that time.

Burattini, an Italian, was a famed inventor and polymath who introduced copper coins to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth because they were much cheaper to make than the existing silver coins of the realm; and because its treasury was devastated after years of war with Sweden, Russia and Cossacks.

The “boratynki” coins were initially popular, although Burattini was later accused of debasing the copper metal they were made of and reaping huge profits. 

For a start, they weren’t very valuable, which meant they could be used in everyday transactions; the entire hoard of 1,000 copper coins from Zaniówka would buy  only “about two pairs of shoes” at the time, although they’re worth more now as historical relics, Zwiadowca Historii reported.

The Zaniówka coin hoard will now be transferred to specialists at a museum in the nearby city of Biała Podlaska for further investigations, Kopciowski said.

Fragments of the broken clay jug and several pieces of fabric from the time were also found at the site, he said in the statement.

2,500-Year-Old Bronze Items and Bones Recovered in Poland

Dozens of bronze ornaments: necklaces, bracelets, greaves, decorative pins, as well as numerous human bones, were discovered in the Chełmno district (Kujawy-Pomerania Province). According to archaeologists, these are the remains of sacrificial rituals from 2,500 years ago.

Today, the site of the discovery is a drained peat bog transformed into a farmland, but in the 6th century BCE it was a lake.

The discovery was made in the Chełmno Lake District by members of the Kujawy-Pomerania History Seekers Group, who conducted searches with metal detectors, with the permission of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province Conservator of Monuments in Toruń.

After being alerted by a group of detectorists, excavations led by Wojciech Sosnowski from the Office of Conservator of Monuments in Toruń began in January. They were carried out by researchers from the Institute of Archaeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the services of the Wda Landscape Park.

Sosnowski told PAP: “In the 6th century BCE, in the early Iron Age, ritual ceremonies were held here periodically.”

In addition to valuable items lying loosely in the ground, probably displaced as a result of ploughing, the researchers also found three deposits. These accumulations of monuments have remained in the same place since they were deposited 2.5 thousand years ago.

Sosnowski told PAP: “In the 6th century BCE, in the early Iron Age, ritual ceremonies were held here periodically.”

In addition to valuable items lying loosely in the ground, probably displaced as a result of ploughing, the researchers also found three deposits. These accumulations of monuments have remained in the same place since they were deposited 2.5 thousand years ago.

According to the researchers, most of the items discovered during the research project are whole or damaged ornaments: necklaces, bracelets, greaves, pins with spiral heads, probably made for ceremonial purposes.

Dr. Jacek Gackowski from the Institute of Archaeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, who analysed the artefacts said: “A particularly impressive object is a necklace consisting of many delicate metal and probably glass elements, decorated with a series of pendants in the shape of fish tails.”

The researchers also discovered metal parts of horse harnesses and a large number of other items. Among them there are very rarely preserved products made of organic raw materials – fabrics, antler tools in bronze sheet fittings and pieces of rope.

Most of the artefacts, according to the researchers, should be associated with the Lusatian culture. Several dozen kilometres further to the south-east, its representatives lived in the now famous fortified settlement in Biskupin. However, there are also objects that are foreign to this area and should be associated with the Scythian civilization and its influences from the area of today’s Ukraine.

Dr. Gackowski said: “This includes temple rings – unique objects of great scientific value, because they are – so far and in such numbers – the northernmost artefacts of this type discovered in Europe.”

The researchers were surprised to find many human bones among dozens of artefacts. This suggests that it was a place where sacrifices were probably made in prehistory, and not only of valuable items.

Why were people sacrificed? According to the researchers, this was related to the period of migrations and, probably, invasions.

Gackowski said: “It was a time of growing unrest related to the penetration of groups of nomads coming from the Pontic Steppe, probably Scythians or the Neuri, into Central and Eastern Europe.

“These people, probably in order to delay the rapid changes associated with the appearance of new neighbours with a completely different organization, appearance and vision of the world, began to practice various rituals treatments. They tried to secure their existence and give ritual resistance to the imminent, as it turned out, inevitable changes.”

To date, archaeologists have collected over a hundred human bone fragments. All the remains were on the surface of a freshly ploughed field.

 “At the moment, it is difficult to estimate how many people we are dealing with. It will be determined by a thorough anthropological analysis,” said Mateusz Sosnowski, an archaeologist from the Wda Landscape Park, who participated in the field work.

For security reasons and fear of robbery, archaeologists have not yet revealed the exact location of the discovery.

The custom of sinking bronze products during that period is known from other areas of Europe. Treasures from the period are also discovered in Poland, but according to scientists analysing the collection, this is the first place in Poland where people were also sacrificed.

The community described by scientists as the Lusatian culture inhabited the Vistula and Oder river basins, as well as the areas of Saxony, Brandenburg, northern Bohemia and Lusatia. Its economy was mainly based on farming and breeding horned cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. 

In the beginning of the Iron Age, in addition to open settlements, forts also appeared (existing from the 8th to the 6th century BCE), considered tribal centres or places of refuge during unrest. The bronze artefacts and offerings discovered by detectorists and archaeologists come from that period.

A pendant made of mammoth bone with ‘mysterious dots’ could be the oldest known example of ornate jewelry in Eurasia

The fragments of an ancient pendant made of mammoth ivory were unearthed in Poland, and are regarded to be the oldest known example of intricate jewelry ever uncovered in Eurasia.

Archaeologists discovered it in the Stajnia cave in southern Poland in 2010, and new radiocarbon analysis has dated it to roughly 41,500 years ago from when Homo sapiens were in Europe.

The Stajnia Cave is one of the most important archaeological sites due to the finds of the first remains of Neanderthals in Poland, and several tens of thousands of flint artifacts from the Middle Palaeolithic.

Researchers said the Stajnia Cave plate is a piece of personal ‘jewelry’ that was fashioned 41,500 years ago (directly radiocarbon dated). It is the earliest known of its sort in Eurasia, and it marks a fresh beginning for a practice that is closely related to the expansion of modern Homo sapiens in Europe.

The oldest evidence of body decoration in Europe is found about 46 ka BP in the Initial Upper Paleolithic strata of Bacho Kiro, where multiple carnivore teeth were fashioned into pendants.

A new novel accessory—the alignment of punctuations—appeared on certain ornaments in south-western France and figurines in the Swabian Jura (Germany) as part of these revolutionary accessories.

Researchers wrote, so far the majority of these distinctive adornments have been found during earlier digs, with little identification of site formation histories or post-depositional disruption. They said As a result, rather than direct dating, their chronological attribution has relied only on stratigraphic context.

Reporting their discovery in Scientific Reports, the archaeologists said The first news: “The decoration of the pendant included patterns of over 50 puncture marks in an irregular looping curve and two complete holes.”

They added that each puncture could represent a successful animal hunt or cycles of the moon or sun.

Sahra Talamo, who led the study, said: “Determining the exact age of this jewelry was fundamental for its cultural attribution, and we are thrilled with the result.

“This work demonstrates that using the most recent methodological advances in the radiocarbon method enables us to minimize the amount of sampling and achieve highly precise dates with a very small error range.

“If we want to seriously solve the debate on when mobiliary art emerged in Palaeolithic groups, we need to radiocarbon date these ornaments, especially those found during past fieldwork or in complex stratigraphic sequences.”

Co-author Wioletta Nowaczewska added: “This piece of jewelry shows the great creativity and extraordinary manual skills of members of the group of Homo sapiens (Homo neanderthalensis) that occupied the site.

“Plakanın kalınlığı yaklaşık 3,7 milimetredir ve delikleri ve onu takmak için iki deliği oyma konusunda şaşırtıcı bir hassasiyet gösterir.”

To read the article…

Polish archaeologists co-discover ‘unique’ Roman military tower

A Polish-Maroconian team of archaeologists have discovered a Roman military observation tower in Volubilis, Morocco. ‘This is important for research on the system of Roman fortifications built on the outskirts of the empire’, says Maciej Czapski, an archaeologist from the University of Warsaw.

Similar military observation towers had been previously discovered during excavations in Scotland, Germany, and Romania, but never in Morocco.

From the 5th decade CE, Morocco was part of the Roman Empire, but since it was geographically isolated, from a scientific point of view little is known about this region and archaeologists treat it as a niche.

‘Based on satellite images, we have selected several sites that have a common feature: an oval plan with an inscribed rectangle or square. We have chosen this particular site because it is located farthest to the south. There are a few brief descriptions of this site in French publications indicating that the place could have been associated with the Roman army’, says Czapski.

The researcher adds that preparations for excavations included dozens of hours spent in libraries in Rimini and London but this and the analysis of satellite images did not guarantee success.

“We were lucky to have started digging in the right place. Just a 500-600 m shift of the starting point would have resulted in finding nothing. Our discovery is a significant contribution to the general state of research on the Roman limes – the system of Roman border fortifications, erected on the outskirts of the empire, especially vulnerable to raids’, says Czapski.

Included amongst the find were the foundations and fragments of walls preserved up to a height of approx. 80 cm. A fragment of the internal staircase and a fragment of cobblestones surrounding the building on the south side have also been preserved. The outer wall has not survived. Tile fragments are in very bad condition.

The researchers also found fragments of weapons and accessories of Roman legionnaires.

“We found fragments of javelins, nails from sandals of Roman legionnaires, fragments of ornaments typical for Roman military belts,” says Czapski.

“Until now, we had a very broad dating – we knew that there was a defence system of the Roman province between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. We want to narrow down the chronology and explain whether it was a single system or different systems at different times. We have a hypothesis that the system we discovered existed during the reign of Antoninus Pius. We have some military finds dating back to this period, around the 2nd century CE,” says Czapski.

He adds that “a lot is known about the military and political situation of this region. We know that battles were fought, but we do not know the details – what their course was, whether they were very heavy, and to what extent. We know that in some cases it ended with signing treaties as a result of diplomatic activities, but we do not know the details.”

The main focus of the Polish-Moroccan team is determining how the Romans maintained the acquired territories and what were their contacts with the local population.

“We are dealing with the relations between the administration and the local population. We know that these relations were quite turbulent because epigraphic evidence confirms it. We want to find out how the Romans controlled the flow of people and goods, that is, how they controlled the border zone’, says Czapski.

The head of the Polish part of the research team Dr. Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski from the University of Warsaw, and the Moroccan team leader is Professor Aomar Akerraz from the National Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (INSAP) in Rabat. The team consists of 10 people.

In the near future, the researchers plan to complete the documentation and publish a report. Next year, after the end of Ramadan, they will begin field work at a different site. They hope to discover more towers, which would help to “complete the concept of the Roman defence system.

“Next year, at the turn of May, we will dig at a different site. The discovery of another tower should be easier. We now know where to dig and what to expect,” says Czapski.

Crypts, Tunnel Discovered Beneath Knights Templar Chapel in Poland

Around 1119, in the midst of Christian Crusades to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim control, a French knight named Hugues de Payens formed a small military order dedicated to defending pilgrims as they travelled from West to East.

Known today as the Knights Templar, the group (and various legends surrounding its history) has captured the public imagination for centuries.

As Patrick Masters, a film studies scholar at the University of Portsmouth, wrote for the Conversation in 2019, 13th-century epics and Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code alike link the order to the mythical Holy Grail—albeit with little supporting evidence.

Over the years, physical traces of the organization’s existence have yielded insights into its actual role in medieval society. In villages across the West Pomeranian region of Poland, for instance, 13th-century Gothic buildings created by the knights upon their return from the Holy Land testify to the order’s lasting influence.

Now, reports Małgosia Krakowska for CNN, an ongoing archaeological dig at a Knights Templar chapel in a remote Polish village of about 100 residents is offering up an array of exciting new discoveries.

Last fall, a research team using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) uncovered a number of crypts, as well as the possible remains of an underground passageway or tunnel, while conducting excavations at the chapel of Saint Stanislaus in Chwarszczany.

“According to legends and medieval documents, there was a well in the vicinity of the chapel,” Przemysław Kołosowski, the lead archaeologist working on the site, tells CNN. “Rumor has it that the well served as an entrance to a secret tunnel. This still requires an exhaustive archaeological investigation.”

As Jakub Pikulik reported for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Lubuska last year, renovations and archaeological work at the site have been ongoing since 2004. Kołosowski’s team commenced work in July 2019, scanning the chapel and surrounding fields with the help of a hundred or so volunteers.

An excavation expected to unearth a medieval fortress yielded no substantial findings from the period. But archaeologists did discover centuries-old cobblestones, the walls of an 18th-century distillery, Bronze Age pottery and iron nails, and a 1757 coin likely left behind by Russian troops stationed nearby during the Seven Years’ War.

Inside the chapel, archaeologists investigating a small depression beneath the stone floors found seven vaulted crypts.

As Per a statement from OKM, the German manufacturer of the GPR technology used by the researchers, these underground crypts “cannot be dated back to Templar times.” Instead, Gazeta Lubuska notes, the crypts were likely constructed later, only to be emptied during renovations in the second half of the 19th century.

Built on the site of an older Romanesque temple in the second half of the 13th century, the red-brick Chwarszczany chapel was “both a place of worship and a defensive fortification,” according to Sarah Cascone of artnet News.

At the time, the Knights Templar wielded significant power in western Poland, local historian Marek Karolczak tells CNN.

“Back in those days, the appearance of Knights Templar on this soil was a popular trend,” Karolczak explains. “This is the time of the Crusades. Local rulers wanted to strengthen their power by inviting military orders to settle on their land and build commanderies.”

Because the Knights Templar were protected by the pope, they “enjoy[ed] papal privileges, tax breaks and lavish donations while also accruing legendary status,” reports CNN. But the group’s luck changed in the early 14th century, when Philip IV of France ordered members’ arrest, perhaps out of a desire to seize their vast wealth or assert his political dominance over the papacy, writes Mark Cartwright for Ancient History Encyclopedia.

Those arrested were tortured into giving false confessions of homosexuality and sacrilege, and in 1312, Pope Clement V officially disbanded the religious order.