Kacper Martyka

An interesting double-bladed knife was discovered during the excavation of the Early Medieval fortification of Pasym (Northern Poland). This type of folding knife had never before been documented on the former territories of the Western Balts and the neighbouring Slavic tribes, they were almost exclusively found in the British Isles. The earliest examples come from Withorn (7th century AD) and Hamwic (8th century AD), but otherwise, most of these knifes date to the 9th and 10th centuries. One outlying example was found at the Frisian site of Dorestad, and another in Hybbestad in Norway. This distribution supports the assumption that the knives originated in the British Isles. A group of similar knives found in Eastern Europe (at Veliky Novgorod) dates to the 11th through 13th centuries, but the accompanying sheaths are completely different. The following contribution provides an overview of the finds of folding knives known to this date, as well as some thoughts on their typology, origin,
and function.

A “crooked” wooden vessel from former Korniten in Sambia.

At the end of September 1939, within the Korniten estate (today Ljublino, Kaliningrad Oblast), worker Albert Meier discovered a small vessel made of wood at a depth of almost 2.5 m. As a clearly historic artefact, it caught the attention of archaeologists and was transferred to the collections of the Prussia-Museum in Königsberg, and after the end of World War II, it was included in the collection of the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The atypical raw material used for its production, the lack of clear formal analogies, as well as its discovery within the vicinity of pre-historic settlements and cemeteries intrigued specialists from the very beginning - not only in the field of prehistory. The article focuses on an attempt to establish, based on the literature and archival materials, the wider context of the find and its functions. The paper also presents the result of the radiocarbon dating of the artefact which was used to establish its chronology.

Pod koniec września 1939 roku w obrębie majątku Korniten (dziś Ljublino w obwodzie kaliningradzkim Rosji) robotnik Albert Meier znalazł na głębokości niemal dwóch i pół metra niewielkie, wykonane z drewna naczynie. Jako jednoznacznie zabytkowe zwróciło ono uwagę archeologów i przekazane zostało do zbiorów Prussia-Museum w Królewcu, a po zakończeniu II wojny światowej znalazło się w kolekcji Muzeum Warmii i Mazur w Olsztynie. Nietypowy surowiec użyty do jego wyrobu, brak ścisłych analogii formalnych, jak również odkrycie w sąsiedztwie pradziejowych osad i cmentarzysk, od początku intrygowały specjalistów – nie tylko z dziedziny prahistorii. Artykuł koncentruje się na próbie ustalenia, w oparciu o literaturę i materiały archiwalne, szerszego kontekstu znaleziska oraz jego funkcji i chronologii, zweryfikowanej dzięki wynikom datowania radiowęglowego pobranej próby drewna.

In 2016 near Bornity a so far unknown stronghold was discovered. Within a small area the researchers unearthed a quarter of an early ̔Abbāsid dirham, a bronze spur with bent-in hooked extremities and a fragment of a ring of the Perm-Glazow-Duesminde type. In June 2017 an archaeological survey including sondage testing was carried out at the
site. The examination’s main objective was to assess the site in terms of its chronological and cultural characteristics. In the course of the examination four test pits were dug and a planigraphic research was conducted. Other objects of special significance found during the works include another two cut fragments of Arabic dirhams, a spearhead and
a spearhead with one barb. At the current level of research the site must be seen as a significant location on the settlement map of the 9th and 10th century. The article extensively discusses the newly discovered coins (two Hārūn ar-Rašīd’s dirhams and one al-Mahdī’s coin) and presents a map of discoveries to date, completed with new, unpublished finds stored by the Museum of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn and the Museum in Ostróda. The coins in question may have got to the place through the settlement in Janów Pomorski, i.e. Viking-age Truso. The discovered objects and their context are undoubtedly indicative of the influence exerted on the stronghold by the craft and trade settlement of Janów Pomorski-Truso (the Bornity stronghold is located 35 km north-east of Janów Pomorski).