Wyniki wyszukiwania - Biblioteka Nauki

1

NEW FINDS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL LEAD RHOMBIC CROSS PENDANTS FROM MORAVIA. THEIR POSSIBLE GENESIS AND IMPORTANCE

100%

Kouřil P.

Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)

|

2023

|

tom 71

|

nr suppl. 3

143 – 153

EN

The article is devoted to new finds of cast early medieval lead rhombic cross pendants decorated with crosshatched ornament from Moravia, which are regarded as Taufgeschenke – christening gifts. It is likely that these artefacts were meant to evoke the schematised body of the Saviour. In the vast majority of cases, they are part of necklaces belonging to sexually intact little girls and young ladies buried in rural cemeteries. Most probably, they were based on older simple rhombus-shaped pendants-amulets, which were eventually incorporated into the newly emerging religion and thus acquired a new quality. Their conspicuous concentration in the vicinity of the Mikulčice central site suggests that this area could have been one of the key Christianisation centres in Great Moravia. After the demise of this power-political unit, they completely disappeared from the group of devotional objects. Chronologically, they are synchronised with the final decades of the 9th c. and the beginning of the 10th c.

2

KLÁŠŤOV HILL – AN EXCEPTIONAL CASE OF RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND NOTIONS IN THE SLAVIC WORLD (EASTERN MORAVIA, CZECH REPUBLIC)

100%

Kouřil P.

Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)

|

2021

|

tom 69

|

nr suppl 2

431 – 439

EN

The paper offers relevant information concerning Klášťov, the dominant summit of the Vizovice Hills in eastern Moravia, where Moravia’s highest-positioned stronghold was built in the period of the Lusatian Urnfield culture. Later, in the 9th and 10th c., it was used by the domestic population above all for cult purposes; traces of a more permanent occupation have not been detected there yet. The text also presents an exceptional local finding of a brass inlaid trefoil iron sword set fitting, probably a local imitation of Carolingian models (?). It represents a high-quality, professionally made art and craft product whose popularity culminated in the second and third quarters of the 9th c. in the West. It might have occurred also later in the Moravian milieu.

3

Ovruch slate spindle whorls in the Czech Lands

63%

Kouřil P. , Přichystal A.

Przegląd Archeologiczny

|

2022

|

tom 70

151-174

EN

The article discusses the state of knowledge and the significance of a special group of early medieval material culture artefacts – namely, spindle whorls made of Ovruch pyrophyllite slate originating from the territory of present-day Ukraine. Thousands of these artefacts, interesting not only for their specific, usually reddish color, but also for their professional standardized design, were made between the 10th and 13th c. Their occurrence in the Czech lands is very limited, however: only 13 specimens are presently known. In Bohemia, they have been discovered only in Prague, which was their target destination. In Moravia and Czech Silesia, they are known from five sites: with a single exception (a cemetery), they are important supra-regional and local fortified centers. Non-destructive analyses carried out have shown that all detected spindle whorls can be considered originals. An analysis of the archaeological contexts showed that the earliest occurrence of these imports can be dated as far back as the second half of the 10th century. However, most of them probably belong to the 11th century, and some, exceptionally, even to the 12th century. Given their low number, we assume that this most probably was not a regular item in long-distance trade.

4

MORAVIAN IRON MONEY. MODEL OF THE 9TH-CENTURY AXE-SHAPED BARS’ GENESIS AND ITS TESTING WITH THE ASSEMBLAGE FROM STARÉ ZÁMKY NEAR BRNO-LÍŠEŇ

51%

Hlavica M. , Kouřil P. , Mikulec R.

Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)

|

2022

|

tom 70

|

nr 2

327 – 350

EN

The article offers a new perspective on the phenomenon of Moravian axe-shaped bars. It presents a new perspective seeing roots of axe-shaped bars in pre-Christian ritual behaviour. In this context, where practical function of original tools was suppressed, initial semi-finished products evolved into the earliest massive axe-shaped bars. These probably started to serve as a social currency and their value was probably derived from the weight of the iron commodity, and the intrinsic value of original tools (axes) respectively. The model presumes that since the beginning of their existence, the shrinking of their size and weight took place, probably because of gradual increase of iron scarcity. The shrinkage then gradually reached the stage when storing of a part of a weight unit was very difficult, because of the unforeseeable loss of iron mass during forging. As more precise weight could be projected into smaller bars only with difficulty, their values were probably disconnected from the intrinsic value of the iron, and started to be guaranteed by the issuing authority. The value started to be set arbitrarily in a different unit of account, and axe-shaped bars started to be used as substitute tokens of general-purpose money within the Great Moravian commercialized economy. This model was then confronted with the assemblage of 78 axe-shaped bars from one of the major Great Moravian strongholds at Staré Zámky near Brno-Líšeň. The results of the evaluation including their classification into size categories and mapping of their spatial distribution within the stronghold corresponds with the predictions of the model. Although a hoard of medium-sized bars was present on the site indicating that part of the assemblage may still serve as a social currency, most of the bars fell into small size categories and their spatial distribution shows that they freely circulated within the acropolis of the stronghold, and were probably lost during this daily usage. It thus indicates that they were used in the commercial exchange that took place within the stronghold’s market.