The Łekno settlement complex, whose centre surrounds Lake Łekneńskie, was distinguished upon the basis of historical and natural properties criteria. Research conducted in 1982-2000 on three sites: Ł3, Ł19 and T22 - unearthed relics of several sacral architectural objects, brick and timber. The churches originate from the first half of the eleventh century to the first half of the fifteenth century. I. Site in Łekno no. Ł3 - monastery: 1. Romanesque rotunda; 2. Cistercian church (phase A); 3. full-plan Cistercian church (phase A2). II. Site in Tarnowo Pałuckie no. T22: 1. a wooden church (chapel) was built for the local community in about the middle of the thirteenth century, approx. 1000 metres to the south-west from the Cistercian monastery - Tarnowo I; 2. a new, larger wooden church of St. Nicholas was erected during the last quarter of the fourteenth century on the site of the Tarnowo I church. III. The village of Łekno (a town from approx. 1370 to 1888) -site no. Łl: 1. it follows from records in the Chronicle of Wągrowiec that the first church in the settlement (village) was built in about 1246; 2. a new brick sacral object, the parish church of St. Peter and Paul, was erected in 1521 on the site of the Łekno I church. IV. The "Polish law" settlement in Łekno - site no. Ł19: 1. the church of the Holy Cross (belonging to a hospital) was built in 1444 on a small elevation to the east of the town of Łekno. It follows from the above list that a total of nine churches existing in the Łekno settlement complex from the turn of the tenth century or the beginning of the eleventh century to the end of the nineteenth century.
The silver hoard from Site Ł5 in Łekno, the Wągrowiec Commune, which was discovered in 2007 and which was subsequently examined up to 2014, is a scattered one. As a consequence of ploughing and denudation, it was dragged over a quite vast area (see Fig. 5). It constitutes Part III of a hoard which was discovered here in 1861 by Wojciech Jankowiak and Antoni Łukaszewicz. Based on our findings, it can be said beyond doubt that it was found in the field of A. Łukaszewicz (Figs. 2, 3, and 4). Its Part II was gathered as a result of the activities of “treasure hunters” in 2004 [Bogucki 2006b]. This hoard (Parts I–III), as it can be said, based on hitherto preliminary findings (examinations are still in process), was deposited in a “trade settlement” situated to the west of the suburbium and the stronghold at Sites Ł3 and Ł4 in Tarnowo Pałuckie—that is, Medieval Łekno (see Figs. 1 and 2) in the late 10th c.—or in the first five years of the 11th c. at the latest. It occurred in the layer of humus and in the upper zone of Cultural Layer I (Trenches I, II, and III—cf. Fig. 5). It is a scattered-type hack-silver hoard. In the years 2007–2014, in the course of surveys and excavations, more than 630 finds related to the discussed hoard were discovered. Together with its 19th c. part (Part I) and Part II from 2004, it contains more than 841 finds. The contents of Part III of the hoard, discovered in 2007–2014, include: whole and fragmented coins, fragments of silver and cast lead/silvered jewellery, silver clumps, and wires. Concerning the coins, there are: Arabian dirhams (hacked) from the Abbāsid, Sāmānid and possibly Buvaihid?, Hamdānid?, and Ziyārid? dynasties (dated to between c. 815 and c. 976, according to the analysis by D. Malarczyk); silver coins (whole and fragmented)— according to a preliminary analysis by Z. Bartkowiak, they are West European: German denars of Otto and Adelheid, Heinrich, Otto, denars from the Cologne mint (?), Bavarian denars; Danish half-bracteates (Hedeby); denars of the Bohemian type, including a hybrid of a Bohemian denar, cross denars of Type I; Byzantine coins of Constantine VII and Roman II (945–959). A hitherto unknown hybrid of the Princes Polonie denar of Bolesław the Brave is also related to this assemblage [Bogucki 2006b, p. 181–182 ff.) The silver hoard from Tarnowo Pałuckie (Łekno) is a very significant find for defining settlement changes in the centre of the Łekno settlement complex, its settlement, economic-trade and architectural-construction structures, as well as for broader cultural phenomena within Greater Poland and its relations to the European cultural circle. All the finds from Part III of the hoard (coins, jewellery, silver clumps and wires, other finds) underwent detailed numismatic and art history studies, as well as specialist examinations—detailed non-invasive metallographic examinations and conservation ( J. Strobin and M. Sawczak). The results of these examinations and the hoard itself (the catalogue with specialist examinations) will be published in a separate monograph devoted to this discovery after all the examinations are completed. Apart from the planned monograph, details of a 9th c. sword scabbard chape from this hoard have already been published [Wyrwa, Janiwski 2014].
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.