Medieval Weapons and Equipment

LAMPART, F.: High Medieval Sword from Spiš castle in the inventory of the SNM–Spiš Museum in Levoča (registration no. 2009/200/12). In Vojenská história č. 1, roč.16, Bratislava : VHU, 2012, pp 125-132,. ISSN 1335-3314.

by Filip Lampart

Published paper analyses the sword found during the archaeo-
logical excavations on the premises of Spiš castle... more Published paper analyses the sword found during the archaeo-
logical excavations on the premises of Spiš castle in period 1969-1978, today stored with the SNM–Spiš Museum in Levoča, registration no. 2009/200/12. Sword can be ranked in the category of militaria, originating from locations of fortified structures. Analysis of form and inscriptions shows the origin of the sword in second half of 13. century. Probably, it is import from the territory of Brandenburg and Pomerania. The weapon had to be the property of person with higher social status.

Miecz z Łotwy typu Z przechowywany w zbiorach Muzeum Archeologicznego w Poznaniu. Import czy produkt wschodniobaltycki? / Z-type sword from Latvia in the collection of the Poznan Archaeological Museum. An import of East Baltic product?

by Piotr Pudło

Co-authored with T. Kurasiński & M. Rychter, published in 'Fontes Archaeologici Posnanienses', Vol. 47, 2011, p. 5-12.

The subject of the paper is a single-edged sword (with an axe-shaped blade) originating from Latvia and kept in the... more The subject of the paper is a single-edged sword (with an axe-shaped blade) originating from Latvia and kept in the Poznań Archaeological Museum. The artefact was classified as type Z after J. Petersen. Such specimens are usually dated to the 11th century and are mainly concentrated in the basin of the Baltic Sea, particularly on its eastern shore. The place of discovery, the shape of the blade and the concentration of this kind of artefacts indicate its east Baltic origin. The material analysis provided grounds for a technological evaluation of the product. Hammered from a uniform iron rod (a billet), the blade revealed a diversified level of carburizing which improved its efficacy. Together with the probable lack of hilt decoration, this particular property seems to suggest that the weapon was wrought in order to make it as effective as possible in battle.

Great Moravia, Statehood and Archaeology. The ‘Decline and Fall’ of One Early Medieval Polity

by Ivo Stefan

Great Moravia; early medieval State; collapse
of complex societies

The collapse of the polity which Byzantine Emperor Constantine
VII Porphyrogennetos called ‘megale Moravia’ more The collapse of the polity which Byzantine Emperor Constantine
VII Porphyrogennetos called ‘megale Moravia’
is undoubtedly one of the most noteworthy problems of
Central European history of the Early Middle Ages i.a.
also because it has no equivalent wide and far. How is it
possible that the still recently prospering society could entirely
disintegrate in a short timeframe? Through a structural
analysis of the Great Moravian polity, the author
attempts to show that the collapse at the beginning of the
tenth century was closely tied to its fragile socioeconomic
foundations and endeavours to offer an explanation for
the subsequent resignation on the renewal of the ‘Great
Moravian project’ as well. At the end, the study asks the
question of what level of complexity Great Moravia actually
attained, to what extent its structure built on foreign
models and what legacy it left in Central Europe.

Pera Guerrear. Armamento medieval no espaço português. Catálogo da exposição (fichas descritivas do espólio do Sítio Arqueológico de São Pedro de Canaferrim/Castelo dos Mouros, Sintra).

by Catarina Coelho

COELHO, Catarina (2000) – Pera Guerrear. Armamento medieval no espaço português. Catálogo da exposição (elaboração das fichas descritivas do espólio e do Sítio Arqueológico de São Pedro de Canaferrim/Castelo dos Mouros, Sintra).

Сабята от гроб №27 от старобългарския некропол при Нови пазар. (The Sabre from Grave №27 from the Early Medieval Bulgarian Necropolis at Novi Pazar.) - In: България, българите и Европа - мит, история, съвремие. Том ІV. Велико Търново. 2010. р. 355-370 (co-autor Milen Petrov)

by Nikolai Hrissimov

Kaciga s dvodijelnom kalotom / Kacige tipa Baldenheim (br. 66-75), in: Kacige u Hrvatskoj, Zagreb 2001, 66-75: nos. K 19-K 23.

by Željko Demo

Ranosrednjovjekovno koplje s krilcima iz okolice Dugo Sela u svjetlu novih saznanja o ovoj vrsti oružja na motki [An Early Medieval winged-lugged spearhead from Dugo Selo vicinity in the light of the new knowledge about this type of pole-mounted weapon], Archaeologia Adriatica 4 (2010), Zadar 2011, 61-84 [engl. 84].

by Željko Demo

This scientific analysis starts from a valuable acquisition of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb - a very... more This scientific analysis starts from a valuable acquisition of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb - a very wellpreserved early medieval winged spear from the vicinity of Dugo Selo, a town twenty kilometer s to the east of Zagreb.The spear purchased for the Archaeological Museum in 2007 is of high quality and almost entirely preserved, with damage only on one side of the lower part of the socket (length 473.4 mm; weight 508 g). The spear is characterized by a broad blade, with a visible but not prominent rib, and the greatest span in the middle of the blade (54.4 mm). On both sides of the blade, more on one and less on the other, there are visible traces of double banded spirally twisted damascening with a rosette pattern of the Rosendamast (Rosetendamast) type. The socket of the spear is short (104.4mm), with a hexagonal section above and a circular section below (28 mm), with a deep (94 mm) but not particularly wide insertion area (23.4 mm). The holes for the nails are located below the low placed wings or lugs, straight on top,and concavely curved below (span 71.8 mm). The ends of the wing s are bent horizontally in the shape of the letter L. Each main side of the socket has a pair of elongated grooved bands (90 x 5.3 mm), while each lateral side above the wings has a pair of short grooved bands joined upwards into a point. The spear was brought to the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb and offered for sale by a resident of Dugo Selo, a small town twenty some kilometers east of Zagreb, who noted that it had been found twenty or more years ago on the northern slopes of the hill of Martin Breg during renovation of a nearby vineyard and the lane in the immediate vicinity, next to which the spear was found and handed over to its later owner (perhaps during widening and gravelling of the lane). Hence the location of the find is not certain, and it can be hypothesized, judging from the very good stateof preservation, that the spear was actually an aquatic find, and that it came from a riverbed, sand bank, or gravel pit in the vicinity of Dugo Selo (which is near the Sava River). The spear is a typical early Carolingian product, which according to earlier typological-chronological systemswould belong to Petersen type B, Paulsen winged spears of the finished type, and Szemeit type A, and accordingly would belong to the early Carolingian period and be dated to the period around AD 800. More recent archaeological research and knowledge acquired in the past twenty years has led to a different consideration and analysis of objects of this type, and the spear from the Dugo Selo vicinity has been analyzed on the basis of this new knowledge (Solberg, Westphal). The analysis was also extended to cover all of the known example s of winged spears in museums and other collections in Croatia (11+1 ex.) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (8 ex.), which for this occasion were subjected to an analysis of their dimensions and proportions, so that they would finally be compared and interpreted in the framework of the morphological postulates and conclusions previously reachedby the German archaeologist-restorer H. Westphal. Analysis has shown the existence of several typological groups whose proposed chronological coordinates differ from those parameters used to the present for the investigation and the interpretation of winged spears in theworks of Croatian archaeologists. This metrological approach to the analysis of the Croatian finds has confirmed the
existence of examples that belong to the earliest tradition of early Carolingian winged spears and has identified several other spears whose morphological characteristics indicate the first half of the 8rh century. The remaining spears mainly belong to two main typological groups (Westphai types II and III), i.e. to the period from the second half of the 8rh century to within the second half of the 9rh century.

Alati i pribor, glazbeni instrument, oružje i bojna oprema [Bone and Horn Tools, Implements, Musical Instrument, Weapons and Militery Equipment, in: "Imaginarni svijet zagonetnih predmeta od bjelokosti, kosti i kože" ["The Enigmatic Imagery of Ivory, Horn, Antler and Bone Artifacts"], Ed. A. Ribičić-Županić, Zagreb 2008, 123-146 [engl. 123-146].

by Željko Demo

Ranosrednjovjekovni predmeti od kosti i roga u Arheološkom muzeju u Zagrebu [Early medieval objects of bone and horn in The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb], Starohrvatska prosvjeta 34, Split 2007, 123-149 [engl. 136-140].

by Željko Demo

The Early Medieval Collection of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (further: AMZ) contains twelve objects of bone... more The Early Medieval Collection of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (further: AMZ) contains twelve objects of bone and horn. All of them, without exception, are grave finds discovered at four more or less archaeoIogically excavated sites in the northern part of Croatia: a small number of artifacts was found and gathered at the Avaro-Slavic cemetery of Bijelo Brdo-Bajer (2), and the early Slavic cemeteries of Zagreb-Kruge (2) and Brodski
Drenovac-Plana (1), while objects of bone and horn were discovered in somewhat greater amounts (7) in the graves of the famous early Bijelo Brdo cemetery of Vukovar-Lijeva Bara. Two mostly common groups of artifacts of bone and horn are represented: the group with objects of everyday use includes tools and implements and one musical instrument (8), while the group of weapons and military equipment contains parts and remains of the weaponry and equipment of an archer (4). The tools consist of awls and instruments to tighten/loosen (4), with one thatching needle and awl press each (2), and one needle case, with exceplionally interesting and important flute, or actually pipe, representing musical instruments. The scarce examples of weaponry consisted of the covering platelets for the ends and handle (upper and grip laths) of a short, nomad or refiex bow (3), while the only objects of decorative character among the military equipment were remnants of the plating for the upper part of a quiver (or arrow container). All of the other 11 early medieval objects and horn were of a purely utilitarian character.

Refleksni luk s ranosrednjovjekovnog groblja u Vukovaru (gr. 92) [The Composite Bow from the Early Medieval Cemetery of Vukovar-Lijeva Bara (grave 92)], Starohrvatska prosvjeta 31, Split 2006, 77-89 [engl. 83-85].

by Željko Demo

Weapons and military equipment represent the rarest and least numerous group of objects from the grave inventories at... more Weapons and military equipment represent the rarest and least numerous group of objects from the grave inventories at the cemetery of Lijeva Bara in Vukovar, consisting only of assault weapons and equipment (28 examples): arrowheads predominate, with far less numerous quivers and only one composite bow. Assault weapons and equipment were discovered in 14 primarily male or probably male graves (ratio: 2:1), meaning their proportion among the graves with finds measures 7.33%.The only composite bow from the Vukovar site comes from grave 92, discovered during the second excavation campaign while excavating quadrants V/13 and VI/13, located in the northwestern section of the excavated portion of the cemetery. Despite the incomplete and in general poor state ofpreservation, the excavated covering laths exhibit clear
structural characteristics of the early Hungarian type reflex bow, where originally there would have been three pairs of laths in use, arranged at both ends (or ears) and on the grip of the bow (2+2+2). The covering laths of the ears of the early Hungarian bows were ofvaried shape, because ofwhich they can be classified to at least three main typological groups. The body of the upper pair of the Vukovar covering laths has an arched curve and is evenly tapered towards the notch for drawing and the ear of the lath, which is characteristic for the most common typological group, with the greatest number of variants of early Hungarian composite bows of the 10th and early 11Ith centuries (group I).