Włocławek, Kujawy. They discovered a two-thousand-year-old object in the field. “Very old, unique”

At the end of November, a group of history enthusiasts operating under the name “Brzescy Search for History” discovered a Jastorf fibula in a field near Włocławek in Kujawy. Specifically, Łukasz Jarębski came across it.

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– This inconspicuous object is a pin of the Jastorf culture of the Holstein type. We know few monuments from the area of ​​this archaeological culture compared to other cultures. We are talking about the “Jastorf” tribes, which in Europe date from 600 BC to the turn of the era. This particular monument dates back to the 3rd century before the birth of Christ. It is undoubtedly much more than 2,000 years old. It is very old, unique and certainly hides its secrets – explains Barbara Florkiewicz, a detectorist from the Brzesko History Seekers Association.

Such pins in other areas would indicate that there is an extensive cremation cemetery underground. Such monuments are often found in necropolises. In the case of tribes using such brooches, these included: extensive cemeteries with up to a thousand graves. These were almost always cremation and urn graves.

– To put it simply, people were burned on funeral pyres before being buried. We know this especially from Vikings movies. In the case of the brooch from Poland, its context may be the march of peoples associated with the Jastorf culture to the southeast. Of course, it could also have been the subject of trade between the “Jastorf” tribes and the local Germans from the Przeworsk culture, which in popular science journalism is associated mainly with the Vandal tribes or – even more likely – with the Celts – explains Robert Wyrostkiewicz, archaeologist from pogotowiearcheologiczne.pl , with whom the Brzesko History Seekers consulted the find.

The monument is made of copper alloy. After metallurgical tests, it will become clear whether it is bronze or another alloy, which was popular at that time. Who wore it in life? You can only imagine it. In the graves you can only find an ashtray (funeral vessel), some bones and little else.

– The state of research on the Jastorf settlements in Poland is extremely insufficient and we cannot say much about the everyday life of these tribes, except that these people were engaged in agriculture and breeding, and our country is an area of ​​marches of peoples of this culture. In the area of ​​modern times German “Jastorfians” also produced iron – emphasizes Robert Wyrostkiewicz.

– I will add an interesting fact that this archaeological culture is known for human sacrifices. Let us remember that these were barbaric times. That's what the Romans called us not much later – barbarians. In Kujawy, the Jastorf element also encountered the Celts, on whom it had a great influence. It is still one of the most mysterious and little-known archaeological cultures occurring in modern Poland, says Robert Wyrostkiewicz. The Jastorf culture partially included, among others: Germany, The czech republicbut also Poland, although monuments of this culture are very rare, and the most frequently found metal monument is a ball fibula (a clasp, an ancient safety pin) with two x-shaped ornaments, often bimetallic (made of a copper alloy, but with a spring and an iron needle). ) – Wyrostkiewicz clarified.

In addition to the brooch, the searchers also found many modern monuments, including: Tsarist military buttons from the 19th century (two with regimental numbers from the first half of the 19th century and one with a double-headed eagle and the coat of arms of the Romanov dynasty from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries).

– We also found a naibiya, perhaps from the 18th century, or two buckles, one of which may be late medieval or early modern. Of course, many coins from two different partitions were also found. These are 19th and 20th century Russian (kopeck) and German (pfennig) coins. These boratynki, i.e. shillings of King John Casimir from the 17th century, could not be missing – concluded Wyrostkiewicz.