A sword scabbard

This small, funnel-shaped object is a fitting for the lower part of a sword scabbard, the so-called "chape". Bronze chapes and other details of sheaths, most probably made of organic materials, are very rare finds in Poland. The presented relic is an element of quite a large treasure containing whole and fragmented products. It contained weapons and their parts, a cotter from a horse harness, objects connected with metallurgy, harvesting tools, arm and clothing ornaments, tweezers, small rings and a fragment of a bronze vessel. The deposit, dated to the 5th period of the Bronze Age (ca. 900-750 BC), was discovered in 1833 in or near an ashlar cemetery of the Lusatian culture. The bronze objects were found in a clay vessel hidden next to an erratic boulder. The artefacts were secured by Dohrn, a merchant from Klęskowo, who later donated them to the collection of the Society of History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Towarzystwo Historii i Starożytności Pomorza) in Szczecin. The numerous fragmented hoard objects reflect the phenomenon of a quite common accumulation of bronze at the end of the Bronze Age. Then, it was usually in the form of bars or cakes, and scrap as well, which consisted of damaged or badly cast products. In 1944, the chape, sword, and several other parts of the treasure were evacuated deep into Germany to protect them from war damage. They were only transferred to the collection of the National Museum (Muzeum Narodowe) in Szczecin in 2009 under the Polish-German exchange of ancient archaeological finds.

Dorota Kozłowska