Bowl with engraving and text

A copper-alloy bowl found during archaeological excavations carried out in 1994 in Nowe Objezierze in the Moryń commune. The vessel is made of one sheet of copper alloy by mechanical splitting and shaping. It has a narrow outward turned rim with a rounded and slightly thickened edge, two holes, and a flat bottom, in which a small patch is visible, which is evidence of repairs. Four symmetrically arranged oval medallions surrounded by inscriptions in Latin Roman majuscule are on the inner surface. Inside each medallion, there are figural representations. The lower parts of the inscriptions are illegible today due to the way the bowl was used. One of the scenes is also damaged. Between the medallions, male crowned busts are visible. The inscriptions and figural motifs form a coherent whole. They are quotations from a medieval eclogue, bucolic writing in the exquisite language, whose authorship is attributed to Theodolus. Literary works of this type were used as textbooks for learning Latin in the Middle Ages. In this case, inscriptions and engravings illustrate the life and deeds of the mythical Heracles. The first scene depicts the hero's birth, and the second shows the strangling of a snake by the little Hercules sent to him by Hera. The third scene - the least legible - shows the theft of apples in the garden of Hesperides and the murder of its guardian, the “unquiet” dragon Ladon. The last medallion depicts the abduction of the cattle herds of the Tartessos ruler Gerion - the tenth work of Hercules. The bowl from Nowe Objezierze is the second vessel decorated with scenes from the life of the Greek hero known in Europe. The first one is in the British Museum in London. The inscriptions are the oldest fragments of the eclogue of Theodolus in Poland. Bowls with inscriptions and mythological and Christian scenes were used in monasteries and during liturgical ceremonies. The vessel from Nowe Objezierz was probably made in a Rhineland workshop in the 11th - 12th centuries.

Sławomir Słowiński