A tape, tape bundle, a half tape bundle

The presented bundle consisting of thin metal strips belongs to sporadic finds from the Late Bronze Age. This original form hides a bronze raw material, which was used to make specific objects after smelting. Bronze metallurgy workshops within today's Poland appeared earliest in Silesia, Greater Poland, and Pomerania. Their existence is confirmed mainly by the findings of casting moulds, characteristic tools, and the so-called waste produced in the process of casting. Bronze as a raw material reached the Polish lands in the early phases of the Bronze Age mainly in the form of semi-finished products (the so-called hoop ornaments or axes) and damaged objects. In later periods, its primary source was scrap from damaged and broken bronze products. It was also found as a semi-raw material in the form of lumps (the so-called cakes), bars, thicker wire, or strips. The metal was smelted in clay pots. Reaching the liquid state required a high temperature of about 1000ºC, which was achieved by blowing air into the hearth with charcoal. The presented artefact was discovered at the end of the 19th century in a large hoard dating to the 5th period of the Bronze Age (c. 900-750 BC), which consisted of tools, weapons, body and costume ornaments, elements of horse harness, and objects connected to metallurgy and foundry. All the bronzes were placed in a sizeable earthenware vessel next to a large stone in a meadow belonging to August Schiewer.

Dorota Kozłowska