Amber bead

The large amber bead discovered during excavations in 1962 in the Old Town in Kamień Pomorski was made of a piece of orange-brown Baltic amber, also referred to as succinite. Its shape resembles a spinning wheel used to load the spindle during thread spinning. According to some opinions, it could have been a decoration woven into the hair or part of a necklace or used as a pendant on its own. It was most likely a local product, made by a local amber workshop. Processing amber always started with cleaning the raw piece and removing its natural surface with ordinary tools such as a knife, saw and file. Larger pieces were divided accordingly, according to the size of the planned product, by splitting or cutting. In the case of beads and other objects hung on strings, the most difficult part of the job was drilling a hole or a small channel with the help of a bow drill, which is referred to in local folk tradition as furkadełko. Due to the risk of damaging the half-finished product, drilling was always carried out at the earliest possible stage of shaping the final product. Only after the hole had been successfully drilled, the product was smoothed and polished. The most popular amber objects discovered during excavations in the early medieval Pomeranian centres are beads. In the vast majority of cases, they were turned out of lumps of various sizes on lathes, using oscillating and spinning motion, during which the maker cut amber with a fixed blade. Turning eliminated traces of manual processing and smoothed the surfaces of products. Hardwood, as well as fine sheepskin or lambskin were used for polishing.

Ewa Górkiewicz-Bucka