Rattle - Easter egg

An Easter egg or a rattle? A local product or not a local product? These questions have not yet been answered unequivocally. The clay object shaped like a chicken egg, covered in multicoloured glaze, resembles an Easter egg. This type of object is usually considered the product of highly specialised glass-making workshops focused on the production of glazed ceramic tiles, which operated in the early Middle Ages in Kievan Rus. Easter eggs were supposed to be their by-product. There are also opinions that they could have been produced on Polish territory, mainly in Wielkopolska and Silesia, in glass workshops functioning in larger centres along trade routes. Clay Easter eggs were made in two ways. The first one was by moulding clay strips, similar to crockery. The second way was to cover an egg-shaped wax core with clay. In both cases, the Easter eggs were first dried, then fired, then glazed and fired again. Glazed Easter eggs were produced in the 11th-13th centuries. In Poland, they are known from excavations on settlements and burial mounds and, much more frequently, from archaeological work on early medieval cemeteries, from richly furnished skeleton graves, including children's ones. They are considered unique objects of high material value, but it has not been possible to explain their function so far. Rattle Easter eggs from children's graves are sometimes regarded as toys, while those discovered in burials of adult women and men are associated with the sphere of beliefs and rituals. Their presence may be explained by the widespread and ancient belief in the rebirth of life, symbolised by the egg.

Anna Bogumiła Kowalska