Rattle

The clay rattle was discovered in 1957 during excavations carried out by the employees of the National Museum in Lublin in Topornica (the Zamość poviat). The archaeologists, working on a cemetery of Lusatian culture from the Bronze Age (existing from about 1100 BC to about 400 BC), uncovered 65 graves and in one of them they found the relic of interest. The site itself was surveyed as early as 1935, and a total of nearly 200 corpse and 31 cavity graves were located.

The burials investigated in 1957 were ashlar graves, i.e. graves where burnt bones were placed in vessels, usually without any additional equipment. There were only four exceptions and it was in grave number 8 that a small clay rattle was found.

It is egg-shaped with flattened ends, on which there are single holes, and it is additionally decorated with diagonally engraved lines. It was found in a richly furnished grave together with an egg-shaped vessel, a goblet and a miniature scoop. In the archaeological literature graves with rattles are interpreted in different ways because they are found both in children's graves and in the burials of adults. Thus, they could have been children's toys and objects used during cult rituals taking place in the cemetery (see also 445/A/ML). The small dimensions of the artefact - 3 cm wide and less than 8 cm long - suggest that it could have been a toy after all. Also, the possibility that the thongs could have been threaded through the holes on the object and hung over the child supports this interpretation. However, even in this case, it is impossible to deny the rattles magical properties, as they could have combined the functions of a toy and a repellent for evil spirits.

But what exactly made the rattle make its sound? Unfortunately, the object survived incomplete until our times, so we do not know what was placed inside; usually, it was lumps of clay, grains or pebbles that hit each other and the walls of the rattle when shaken.