Contextualisation of the Early Iron Age hoard of bronze objects discovered in Gdynia-Karwiny, site 1

Abstract

After the amateur discovery of a hoard of bronze ornaments (a kidney bracelet and two hollow ankle rings) in 2014 in a forest near Gdynia (Pomerania, northern Poland), the place was subjected to excavation. It turned out that in the nearest context of the bronzes (which had been found arranged one on top of the other in a narrow pit reaching 60 cm in depth) there was a cluster of stones, some of which could have been arranged intentionally in order to mark the place of the deposit. Next to this alleged stone circle there was a deep hearth used to heat stones, and for burning amber as incense. Remains of amber were preserved in the form of lumps and probably also as a deposit on the walls of some vessels. Some of the features of the examined complex may indicate a non-profane nature of the deposit: the presence of the stone structure, traces of burning amber, the location of the deposition spot in a not very habitable flattening of a narrow valley, as well as the chemical composition of the alloy of metals themselves. The ornaments were made of a porous copper alloy with a high addition of lead, antimony and arsenic, which could promote their fragility and poor use value. However, the ceramics found near the place where the bronzes are deposited do not differ from the settlement pottery of the time. The hoard and its context should be dated to the transition phase between the periods HaC1 and HaC2 (the turn of the 8th and 7th cent. BC). The Gdynia-Karwiny deposit adds to the list of finds from a period marked by the most frequent occurrence of hoards in Pomerania (turn of the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age). Its research seems to contribute to the interpretation of the deposition of metal objects as a phenomenon primarily of a ritual nature, and at the same time a social behaviour: a manifestation of competition for prestige.