An Early Medieval Silver Hoard from Tarnowo (Łekno). Data on the Process of Its Discovery

The silver hoard from Site Ł5 in Łekno, the Wągrowiec Commune, which was discovered in 2007 and which was subsequently examined up to 2014, is a scattered one. As a consequence of ploughing and denudation, it was dragged over a quite vast area (see Fig. 5). It constitutes Part III of a hoard which was discovered here in 1861 by Wojciech Jankowiak and Antoni Łukaszewicz. Based on our findings, it can be said beyond doubt that it was found in the field of A. Łukaszewicz (Figs. 2, 3, and 4). Its Part II was gathered as a result of the activities of “treasure hunters” in 2004 [Bogucki 2006b]. This hoard (Parts I–III), as it can be said, based on hitherto preliminary findings (examinations are still in process), was deposited in a “trade settlement” situated to the west of the suburbium and the stronghold at Sites Ł3 and Ł4 in Tarnowo Pałuckie—that is, Medieval Łekno (see Figs. 1 and 2) in the late 10th c.—or in the first five years of the 11th c. at the latest. It occurred in the layer of humus and in the upper zone of Cultural Layer I (Trenches I, II, and III—cf. Fig. 5). It is a scattered-type hack-silver hoard. In the years 2007–2014, in the course of surveys and excavations, more than 630 finds related to the discussed hoard were discovered. Together with its 19th c. part (Part I) and Part II from 2004, it contains more than 841 finds. The contents of Part III of the hoard, discovered in 2007–2014, include: whole and fragmented coins, fragments of silver and cast lead/silvered jewellery, silver clumps, and wires. Concerning the coins, there are: Arabian dirhams (hacked) from the Abbāsid, Sāmānid and possibly Buvaihid?, Hamdānid?, and Ziyārid? dynasties (dated to between c. 815 and c. 976, according to the analysis by D. Malarczyk); silver coins (whole and fragmented)— according to a preliminary analysis by Z. Bartkowiak, they are West European: German denars of Otto and Adelheid, Heinrich, Otto, denars from the Cologne mint (?), Bavarian denars; Danish half-bracteates (Hedeby); denars of the Bohemian type, including a hybrid of a Bohemian denar, cross denars of Type I; Byzantine coins of Constantine VII and Roman II (945–959). A hitherto unknown hybrid of the Princes Polonie denar of Bolesław the Brave is also related to this assemblage [Bogucki 2006b, p. 181–182 ff.) The silver hoard from Tarnowo Pałuckie (Łekno) is a very significant find for defining settlement changes in the centre of the Łekno settlement complex, its settlement, economic-trade and architectural-construction structures, as well as for broader cultural phenomena within Greater Poland and its relations to the European cultural circle. All the finds from Part III of the hoard (coins, jewellery, silver clumps and wires, other finds) underwent detailed numismatic and art history studies, as well as specialist examinations—detailed non-invasive metallographic examinations and conservation ( J. Strobin and M. Sawczak). The results of these examinations and the hoard itself (the catalogue with specialist examinations) will be published in a separate monograph devoted to this discovery after all the examinations are completed. Apart from the planned monograph, details of a 9th c. sword scabbard chape from this hoard have already been published [Wyrwa, Janiwski 2014]