Original scientific paper
Regional groups of early medieval luxury jewellery: their archaeological analysis versus historical interpretation
Šimon Ungerman
; Institute of Archaeology, Brno, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Abstract
The article deals with three regional groups of early medieval luxury jewellery: in Moravia, in Bohemia (both from the 9th century and the first half of the 10th century) and in Poland (roughly the 10th-11th centuries). Earlier research explained the emergence of these regional groups as the result of the arrival of foreign craftsmen from the neighbouring region and often linked it to one of the important historical events. The author confronts this traditional view with the current state of research. First, he emphasizes that the knowledge of all three groups is strongly determined by the nature of the archaeological sources (inhumation graves with grave goods, or hack-silver hoards); however, the luxury jewellery could also be used in the mentioned regions in periods from which similarly significant archaeological sources have not been preserved. Secondly, it is necessary to draw attention to the long-term existence of the early medieval aristocracy, whose members maintained contacts with each other
even over considerable geographical distances. Such contacts played a key role in the spread of luxury jewellery, but only a small part of them is recorded in the surviving written sources.
Keywords
Early Middle Ages; luxury jewellery; social elite; Great Moravia; Bohemia; Poland
Hrčak ID:
329712
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2024.
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