THE SECOND HOARD OF SKOMĘTNO HEINO NEUMAYER BALTICA 23 BALTICA Abstract A silver hoard found in what is currently called Skomętno, and bought by the Museum of Prehistory in Berlin, is the basis for a discussion about Medieval hoards in the Baltic region concerning typology and chronology. The hoard, which can be dated to the second half of the 11th century, also shows interesting similarities with a hoard which was found in Skomenten in 1927. It was brought to the Prussia Museum in Königsberg, and has been lost since the end of the Second World War. ARCHAEOLOGIA Key words: East Prussia, Viking Age, hoard, ingots, Skomętno. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ab.v23i0.1304 Introduction Doing a targeted search in the same spot, the father of the sellers found a vessel with further objects while Viking Age silver hoards distributed around the Baltic purposely ploughing deeply in the same spot. The bro- Sea have always been of great interest to archaeolo- ken fragments of the vessel were not picked up as usu- gists dealing with this period. The different composi- al. According to the description by the sellers, the find tion, with coins, jewellery and ingots, seems to be a place was northeast of the village of Kleinskomentnen, sign of chronological and cultural differences, which at the top of a small hill of a diameter of 50 metres. The can also be proven by a find which was bought by the hoard that was bought by the museum is composed of Museum of Prehistory in Berlin in 2009. two solid bracelets, one spiral ring, and 14 ingot frag- ments. The total weight amounts to 1,890 grams (Fig. 1). A few years later, a neighbour discovered 25 ingots The purchase of the hoard by the in the same place. The whereabouts of those ingots is Museum of Prehistory in Berlin not known. In 2009, the Museum of Pre- and Early History in Ber- The existence of the hoard was well known among East lin was able to buy a silver hoard from a private seller, Prussians living in West Germany after the Second which was found in Skomentnen, in the former county World War. The owners presented their find at several of Lyck, nowadays Skomętno,1 in the Warmian Masur- meetings of Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen. The first ian voivodeship in Poland. The sellers, refugees from contacts with the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz by East Prussia, discovered the hoard on their farm while the Kreisvertreter of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen working. The loop of a bracelet had got caught in the were in the Sixties (Bogucki 2009, 497, Fig. 3). prongs of a fork. A first examination of the place by the In 2008, the Museum of Pre- and Early History was owners was unsuccessful.2 again informed of the intention of the owners to sell the objects. Gerd Bandilla, the Kreisvertreter, was able 1 The article contains the archaeological results of a larger to convince the owners to sell the hoard to a German examination concerning the second hoard of Skomętno, museum, especially one in Berlin or Nuremberg. In made by the Conservation Department of the Museum the end, Berlin was able to pay the price the owners für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, by Hermann Born, a mate- wanted. rial analysis made by Deutsches GeoForschungs Zentrum Potsdam by Rolf L. Romer and Dieter Rhede, and LI- In October 1927, at a distance of 750 metres from the DAR scanning of the surroundings of Skomętno made by hoard that the Berlin Museum bought, a farmer named Cezary Sobczak from the State Archaeological Museum in Jezierski discovered, also while working, the grave of a Warsaw. It was a great honour to present the typological and chronological results at the Klaipėda conference ‘The ‘Sudovian princess’. The find was brought to the Prus- Sea and the Coastlands’ which was dedicated to the 70th sia-Museum in Königsberg. It has been lost since the birthday of Professor Dr habil. Vladas Žulkus. end of the Second World War (Engel 1930, 7). A copy 2 The exact position of the hoard is not mentioned, in order of the find, which was presented at the local museum to prevent illegal digging. The place and the information in Lyck, disappeared when the Red Army invaded the about the discovery of the find were told to the author by the sellers. town in January 1945 (Gerdau 1993, 10). 171 1927 is mostly regarded as a grave. Wilhelm Gaerte, the director of the Prussia Museum in Königsberg, mentioned it as a grave in his monograph Urgeschichte Ostpreussens (Gaerte 1929, Fig. 288). Carl Engel, a scientific assistant at the Prussia Museum, also de- scribed the find in 1931 as a grave. ‘… kreidig weiße Bruchstücke’ between the objects mentioned by the farmer Jezielski could have been the reason for this interpretation (Engel 1931, 75). Engel, visiting the The Second Hoard of Skomętno site on 19 October 1929, picked up burnt fragments of bones, badly burnt sherds, and ‘klingend hart ge- brannte Drehscheibenware’. All of these were brought to the laboratories in Königsberg for examination. In HEINO HEINO NEUMAYER 1939, Engel described the find as a hoard. It could be Fig. 1. The second hoard of Skomętno, Warmian Masurian voivodeship. Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Staatli- that the examinations, and a small excavation at the site che Museen zu Berlin (photograph by C. Klein). without further graves, had been the reason for Engel’s change of opinion (Engel 1939, 55). The topographical The find, deposited in a copper vessel, was made up of situation is also an argument against the interpretation a necklace of 16 cross pendants with hollow beads, two as a grave. Engel wrote that, in the past, the site was penannular brooches with animal heads, and two spiral a spit surrounded by swampy ground. Such a place is rings (Fig. 2). The vessel was covered by a flat stone. unsuitable for a cemetery. Swampy ground, such as the remains of a former lake or the littoral of a lake, may Grave or hoard? also be good proof for an interpretation of these white fragments as limestone. For an interpretation of both finds, the topographical The interpretation of the second find from Skomętno situation has to be considered. Up to now, the find from seems to be easier. Ingots are not grave goods. This Fig. 2. The filing card of the first hoard from Skometno, from the estate of Carl Engel. Carl-Engel-Nachlass, Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. 172 Fig. 3. The Marienhof hoard (now Brodzikowo, Warmian Masurian voivodeship (after Schriften der Physikalischökono- mischen Gesellschaft Königsberg 38, 1897, pl. 2). 23 BALTICA ARCHAEOLOGIA fact and the exposed situation of the site, at the top of a in the Berlin Museum were found in 1883 in Kiwitten hill of a diameter of 50 metres, are good arguments for (now Kiwity, in the Warmian Masurian voivodeship) an interpretation of the find as a hoard. (Cowentz 1888, 19ff.) (Fig. 4). The Hørdum treasure in northern Jutland also contained The jewellery of both Skomętno finds a solid bracelet (Fig. 5). The hoard is dated to the ninth century (Roesdahl 1992, 265, No 148). Hørdum and The spiral rings of the hoard from 1927 are very similar Londzyn may give a time scale for the lifespan of such to the spiral ring of the ensemble bought by the Berlin bracelets from the ninth to the twelfth century. Museum. Such spiral rings had also been found in the The best parallel to the silver spiral ring from both hoard of Marienhof, in the former county of Sensburg Skomętno hoards is from the treasure of Marienhof. (now Brodzikowo, Warmian Masurian voivodeship), It contained six silver spiral rings, and the solid brace- which was discovered in 1897 (Engel 1931, 69ff.). It let which was mentioned before (Fig. 3). Mateusz Bo- contained a solid bracelet similar to the solid bracelet in gucki, who examined the objects from the Marienhof Berlin (Fig. 3.7). For the dating of such solid bracelets, hoard, based on their decoration, dated the spiral rings the hoard of Londzyn, in the former county of Löbau to the second and third quarters of the 11th century (now Łążyn, the district of Nowe Miasto Lubawskie, (Bogucki 2003, 218). in the Warmian Masurian voivodeship), can be used. It contained coins of the English King Stephen of Blois Besides Marienhof, two hoards from Latvia may shed (1135–1154), which allows us to presume the middle further light on the dating of the silver spiral rings. of the 12th century as the time of burying the treasure The treasure from Pudžas, in the district of Jelgavas, is (Kemke 1931, 153). Very similar bracelets to the pieces dated to about 1000 AD. A coin from Otto III dates the 173 treasure of Jaunzemji, in the district of Liepāja (Urtāns 1997, 175ff., Figs. 83, 87) (Fig. 6). There are spiral rings from Gotland, from Botels and Mallgords, dating to the end of the tenth century. The ends of these loops are more solid than the sheet silver ends of the rings we Fig. 4. Solid bracelets from the Kiwitten hoard (now Kiwity, have in Berlin. Perhaps this is proof of their younger Warmian Masurian voivodeship (after Kemke, 1931, 148). dating, for typological reasons which would support Not to scale. the dating of Bogucki. The Second Hoard of Skomętno The hoard from 1927 contained two penannular brooch- es with animal heads. The best parallels to these pieces were found in the hoards from Skaudvilė (Tauragė district, Lithuania), Antakščiai and Gėliogaliai (both HEINO HEINO NEUMAYER in the Molėtai district, Lithuania) (Fig.