The discovery was announced by the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica, which works with the Centre for Underwater Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, north-central Poland.
The Piast dynasty established Poland’s early state. Mieszko I is regarded as the founder of Polish statehood, and accepted Christian baptism in 966. Previous Piast leaders are considered, at least in part, legendary. Mieszko's son and successor, Bolesław I the Brave, was crowned king in 1025.
All four artifacts date to the early 11th century.
Researchers used macro X-ray fluorescence to map chemical elements on the blades, dendrology to identify the wood as ash, and radiocarbon dating to confirm the period.
The new pieces join more than 280 weapons recovered from the lake bed, including 145 axes, 64 spearheads, and eight swords, finds associated with the early Piast stronghold on Lednica Island.
Scholars point to two main explanations for the concentration of arms in the water. Weapons may have been lost during fighting on the bridges to the island, possibly during the raid on Poland by Duke Bretislaus of Bohemia in the 1030s.
Another view holds that some items were placed in the lake as ritual offerings, a practice known across Europe, where water was seen as a gateway to the realm of the dead.
The first of the spears survived with its wooden shaft. It has an iron, diamond-shaped head and an ash shaft preserved in several pieces, measuring about 2.1 meters in total. The butt end was finished with a ring made of antler, an uncommon feature that makes the object unique.
Complete spears from this era are rare. Lake Lednica has yielded only two other intact examples, each more than three meters long. The mix of lengths, specialists say, matches period imagery that shows both shorter and longer spears in use.
From the second spear, researchers recovered a slender iron head shaped like a willow leaf, with a fragment of the shaft still set in the socket. Along both faces, near the cutting edges, runs a wavy motif known as a wolf-tooth line.
Although this form is widespread in early medieval Europe, close parallels from the Lednica stronghold suggest local manufacture and a strong craft tradition in the region.
The third artifact is the longest spearhead found this year. It has a triangular profile and was forged using pattern welding, a technique that repeatedly forges together irons and steels of different composition to produce a strong, sometimes patterned blade.
A piece of the shaft remains in the socket. This head is also decorated with the wolf-tooth line, and the technique reflects a high level of technology in the early Middle Ages.
The fourth item, described by the museum as princely, has drawn the most attention. It preserves a richly decorated spearhead with small side wings. The steel blade sits on an intricately ornamented socket that retains a shaft fragment.
Specialist tests show extensive gilding and plating with silver and bronze as well as other alloys. The socket and wings carry spiral and triskelion motifs. Interlaced patterns end in claw- or beak-like tips, and rows of tiny punched dots fill the braided designs.
Spearheads with decorated sockets are exceptional in northern and eastern Europe. Three similar pieces were found in Lake Lednica in the 1990s, yet none matched this level of embellishment, with a socket made entirely from colored metal alloys.
Further study is planned, including isotopic analyses of metals in the princely spearhead to trace their origin and help locate the workshop.
The work, conducted with the approval of the Wielkopolskie Provincial Conservator of Monuments and in cooperation with multiple research centers, aims to document and protect Lake Lednica’s archaeological heritage.
Set between the cities of Gniezno and Poznań, Lake Lednica and the surrounding area is a region of spectacular natural beauty as much as historical significance. It has long attracted scholars, who continue to find evidence of the first Piasts’ dominance at the heart of their realm.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP, lednicamuzeum.pl