Medieval weaponry from the River Dziwna, the Wolin Commune, in the light of metallographic analyses

Abstract

Technological examinations of weaponry found in the River Dziwna near Wolin were carried out in the Laboratory for Bio- and Archaeometry of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The examined assemblage included: four axes, one incompletely preserved langsax and lumps of iron ore found at the quarter of Ogrody and a spearhead with another axe found at Przedmoście Południowe. The largest axes were manufactured using a technology of forge-welding, which consisted in welding of a steel insert to soft iron overlays. On the other hand, smaller finds were made from single pieces of metal. A high level of smithing technology was observed in the langsax blade, made by forging of steel overlays and the core with iron rods. Chemical analyses revealed a dispersion of the content of phosphorus in individual finds. This demonstrates that not only bog ores were used for the manufacture of examined finds. It was not possible to relate any of these finds to discovered iron ore – magnetite