Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

Ninety years of Professor Raimo Pullat

Andrzej Klonder — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Text on the occasion of the 90th birthday jubilee of Professor Raimo Pullat.

Welsh cantref — Anglo-Saxon hundred — Frankish centena — medieval mile. Hundred-based systems from the historical metrology perspective

Anna Dunin-Wąsowicz — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The text concerns historical hundred-based systems and their interrelations. Two models for reconstructing the Welsh cantref are proposed — one based on the Venedotian Code of Welsh law, and the other in a centurial framework. They are then compared with the Anglo-Saxon hundreds. It is demonstrated that both the Welsh and Anglo-Saxon territorial units fall within the category of longue durée phenomena. Although their character, territorial scope, and functions evolved over time, they nonetheless provide a valuable comparative basis for the study of the Frankish centena and other continental land-measurement systems. Their juxtaposition and analysis may, in future research, contribute to more precise dating of certain agrarian measures.

Early medieval granular ornaments from Polish hoards and graves. Soldering techniques and conservation problems.

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Silver ornaments from early medieval hoards from Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Scandinavia constitute a rich source material that is well recognized typologically in archaeology. Until recently, however, there has been limited access to knowledge related to analyses of the origin of raw materials or techniques of making such ornaments. The content presented in this article, focuses on this subject. In the opinion of the authors, the results of such analyses can relate not only to technological aspects, but also bring
new data on the scale of contacts and the flow of ideas associated with them, which in the case of Polish lands also applies to state-creative processes. At the same time, they
emphasize that the quality of material studies of the surface of ornaments is influenced by the ways in which such items are conserved. Preservation, carried out with chemicals,
usually makes it difficult to perform specialized analyses. Nevertheless, a preliminary examination of the surface before conservation makes it possible to recognize the ways
of soldering, indicating their source in ancient recipes. It was found that organic adhesives and fluorite as a flux, solders based on copper compounds, tin also lead, were used in the production of the ornaments studied. The results of specialized analysis indicated the technological similarity of Polish and Czech material.

Study of the origin of amber from the kolts discovered in the early medieval cemetery in Sypniewo using Raman spectroscopy

Mariusz Błoński, Barbara Łydżba-Kopczyńska — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The article presents the results of physicochemical tests of amber used to decorate kolts from a woman's grave in the cemetery in Sypniewo in north-eastern Mazovia. Kolts are women's head decorations typical of the goldsmithery of Kievan Rus in the period from the 11th to the 13th. They are rare finds in Poland; apart from the three kolts from Sypniewo, seven other pieces were discovered. Two of them from Sypniewo had amber discs decorating them. Amber accour within quaternary sediments in Sypniwo area (Kurpie region) and in Sypniewo itself, so it is probable that local raw material was used to decorate the Kolts. Comparative studies of amber from one disc with amber from Kurpie and other regions of Poland (Podlasie, Pomerania) using Raman spectroscopy showed a high similarity of their spectral features, which is characteristic of Baltic succinite. The manufacturer of the examined ornaments could have been a goldsmith who came from Kievan Rus and used local amber to decorate the ornaments.

On the social and geographical mobility of the incoming knightly elite in thirteen century Central Europe: Herbord of Fulštejn and his family

Marcin R. Pauk — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Using the example of a ministerial family of Fülme near Rinteln in Westphalia, which migrated to Moravia in the mid-thirteenth century, it is possible to identify the primary
mechanisms characterizing the social mobility of the lower ranks of the knightly stratum from the German Reich who participated in knightly migrations and peregrinations.
By juxtaposing biographical data concerning Herbord of Fülme and two generations of his descendants, and analysing them against the broader social and legal context,
the article addresses the following issues: the significance of service and the feudovassalic relationship with Bruno of Schaumburg, Bishop of Olomouc; the status of ministerials within the changing legal and constitutional frameworks of the thirteenth century; the role of geographical mobility as a means of advancement; and, finally, the attributes of elevated status acquired through this process — including the possession of a castle, holding of an office, and entry to the landed elite in their new homeland.

The importance of material evidence and the role of archaeological research in the process of disproving the Katyn lie (1943–2023)

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The main aim of the article is to show the importance of material remains and the contribution of Katyn archaeology in disseminating knowledge about the Katyn lie and the truth about the Katyn massacre between 1943 and 2023. The authors present: 1) the nature and conditions of the Katyn lie and the significance of material evidence in
disproving it; 2) individual and public expectations and reactions to material remains and towards archaeological research; 3) the contribution to making the resting places
and the material evidence from the death pits vibrant and causative for the victims’ families, for the community of remembrance and the human community of suffering,
and for the broad public of today and the future. The paper is based on data and analyses rooted in archaeology, history and cultural anthropology.

‘For supper, white bread rolls are served with dinner’. Evening meal in the Bernardine convent in Kraków — monastic customs and dietary practices in the second half of the eighteenth century

Olga M. Przybyłowicz — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Supper was one of the two daily meals consumed in monasteries. The aim of this article is to present the menu of evening meals of the Bernardine nuns in Kraków at the Church of St. Joseph. This has been made possible by a unique source: a meal register kept from November 9, 1765, to November 15, 1766, which has survived among the accounts of this convent from the second half of the 18th century. The data provide insight into what the nuns ate during monastic and ecclesiastical fasts, as well as outside of those periods. Suppers were more modest than dinners, yet the rule applied to the main meal of the day was maintained: a richer menu for festive suppers and a simpler one for ordinary days. During fasts, both the quantity and quality of the dishes were significantly reduced and less varied. This pioneering analysis of the menu, set against the backdrop of monastic customs and the culinary culture of the era, serves as a starting point for further research into the topic of consumption in the early modern period.

Warszawa dwudziestolecia. Życie artystyczne i nowa tożsamość miasta

Jerzy Kochanowski — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Review