Secret border 'witnesses' in Central Europe from the 16th to the 19th c. — a poorly explored issue

Abstract

Research on old borders and ways of demarcating them in Poland usually overlooks the phenomenon of the so-called secret border “witnesses”. This practice, known since the antiquity, consisted in placing certain objects underneath the surface demarcation in order to prevent attempts at moving stones or mounds that marked borders and provide evidence of the original delineation of the border in the future. This sort of precaution was applied throughout Europe, also in Poland. Since the 15th c. it was customary to put coal, pottery, stones, glass, cinder or ironware in borderline mounds; some sources also mention coins, jetons, or even whole ceramic or glass vessels. The custom is noted in numerous surviving protocols of border demarcation from the areas of the present day Lithuania and Belarus, as well as from Greater and Little Poland, the Suwałki region, Kuyavia and Silesia. Documents from the 16th c. mention tokens specially made of clay, or sometimes of iron, with information helpful in demarcating the borderline (dates, initials, numbers). Most of such cases were recorded in Germany, but there are sources mentioning that such border marks were also made in Poland. These data are confirmed by archeological finds. Excavations in mounds in Jaktorów (now in Ukraine), Kornatka (Little Poland) and Sosnówka (Lower Silesia) revealed ceramics (fragments of vessels and roof tiles), ironware and pieces of glass. In Siemichów (Lower Silesia) a bottle placed upside down was found under a borderline mound. In the Archaeological Museum in Wrocław there is a clay jeton which might have been a secret border “witness”, but this interpretation of its function is not confirmed since it was found in a secondary deposit. The tradition has survived until today; contemporary “witnesses” are usually bottles, drainage pipes or blocks of concrete marked with a cross. This intriguing cultural phenomenon has not been widely studied so far; it is difficult to pinpoint its spread and regional differences in the choice of object used as “witnesses”.