Ornaments of wooden objects from Żółte in Western Pomerania as an example of so called Pomeranian school of Scandinavian-insular decorations

Abstract

Decorative art of early Middle Ages preserved on objects excavated in the area of Western Slavs is a precious source of knowledge concerning many problems of culture of those ancient communities and their mutual connections. Taking into consideration the fact of significant similarities in ornamentations appearing on stone archaeological objects from the Isle of Man and the artifacts occurring in Pomerania, the Greater Poland and Silesia, it is the least probable that the cultural phenomenon under discussion here existed as a result of absolutely independent, convergent development of decoration art in the area of Polish lands and the British Isles. Appearing of the whole complex of resemble ornamentation motifs indicates on the contrary their common source of inspiration. The problem displaced this fact in a wide scale after the recent excavations in the island of Zarańskie Lake, in Żółte settlement. What requires particular attention is a unique in Slavic scale, collection of 25 wooden spoons and several other objects, with predominance of different variations of rope knots and moreover, triangular motifs characteristic for the pattern of so called ring-chain ornamentation, expressed the most clearly in crosses forms Gosforth and Kirk Michael. Characteristic feature of wooden spoons from Żółte ornaments consists preliminarily of ribbon plaiting element, motif of a knot estimated in nine examples. In Mark Redknap’s opinion, it is one of two main, except ring-chain motif, elements of this style popular in the British Isles in the last quarter of 9^th century and in 10^th century. On the grounds of dendrochronological dating results it can be supposed that objects from Żółte were deposited in the lake water about a half of 11^th century, i.e. after destroying Wolin by Danish king Magnus. The problem of their manufacturing is a separate issue. Ring-chain ornamentation appearing in the West Pomerania is connected with a Scandinavian workshop operating in Wolin and inspired by West Viking art in fourth quarter of 10^th century or first quarter of 11^th century. It cannot be excluded that a part of the objects ornamented in the stylistic, excavated on the island of Zarańskie Lake, had been made much earlier in early urban center on the Daugava River. It is more possible, however, that due to its mass appearance and relatively homogenous character of decorations we can assume local production under the influence of decorative style developed in Wolin, with e.g. the participation of artists-craftsmen coming from Wolin itself, settled in the place permanently or visiting that multifunctional settlement center being an important place of interregional exchange, temporarily.