Two Early Bronze Age Brecelets, one from the Kujawy part of Toruń and one from Budzyń in Pałuki, in terms of archaeological and archaeo-metallurgical research

Abstract

The article presents two metal bracelets found separately but both associated with the manufacturing phase of the early Bronze Age. The lack of data on the original contexts for the finding of both features significantly limits the scope of their cultural interpretation. Therefore, the features might have come from grave goods, treasures, or they could simply have been lost.
The artefact found in Toruń (Kujawy part) is from the artillery training area, although it shows analogies in its manufacturing style to features representing the Tumulus culture (proto-Lusatian); it was in fact found in a settlement of the Trzciniec culture, where such funerary artefacts are only sporadically listed as part of metal treasure hoards. On the other hand, the feature found in Brudzyń, in the district of Żnin, suggests a fairly large number of close similarities with the funerary treasures and grave goods found in the Kujawy, Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) and Śląsk (Silesia) regions. The feature was found in the zone where the influences of the Tumulus culture and the Trzciniec culture once overlapped. The results of archaeo-metallurgical expert appraisal indicate that both features represent body ornamentation but can be associated with separate  metallurgical traditions. While there is no doubt that the bracelet from Brudzyń is a bronze product made in a workshop following the south-western style of Tumulus culture, the feature from Toruń might be an example of a local (“Trzciniec”) product, though having the aesthetic features characteristic of Tumulus metal artwork. Based on the results of the archaeo-metallurgical analysis for the artefact from Brudzyń, a virtual model of the process of pouring metal into a casting mould was produced.