Dugout from Lake Mełno, Grudziądz District

Abstract

In early December 1984, fishermen from the State Fishery Farm in Grudziądz notified the Grudziądz Museum of the discovery of a dugout in the waters of Lake Mełno, near
the village of Boguszewo (ryc. 1: 4). The findspot was visited by Ryszard Kirkowski of the archaeological department of the Grudziądz Museum, who informed the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Office for the Protection of Monuments in Toruń. The discovery was noticed Dłubanka z jeziora Mełno, pow. grudziądzki 231 by the national press and published in the ‘Ilustrowany Kurier Polski’ (1985) and ‘Kurier Polski’ (1985). The construction and dimensions of the boat can be determined through the preserved notes, photographs and press releases. The preserved length of the boat measures
2.65 m, width 0.54 m and height from the bottom to the edge of the sides is 15–20 cm; closer to the stern, the makers left a bulkhead. The stern and bow have trapezoidal shape and are diagonally undercut from below, with a distinct groove visible from the top of the bow part. The boat was probably semi-round in cross-section with the damaged sides that gently run down to a flattened bottom. The boat was carefully carved and is generally in good condition. Due to lack of funds for wood conservation, the dugout was sunk in Lake Mełno near the Lusatian stronghold located on the western shore of the peninsula. However, the discovery of the Mełno Lake dugout, despite press releases, was not introduced into the academic society. This is well evidenced by the fact that in the early 1990s the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń reported the discovery of a boat near the peninsula on Lake Mełno, and followed by the first publications on the subject (Kucharski 1993; Ossowski 1999). The boat recovered from Lake Mełno can be classified as a medieval dugout and linked to the early medieval stronghold located in the southwestern part of the lake, which functioned in the period from between 1025–1075 to 12th c. AD (Boguwolski, Kola 1982, pp. 1–3; 1994, pp. 102–104).