A rim bracelet

The heavy bracelet is made from a thick brown rod and is almost circular, with its straight-cut ends clinging closely together. The surface is covered with a delicate engraved decoration consisting of groups of transverse lines combined with a herringbone motif. So far, only seven hoops of this type have been recorded, all in western Poland and all in hoards. The bracelet from Storkowo is an element of a set consisting of five bracelets and four axes, discovered in 1906 during the digging of foundation ditches on the parcel of the sawmill owner, Herman Porath. All the objects lay together, directly in the ground, at a depth of about 0.5 m from the surface. After their discovery, they were transferred to the collection of the Society of History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Towarzystwo Historii i Starożytności Pomorza) in Szczecin. They were stored in Szczecin until August 1944; after that, together with other highly valuable exhibits, they were evacuated deep into Germany to protect the museum resources from destruction during the Allied raids and probably from the war looting. The deposit returned to Szczecin collections only in 2009 due to the Polish-German exchange of archaeological artefacts. The deposit from Storkowo, dated to the 1st half of the 4th Bronze Age (approx. 1100-1000 BC), is linked to an early stage of the Lusatian culture settlement in Pomerania. It was an extremely interesting stage of development due to its transitional character. The tradition of grave cultures, erecting barrows and depositing their dead in the unburnt ground, was mixed there with the new trends of the cultures of the circle of ash fields, preferring to establish large burial cemeteries.

Dorota Kozłowska