A scattered deposit of at least seven gold artefacts, including at least two Scandinavian C-type bracteates with loops. Both coins have an image of a horse rider facing left. It is a stylised Roman emperor based on Roman solidi and medallions. This motif on the bracteates is often regarded as the image of Odin on his horse, Sleipnir, although this interpretation is doubtful.
The first bracteate (IK 619.1 in Axboe’s classification) has a runic inscription between the horse and the rider’s head and a swastika under the horse head. There are iconographic parallels in southern Sweden, Bornholm and northern Poland. These bracteates usually have a runic inscription “ō t a”.
Click on image to view 3D model
The second bracteate, unfortunately deformed (IK 153.2 in M. Axboe’s classification). There is a runic inscription “laukar” under the belly of the horse. It was struck with the same coin die as the bracteate from Scania.
Click on image to view 3D model
Both bracteates from Suchań were minted in the second half of the 5th century AD, possibly in Sorte Muld, in Bornholm or Uppåkra, Scania. These are the first bracteates found in Pomerania after World War II which were passed to the Polish museum. In addition, it is very likely that a third bracteate, found in the 1990s, was also in this deposit, however, it went missing.
The deposit also consisted of three openwork ring gold pendants in similar size and shape. Two hollow pendants have parallels in southern Scandinavia and also in Kuyavia. They can be dated approximately to the mid-5th century AD. The third pendant is decorated with two intersecting filigree wires and it has parallels in the Sorte Muld II hoard, in Bornholm.
Click on image to view 3D model
The hoard also included a ring made of thick twisted gold wire, type VI 30 in Andersson’s classification. This type is quite common, found already in the Late Roman Period. In the Migration Period it has parallels in Karlino deposit, Białogard district, Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship and in southern Scandinavia.
Apart from the hoard, two bronze brooches without springs and pins were found at the same site: a cruciform brooch with an animal head foot, presumably from Bornholm, and the second brooch of Thuringian type, chip carved (Kerbschnitt style), with a foot in an animal style. It comes from the region west of the Odra.
The objects were discovered in the field located on the upper terrace of the urstromtal of the Rzeczyca, on a slope descending south to the river. In October 2006, Bogdan Kreczko accidentally discovered three gold objects from the Migration Period in the ploughed filed. Presumably they originally comprised a deposit which got scattered due to ploughing. The finder passed the information on the discovery to Aleksander Bursche who then informed the West Pomeranian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments in Szczecin. In November 2006 these unique objects with data on their location were submitted to the conservator, and then they were passed to the Department of the Archaeology of the National Museum in Szczecin (MNS). Next finds were discovered in the following years in the same area and then submitted directly to the MNS. Since 2007 several field surveys, including geophysical, have been carried out in international cooperation. In 2013 and 2014 the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw and the MNS conducted together regular archaeological excavations within the National Science Centre project: “The Migration Period between the Odra and the Vistula”. It was found that the described area was used several times as a settlement and a production centre in various periods of prehistory, from the late Bronze Age onwards. A settlement from the late phase of the Roman Period or early Migration Period has been also recorded which is associated presumably with the Dębczyno Group. The results of the fieldwork did not, however, provide the basis for determining the archaeological context of the analysed deposit from the Migration Period.
Chronology:
the hoard was deposited in the second half of the 5th century AD
Museum collection:
the National Museum in Szczecin
by A. Bursche
