Metallographic examination of nine medieval knives from Šepkovčica, Kobilić and Okuje (Republic of Croatia)

0553874 - ARÚ 2022 RIV FR eng C - Konferenční příspěvek (zahraniční konf.)
Thiele, Á. - Hošek, Jiří - Antonić, N. - Haramza, M.
Metallographic examination of nine medieval knives from Šepkovčica, Kobilić and Okuje (Republic of Croatia).
Proceedings of the 5th international conference „Archaeometallurgy in Europe”. 19-21 June 2019 Miskolc, Hungary. Drémil-Lafage: Éditions Mergoil, 2021 - (Török, B.; Giumlia-Mair, A.), s. 589-605. Monographies Instrumentum, 73. ISBN 978-2-35518-121-4. ISSN 1278-3846.
[Archaeometallurgy in Europe /5./. Miskolc (HU), 19.06.2019-21.06.2019]
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985912
Klíčová slova: Middle Ages * knives * metallography * Croatia
Obor OECD: Archaeology

Archaeological excavations of the remains of medieval rural settlements conducted in 2006-2010 in Šepkovčica, Kobilić 1 and Okuje (Turopolje region, Zagreb County, Republic of Croatia) yielded in total 88 knives or knife fragments dated to the 11th-14th century. All these artefacts have been investigated by X-radiography and a total of 11 pieces were selected for metallography. Two of these eleven knives have already been analysed and published, revealing the first pattern-welded knife reported among Croatian archaeological finds (Thiele et al. 2017). The other nine knives were analysed for this study and are published here. The metallographic investigations suggested that three of those nine knife blades show a forge-welded construction deliberately combining iron and steel although none of these was pattern-welded. The remaining blades appear to have been made from a single piece of metal: in particular, three blades were found to be iron whereas four were made of steel. All the blades containing steel were hardened by quenching. One of the iron knives was made entirely of phosphoric iron, such blades are reported very rarely. The construction of one of the nine blades (PN_558) is still uncertain. Of the 11 knife blades examined overall (nine here and two previously) only one was found to be pattern-welded and this was one of the two already published. Also, none of the blades had any surviving evidence of inlayed nonferrous decoration, although three of them bore (punched) maker's marks. The proportion of good-quality knives, the fact that quenching of blades containing steel was standard, and the relatively high proportion of blades made entirely of steel, might suggest that knives used in the region of Turopolje were predominantly of simple but good quality construction. High-status blades, on the other hand, seem to have been rather rare in the Turopolje region and the single pattern-welded knife was more likely imported than locally produced.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0328555