Warrior’s Grave with a Sword from the Jurgionys cemetery of the Late Fourteenth–Early Sixteenth Century

Abstract

The article presents information about grave no. 16 (Fig. 1) discovered in 2010 during the archaeological excavations at the Jurgionys cemetery located in the Aukštadvaris Eldership of Trakai District and dated to the late fourteenth–early sixteenth century. This inhumation grave contained remains of a 45–50-year-old man equipped with abundant burial goods, namely, a sword (Figs. 3–5), a knife (Fig. 2), a belt buckle (Fig. 8), a belt pouch (Fig. 9; containing an iron razor (Fig. 10), an iron flint striker, and a flint), a spur (Fig. 12), and a buckle (Fig. 11) from the spur fastening strap.
This is an exceptional assemblage of burial goods not only in Lithuania but also among the medieval burial monuments of the whole of Europe. In Lithuania, it is only the second investigated grave of this period containing a sword, and the first in which the sword was discovered together with a spur. The article presents the results of chemical composition analyses of the metal artifacts (Tables 1–5), their radiographic examinations (Fig. 5), morphological analysis of the leather items, and includes the drawing of the reconstructed clothing and armament of the said man buried in grave no. 16 (Fig. 15).
The man of fairly mature age, namely, 45–50 years old, was buried in the same manner as most members of the medieval Jurgionys community: with his head oriented to the south-east, at an angle of 150°, which does not conform to the Christian burial requirement of placing the deceased with the head toward the west. This suggests that the man and his relatives, although almost certainly baptised, still neglected Christian burial customs.
The grave contained abundant burial goods: a steel sword with a bronze pommel and elements of the fastening system; an iron hafted knife; an iron belt buckle; remnants of a belt pouch made of goat and bovine leather decorated with bronze fittings and containing an iron razor, a flint striker and a piece of flint; a tin-plated iron spur with a rowel; and an iron buckle from the spur fastening system. No elements of body armour were found in the grave, but it can be assumed that the deceased could have owned or worn body armour during battles.
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis was performed to determine the metal composition of the sword (Tables 1–2), the belt pouch fitting (Table 3), the spur bow (Table 4), and the spur strap hook (Table 5). The blade of the sword from grave no. 16 of the Jurgionys cemetery was made of steel (Table 1), while the pommel decorated with a stamped shield-shaped ornament was made of bronze (Table 2).
X-radiographic examination (Fig. 5) revealed traces of markings on the blade. The marks were engraved and therefore very shallow and illegible in the radiograph. The blade was manufactured from at least three steel strips: the central part, namely, the core with a fuller, was forge-welded to two outer strips forming the cutting edges. This manufacturing method was quite common in Europe and is classified as the EC type (according to Jiří Hošek, Jiří Košta, and Petr Žákovský).
According to Ewart Oakeshott’s typology, the pommel of the Jurgionys sword corresponds to Type I1. The sword dates to the late fourteenth–early fifteenth century and has close analogues in Western and Northern Europe (Germany, England, Denmark, etc.). A similar sword is depicted on the tomb monument of Bishop Gerhard von Schwarzburg (1359–1400) in Würzburg Cathedral, Germany (Fig. 13). The sword attributed to the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Konrad von Thüringen (d. 1240), originating from Königsberg and now preserved in the German Historical Museum in Berlin (Fig. 14) is an even closer analogue. It is possible that the sword found at Jurgionys was a trophy taken by the Lithuanians during their fights against the Teutonic Order and its allies.
The belt pouch was crafted from bovine and goat leather and decorated with brass fittings (Table 3). The iron spur had a spike with a star-shaped rowel and was coated with tin (Table 4–5). It was dated to the late fourteenth century–the first half of the fifteenth century. This type of spur has close analogues in Lithuania (Vilnius Lower Castle) and in London.
Based on the grave goods and the broader context of the Jurgionys cemetery, grave No. 16 has been dated to the late fourteenth century–the first quarter of the fifteenth century.