Stan badań nad uzbrojeniem wczesnośredniowiecznym w Polsce – w 65 lat po studiach Andrzeja Nadolskiego
Authors: Janowski Andrzej , Kotowicz Piotr 
Published: June 2021

The State of Research on Early Medieval Weaponry in Poland – 65 Years After Studies by Andrzej NadolskiAndrzej. Nadolski’s monograph “Studies of the early medieval arms and armour from the Polish lands in the 10th-12th centuries” that was published in 1954 was the first major work in Polish scholarship that made use of archaeological sources in studies on military affairs. Earlier works by Józef Łepkowski, Tadeusz Korzon and Władysław Dziewanowski were actually solely based on written and iconographic sources. The period of 65 years which has passed since the publication of Andrzej Nadolski’s book is a good moment for undertaking an attempt at confronting it with the present state of research on early medieval weaponry in Poland. Nadolski’s typological proposals are still in use; on the other hand, due the growth in the number of finds the source basis of his book has become significantly obsolete. It is possible to isolate two periods in studies on early medieval arms and armour: until 1989 and after this date. This caesura is not a matter of incident. There is no doubt that democratisation of public life after the fall of communism in Poland significantly influenced the mentality of subsequent generations of researchers. Furthermore, it facilitated access to foreign literature, which was manifested in a broader research perspective. In the first period, activities in the Łódź research centre come to the forefront. These were examinations undertaken both by Andrzej Nadolski himself (in the years 1947–1993 he published about 70 works on weaponry and military affairs) or by his students gathered in the Atelier for History of Old Weaponry in the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A research team that was formed here was termed “the Łódź school of archaeological arms and armour studies”. Within the framework of this Atelier a few research works originated which became canonical in Central European arms and armour literature. What is more, Nadolski was one of initiators and authors of the first arms and armour exhibition in the history of post-war Poland (1978). He was also a founder and the first editor of the Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae periodical. It has been issued since 1986 by the Łódź Branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Papers on weaponry and military issues have constituted a significant part of each volume of this journal. Archaeological arms and armour studies before 1989 were also pursued in other research centres. In Poznań, it was as early as the 1950s that Zofia Hilczerówna and Jan Żak were carrying out studies on equestrian equipment and parts of horse tack. Among researchers who were active in Wrocław one must mention Wanda Sarnowska and later on Krzysztof Wachowski. A dozen of so works also originated in other research centres; these works, however, were rather short (sometimes a few sentences long) mentions or papers which could be now termed case studies. Among these studies, the greatest number concerned swords, parts of horse tack and spurs. It must be underlined that it was as early as in the late 1950s that metallurgical examinations and analyses commenced to be used in order to answer questions concerning the technology and methods of weaponry manufacture. To sum up the first period of post-war arms and armour studies, the very fact that such research was undertaken and that archaeological finds were taken into consideration was of significance. What also deserves attention was the use of results of analyses of medieval iconography in formal and typological studies, as well as the first cases of technological examinations. As regard deficiencies, one must mention an almost complete absence of research works on battlefields, a rather low interest in studies on staff and butt weapons, as well as in research concerning the period before the 10th c. After the fall of communism in 1989 certain changes took place in the structure of the community of weaponry researchers. Students of Nadolski formed arms and armour research centres at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and at the University of Łódź. The 1990s first of all brought a number of studies which critically assessed early medieval archaeological sources that had been gathered so far. Their criticism especially concerned the importance of weapons as chronology markers, with special reference to spurs with hook-shaped terminals. In the Łódź centre a study of Polish military technique until 1500 and two volumes of history of late medieval weaponry were completed in this time. Furthermore, research on stirrups and weaponry of nomadic peoples were also carried out. On the other hand, the most important issue in the Poznań centre was the presence of Scandinavian weaponry and warriors in the territory of the Piast State. Furthermore, individual finds of weaponry were still published in various regions of Poland. Sometimes these finds underwent more in-depth specialist analyses, aimed at identifying their technology of manufacture. More extensive studies on pre-Romanesque spurs and swords can be seen as exceptions. The post-millennium period is remarkable for an intensification of studies on early medieval weaponry. This intensification was spurred by three initiatives which were undertaken independently in various research centres. The first of these came into being in the Łódź centre and concerned a new study on early medieval weaponry from various regions of Poland. This ambitious plan was only partially fulfilled by means of publications of arms and armour from Western Pomerania and Lesser Poland. The second initiative was related to the fact of undertaking systematic underwater examinations in Lake Lednica by the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The assemblage of weaponry that was gathered in the course of this research is one of the most numerous in Poland. Apart from papers of various size, it was also discussed in three monographs concerning axes, swords as well as staff weapons and protective equipment. The third initiative is the foundation of anew periodical “Acta Militaria Mediaevalia” which focuses on medieval weaponry. The idea of this journal was proposed by Piotr Kotowicz and the first volume was published in 2005. Due to these initiatives it came to a sort of “changing of the guard” in the arms and armour research community. Researchers from a new generation came into prominence. They were focusing both on regional research, related to place of their employment, but were also undertaking more general studies. This resulted in a number of new works. Apart from swords and axes, which were also often dealt with in previous studies, more attention was paid to spur thong fittings, sword scabbard chapes, mace heads, flail striking ends and to shields. A separate research trend were works devoted to ideological significance of weapons, their religious and symbolic meanings as well as studies on trauma inflicted by weapons. Cyclical meetings within the framework of the Andrzej Nadolski Colloquia have become an opportunity for exchange of ideas and presentation of research results. The same role has been fulfilled by Festschriften for doyens of Polish arms and armour studies. Analogously to the previous period, however, a number of weaponry studies came into being beyond the main trends. In result of this, numerous arms and armour papers sometimes appeared in niche publications. Regrettably, the last two decades have also brought an increase in activity of illegal treasure hunters equipped with advanced metal detectors. Their activity has led to a discovery of an unspecified number of finds of weaponry (hundreds, if not thousands). Out of these, only few found their way to the academic discourse and (sometimes) to collections of museum institutions. Discoveries of the last 65 years have dramatically enlarged the source basis of weaponry finds. For instance, the number of axes (178 specimens were known to Nadolski) has increased five times (891 finds in 2014). This is also the case with other categories of finds. In such a huge assemblage of artefacts there are finds which cannot be classified with the use of existing typologies. This enforced corrections of typologies which are in use or creations of new ones. The recent period has also brought numerous works discussing multi-aspect specialist analyses of arms and armour, also including studies on weapon parts made from organic materials (leather, wood and textiles). On the other hand, as compared with archaeological finds, much less attention was paid to iconographic depictions of weaponry and interpretation of written sources. This overview of issues in research on early medieval weaponry in the territory of Poland demonstrates an enormous progress which has taken place since the publication of Nadolski’s monograph. This is first of all a quantitative progress – it can be speculated that about a dozen or so thousand of various finds related to military equipment of 8th–mid-13th c. warriors have been discovered so far in the territory of Poland. Due to international contacts, access to the most recent literature and a possibility of a more and more precise dating of artefacts, this progress is also qualitative in its nature. In the discussed period, some categories of weapons became subjects of separate studies (e.g., axes or swords), while other still wait for their monographers. Concerning other research postulates, one must mention a need for a comprehensive analysis of sources from the so-called tribal period or weapons from eastern borderlands of present-day Poland. It is also necessary to renew monographic studies for individual regions of the country. As it can be seen, the community of students of early medieval weaponry in Poland still face a great deal of work and numerous challenges.