First hoard from the Hallstatt period in East Bohemia (Sticany, district of Chrudim)

An assemblage of bronze artefacts and amber beads was found at a site disturbed by ploughing in the cadastral territory of Sticany in the district of Chrudim on 8. February 2014, a find that significantly alters our previous notion of the level of knowledge achieved in connection with the research of the Hallstatt period in Bohemia. Experience to date suggested that the relevant source base had already been developed to such an extent that it was possible to reliably determine the individual local cultural entities not only in terms of territory but also on the basis of their material content, and that a detailed relative chronology was available for the simple classification of finds. While newly acquired finds typically confirmed this idea, the Hallstatt hoard to which this article is devoted clearly disrupts it. This is, after all, the first truly unquestionable hoard from the Hallstatt period in the Bohemia. At first glance, this assemblage is unique not only for its solitary character and because its composition significantly changes the current idea of artefactual composition in the Czech Silesian-Platenice culture of the Hallstatt period, but mainly because it brings new knowledge of cultural ties on which we previously lacked precise information. Among other contributions, this creates space for new interpretations of the functioning of society at the transition from the late to final Hallstatt period and about intercultural relations at this time in broader central Europe. During the Hallstatt period, decorative artefacts whose production was based on the cold forming of bronze sheet metal began to spread in some European regions. Although ring ornaments also appear among them, their production was not large-scale and was probably also territorially limited. In this respect, the assemblage from Sticany is relatively unique, as it contains, with the exception of one bronze cast ring and a collection of small bronze sheet metal decorative appliques, another 24 larger bronze artefacts, exclusively whole ring ornaments or their fragments. However, solid cast ring ornaments are represented by only one bracelet, whereas six cast hollow bracelets also occur. Five fragments of hollow necklaces featuring fine decoration are wound from the thicker sheet metal, while the remaining nine fragments of ring ornaments of two types in the hoard are made of thin wrought sheet metal. It should also be noted that the three amber beads deposited in the Sticany hoard are simultaneously the only amber artefacts from the environment of the Iron Age Silesian-Platenice culture to have been found in Bohemia. Previous finds of hoards composed of bronze ring ornaments complemented with amber decorative artefacts indicate that their occurrence is regionally limited and is associated with the occupation environment formed by a Platenice culture with its centre in Moravia. Aside from the hoard from Sticany, similar hoards are for now unknown from other areas. The solitary nature of the Sticany assemblage is underscored both by the types of deposited bracelets and the assemblage of small bronze sheet metal appliques, which for now have only been documented in rare occasions in graves. As such, this hoard is characterised in many respects by a similar 'local inappropriateness', which in the given area is represented to a far greater extent by the enormous collection of finds from Byci skala. The results of typological analyses indicate the predominant use of the bronze artefacts collected in the Sticany hoard in the chronological stages of Ha C2-Ha D1/2. At the same time, it can be concluded that the concentrated artefacts are mostly products of the Hallstatt cultural complex and the find must therefore be linked to one of its cultural zones. Although Sticany lies in the territory of today's Bohemia, the find in its character (a hoard with a predominance of bronze ring ornaments and also containing amber beads) lacks any parallels in the Bohemian Hallstatt period find inventory. In the area it was deposited, it is a demonstrably foreign element unrelated to the local cultural environment. On the contrary, it shows a clear connection to the peripheral zone of the Hallstatt sphere established in central and north Moravia; the closest analogies to certain types of ring ornaments deposited in the Sticany hoard are forms of the artefacts deposited at Byci skala. A noteworthy fact is that both the Sticany hoard and the Byci skala assemblage contain artefacts that come from a number of different production centres. These circumstances make it possible to work with the hypothesis that the Sticany hoard is in some way connected with the processes reflected in the formation of the Byci skala collection. A typological assessment of the hoard contents permits a dating to the late/final Hallstatt period, specifically to the end of stage Ha D1. As such, it is the first Hallstatt period hoard discovered not only in the east Bohemian region, but also the very first fully documented find of this age in the whole of Bohemia. Due to its composition, this assemblage can be classified among 'female' Hallstatt period hoards. The typological diversity of the assemblage indicates that the concentrated artefacts come from various production centres in the Hallstatt cultural sphere. In accordance with the results of recent research, it can be hypothesised that the hoard was deposited in the context of one of the possible interregional travel routes connecting the north and south of Europe, at the very time we assume that their course shifted from Moravia to Bohemia.