Średniowieczny miecz z Zyndranowej we wschodniej Małopolsce
Medieval Sword from Zyndranova in the Eastern Little Poland

Summary/Abstract: The sword was discovered accidentally in the Panna River in the village of Zyndranowa (community Dukla, Podkarpackie voivodeship, south-eastern Poland). Currently, it is stored in the Castle Museum “Kamieniec” in Odrzykoń near Krosno (inv. no. M27/01/K).The sword from Zyndranowa is not fully preserved, probably about 20–25 cm of the blade in point part has been broken off and has not survived. Current dimensions of the sword: total length – 99.0 cm; blade length – 76.0 cm; width of the blade at the cross-guard – 5.6 cm; length of the fuller – 49.5 cm; length of the cross-guard – 22.5 cm; height of the octagonal pommel – 4.3 cm, pommel width of the pommel – 5.2 cm, pommel thickness – 3.5 cm, diameter of the oval recesses in the pommel – 1.3 cm. The weight of the preserved part of the sword achieves 1328 g.The blade represents a type XVIa, the cross-guard type 1a and the pommel type I1 according to R.E. Oakeshott typology.There are three marks on the sword from Zyndranowa. On the one side of the grip shank there is an oval recess (1.0 × 1.2 cm) with raised letter “S” in the centre. It is most likely a sign of the blacksmith’s workshop where the blade was made. On both sides of the blade, about 8.5 cm below the cross-guard, there are two different marks made by incrusting with non-ferrous metal. The first is the sign of the cross with split ends (cross fourchée), enclosed in a double circle. The second sign is much more difficult to determine. It resembles the Gothic letter A also enclosed in a double circle. However, it has an additional vertical bar in the middle, so it may be a combination of two letters AA or AR.Swords such as the specimen from Zyndranowa (XVIa, I1 (I1b), 1 (1a)) are popular forms among finds from Poland (about a dozen pieces in this type). There are also specimens with an S-shaped blacksmith’s mark on the grip. The available analogies and typology of the sword discussed here allow us to establish the dating of it to the period between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries (probably the narrowing down to the beginning of the 15th century will be more adequate). Particularly noteworthy is the similarity to the sword from Ciechanów and the specimen from the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław (a similar typology and a sign with the letter “S”), perhaps they would have been made at the same workshop.The place where the sword of Zyndranowa was found can be associated with the use of the communication and trade route running through the Dukielska Pass in the Middle Ages. It is another find of a medieval sword from the aquatic environment, which is very common in Poland – over 50% of swords from the 10th–15th centuries were discovered in rivers and lakes.

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