A judge’s staff from the market square in Bytom – a symbolic element of medieval legal culture
A judge’s staff from the market square in Bytom – a symbolic element of medieval legal culture

Summary/Abstract: The article presents one of the more interesting artefacts discovered during the excavations at the market square in the Upper-Silesian city of Bytom: a wooden staff. Probably it is one of the oldest judge’s staffs encountered in Europe but also appears to have been used during the procedure of pronouncing a death sentence. The Bytom staff corresponds to the staffs seen in the contemporary iconographic material. Its closest analogy, both in terms of chronology and geography, is represented in the illustrated legend of Saint Hedwig. The artefact from the market square in Bytom fits perfectly the pattern of breaking a staff over a convict’s head. The artifact is dated to the last quarter of the 13th century, so if it is related to particular phases of Bytom’s development, then it may have belonged to one of the first judges or advocati of the town (established under the Magdeburg Law in 1254). The object was made from yew wood, whose symbolic significance also needs to be discussed in more detail.

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