FROM THE PAST INTO THE FUTURE - ARCHAICA AS A RESEARCH PROBLEM / Z PRZESZŁOŚCI W PRZYSZŁOŚĆ - ARCHAIKA JAKO PROBLEM BADAWCZY NA PODSTAWIE ŚREDNIOWIECZNYCH I NOWOŻYTNYCH MATERIAŁÓW Z EUROPY ŚRODKOWO-WSCHODNIEJ
FROM THE PAST INTO THE FUTURE - ARCHAICA AS A RESEARCH PROBLEM (ON THE BASIS OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN PERIOD FINDS FROM EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE)

Author(s): Tomasz Kurasiński, Kalina Skóra
Subject(s): Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: archaica; medieval period; modern period; recycling; East-Central Europe
Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses ancient and prehistoric non-monetary finds in East-Central Europe that were recorded in medieval and modern period contexts. The presence of earlier cultural finds in chronologically later contexts is one of the more interesting phenomena that are identifiable archaeologically. It includes a number of diverse issues, as it concerns not only the reception of artefacts themselves. Such items are a highly heterogeneous assemblage of finds, and the only thing that they have in common is their distant chronology. Each category of finds may have been related to different belief, symbolic and semantic contents, and the meaning of some of these items combines numerous intertwined and complementary functions and applications. The paper deals with the assortment of items that appear as archaica; it also discusses their users, the methods and circum stances of acquisition of such artefacts, as well as the underlying reasons (economic, aesthetic values, awareness of their distant chronology, magical and healing traits) and manners in which they were used, including various methods of recycling.

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