The archaeological excavation conducted in Prague – New Town in 2013 at the intersection of today’s Národní třída – Mikulandská streets, i.e. in the medieval New Town, yielded, among other things, the unique find of a late medieval long sword. The sword was found in an oval feature of an unknown function (definitely not a cesspit), whose demise dates to the turn of the 16th century. The sword, which can be classified as an Oakeshott type XVIIIb, T14, 12a, can be dated to the period between the second half of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century. These and other findings come from an analysis of the find situation, from metallographic examination, and mainly from detailed typo-chronological analysis of the weapon and marks, by which the sword was signed.
This study focuses on the discovery of iron components of a wheellock pistol found to the south of Hradec nad Moravicí on the route of a former historical road that linked Opava with Moravia. The find consists of an octagonalsection barrel with a lead projectile and a lock plate with an almost complete lock mechanism. The keys to dating the find and determining its provenance are not only the shape of the barrel, but primarily the design of the wheellock mechanism and the shapes of several of its components. Based on the shape of the dog, the manner in which the lock plate was fixed into the wooden body of the pistol, and particularly the existence of an internal dog leaf spring, the pistol can with a high degree of probability be identified as a product of one of the gunsmiths’ workshops in the German towns of Braunschweig or Goslar during the 1570s or 1580s. The find from Hradec nad Moravicí adds to the group of archaeological discoveries of European and North American firearms with wheellock mechanisms, and the study provides a selective overview of this group.
Červenková, Alžběta
Dytrych, Jaroslav
Galuška, Luděk
Hájek, Zdeněk
Halama, Jakub
Koubková, Hana
Kovář, Josef Jan
Kuča, Martin
Langer, Jakub
Moravec, Zbyněk
Rybářová, Klára
Sedláčková, Lenka
Tajer, Arkadiusz
Vágner, Michal
Valášková, Lucie
Další autoři: Jakub Těsnohlídek, Zdeněk Schenk, Radim Vrla, Tomáš Třetina, Erik Vilimec, Martina Májková,Štěpán Drápal, Vágner Michal, Dagmar Grossmannová, Jiří Pernica, Jaroslav Průcha, Luděk Galuška, Jakub Langr,Pavel Šlézar, Tereza Tichá Krasnokutská, Bohumil Gibala, Tomáš Šramota, Miroslav Králík, Jaroslav Bartík, Tomáš Chrástek, Jana Mazáčková, Tereza Polláková, Petr Žaža, Andrej Púčať, David Humpola