tears—an excerpt from a prewar collection of Bronze Age ceramics at the Municipal Museum in Bolesławiec.
The prewar Municipal Museum in Bolesławiec possessed diverse collections from various fields of art and artistic crafts. Archaeological exhibits constituted a significant part of the collection. As it happened, the museum’s successive directors were archaeologists by training. The last person to head the prewar museum was Max Schumann, who also served as the conservator of monuments for Bolesławiec County. In Bolesławiec and in nearby villages such as Golnice, Kliczków, Tomaszów Bolesławiecki, Zebrzydowa, Ołdrzychów and Dąbrowa, he discovered many urn burials from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Hallstatt period. Among the objects excavated from urn burials, the most attention was usually attracted by small jugs called “tear jugs” (in specialist literature, “Tränenkruglein”). Ancient folk tales featured a mother grieving the loss of her child, depicted in a shirt damp with tears and holding a jug. In many regions, people believed that mourners collected their tears in little jugs and then placed them as an offering in the grave of the deceased. However, upon closer examination of these objects, it became apparent that the opening for tears was so small that it was suspected the vessel might not have served this purpose. Besides, how many tears would have had to be shed to fill a bulging vessel? These jugs came in various sizes. Small jugs, shaped like rattles, were found in children’s graves belonging to both the Lusatian culture and the culture of Germanic tribes. According to contemporary beliefs, these objects were meant to make the deceased’s afterlife more pleasant. It should be noted that around 3,000 years ago, the people inhabiting these areas believed in an afterlife. It was thought that the soul of the deceased needed food and drink. Therefore, alongside the cinerary urn containing the deceased’s ashes, so-called accompanying vessels were placed in the grave: various containers for storing food and liquids, bulging vessels with wide cylindrical necks, ladles with small handles, jugs and bottles for storing water. In prehistoric cemeteries west of the Kwisa near Bolesławiec and in the vicinity of Goerlitz, Hoyerswerda and Budziszyn, no bottles for storing liquids were found in urn graves. However, considerable quantities of interesting vessels known as bowl-jugs were discovered there—unique combinations of a jug and a bowl. Some graves contained bronze and iron objects as well as various types of ceramics. Flint strikers and ceramic bottles were also found in individual graves. Several graves contained larger numbers of small jugs used to store water and mead. Ceramic vessels with two handles, a bulging body and a wide neck were also found near Bolesławiec. They were either smoothly finished or decorated with engraved spherical designs. These hand-shaped vessels most likely served to store food. The potter’s wheel was still unknown at that time. Pottery as a craft has been known for around 3,000 years, while the art of firing simple pottery vessels has been known since approximately 6,000 BC. The aforementioned handled bottles were made in two parts. The vessels were very fragile and were fired at fairly low temperatures. Alongside simple vessels, decorated with engraved designs began to appear in the Bronze Age. The lower part of the neck and upper part of the body featured various ornamental motifs, from the simplest dotting and parallel rings to more refined decorations, such as patterns composed of triangles. The colouring of these vessels was generally in shades of yellowish brown. Intense firing heat caused them to take on a brick-red colour. Black-bodied ceramics were also frequently found in graves near Bolesławiec. The initially dried vessel was fired in primitive earthen kilns hollowed out in the slope of a hill. Soot settled only in the vessel’s open pores, and through subsequent cooling the vessel acquired a beautiful, black, glossy surface. As excavations demonstrate, small handled bottles appeared in a specific region encompassing present-day Lusatia.