Nápisové prsteny z pohřebiště ve Zbečně a hradiště Dřevíč na Rakovnicku

Abstract

The paper presents three new finds of brass inscription rings from two sites: a complete ring with an inscription in Romanesque majuscule of the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries found in one of 123 graves at the early medieval cemetery in Zbečno and fragments of two inscription rings from systematic metal detector prospecting at the Dřevíč hillfort. Readings of the inscriptions and their possible interpretations are presented. All three rings show identical elements - production by casting, decoration by imitation of pearl string, and script. The text on the completely preserved ring from Zbečno ([B]N EST IC H GLIA BN ESTO) is largely identical to the text on the fragment of ring 2 from Dřevíč (BN ES A). This fact seems to indicate the existence of a jewellery workshop that produced rings in series. The comparison of the fragments of two inscription rings from the Dřevíč hillfort with the complete inscription ring from the cemetery in Zbečno has prompted a previously unconsidered and all the more important connection between the two sites. The very rare finds of inscription rings in a burial context from the 11th-13th centuries suggest that the buried persons belonged to a narrow circle of the contemporary elite.