Studies of Shestovytsia Barrows

Fantastic Flails and Where to Find Them: The Body of Evidence for the Existence of Flails in the Early and High Medieval Eras in Western, Central, and Southern Europe

“…One of Sturteva arguments against flails being used at all was the prevalence of reproduction pi passed off as genuine period artefacts (Sturtevant 2016a(Sturtevant , 2016b(Sturtevant , and 2017 while c pletely disregarding the widespread number of finds from Eastern Europe and sim artefacts which have surfaced in the Central, Western, and Northern reaches of the co nent (Taavistainen 2004;Terävä 2014). The level of decay observed on physical find dependent on the material of production and the inclement conditions in which they w A number of archaeological finds of "mace heads" may actually be flail heads due to the small-diameter holes being insufficient for a rigid wooden haft of appropriate thickness to maintain the necessary strength of the weapon when administering blows to the foe (Michalak 2019;Farcas 2016;Imiolczyk and Zdaniewicz 2022;Kotowicz 2008;Zdaniewicz and Adamiak 2011;Tihle 2017;Michalak 2006), despite similarities in the patterns of mace and flail heads observed (Skhorokhod and Blazhchek 2020;Daubney 2007;Michalak 2006;Florek 2019). One particular example is Figure 4.2 in the 2019 work of Michalak (Michalak 2019); in this case, the head was likely attached to a wooden handle via a piece of rope or suitably thick, or possibly plaited/braided, leather thonging knotted above and below the head (Zhirohov and Nicolle 2019;Michalak and Wolanin 2008), either of which would usually have rotted away with centuries in the ground and as such are not commonly observed when such items are dug up (Moreno 2015); a rigid iron shaft was also present (as a mace); the remains of this would have been recovered alongside the head (Michalak 2019), and indeed wooden hafts are observed in several cases where ground conditions were favourable to preservation (Tihle 2017).…”

Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology

“…Research at these hotspots is complemented by artifact studies (Androshchuk 2013(Androshchuk , 2014Androshchuk and Zotsenko 2012) and studies of graves and burial custom (Mikhaylov 2016). Yet, despite the fact that the past decade has also seen notable fieldwork and research on key trading sites, including Gnezdovo on the upper Dnepr (Puškina et al 2017), Shestovitsa in the Ukraine (Kovalenko 2013;Skorokhod and Blaszczyk 2020), and Staraya Ladoga in northwestern Russia (Kirpichnikov 2018;Nosov 2018), the results are virtually not discussed outside Russia. Some of the most transformative results in the search for Viking diaspora concern the Danelaw in northern England.…”