Mark Odegard wrote (in a personal note)
Bronocice is hard to spell and harder to pronounce (approximately,
Brawn-uh-CHEEch-uh, I think); My English-speaking eyes perform a syncope
and makes my mindsound it out as Bra-Nietzche -- which sounds like a
Wonder Bra for the uberfrau ;-)
In one
of your followup posts, you might help us pronounce it. I don't know where this
town is (SW Poland? Silesia?).
The pronunciation is [brɔnɔ'ʨiʦɛ], for those who can read IPA;
Brawno-Chitseh (penult stress) is a fair approximation. It is in southern
Poland, at the foot of the Carpathians, east of Cracow. Please find attached a
postcard of that area, pinched from the Polish Academy of Sciences
website.
Anyway. I was
surprised at the response I got to my original post. I find the pot fascinating
beyond all description and am pleased that others in this group feel similarly.
The link you posted was just as interesting.
I would like to think
the Polish people know what a treasure this is. It's on the scale of the
Lasceaux caves and the Phaistos disk.
The north/central
European neolithic is generally a fascinating subject. There are all sorts of
fresh discoveries every year, and many hitherto established dates are being
pushed back. The part of Poland where I live is also extremely rich in
archaeological finds (like the cute copper oxen I mentioned yesterday, or a
Linear Pottery timbered well-shaft excavated not far from here a few months
ago).
"The Polish people"
in general care about science and history as much (or maybe as little) as other
nations do. Those who take no special interest in archaeology have never heard
of Bronocice, funnel beakers or "that cart" -- or, for that matter, of lots of
other prehistoric treasures, with the notable exception of Biskupin, a
beautifully reconstructed early Iron Age fort on a lake in central Poland, once
believed to be Proto-Slavic and for that reason looming large in
government-supported nationalist propaganda in Communist times.
I agree it's
something that should be cherished, shown to the world, reproduced on postage
stamps and regarded as part of our national heritage. Fortunately, there is a
modest-scale revival of archaeological consciousness in Poland. Recent rescue
excavations along the trans-European gas pipe (sponsored by the investors, which
was a novelty in this country) have yielded spectacular finds, including Gothic
settlements and cemeteries; similar excavations along future motorways have been
equally fruitful. Right here, in the centre of Poznań, the tenth-century
residence of the first Christian prince of Poland was discovered last summer. It
seems that wherever you start digging you're likely to dig something out and the
only concern is the money to fund your digging. Anyway, such success stories are
the kind of news that gets to the front pages of daily newspapers and kindles
some public interest.
I live on the
outskirts of the city; a mile from here there is a village with an old wooden
church which stands on a lonely but steep hillock. Call me blind if that hillock
is not an artificial barrow.
Piotr