Reconstruction of a Wreath and a Flower Bunch Excavated in the Northern Crypt of St Nicolas Church in Gniew

Abstract

In the last five decades, during archaeological investigations in churches and church cemeteries both in Poland and Western Europe, relics of many wreaths made of artificial and natural flowers have been discovered. Some of them have been described in considerable detail and drawing reconstructions have been made. In many cases, the garlands were made of similar details, but the arrangement in individual compositions varied. On the basis of these discoveries, it was decided in the laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology in Toruń to make a copy of one wreath and bouquet found on the mortal remains of a child (coffin 4) in the northern crypt of St. Nicholas Church in Gniew dated to the second half of the 17th century (up to 1680). The analysis of elements was the basis for the individual flowers. And the final composition is the vision of one of the authors of the article, Barbara Gałka, who made copies of both the bouquet and the wreath. The raw materials for making the copies had been collected for a long time, as the Polish trade offer did not quite allow them to be gathered in advance. This article attempts to provide a description of the flowers used in 17th-century objects and the creative process in making the copies. The end result of these activities is shown in Figures 11, 12 and 13.