A MEDIEVAL CENSER - A THURIBLE FROM THE TEUTONIC ORDER CASTLE IN SATOCZNO

The article investigates a completely destroyed copper artefact found in the moat of the Teutonic Order castle in Satoczno (district of Korsze) during the second season of field excavations in 2002. According to Peter of Dusburg, the castle in Satoczno was built in 1326 in the bifurcation of the rivers Gubr and Sajna. For a short time it was the seat of a Teutonic Order commandery. On the 13th of February 1347, during a raid led by the Lithuanian princes Kiejstut and Olgierd, it was captured and burnt down. The commandery in Satoczno was liquidated and the castle never regained its former significance; until the mid 15th c. it was the seat of the Teutonic Order Waldemeister.The artefact in question, weighing 201 grams, was found in the material filling the northern fragment of the former moat, in a layer of watered bluish loam. After a closer examination it turned out to be a completely destroyed thurible, or censer. It is hypothesised that the artefact got into the moat as a result of the invasion on the 13th February 1347 and was crushed by the hoof (?) of a Lithuanian horse, but this hypothesis is completely unverifiable. Thuribles are rarely found by archaeologists, so it is a pity that the one from Satoczno is so vastly deformed. Still, it is a proof that the castle had a chapel, which was the norm, but of which in this case no written mention has survived.(2 fig.)