Estelle Ottenwelter

• Doctor of Philosophy (Conservation sciences - Archaeometry)
• Research Associate at The Czech Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology Prague

As part of our grant-funded research into the metallic artefacts excavated in Lumbe's garden cemetery at Prague Castle (a site where the members of the nobility were buried during the early Medieval period), a silver pearl (grave 100, object 27) dating from the ninth century and found in a grave of one of the wealthiest individuals was investigated...

This paper presents a typological and technical study of gombiky (hollow spherical pendants) from the excavations of the Early Medieval cemetery “Lumbe’s Garden” in Prague Castle, in which the state elite linked to the early Czech princely environment was buried. The goal of the research is the characterization of the material and the manufacturing...

A controversial set of elite jewels assumed to be of early medieval period, recovered in 1937–1938 from a burial site in Matzhausen (northeastern Bavaria) was investigated to determine their technological coherency as well as their authenticity. The discovery of these jewels was exploited by German nationalists to argue that the material culture ob...

Integrating a multidisciplinary methodology, the technological approach developed in this publication provides new insights into Great Moravian and Bohemian elite jewellery dated from the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Based on an investigation of the main types of jewels (gombiky, earrings, metallic elements of necklaces including kaptorgy, beads, and...

The study of ancient gilding is often problematic, as the gilding layers are soft and prone to deformation during sample preparation. In this respect, focused ion beam (FIB) milling on a field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM) provides poorly invasive in situ sampling. The operating process is here detailed and applied on gilded m...

The study presents a LT C1 sword in its scabbard from grave 8 of Záluží (Central Bohemia), excavated by the Town Museum of Čelákovice. The sword was lifted in situ and transported for restoration to the laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology in Prague where it underwent meticulous micro‑excavations and documentation. X–ray radiography, X–ray co...

This paper deals with the archaeological context, function, typology and technological study of a type of spherical hollow pendants termed gombiky (sg. gombik), which were worn by members of the Moravian elite in the 9th century AD. The gombiky were recovered in elite graves from Mikulčice – one of the major central places of Great Moravia. The arc...

The Triangle cemetery in Prague-Střešovice was the only preserved part of the great burial site from the 9th–10th century AD; this site was partially destroyed beginning in the 18th century by the extraction of clay for the Strahov brick factory. A total of 49 graves, all dated to the 10th century, were uncovered in the preserved part of the cemete...

Gilded copper hollow spherical pendants known as gombiky (s. gombik) were examined to identify the technology of gilding and the material chosen as the substrate. The examined ornaments dating from the ninth and tenth centuries AD were recovered from elite graves of two major political, ecclesiastical and economic centres of the Early Medieval peri...

The presented poster deals with the technical study of two specimens of gombiky (hollow spherical pendants) (104-4 and 16-4) recovered within the excavations of the Early Medieval necropolis of ”Lumbe Garden” at Prague Castle where the state elite linked to the princely environment of the early Czech state was buried between the 9 th and the 11th c...

Voltammetry of microparticles using a paraffin-impregnated graphite electrode (VMP/PIGE) was applied as a very local and non-invasive analytical technique in order to investigate the presence of remains of metallic plating on two ferrous and one cuprous artefact from the medieval period. The analyses have been performed locally and selectively on r...

This contribution presents new information on the production technology of silver globular buttons from the early medieval burial ground of Lumbe Garden, Prague Castle, through the manufacture of replicas of large globular buttons with repoussé and chased decoration. The manufacture of replicas of the silver globular buttons from Lumbe Garden was t...

travers des exemples de travail sur les sites d'Ulug dépé et de Gonur dépé (Turkménistan), les objectifs et les enjeux de la conservation-restauration de terrain au sein des missions archéologiques françaises en Asie centrale sont présentés. Il s'agit non seulement de garantir la sauvegarde des vestiges archéologiques exhumés, mais également d'en r...

This contribution is focused on the typological, material and technological study of a set of fifty five S-shaped temple rings found in the excavations of an early medieval cemetery in Vrbno (distr. Melnik). The goals of the study were to identify the different types of S-shaped temple rings present in the set, and to highlight the different techni...

Fig.1: Typology of Vrbno S-shaped temple rings. Fig.7: Metallographic examination: a-section of temple ring No.1143 etched in alcoholic ferric chlorides which show the worked and annealed grain structure with twinning visible, variable grain size and strain lines near the surface; b-section of temple ring No.1122, etched in alcoholic ferric chlorid...

In the 9th and 10th centuries located in Kopčany in the Slovak part of the Morava River basin was in all likelihood the main residential area in the hinterlands of the agglomeration near Mikulčice. Members of the local social elite were buried near the local church sometime in the second half of the 9th and first half of the 10th centuries. Several...