Unique Bronze Age hoard discovered in north Bohemia
Archaeologists from the Museum in Roudnice nad Labem have announced a rare discovery. While surveying a site in the small town of Budyně nad Ohří they came across a number of bronze artefacts, including pieces of jewellery, dating back over 3500 years.
The discovery was made about a year ago during a routine research of a field near the town of Budyně nad Ohří, some 40 kilometres north-west of Prague. Using a metal detector, an archaeologist came upon a collection of metal objects hidden under ground.
After examining the items in greater detail, experts from the Podřipské Museum in Roudnice nad Labem, discovered they were part of a treasure trove dating back to the Bronze Age. It consists of eight relatively well-preserved arm rings, eight axes, two pins and one spearhead, all made of bronze.
According to Martin Trefný, archaeologist and head of the Museum of Podřipsko in Roudnice nad Labem, it is clear the items were part of a hoard, a collection of objects that were purposefully buried in the ground. While we’ll never know for certain why the objects were hidden, Mr. Trefný says there are three very likely theories:
“First, such hoards could be used as votive gifts, or gifts to the deities. The second theory is that the hoard is the result of some incident that happened in the village. For instance, the village could have been attacked by enemies and because the items are really valuable, people wanted to hide their property to prevent it from being stolen by the enemy. The third theory is that it could be a storage pit of some producer or a trader.”
Over the past year, experts from the Institute of Archaeology and Museology at the Masaryk University in Brno have thoroughly examined the items. While details of the analysis are not yet available, Mr. Trefný says they are more or less certain about their age:
“If you are asking about the chronology of the individual items, it is something we already know. These items, which were part of the hoard, are typical for the Middle Bronze Age, although one axe is even older; it is from the Early Bronze Age. So the overall age of the finds is about 3,500 years.”
Mr. Trefný says that although similar, or even richer hoards dating to the Bronze Age have been discovered in Czechia before, the find is still quite rare:
“If we were to express the price in contemporary currency, for instance in crowns, I am sure it would be millions of crowns. But for us the cost is not really that important. For us, the historical and the scientific value is much higher than the financial value.”
Mr. Trefný says the exact location of the discovery will be kept secret in order to prevent amateur treasure hunters from disrupting the site. The valuable items that were discovered there will now undergo conservation treatment before going on display at the Podřipské Museum in the near future.
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