Stone found in a South Moravian backyard identified as Bronze Age spearhead mould
Czech archaeologists say they have identified a remarkable Bronze Age artefact discovered years ago in a village garden in South Moravia. What once seemed to be an ordinary stone has now been confirmed as a three-thousand-year-old mould used to cast bronze spearheads. Ruth Fraňková reports.
The story actually started nearly two decades ago. In 2007, the owner of a house in the village of Morkůvky in south-eastern Moravia, noticed a rectangular stone sticking slightly out of the ground in his garden. The stone formed part of the foundations of an old barn and, at first glance, did not seem unusual.
But when specialists from the Archaeological Institute of the Moravian Museum examined it more closely, they realised the stone had once served a very different purpose. It was in fact a casting mould used to produce bronze spearheads, explains Milan Salaš from the Moravian Museum.
“It is a casting mould, technically called a matrix, for a bronze spearhead. As we can see, it’s a fairly regular rectangular stone slab,” says Salaš. “On the dividing surface of the mould, on one side, there is a very precisely shaped and very well-preserved negative impression used for casting a bronze spearhead.”
What makes the object even more remarkable is that the stone itself does not come from the Czech lands. According to Antonín Přichystal from the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University, the material was brought here from quite a distance.
“The object was definitely brought here. We determined that it is tuff, a volcanic rock typical of the Carpathians. The area it most likely comes from is the south-eastern slopes of the Bükk Mountains in eastern Hungary.”
Experts say transporting such a stone over that distance would have been rather unusual at the time. The mould itself also reveals what kinds of weapons were being produced in the region during the Bronze Age.
“These types of spearheads, characterized by ribs along the blade and a sharp ridge on the socket, are common in the Carpathian region. It was essentially serial production. As we can see, the mould was used very intensively. Possibly dozens of spearheads were cast from it,” says Salaš.
To use the mould, two identical halves would be placed together and secured with copper wire.
“The mould would then be placed upright, and a casting core inserted to create a hollow space inside the spearhead. The wooden shaft of the spear would later be fitted into that hollow,” Salaš explains.
Researchers also analysed traces left in the stone using a spectrometer to determine the composition of the metal used in casting. The tests detected copper and tin, the two key components of bronze.
Warriors of that time carried both offensive and defensive equipment, including shields, protective leg guards known as greaves, and bronze helmets. According to Salaš, they probably looked very similar to the warriors described in Homer’s epics.
“The warriors at Troy had the same equipment. He even writes that they carried two spears into battle. They always kept one in reserve. When a warrior threw a spear from a distance, he lost it, so he had another ready,” Salaš says.
Although the stone itself may not look particularly impressive, it tells an important story. It shows that three thousand years ago weapons were already being produced in Moravia on a large scale, using technology that had travelled from far away.
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