Bronze Age spearheads with gold ornaments found in Denmark

Two Bronze Age spearheads decorated with gold have been discovered in Boeslunde, Denmark. There are no known comparable examples of gold ornamented spears from this period in all of Europe, but they would be extraordinary even without the gold because the spearheads are made from iron. Analysis of birch pitch used as a glue from a sheath at the tip of one of the spearheads dates to the approximately 900–830 B.C., the oldest iron in Denmark.

There was no iron production in Denmark until, well, the Iron Age hundreds of years after these spears were made. They must have been made elsewhere and reached Denmark via trade, but even in Greece and Central Europe where iron spears from this period have been found, none of the examples have gold ornaments.

Obviously this was a completely unexpected find. The goal of the excavation at Boeslunde was to investigate why so many gold artifacts have been found there. Just in the last few decades, 10 gold oath rings and 2,200 gold spirals have been unearthed in one field. The team actually did uncover a likely explanation for this extraordinary: the remains of a sacred spring. This identifies the profusion of gold jewelry found right above and around it as religious offerings.

X-ray photographs of the best preserved lance show several circular gold inlays along the blade; the preserved length is 47 cm, and the full length is estimated to have been around 60 cm.

South and east of the spring lies a cooking pit field, indicating that there were repeated activities such as cooking and ritual stays at the spring in the Late Bronze Age. Together with the large gold deposits and the finds of six gold bowls at Borgbjerg Banke, the lances suggest that Boeslunde was an important religious and economic hub during the period.

The gold-plated lances are not only remarkable in a national context. Iron weapons with similar gold decoration from this period are unusual and without parallel in all of Northern Europe, and the find contributes to understanding the spread of early iron technologies and the luxurious environments of the Bronze Age, where valuable metals were exchanged over distant networks. After having been worn for a long time as jewelry and weapons, the valuable objects were often sacrificed in connection with water in ritual practices.

The two spearheads will be exhibited at Museum Vestsjælland, along with other gold finds from the Bronze Age sacred spring in Boeslunde.

* This article was originally published here