Bronze Age jewelry hoard found during wind farm construction

A hoard of Bronze Age jewelry has been discovered during construction of wind turbines near Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony, Germany. No archaeological sites had been found before in the area where the windfarm was to be built, but a review determined there was a high probability that previously unknown ones might emerge, so archaeologists were engaged to supervise and survey the site alongside construction. The prediction was borne out, with 412 significant archaeological features unearthed in 13 months, several of them of high scientific value with the Bronze Age jewelry hoard at the top of the list.

Important finds include two very well-preserved house foundations from the Linear Pottery culture dating to the mid-6th millennium B.C. The Linear Pottery culture built the first farming settlements in Lower Saxony, so the remains, artifacts and soil samples recovered from this period will provide new insights into the earliest settlements in the region.

The Roman period was well-represented with finds including wheel-thrown pottery, the skeletal remains of dogs that were buried in a group, likely for ritual purposes, metal artifacts and an exceptional intact three-layered bone comb from the 4th/5th century A.D. inlaid with bronze rivets. This type of comb was highly prized personal possessions and were often used as grave goods. They rarely survive intact, however, because they were placed on funeral pyres and burned with the deceased’s body, leaving them in charred fragments.

The most significant find was discovered during construction of one of the wind turbine platforms. Objects of bronze and amber were found close together. Archaeologists lifted them in a large soil block so the delicate objects could be excavated in laboratory conditions.

The find consists of a hoard of Bronze Age jewelry dating from around 1500 to 1300 BC. For the northern Harz foothills, this is the first Bronze Age hoard find since 1967 and the only one excavated according to modern scientific standards, as the archaeologists explain. The jewelry belonged to at least three high-ranking women and was possibly buried as a religious offering. Among the pieces are decorated neck rings, arm spirals, and bronze ornamental plates, as well as at least two disc pins.

A necklace made of more than 156 amber beads is particularly outstanding and, so far, unique. It is the largest single find of Bronze Age amber in Lower Saxony to date, according to the State Office for Heritage Management. Amber was collected during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, primarily along the Baltic coasts of Scandinavia and the Baltic region. The organic material was highly prized in many cultures for its “sunny” color and transparency and was traded via long-distance trade networks as far as the Mediterranean and beyond. In most places, only members of the political and religious elite could afford jewelry made of imported amber. The exact origin of the amber beads in the necklace recently discovered in the Harz foothills has yet to be determined. The State Office reports that the analysis of the fragile finds has only just begun.

* This article was originally published here