A beet farmer discovered an ornate Bronze Age gold belt on his land in the Czech Republic.
A beet farmer in the Czech Republic got the surprise of his life last month when he unearthed a thin, crumpled sheet of gold that turned out to be nearly 2,500 years old. The ornate object was covered in dirt but well preserved, inspiring the farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, to send photos to archaeologists at the nearby Silesian Museum in Opava.
Conservator Tereza Alex Kilnar has started work on stabilizing and analyzing the belt at the Museum Bruntál , in collaboration with other specialists. Based on the style of the decoration, she estimated that the gold belt dates to the middle to late Bronze Age, around the 14th century B.C. Not much else is known about the context of the gold belt yet, since it was just recovered in late September."We can't truly say" if the object was part of a larger feature like a burial or hoard, Kilnar told Live Science by email,"because the belt was discovered on the surface." She suggested that"conducting some type of archaeological research is currently under consideration, and we are discussing it with other institutions.
Australian National University archaeologist Catherine Frieman , whose research specialty includes studies of metalworking in the European Bronze Age, agreed that the owner of the gold belt was someone of high status, either social or spiritual. The Bronze Age"saw a really extraordinary flourishing of metalworking practice, including very ornate goldworking, and wide distribution of elaborate gold objects in central and western Europe," Frieman told Live Science in an email.
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