3000-YEAR-OLD GOLDEN BOWL ADORNED WITH SUN MOTIF FOUND IN AUSTRIA
” Research Michal Sip Described The Prehistoric Vessel As A Discovery Of A Lifetime.”
October 5, 2021 By Joanne Alvarez & John Elberger Reporting For: Englebrook Independent News,
VIENNA, AT.- It was in the words of archaeologist Michal Sip, The Discovery Of A Lifetime. Unearthed ahead of construction of a railway station in Ebreichsdorf, near Vienna, the roughly 3000-Year-Old Golden Bowl features a Sun Motif and is the first of its kind Austria, reports Szymon Zdziebijowski of The Polish Press.
Vessels of this kind have been found in other European Countries, including Spain, France and Switzerland, says Sip, who is leading the excavation for Novetus, a German company that assists with archaeological digs. Only 30 similar bowls are known to exist, according to Heritage Daily.
The bowl measuring 8 inches long and 2 inches high, the Ebreichsdorf bowl is made of thin metal consisting of 90 percent Gold, 5 percent Silver and 5 percent Copper.
” This is the second find of this type discovered to the east of the Alpine line,” Sip said. He adds, ” much more is known from the area of Northern Germany, Scandinavia, and Denmark because this kind of pottery was produced there.”
The golden vessel is linked to the Urnfield Culture, a prehistoric society that spread across Europe beginning in the 12th century, per Encyclopedia Britannica. The group derived its name from the funerary ritual of placing ashes in urns and burying the containers in fields.
An image of the sun with rays emanating from its adorns the newly discovered bowl. Inside the vessel, archaeologist two gold bracelets and coiled golden wires wrapped around now-decomposed fabric or leather.
” They were probably decorative scarves,” Sip added. He posits that the accessories were used during religious ceremonies honoring the sun.
Sip and his colleagues unearthed around 500 Bronze objects, clay pottery and other artifacts at the Austrian site, which appears to have been a sizable prehistoric settlement. The team found the golden bowl in shallow ground near a wall of a house, last year.
“The numerous and valuable finds in the form of Gold and Bronze objects are unique in this part of Europe, and so is the fact that the settlement in Ebreichsdorf was so large,” Sip continued.
Soon after the discovery, The Austrian Government stepped in to insure the artifacts’ safety. The Golden Bowl will soon go on view at The Kunsthistoricses Museum in Vienna.
Though archaeologists found the artifacts in 2020, authorities decided to hold off on disclosing the news until a detailed analysis could be completed. Excavations will continue at the site for the next six months.
