A cuff bracelet

A vast sheet of bronze was used to make this very impressive bracelet. A narrow, arched rib runs along the whole length of the hoop, and on both sides of it, there are engraved ornamental motifs joined together in a harmonious whole. The ornament is part of a group of objects discovered on 19 March 1890 in a marshy meadow called "Schild". The context of the discovery indicates that it could have been a sacrificial gift presented to the gods of the water element. The deposit originally contained 11 hoops, eight of which have survived: two twin wide-cuff bracelets and six made of narrow, thick and decorated bronze band. The arrangement of these ornaments in the ground was very compact - wide bracelets were inserted one into the other, and narrow ones were stuck inside them. The finder, Christian Plathe, a farmer, donated the hoops through Professor Blasendorff from Pyrzyce, probably a teacher at the local grammar school, to enrich the collection of the Society of History and Antiquities of Pomerania (Towarzystwo Historii i Starożytności Pomorza) in Szczecin. At the end of the 1920s, the Society's resources were taken over by the Pomeranian State Museum (Pomorskie Muzeum Krajowe). The deposit remained there until August 1944, when the collection was evacuated in danger of Allied air raids on the city. The Nieborowo hoard returned to Szczecin in 2009 due to the bilateral Polish-German exchange of archaeological artefacts. Apart from its excellent display value, the hoard of ornaments from Nieborowo is also of considerable scientific significance. This discovery represents a very poorly recognised early phase of Lusatian culture development in Pomerania. Two cuff rings belonging to it are a unique find.

Dorota Kozłowska