A bronze anvil

A small anvil cast in bronze is characterised by a four-sided pivot topped with a flat surface, called a face according to its purpose. Blacksmith tools of this type were indispensable in manufacturing small objects or the carving of ornaments on finished bronze products. The relic was discovered in a large hoard containing over 60 objects at the end of the 19th century. These were various products connected with metallurgy: a wedge for casting axes, a chisel, raw material in the form of lumps, bundles of ribbons and fragments of wire, as well as other various bronze products: a knife, a fragment of a sword, fragments of vessels, a necklace, spearheads, spiral discs, a brooch bow, a disc, axes, cotters, bracelets, greaves, armlets, and a parade axe. The deposit was located only 15 cm below the surface of a flooded meadow belonging to Mr August Schiewer. The bronzes were placed in a sizable clay pot hidden by a large stone, around which there was supposed to be many bronze filings. Their actual presence there would indicate the sensational discovery of a Bronze Age workshop from the 5th period (c. 900-750 BC). The anvil from the Witkowo discovery, sometimes referred to as the foundryman's hoard is rare. Only two such blacksmith tools are known from the territory of Poland and only three from neighbouring Mecklenburg.

Dorota Kozłowska