Lüneburg type pin with spoked wheel like head

The exceptionality of this bronze pin with its magnificent spoked wheel head is not even diminished by the quite numerous small overcasts that are clearly discernible at the edges. Interestingly, it has a profiled surface only on the top side and a flat underside, thereby offering an idea of the mould in which it may have been cast. The needle of the pin has unfortunately not been preserved in its entirety, but we can speculate that it may have been between 13 and 17 cm in length. Finds of Lüneburg-type pins are clustered in areas to the west of the Elbe River in Germany, where they are a common find in female graves associated with the circle of grave cultures of the Older Bronze Age. They are rarely found east of the Elbe, where they are considered an import from north-western Europe. Only four examples of pins with a spoke wheel head have been reported in Poland, including the presented Pomeranian specimen. It was discovered by accident in 1913 during the dredging of the Regalica - the eastern tributary of the Oder - somewhere near the town of Gryfino. Both the aquatic context of the discovery and the size and shape of the pin's head, symbolising a solar cult, favour the idea that it may have had a non-utilitarian significance. Thus, it had no practical use as a clothing ornament but could have been a sacrificial gift offered to the deity of the flowing waters of the river. Dorota Kozłowska