A wire-coil temple ring

This small ear ornament is made from a single piece of thin gold wire. When twisting it, the technique of the so-called return coil was used, allowing for a very effective result. Due to the uniqueness of its form and excellent state of preservation, it belongs to the distinguished museum objects. The temple pendant (in Polish Zausznica) with a twin specimen was discovered in June 1887 in the field of an estate between Barwice and Połczyn Zdrój. Reports of pebble stones appearing in that area Dr W. König, the prompted archaeology enthusiast from Szczecin, to carry out excavations. As a result, three graves were uncovered. Two golden temple pendants, an amber button, a small bronze wire spiral, and pottery fragments were found in grave No. II. It was a stone-walled object like the other two graves, which contained burnt human bones. The grave finds from Barwice were in the collection of the Pommersches Landesmuseum in Stettin (Polish: Pomorskie Muzeum Krajowe w Szczecinie; English: Pomeranian State Museum in Szczecin) until 1944. Due to the Allied air raids, the two temple pendants and many other valuable relics were evacuated deep into Germany. They did not return to Szczecin until 2009. The ornaments were presented at an exhibition organised then and then published in 2012 in an illustrated catalogue entitled "Zaginione–Ocalone. Szczecińska kolekcja starożytności pomorskich" ("Lost-Saved. The Pomeranian Antiquities Collection of Szczecin"). Dated to the 1st Bronze Age (approx. 1700-1600 BC), Noppenringe temple pendants, made of bronze and less frequently of gold, are a characteristic element of women's grave furnishings in the Unetice culture, whose influence undoubtedly reached the north of Central Europe. In Pomerania, such ornaments belong to scarce finds. They are one of the most valuable exhibits in the resources of the National Museum in Szczecin.

Dorota Kozłowska