A Kujawy-type spiral bracelet

This unique bracelet was made from a narrow but quite thick brown band. It consists of eleven coils ornamented with an original eyelet motif connected with a punctuated zigzag. The body is harmonised with the ends, no less impressive, in the form of a one-sided twisted around its axis bar. The bracelet is part of a hoard trove of bronze ornaments found by the farmer, Karl Sager, in his meadow in 1941. The published drawing made by Captain Poirot, a prisoner of the Prenzlau POW camp, shows that the original arrangement of the discovered objects was not accidental. Five spiral bracelets were strung on two wreath necklaces, and a tin hoop was laid over them. The water context and the intentional arrangement indicate that this was a sacrificial deposit. The find was transferred to the collection of the Pommersches Landesmuseum in Stettin (Polish: Pomorskie Muzeum Krajowe w Szczecinie; English: Pomeranian State Museum in Szczecin). It stayed there for only three years. In 1944, it was evacuated in its entirety deep into Germany and hidden there from the turmoil of war. The artefacts returned to the Szczecin Museum in 2009 under the Polish-German exchange of old archaeological collections. The presented bracelet, dated to the early Iron Age, the Hallstatt period D (approx. 600/550-400/450 BC), and other ornaments from the hoard are the testimony of exceptional skills of prehistoric metalworkers and their artistry. The great value of the exhibits and their excellent state of preservation makes it possible to regard the hoard from Karkowo as one of the most valuable museum acquisitions. The significance of the hoard is also increased by the tin hoop, which belongs to very rare finds.

Dorota Kozłowska