A rare piece of a bronze breastplate from the Bronze Age have been discovered at an undisclosed location in South Moravia. It is only the second example of bronze armor ever discovered in the Czech Republic.
A folded sheet of metal was found in a 2023 excavation buried together with a spearhead, a sickle, a pin and some metal fragments. The objects had been deliberately damaged and buried together, likely as a sacrificial offering. The sheet of metal could not be unfolded, so archaeologists with the Brno City Museum used a 3D scanner to unfold it digitally. They were then able to “smooth” the metal, reconstructing its original shape and revealing its subtle decoration.
The armor dates back 3,200 years, i.e. from the same time to which experts date the battles of Troy described by Homer. Bronze parts of armor were then exclusively the privilege of the warrior elite. Their production required extraordinary craftsmanship and therefore had an astronomical price for the conditions of the time: in Homer’s Iliad, for example, Diomedes says armor cost nine bulls.
At that time, the Moravian territory was inhabited by a culture known as the Urnfield Culture. However, it was not a single “nation”, but rather a kind of cultural circle – i.e. groups of unrelated people with shared customs and styles of burial, pottery, settlement or even weapons.
The armor and other artifacts buried with it will go on public display at the Brno City Museum.
Click the Source link for more details
