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A metal detectorist has discovered a 4,000 - twelvemonth - old copper dagger , in all likelihood from an elect warrior , in a timberland near the Greenwich Village of Korzenica in southeastern Poland .
" The Korzenica dagger is so far the oldest metallic element dagger discovered [ in ] south - eastern Poland , " said Marcin Burghardt , an archaeologist at the Orsetti Tenement House Museum in Poland who canvas the sticker . " The only similar dagger in Poland was uncovered in the [ 1960s ] so the unexampled breakthrough come as a great surprisal , " Burghardt assure Live Science .
The copper dagger from Poland dates back more than 4,000 years.
A team went to examine the place where the alloy detectorist discovered the dagger but regain no other artifacts . " When we examined the spot , we find neither additional finds nor traces of archaeological features , " Burghardt said . Because of the want of additional artifact , " we can not tie in the dagger to a specific archaeological cultivation , " Burghardt added .
Related : utterly keep up 7,000 - year - one-time skeleton unearthed during renovation in Poland
Metal age clues
Archaeologistswere able to date the sticker by liken it to alike daggers chance in Central Europe and the Ukrainian wood steppe that have been securely dated . Based on the comparisons , " it seems secure to say that the Korzenica sticker was used somewhere in the [ second ] half of the 3rd millennium BC , " Burghardt wrote .
The person who used the dagger was likely " a warrior of a very high societal status , " Burghardt said . It ’s unlikely it would have been used in battle , however . " I think Cu daggers were , first and foremost , tokens of a high social status , " Burghardt said . " They are quite soft , so they would not be [ very ] utile in battle . "
The dagger may help provide clue about how metal employment in southeastern Poland started , eventually bring about the use of copper and bronze . " It dates back to the period when copper objects in this part of Poland were still very rarefied , " Burghardt said .
Very few copper daggers dating to the Copper Age have been found in Poland.
— Hoard of Bronze Age jewelry chance on in Poland was part of ancient water burial ritual , survey finds
— 3,500 - class - honest-to-god axes potentially used for ' religious cult practice ' discovered in Polish forest
— sprawl 5,000 - year - honest-to-goodness burial ground and fort discovered in Poland
A high-ranking warrior may have owned this copper dagger more than 4,000 years ago.
scientist plan to do a metallurgic analytic thinking , which may help watch where the dagger number from and how it was invent ; it ’s potential it was made outside this realm . If the obelisk make out from the Ukrainian wood steppe or Central Europe , it may indicate that ideas and good were coming to southeastern Poland from either of those regions , Burghardt said .
The find was first reported byScience in Poland , a collaboration between the Polish government and media .
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