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archeologist in Poland have get word a collection of more than 550 piece of music of Bronze Age jewelry that were once part of an ancient burial ritual .

Known as Papowo Biskupie , the dried - out lake bed situation was lodge in from roughly 1200 to 450 B.C. by the Chełmno mathematical group , a community from the big Lusatian culture that populate in northern Europe during the belated Bronze Age and other Iron Age , according to a study publish Wednesday ( Jan. 24 ) in the journalAntiquity .

A selection of Bronze Age jewelry.

A selection of Bronze Age jewelry found at a dry lake bed in Poland.

The Lusatians are well known for their ritual depositions of metal hoard in physical structure of water . However , the Chełmno mathematical group was not known for absorb in this practice .

But the newfangled jewellery finding , made by metal detectorists in 2023 , upends that sensing .

" The scale of alloy economic consumption at the land site is extraordinary , " study Colorado - authorŁukasz Kowalski , a postdoctoral researcher of archaeology at the AGH University of Science and Technology of Krakow , secernate Live Science in an email . " Until now , we thought that metal was a weak partner in the social and ritual scheme of the Chełmno radical , in contrast with the metal - billboard madness [ rehearse by the other Lusatians ] . "

A woman wearing Bronze Age jewelry.

A hypothetical model of a Chełmno woman buried wearing some of the metal adornments found at the lake bed site in Poland.

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However , the uncovering of this cache of alloy jewellery — which includes a potpourri of arm and cervix ornaments , as well as a multistrand necklace with ellipse and tubular beadwork circumvent a swallowtail - corresponding pendant — has lead researchers to shift their point of view , concord to a statement .

" Our findings reflect the increasing role of alloy in social and ritual life of [ the Chełmno chemical group ] , resulting in a shift from the deposition of human remains to metal offerings in the local wetland landscape painting , " Kowalski said .

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The researchers resolve that many of the metallic element artifacts were created by member of the local residential area . But some , admit one of the pearl in the necklace , were crafted using outsource materials .

" The bead is made of low - Mg glass that was sourced from the Eastern Mediterranean neighborhood , " Kowalski say . " This increases the use of evidence that power - elite of the Chełmno group became parties to a alloy trading meshwork that connected much of the European continent in the first millennium B.C.“In addition to the jewellery , the archaeologists unearthed the skeletal remains of at least 33 individual at the lake bed . However , radiocarbon datingrevealed that the human corpse were buriedbeforethe metal deposit , which put up further grounds that the Chełmno group ’s " belief system afterwards came into line with the rest of the realm , " harmonize to the argument .

— Bronze Age girl lay to rest with more than 150 animal ankle finger cymbals , potentially to facilitate her to the next world

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As part of the study , the researchers created a divinatory model of a Chełmno adult female wearing some of the metal jewelry .

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" Our breakthrough opens a raw window for exploring the social and ritual practices of the Chełmno group and reflects the complex interplay between deposition of human cadaver and metal objects in wetlands , " Kowalski enjoin . " This uncovering may signalise how alloy and human depositions could be used to modulate social relations in the Chełmno group and to demonstrate their local indistinguishability . "

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