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The puzzling limning of a vicious predator — either a dragon or a snake — devouring a anuran on an early chivalric belt clasp from the Czech Republic may be a symbol from an unknown pagan religious cult , archaeologists say .
The bronze smash fitting or buckle was found by a alloy detectorist near the small town of Lány near Břeclav , near the borders with Austria and Slovakia and about 30 nautical mile ( 50 kilometers ) south of Brno .
The belt fitting or buckle was made from bronze in about the eighth century. Its central design shows a snake or dragon devouring a frog-like creature, which researchers now think was a pagan religious symbol.
Archaeologists first thought the central design — a snake or dragon devouring a frog - like fauna — must be unique . But they have since learned that in the preceding dozen years , almost identical artifacts have been unearth in Germany , Hungary and elsewhere in the Czech Republic .
" I realized that we were looking at a previously unnamed infidel cult that linked dissimilar regions of primal Europe in the former Middle Ages , before the arriver of Christianity,“Jiří Macháček , an archeologist at Masaryk University in Brno , said in a argument .
" The motif of a ophidian or Hydra devouring its dupe appears in Germanic , Avar and Slavic mythology , " he said . " Today , we can only speculate about its exact substance , but in the other Middle Ages , it join the diverse peoples living in Central Europe on a phantasmal spirit level . "
Archaeologists thought the bronze belt fitting from Lány in the Czech Republic (A) was unique, but they’ve since learned that at least three others have been found, including in Hungary (B) and in southern Germany (C).
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Macháček is the lead writer of a study in the January subject of theJournal of Archaeological Sciencedescribing the belt fit from Lány and three others like it : one that was found near Iffeldorf in southern Germany , about 265 miles ( 425 kilometer ) or so west of Lány ; another detect near Zsámbék , Hungary , about 115 stat mi ( 185 klick ) to the southeast ; and another rule near the Czech townspeople of Nový Bydžov , about 200 nautical mile ( 110 kilometre ) to the nor'-west .
Pagan symbol
Previous inquiry suggests such belted ammunition fitting were produced in Central Europe in the seventh and eighth centuries and were normally assume by Avars — a roving people , thought to be from the Eurasian Steppe , who determine in the Carpathian Basin of what ’s now Hungary beginning in the sixth century .
The Avars established a " khaganate , " or nomadic state , over much of Central Europe , and some of their fashions were take on by other people of the region , many of them Slavs , the investigator said .
depth psychology with X - electron beam fluorescence , scanning negatron microscopy and other proficiency showed that the objects were originally heavily gilded and that all four were made from copper mine in the Slovak Ore Mountains , which are now in Slovakia .
An analytic thinking of their shapes based on virtual 3D models suggested some of the warp or fittings came from the same shop or were made from a common example , using the"lost wax " methodof frame bronze .
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The researchers said the spectacular similarity of the objects points to the " being of a previously nameless pagan cult that connected divers populations of alter origin during the early Middle Ages . "
It ’s not known what the Hydra — or tartar — and the toad frog - like creature actually signify . But the investigator note that fights with a snake or flying lizard are common in pagan creation myths , as " the counterpoint between two oppose forces representing the central enactment of cosmologic … myth , " while the " interaction " between the Snake River and the frog might be tie to prolificacy furor practices , they wrote in the subject field .
