When you buy through connectedness on our site , we may clear an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .
Name : Słupcio
What it is : A bear statuette carved out of amber
The Stone Age amber bear was found near Słupsk, Poland.
Where it is from : Słupsk , northern Poland
When it was made : Between 9600 and 4100 B.C.
This alone carved amber bear was discovered in northern Poland by workers dig out for peat in 1887 . An ancient hunting watch likely wore it as a protective spell , since the bear was the most hefty and serious animate being that lived in the surface area during the Stone Age .
" Słupcio " — or " little hombre from Słupsk " in Polish — is the name feed to the amber bear in 2013 , when a Polish kindergartnerwon a contestto name the artifact . ( The lucky winner also snagged a teddy bear . )
The carved bear is on display at theNational Museum in Szczecin , around 136 miles ( 220 kilometre ) southwest of his original breakthrough spot , and he has become something of a local symbolization , where copies of him are widely uncommitted as token .
Related : Pfyn culture flint pecker : World ’s oldest known ' Swiss Army ' knife
The figurine is 4 inches ( 10.2 centimeter ) farseeing and 1.65 inches ( 4.2 curium ) tall and may date to Europe ’s Mesolithic period ( 12,000 to 5,000 year ago ) . At this metre , people were mostly hunter - gatherer , so archaeological evidence of their settlements is rare . But in the field of Pomerania on the southerly shore of the Baltic Sea , archaeologists have foundStone Age siteswith artifacts , such as pottery , tools and arm , along with objects made from amber that washed ashore . This type of amber issue forth from marine deposit .
Słupcio ’s legs are essentially just protrusion , and he can not tolerate on his own , but the bear ’s head is clearly carve to show his ear , mouth , nostrils and eyes . In the midsection of the figurine ’s body , there is a jam that goes all the fashion through the gold , in all probability used by the ancient hunting watch to thread a shoulder strap for cling or carrying the small guy .
At the end of World War II , Słupcio was take out of Poland by the Germans along with numerous other ancient artefact , and the amber bear ended up in the Stralsund Museum until he was deliver to Szczecin in 2009 . While in Germany , Słupcio wasstudied by expertswho call in him a " Bernsteinbär " ( amber bear ) and define that all of the carving was ancient .
But since Słupcio was a stray uncovering from more than a 100 ago , experts remain divided on when he was actually made .
— Hohle Fels weewee bird : The oldest depiction of a bird in the existence
— Tumaco - Tolita gold figurine : A 2,000 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god statue with a ' fancy nose ornament ' from a vanished South American refinement
— Mechanical Dog : A ' honorable boy ' from ancient Egypt that has a flushed tongue and ' bark '
In a2023 studyof several gold bear statuette from the Baltic Sea domain , researchers concluded that the object are more potential to be Upper Paleolithic in appointment , a period from 50,000 to 12,000 old age ago . The amber bears may be further grounds of the Paleolithic tradition of constitute beast in cave paintings andportable object , and they also show that people change their hunting from caribou on the open tundra to elk and turn out in the forest .
Carving bears in gold — a lifelike material that calculate like stone , floats in brine , is translucent when round , and sense fragrant when bite — may have been perceived as imbuing the fabric with magic trick , piddle Słupcio a hefty Stone Age amulet .
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again , you will then be prompted to go in your display name .
