In Hungary, they found 6,000-year-old gold objects and a unique kiln copper "scepter" made of Eneolithic

Over a dozen gold objects were discovered in three graves during rescue research at the Bükkábrány surface coal mine in northeastern Hungary. The 6,000-year-old artifacts are a wonderful example of the beginnings of goldsmithing in Europe. The oldest known gold jewelry found in Varna, Bulgaria, is only 200 years older.
The mining area has been in operation since 2007, when large cypress trunks from the Miocene period were discovered in it, which were not petrified but practically preserved due to the fact that they were hermetically trapped in the sand eight million years ago. The local natural valley formed by the river Csincse was inhabited from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages.

Archaeologists have been working here continuously for 10 years in an effort to save the valuable historical heritage from destruction by mining. During this time, they found evidence of millennia of human settlement, including the recently discovered thirty-four tombs of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture, clearly identified by the characteristic style of pottery. This community already used copper tools and was among the first to wear gold jewelry in the Carpathian Basin.

The four tombs differ from the others in their equipment: Most of the tombs were decorated relatively modestly, but the three women's graves are equipped with prestigious gold ornaments. The grave equipment included, among other things, special round and conical pendants. Archaeologists believe that they may originally have been decorative parts of a luxury headdress. The tombs must have belonged to important personalities of the community. The objects meant immense wealth and social value, because gold was still extremely rare in the Carpathian Basin of that time. In addition, the ornaments are exceptionally exceptional for their high purity and precise craftsmanship.

The fourth tomb was not equipped with jewelery of precious metal, but it contained the remains of an adult man buried with a cracked stone blade, a polished stone ax, and a massive copper tip weighing about one kilogram. It was almost certainly not a real tool of daily use - so much metal was oversized and also very expensive. It was probably more of a symbol of power, like a scepter.

The raw material was probably obtained from the Carpathian Basin by surface collection and washing. It is not entirely clear from the production style whether the objects were produced locally or imported. Once the subjects are completed, they will all be exhibited at the Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc.

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Roman Němec