Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch
Encyclopedia
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
artefact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
discovered in 1953 between the villages of Ezelsdorf
Burgthann
Burgthann is a municipality in the district Nürnberger Land, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 20 km southeast of Nuremberg ....
(Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
) and Buch
Postbauer-Heng
Postbauer-Heng is a municipality in the district of Neumarkt in Bavaria in Germany....
(Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
) in Southern Germany
Southern Germany
The term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...
. A tall (88 cm), cone-shaped object made of thin sheet gold, it is seen as belonging to a group of artifacts referred to as Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
Golden hats. It was presumably worn by special functionaries on ceremonial occasions.
Cultural Context and date
The Ezelsdorf-Buch cone is one of four such known items. Three of them were discovered in Southern Germany, and one in the west of FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It dates to circa 1,000 to 900 BC.
Parallels have been drawn between the golden 'hats' and depictions found on the Kivik slabs
The King's Grave
The King's Grave near Kivik in the southeastern portion of the Swedish province of Skåne is what remains of an unusually grand Nordic Bronze Age double burial c...
and on objects from the Stockhult hoard discovered in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
.
The 'hat', like its counterparts, is assumed to have served as a religious insignia
Insignia
Insignia or insigne pl -nia or -nias : a symbol or token of personal power, status or office, or of an official body of government or jurisdiction...
for the deities or priests of a sun-cult common in Bronze Age Europe. The hats are also suggested to have served calendrical functions.
Provenance and find history
The Ezelsdorf-Buch Cone was discovered accidentally during the removal of tree-stumps in 1953. Unfortunately, it was not recognised as an archaeological findArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
immediately, so that its top was torn and broken by digging tools, probably weakening or destroying the structure of the whole object. It is also possible that the object had been damaged previously or that it had fully or partially collapsed during burial. It was probably originally buried in an upright position, with its top relatively near ground level, as were its Berlin
Berlin Gold Hat
The Berlin Gold Hat or Berlin Golden Hat is a Late Bronze Age artefact made of thin gold leaf. It served as the external covering on a long conical brimmed headdress, probably of an organic material...
and Schifferstadt
Golden Hat of Schifferstadt
The Golden Hat of Schifferstadt was discovered in a field near the town of Schifferstadt in Southwest Germany in 1835. It is a Bronze Age artefact made of thin sheet gold and served as the external decoration of a head-dress, probably of an organic material, with a brim and a chin-strap.- Cultural...
counterparts. After recovery, the cone was mutilated and torn into small scraps of sheet gold. Although it could be mostly reconstructed at an early stage, it was only in the 1990s that the find was understood as belonging to the group of 'golden hats'.
Description
The cone is now (in reconstructed form) 88.3 cm high, but was probably somewhat shorter, at 72 cm or more.
Along its whole length, the object's surface is subdivided and decorated by horizontal bands or ribs and by rows of symbols. In total, there are 154 bands and symbol rows. The symbols are mostly circular bosses enclosed by up to seven concentric circles, as known from all other specimens. There are three sets of unusual special motifs: small horizontal ovals resembling eyes (row 92, also known from Schifferstadt and Berlin), small eight-spoked wheels (row 120) and miniature cones (rows 127 and 105). The latter are unique to the Ezesldorf-Buch cone and appear to represent the shape of a gold 'hat'. The tip of the cone is embellished with a ten-point star. The area where the cone joins the cap-like area is embelished with a 30 mm wide band of vertical grooving, as is the case on the Berlin example.
Manufacture
The piece is hammered from a gold alloyAlloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
(88.3%), silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
(11%), copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
(0.59%) and tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
(0.086%). Its average thickness is only 0.78 mm. The amount of gold used for making the object is equivalent to the size of a matchbox.
Twenty different decorative punches, a comb, and six stamp-wheels or cylindrical stamps where used to apply the patterns. For a more detailed discussion of the cone's manufacture, see here.
Present location
The Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch is on display in the Germanisches NationalmuseumGermanisches Nationalmuseum
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day...
, Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
.
See also
- Golden hats
- Berlin Gold HatBerlin Gold HatThe Berlin Gold Hat or Berlin Golden Hat is a Late Bronze Age artefact made of thin gold leaf. It served as the external covering on a long conical brimmed headdress, probably of an organic material...
, circa 1,000-800 BC - Golden Hat of SchifferstadtGolden Hat of SchifferstadtThe Golden Hat of Schifferstadt was discovered in a field near the town of Schifferstadt in Southwest Germany in 1835. It is a Bronze Age artefact made of thin sheet gold and served as the external decoration of a head-dress, probably of an organic material, with a brim and a chin-strap.- Cultural...
, circa 1,400 to 1,300 BC - Avanton Gold ConeAvanton Gold ConeThe Avanton Gold Cone or Avanton Cone is a late Bronze Age artefact, belonging to the group of Golden hats, only four of which are known so far....
, circa 1,000-900 BC - Nebra sky disk, circa 2,100 to 1,700 BC