Archaeologists made a unique discovery in the village of Hozelec near Poprad, in northern Slovakia. They have discovered various items from different time eras in a ground bank located in a place called Dubin. The most precious among the findings is a Bronze Age jewelry, possibly from the Middle to Late Bronze Age.
     The treasure itself consists of bronze spirals and tin funnel-shaped hangers that were probably put into the ground in a leather package with three bronze disk-like objects sewed to the top. The remains of organic leather material that is about 3000 years old were kept between them and the jewelry.
     "The remains of leather straps were also preserved inside of spirals and hangers. We saw at the beginning that close to the jewelry there was a darker soil that indicated the possible decomposition of organic material," Mária Hudákova, archaeologist, said.
     The items has been taken  to the Technical Museum in Brno, where they underwent laboratory examination followed by preservation. "It required about 80 hours of work, we cleaned each of the artefacts," said Martin Hložek from Technical Museum Brno.
   The most precious artefacts are made from bronze, he added, with several unique aspects about them. The funnel-like hangers are made from white metal and bronze usually has a golden colour. Hložek explains that the white colour may be either the result of the proportion of the chemical elements or advanced technologies, as the etching of the metal in organic acid or warming it to a higher temperature. "It is the proof of advanced metallurgic technologies that people did not often use and it is unique," Hložek pointed out.

Edited from The Slovak Spectator (5 December 2018)