During excavations near Tübingen, archaeologists discovered a woman’s grave from the Early Bronze Age with an unusual burial gift: A small spiral made of gold wire – possibly a hair ornament – turned out to be the oldest gold find in southwest Germany that can be reliably dated. In contrast to most of the old gold and precious metal finds in Europe, the gold does not come from south-east Europe, but from Cornwall, as analyzes have shown.
Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen have been carrying out excavations near Ammerbuch-Reusten in the Tübingen district since 2020. Remains of a Neolithic hill settlement were discovered earlier on the nearby Reustener Kirchberg. At the foot of the hill is a burial ground in which several human remains from the early Bronze Age have been discovered.
A ring made of coiled gold wire
In autumn 2020, during their excavations, Raiko Krauss and his colleagues came across another grave in which lay the bones of a woman who died around 3,800 years ago. The remains of the dead were buried in a crouched sideways position, facing south. This type of burial still corresponds to the tradition of the late Neolithic in Central Europe, as the archaeologists explain. The only addition they found in the grave was a ring made of gold wire behind the buried woman, about waist height. The ring, almost twelve millimeters in diameter, consists of a flat gold wire that has been spirally wound into a ring.
“The find fits into a manageable small group of rings made of gold wire, which are among the oldest finds of this type in Central Europe,” explain the archaeologists. These rings were mostly made by first pressing the soft gold into elongated wooden shapes and then hammering it into thin ribbons. These were then wound up into a spiral ring, which could then be worn as a clasp on clothing or as a hair ornament. As Krauss and his team report, the gold ring found in the grave near Reusten could also have been worn by the woman as a hair ornament. They interpret the discovery of this golden piece of jewelry as a sign of the high social status of the wearer.
Gold came from Cornwall
Dating confirms that the gold jewelry dates from the 19th to 17th centuries BC. The small spiral ring is thus the oldest definitely dated find of an object made of gold or precious metal in southwest Germany. Chemical analyzes of the material also showed that the gold wire contains admixtures of around 20 percent silver, less than two percent copper and traces of platinum and tin. “This composition refers to a natural gold alloy that is typical of alluvial gold washed from river soaps,” said Krauss and his colleagues. At the same time, however, the composition also provided indications of where this gold came from in Europe: the pattern of the trace elements is similar to that of gold from deposits in Cornwall in south-west England, especially from the catchment area of the Carnon River, reports the research team.
This clear reference of the gold jewelry found in Baden-Württemberg to northwestern Europe is remarkable, said Krauss and his team. The older gold and precious metal finds in Europe known so far came almost exclusively from deposits in Southeastern Europe. There jewelry objects made of gold were made from the fifth millennium before our time. The fact that the piece of jewelery from the grave of Ammerbuch-Reusten is made of Cornish gold is therefore unusual – and possibly evidence that cultural groups from Western Europe were gaining increasing influence on Central Europe at this time, as the scientists explain. In any case, the ring is an early testimony to the fact that luxury objects were exchanged over great distances as early as the Early Bronze Age.
Source: University of Tübingen, specialist article: Praehistorische Zeitschrift, doi: 10.1515 / pz-2021-0010