Bronze Age spearheads and gold ornaments discovered in Denmark –

Two Bronze Age gilded spearheads were found in Boslund, Denmark. There are no similar examples of gold-embellished spears from this period known throughout Europe, but even without the gold they would have been extraordinary because the spearheads were made of iron. Analysis of birch pitch used as glue in the spearhead tip sheath dates to around 900-830 BC, making it Denmark’s oldest iron artifact.

Denmark did not start producing iron until the Iron Age, hundreds of years after these spears were made. They must have been made elsewhere and reached Denmark through trade, but even though iron spears from this period have been found in Greece and central Europe, these examples do not have gold ornaments.

Obviously, this was a completely unexpected finding. The purpose of the Boslund excavations was to investigate why so many gold objects were found there. In the past few decades alone, one mine has unearthed 10 gold vow rings and 2,200 gold spirals. The team did in fact discover a possible explanation for this extraordinary phenomenon: the remains of a sacred spring. This suggests that the large amounts of gold jewelry found above and around it were religious offerings.

X-rays of the best-preserved spears show several circular gold inlays on the blade. The preserved length is 47 cm, and the total length is estimated to be approximately 60 cm.

There are kitchen pit fields to the south and east of the spring, indicating that cooking and sacrificial activities were carried out at the spring many times in the late Bronze Age. The spears, together with the discovery of a large gold deposit and six gold bowls at the Borgbjerg Banke, indicate that Boslund was an important religious and economic center during this period.

The gilded spear wasn’t just a sight to behold across the country. Iron weapons from this period with similar gold decoration are rare across Northern Europe, and the discovery helps understand the spread of early iron technology and the luxurious surroundings of the Bronze Age, where precious metals were exchanged across far-flung networks. After long wear as jewelry and weapons, these valuables were often sacrificed along with water in rituals.

The two spearheads will be on display at the Museum of West Zealand along with other gold objects from the Bronze Age sacred spring in Boslund.