Golden Hat of Schifferstadt
The Golden Hat by Schiffer city in 1835 during fieldwork on a field near the town of Schifferstadt, Rhein- Pfalz-Kreis, found. The artifact from the Bronze Age is of thin sheet gold and served as outer lining of a hat with a brim and chin strap, which probably consisted of organic material and the outer, thin gold sheet mechanically stabilized.
Classification
The specimen from Schiffer city is the oldest and first discovery of a series of now four known, cone shaped gold plate hats from the Bronze Age, in the course of the 19th and 20th century in southern Germany ( Berlin Gold Hat, gold foil cone of Ezelsdorf book) and in France ( gold foil cone of Avanton ) were found in more or less good condition. Except for damage to the Brim the townsfolk Schiffer piece is completely preserved.
Based on three mitgefundener paragraph hatchets made of bronze and an ornament comparison with other finds the time of its manufacture is dated to about 1400-1300 BC.
It is now believed that the gold hats served as religious insignia of gods and priests of a spread in the late Bronze Age in Central Europe sun cult. This view is supported by the pictorial representation of an interpreted object as a cone hat on a stone slab from the grave of Kivik in Skåne, southern Sweden, in clearly religious- cultic context.
After partial decoding of the ornament canons of the cone- shaped gold hats of the type Schiffer city to write the sheet gold cones today in addition to their representative and cultic function extensive calendar properties. Whether they were actually used as a calendar, or whether they represent the underlying astronomical knowledge only, is unclear.
Description
The Golden Hat by Schiffer city is an ornamental articulated in horizontal bands and decorated with Punzstempeln, about 350 grams heavier gold hat. It has a dull, undecorated tip and has a short, stocky stem with stepped dome and a wide brim. The Golden Hat is 29.6 cm high and has a diameter at the base of about 18 cm. The brim is about 4.5 cm wide.
The panel of the hat was in the production in the brim for a - edged copper wire to provide additional mechanical stability - lost after the discovery.
The Golden Hat is divided over the entire length by horizontal trim and frame and ornamented bands nationwide. Here, five different Musterpunzen and a Schrotpunze were used to systematically repeating the horizontal bands with them to decorate similar stamp patterns.
The optical separation of individual ornamental bands was realized by annular ribs or bands that have been decorated with the Schrotpunze. In the ornamental bands are found mainly disc and circular motifs that have a circular inner hump and are edged with up to six outer rings.
A special feature of the occurrence of two ribbons is to call with eye patterns, which can be observed in similar form in the Golden Beware of Ezelsdorf book and Berlin. The cone tip is unlike other found gold sheet cones not crowned by a star, but no decoration.
An overview of the shape of the townspeople Schiffer golden hat and the type and number of related in the main ornament zones Musterpunzen shows the adjacent figure.
Calendar function
Based on current knowledge, the gold hats of the type Schiffer city, including the Ezelsdorfer gold foil cone belongs to a systematic series in number and type of data used in the various ornamental bands ornaments. Based on fully preserved on investigations Berlin Gold Hat has been found that on the gold hats an astronomical calendar is displayed based on a lunisolar system.
After partial decoding of the ornament canons of the cone- shaped gold hats to write the sheet gold cones today in addition to their representative and cultic function extensive calendar properties. Whether they were actually used as a calendar, or whether they represent the underlying astronomical knowledge only, is unclear.
In principle, is carried out beginning with the zone i, on the basis of a suitable n contiguous portion adjacent ornament zones Zi. Zi n 'is a summation of the circuit and it contains special symbols. Of this total, the number of symbols of one or more occurring in the area of this section switching zones where appropriate removed to get to the corresponding value in lunar or solar time of writing.
For a general overview of the characteristics and functionality of the calendar features a Bronze Age golden hat of the type Schifferstadt see gold hats.
Location and History Fund
The Golden Hat by Schiffer city was found on April 29, 1835 during fieldwork in the Won Reusch pool about one kilometer north of the village Schiffer city. The Fund was the next day, handed over to the government authorities in Speyer, then part of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
The observed and reconstructed the circumstances indicate a cultic Disposal: The hat was buried upright in about 60 cm depth. The hat tip sticking to just below the earth's surface; guard himself stood in locating on a plate of lightly baked clay. The gold foil cone itself was inside filled with earth or earth - ash mixture which has not been preserved.
The chalkboard also not obtained, which fell apart in the salvage of the hat was on an approximately one inch thick layer of sand in a " rectangular about 60 cm into the Latvians sunken pit " placed. Three bronze paragraph hatchets were modeled on the hat found which are also obtained.
Production
The artifact was Cu as blowing work of gold alloy with 86.37 % Au, 13 % Ag, 0.56% and 0.07 % Sn made in one piece and in the area of stem and cap an average wall thickness of 0.20 mm to 0.25 mm. The rim is substantially thinner driven and has an average wall thickness of only from 0.08 to 0.13 mm. It is therefore assumed that the brim has been post processed in ancient times.
The gold weight of the golden hat corresponds to a gold cube of about 2.5 cm edge length as the starting material. This gold ingot was forged to about typing paper thickness during the machining process.
Based on the tribological properties of the material, the material solidifies with increasing degree of deformation and then tends to crack. To avoid these cracks a particularly uniform deformation during reforge was required. In addition, the work piece during the manufacturing process had to be repeatedly annealed at at least 750 ° C.
Here, due to the low melting temperature of the gold alloy ( about 960 ° C), a very precise temperature control and an isothermal heating of the component required in order to prevent melting of the surface. For this operation, the Bronze Age artisans used a charcoal fire or oven, similar to the kilns for pottery, whose temperature could be controlled, however, only limited by bellows- assisted delivery of oxygen.
As part of the further processing of the Golden Hat by Schiffer city was provided with radial ornamental bands. To this end, the hollow inner body was the purpose of stabilizing filled with a suitable Goldschmiedekitt based on tree resin and wax, and the thin gold sheet structured from the outside by repeated pressing of Negativpunzen in its present form.
Whereabouts
The Golden Hat by Schiffer city is located in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer and is the heart of the Bronze Age collection represents a replica is in the Museum of Local History Schiffer city exists, another replica of it are in the Lake Dwelling Museum Unteruhldingen.
Commemorative stamp
The German Federal Post Office announced on 16 August 1977 under the title " Archaeological treasures' three special stamps. On the 30 Pfennig - mark the Golden Hat by Schiffer city was mapped.