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The puzzle word picture of a vicious predatory animal — either a flying lizard or a snake — devouring a Gaul on an former knightly belt buckle from the Czech Republic may be a symbol from an unnamed hedonist religious cult , archaeologists say .
The bronze whack fitting or buckle was found by a metal detectorist near the small town of Lány near Břeclav , near the borders with Austria and Slovakia and about 30 miles ( 50 kilometers ) in the south of Brno .
The belt fitting or buckle was made from bronze in about the eighth century. Its central design shows a snake or dragon devouring a frog-like creature, which researchers now think was a pagan religious symbol.
Archaeologists first think the cardinal design — a snake or flying lizard devouring a frog - like creature — must be unique . But they have since learn that in the retiring dozen years , almost identical artifact have been unearthed in Germany , Hungary and elsewhere in the Czech Republic .
" I actualise that we were look at a previously unidentified heathen furore that linked different regions of key Europe in the other Middle Ages , before the arrival of Christianity,“Jiří Macháček , an archaeologist at Masaryk University in Brno , said in a statement .
" The motif of a snake or ophidian consume its victim appears in Germanic , Avar and Slavonic mythology , " he said . " Today , we can only job about its precise meaning , but in the former Middle Ages , it connected the various peoples living in Central Europe on a apparitional point . "
Archaeologists thought the bronze belt fitting from Lány in the Czech Republic (A) was unique, but they’ve since learned that at least three others have been found, including in Hungary (B) and in southern Germany (C).
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Macháček is the lead author of a report in the January issue of theJournal of Archaeological Sciencedescribing the belted ammunition fitting from Lány and three others like it : one that was feel near Iffeldorf in southern Germany , about 265 mile ( 425 km ) roughly west of Lány ; another found near Zsámbék , Hungary , about 115 miles ( 185 km ) to the southeast ; and another found near the Czech town of Nový Bydžov , about 200 nautical mile ( 110 kilometre ) to the northwestern United States .
Pagan symbol
late research suggests such rap fittings were farm in Central Europe in the seventh and eighth century and were usually assume by Avars — a nomadic people , thought to be from the Eurasian Steppe , who settle in the Carpathian Basin of what ’s now Hungary beginning in the 6th century .
The Avars established a " khaganate , " or roving State Department , over much of Central Europe , and some of their fashions were acquire by other peoples of the neighborhood , many of them Slavs , the researchers said .
psychoanalysis with X - ray fluorescence , scanning negatron microscopy and other techniques showed that the target were originally to a great extent gilded and that all four were made from atomic number 29 mined in the Slovak Ore Mountains , which are now in Slovakia .
An psychoanalysis of their shapes base on practical 3D models suggested some of the warp or fittings came from the same workshop or were made from a vulgar mannikin , using the"lost wax " methodof casting bronze .
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The researchers read the spectacular similarity of the objective point to the " existence of a previously unknown hedonist cult that connected diverse populations of varying bloodline during the early Middle Ages . "
It ’s not known what the snake — or dragon — and the frog - like creature actually signify . But the researchers noted that agitate with a snake in the grass or dragon are common in pagan existence myths , as " the counterpoint between two opposing forces present the central human activity of cosmogonic … myth , " while the " fundamental interaction " between the serpent and the frog might be linked to fertility religious cult practices , they spell in the discipline .
