Mars and Mercury. A golden wolf from Western Poland – a mysterious find

Abstract

Abstract The paper discusses a mysterious zoomorphic wolf-shaped copper alloy artefact that was discovered as a stray find in Międzyrzecz (Poland). The find is bar-like with a profiled engraved image of a lying animal, possibly a wolf. It is locally gilded on the visible side of “wolf” details. The gilding was made using an amalgam technique known since Antiquity, with the base metal composed of arsenical copper alloy with lead addition. A fixing element made of iron has only survived fragmentarily, which renders the reconstruction of the entire artefact’s shape impossible. Its function has not been identified, but a broad spectrum of possible interpretations has been proposed. Stylistic traits allow to date the artefact to the Migration Period, or more specifically to the 6th century. The wolf image implies that the artefact can be related to the Germanic warriors’ world. At present, it cannot be determined whether there was a 6th century settlement cluster in the vicinity of Międzyrzecz to which the find can be related, or we are dealing with an isolated testimony of population translocations.