Worship or weight? A Bronze Age ‘goddess with a necklace’ from River Tollense (NE Germany)

Abstract The Tollense valley in northeast Germany is well known for its substantial evidence indicating a violent conflict dated to the early 13th century BC (Period III of the Nordic Bronze Age). This article presents a significant new find from a later Bronze Age context, found in the river at a known Bronze Age valley crossing (site Weltzin 13) by Ronald Borgwardt in 2020. The small bronze figurine (14.7 cm tall) has an egg-shaped head with a prominent nose, looped arms, a neckring, two knobs signifying breasts, a belt, an indication of a female sex and two slightly differently shaped legs. In the 19th century a similar female statuette was found near the village of Klein Zastrow, just a few kilometres from the valley crossing, but mostly these figurines are known from Zealand and Scania. Belts are only present on the statuettes from Zealand and northern Germany, and their presence suggests a close connection between the figures from these areas. Typological evidence places the figure from the Tollense river to the Late Bronze Age (Periods V–VI). Some time ago the figures were discussed as possible balance weights, but their small number does not support this theory. With a mass of 155 g, however, the new figure could be seen as a multiple of 26 g, the previously proposed weight unit of the time. The new find further suggests a connection between the find spots of the statuettes and routes of communication. There is little evidence to support an interpretation as a goddess. The deposition of the new figure at a valley crossing where hundreds of years before a violent conflict happened, might indicate that this was still a place of commemoration.