Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch

Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch
Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch
Material	Gold
Height	c. 72 cm (original) ; 88.3 cm
Created	c. 1000-900 BC
Discovered	1953; Postbauer-Heng, Bavaria, Germany
Present location	Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany

The Golden Cone of Ezelsdorf-Buch (

Golden hats

. It was presumably worn by special functionaries on ceremonial occasions.

Cultural Context and date

The Ezelsdorf-Buch cone is one of four such known items. Two of them were discovered in Southern Germany, one in the west of France, and one is without provenance, believed to have been found in Switzerland or Germany. It dates to circa 1,000 to 900 BC.

Parallels have been drawn between the golden 'hats' and depictions found on the Kivik slabs and on objects from the Stockhult hoard discovered in Scandinavia.

The 'hat', like its counterparts, is assumed to have served as a religious insignia for the deities or priests of a sun-cult common in

calendrical functions

.

Provenance and find history

The Ezelsdorf-Buch Cone was discovered accidentally during the removal of tree-stumps in 1953. However, it was not recognised as an

golden hats

".

Description

Including the part now missing, the 'hat' would have weighed about 330 g. Like its counterparts, it was hammered from a single piece of gold, decorated in the

repoussé

technique with bands and rows of symbols, had a somewhat convex, cap-like, lower portion and was originally equipped with a 'brim', which was probably lost during its recovery. Like the Berlin example, it was reinforced by one or several bronze rings near the bottom.

The cone is now (in reconstructed form) 88.3 cm high, but was probably somewhat shorter, at 72 cm or more.

Along its whole length, the object's surface is subdivided and decorated by horizontal bands or ribs and by rows of symbols. In total, there are 154 bands and symbol rows. The symbols are mostly circular bosses enclosed by up to seven concentric circles, as known from all other specimens. There are three sets of unusual special motifs: small horizontal ovals resembling eyes (row 92, also known from Schifferstadt and Berlin), small eight-spoked wheels (row 120) and miniature cones (rows 127 and 105). The latter are unique to the Ezesldorf-Buch cone and appear to represent the shape of a gold 'hat'. The tip of the cone is embellished with a ten-point star. The area where the cone joins the cap-like area is embellished with a 30 mm wide band of vertical grooving, as is the case on the Berlin example.

Manufacture

The piece is hammered from a gold alloy; gold (88.3%), silver (11%), copper (0.59%) and tin (0.086%). Its average thickness is only 0.78 mm. The amount of gold used for making the object is equivalent to the size of a matchbox.

Twenty different decorative punches, a comb, and six stamp-wheels or cylindrical stamps were used to apply the patterns. For a more detailed discussion of the cone's manufacture, see

here

.