KRAKÓW, POLAND—Notes from Poland reports that a gold ring thought to date to the eleventh or twelfth century has been discovered in the basement of one of the four residential towers at Wawel Royal Castle. Construction of this tower began in the late fourteenth century. The ring, decorated with two engraved faces turned in opposite directions, was resting on what may have been a defensive rampart from an older structure. “This is the only example in which human images (or figural ones in general) are depicted on an early medieval ring from Poland,” said Jerzy Trzebiński of the archaeology department in the castle museum. He thinks the two faces may represent Janus, the two-faced Roman god. The ring may have belonged to a member of the elite class during the reign of the Piasts, who governed Poland between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. To read more about the castle and Krakow's history, go to "Off the Grid: Krakow, Poland."
