Iron Age Owl Brooch Unearthed in Denmark

News April 21, 2015

(John Lee, National Museum, & Skalk)
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Iron-Age-Brooch
(John Lee, National Museum, & Skalk)

BORNHOLM, DENMARK—An enameled bronze brooch has been unearthed near the east coast of the island of Bornholm, located in the Baltic Sea. Shaped like an owl, the brooch, which has large orange eyes and colorful wings, dates to the Iron Age, and would have been used to fasten a man’s cloak. “There are very few of these types of fasteners,” archaeologist Christina Seehusen of Bornholm Museum told The Copenhagen Post. It was probably made along the Roman frontier, in Cologne or another nearby town. “There have been a number of discoveries in graves and settlements on the island that show there was contact with many parts of the world including frequent contact with parts of the Roman Empire,” Seehusen said. To read about another remarkable artifact discovered in Denmark, see "Bronze Age Dagger."

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