WARSAW, POLAND—A 4,000-year-old ritual site has been unearthed on a hilltop in northeastern Poland. Fragments of decorated cups and bowls made by the Bell Beaker culture were found surrounded by burned bones and a fragment of an amber bead. A second amber object was found nearby. “Amber was an exotic and prestigious material for the Bell Beaker communities, and never before found in Podlasie. These discovered ornaments are among the oldest objects of this type in the region,” archaeologist Dariusz Manasterski of the University of Warsaw told Science & Scholarship in Poland. Stone tools, including an adze, a fragment of a curved blade, and fragments of a dagger were found, along with arrowheads and other blades and knives made of flint. “The entire ritual deposit is an exceptional find in central Europe. It contains one of the richest collections of objects usually found in the elite graves in Western Europe from this period,” he added. Understanding how those artifacts traveled so far east requires further investigation. To read about 4,000-year-old Bronze Age rituals in Eastern Europe, see "Wolf Rites of Winter."
