WARSAW, POLAND—A newly published book reveals that archaeologists from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Archaeology Affairs Office of Saxony found the secret site where a golden Scythian hoard was discovered 130 years ago. The “Witaszkowo Treasure,” which dates to the sixth century B.C., includes a shield-shaped ornament, a pendant, a fish-shaped bow and arrow case or gorytos, a Scythian short sword, a dagger, and scabbard fittings. It had been thought that the items belonged to a Scythian leader who had been killed while fighting in what is now western Poland, but the research team speculates that the items, which had never been used, may have been a gift from the Scythians to local chiefs. The site features a ceremonial spring walled with stones that contained hundreds of bowls similar to Greek libation vessels and glass beads that may have come from the Black Sea region. The ritual area around the spring had been paved with stones, and there are remains of a wooden bridge that connected the spring to a vast hearth. “The discovery allowed us to reject the previously prevailing belief that the Witaszkowo Treasure was the spoils of war captured by the local population during battle with Scythian invaders, or a Scythian chieftain’s grave,” team leader Zbigniew Kobyliński told Science & Scholarship in Poland. For a similar discovery made in Bulgaria, see "Thracian Treasure Chest."
