BOJNÁ, SLOVAKIA—The Slovak Spectator reports that a treasure trove of iron objects was discovered in a stone oven in western Slovakia. Karol Pieta of the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences said that some 1,100 years ago, the items, including bits for horses’ bridles and two keys, were placed in an earthenware pot and hidden in the oven, which was located in a system of Great Moravian hill forts guarding a pass through the mountains. “We can assume that the inhabitants hid the precious iron objects in a functioning oven when the fortification was suddenly invaded,” Pieta said. The forts are thought to have been burned down and abandoned in the tenth century. The fortifications are being reconstructed to look as they did in the ninth century. For more, go to “Letter From Wales: Hillforts of the Iron Age.”
