WEST POMERANIA, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that a third medieval seal has been found in northwestern Poland. This lead seal was discovered by a group of metal detectorists looking for World War II artifacts. The preserved letters and iconography on the seal suggest that it was used to sign papal bulls, or decrees issued by the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The name on the seal is incomplete, but researchers from the Kamień Land History Museum estimate that the seal is about 650 years old. The popes who ruled between 1303 and 1352 include Benedict XI, Clement V, Benedict XII, and Clement VI. The seal may have been transported to the site with dirt from another location during road construction, or it may have been discarded at the side of the road as the bull was being transported to fourteenth-century bishops who lived in a castle about seven miles away. To read about the popes depicted on late medieval coins found in a box uncovered beneath a fifteenth- or sixteenth-century house in France, go to "A Catalog of Princes."
