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2,800-year-old ornate dagger unearthed on Poland’s Baltic coast

02.04.2025 15:00
Polish explorers have uncovered a 2,800-year-old dagger, elaborately decorated and likely from the early Iron Age, embedded in a collapsed coastal cliff along the country’s Baltic shore.
Photo:
Photo:Muzeum Historii Ziemi Kamieńskiej/Facebook

Members of the St. Cordula Association for the Saving of Monuments discovered the weapon on Sunday after a section of cliff fell onto the beach, revealing the find.

“This is my most valuable discovery,” association president Jacek Ukowski told local media. “I went there with a metal detector because it started to ring on a block of clay.”

Measuring 24.2 centimeters, the blade—associated with the Hallstatt period, known for advanced metalworking—features intricate engravings of crescents, crosses, and possibly constellations.

“As for finds in Poland, I have not come across such a dagger,” said Grzegorz Kurka, director of the Museum of the History of Kamień Land, where the relic has been donated.

Kurka believes the blade may have been a ritual object linked to a solar cult, or part of a wealthy warrior’s arsenal, and may have been produced in a southern European workshop.

“It is a true work of art,” he said. “The craftsmanship indicates remarkable metallurgical skill.”

Officials declined to reveal the precise location on Poland’s west coast where the dagger was unearthed, citing the site’s vulnerability to looters.

The Hallstatt culture, which thrived in central Europe from roughly 800 to 450 BC, is celebrated for its sophisticated metal industries and far-reaching trade networks.

(jh)

Source: TVN24, RMF24