- Bronocice pot
The Bronocice pot is a
ceramic vase incised with the earliest known image of what may be awheel ed vehicle. It was dated by the radiocarbon method to 3635-3370 BC and is attributed to the Funnelbeakerarchaeological culture . Today it is housed in the Archaeological Museum inKraków ,Poland .Discovery
The pot was discovered in
1976 during the archaeologicalexcavation of a largeNeolithic settlement in Bronocice by the Nidzica River, ca. 50 km to north east of Kraków. The excavations were carried out between1974 and1980 by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of thePolish Academy of Arts and Sciences and theState University of New York at Buffalo (USA ).Inscription
The
ornament on the pot symbolically depicts key elements of theprehistoric human environment. The most important component of the decoration are five rudimentary representations of what seems to be awagon . They represent a vehicle with a shaft for a draught animal, and four wheels. The lines connecting them probably representaxle s. The circle in the middle possibly symbolizes a container forharvest . Other images on the pot include a tree, a river and what may be fields intersected by roads/ditches or the layout of avillage .Historical implications
The image on the pot is the oldest known representation of a wheeled vehicle in the world. It implies the existence of wagons in Central Europe as early as in the 4th millennium BC. They were presumably drawn by
aurochs whose remains were found with the pot. Their horns were worn out as if tied with a rope, possibly a result of using a kind of yoke.ee also
External links
* [http://www.ma.krakow.pl/wystawy/wozy_z_bronocic Exhibition at the Archaeological Museum in Kraków. Photos and reconstruction (in Polish)]
* [http://www.archeo.pan.krakow.pl/engIAE.htm Details of research carried out by the Polish Academy of Sciences (in English)]
* [http://www.bronocice.dzialoszyce.info/waza.htm Local website with photos (in Polish)]
* [http://piccolo.pizza.webpark.pl/wzbron.html Original inscription (in Polish)]
* [http://archiwum.wiz.pl/1996/96083600.asp Popular science magazine article (in Polish)]
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