Rings, decorative rings, belt discs and bowls

The Museum of Prehistory and Early History owns the world’s largest collection of Bronze Age treasures originally concealed in the ground, or, in many cases, sunk in a bog as with the abundant metal items found at Biesenbrow. These hoards can be interpreted in several different ways. Probably these were gifts intended to propitiate the powers held responsible for shaping human destiny. Social groups needed communal rites to hold them together, and in the Bronze Age the depositing of valuable items represented such a ritual. These hoards could also have been places of safe concealment in times of war, traders’ stores, or preparations for the next world.