Man picks up rusty items from forest floor — and finds Roman-era artifacts in Poland
Hidden in a forest of southeastern Poland sat a collection of objects. The artifacts had been abandoned and forgotten for centuries — not anymore.
Mateusz Filipowicz was at a state forest in Hrubieszów when he noticed a rusty item hidden in the leaves, the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments said in a Jan. 16 Facebook post.
Filipowicz picked the rusty item off the forest floor and found several more objects nearby, officials said. The items were mixed with mud and hard to identify.
Archaeologists recognized the rusty objects as a set of ancient Roman-era weapons.
In total, Filipowicz found 15 iron artifacts, officials said. The collection included nine iron spearheads, two iron battle axes, another ax and three mysterious objects that archaeologists tentatively identified as an iron shield holder and pair of iron points.
Photos show the rusty ancient Roman-era artifacts.
The weapons dated back at least 1,500 years, officials said.
Excavations of the forest area found no bones or other artifacts, indicating the site was not a grave. Instead, the weapons were likely packed into a bag and dumped into a swamp, archaeologists said.
Archaeologists said the weapons were likely used by an ancient barbaric tribe, either the Przeworsk warrior culture or the Gothic culture. Remnants of both cultures have been found near Hrubieszów.
Officials said the artifacts were taken to the Museum of the Priest Stanisław Staszic, where they will be cleaned, analyzed and conserved. Archaeologists plan to revisit the site where the objects were found during the spring.
Hrubieszów is a town about 160 miles southeast of Warsaw and along the Poland-Ukraine border.
Google Translate was used to translate the Facebook post from the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments.
This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Man picks up rusty items from forest floor — and finds Roman-era artifacts in Poland."
