Golden Hat of Schifferstadt, Bronze Age ceremonial headdress in Speyer, Germany
The Golden Hat of Schifferstadt is a cone-shaped headdress made from thin gold sheet, standing roughly thirty centimeters tall with elaborate ring patterns across its surface. The piece displays concentric rows of embossed ornaments and ranks among the most important Bronze Age gold finds in central Europe.
A farm worker found the hat in 1835 while plowing a field near Schifferstadt alongside three bronze axes from the period between 1400 and 1300 before Christ. The discovery showed that craftspeople of this time already mastered complex metalworking techniques.
The ceremonial headdress represented the connection between religious leaders and celestial knowledge in Bronze Age central European societies, indicating advanced astronomical understanding.
The Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer displays the original in a climate-controlled case on the first floor of the building. Copies of the artifact can be viewed at Schifferstadt Town Hall and the local heritage museum.
Only four comparable golden cones have been found across all of Europe, and this hat is the oldest known example of its kind. Scientists suggest that the embossed patterns may represent an early lunar calendar.
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