12-year-old notices metal object in dirt driveway — and finds medieval weapon. See it
After construction work on a driveway in Poland finished, a 12-year-old boy noticed something metallic in the dirt. He thought the item looked historic — and it was.
Witold Bołtuć spotted the metal item in Wilków after extra dirt had been brought over from the nearby town of Kłodnica and added to the driveway, the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments said in a Dec. 7 Facebook post.
His parents reported the find to archaeological authorities, who identified it as a mace head from the 12th to 14th centuries.
A mace is a type of blunted weapon similar to a club that was popular in eastern Europe during medieval times, archaeologists said. The weapon has a wooden or metal handle topped with a metal head.
Mace heads were made in a variety of shapes, the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments said in a previous release. The one found by Witold was identified as a star-shaped head.
Photos show the 600-year-old spiky artifact. Overall, it has a shaft topped with several now-blunted spikes pointing in different directions.
The mace head is about three inches tall and shows signs of heavy use, officials said. The spikes are visibly bent or dulled, photos show.
Archaeologists don’t know if the mace head was damaged through fighting or through use as a tool, such as a hammer.
Kłodnica, the town where the artifact was initially dug up, is about 100 miles southeast of Warsaw.
Witold’s find will be given to a local museum, the release said.
Google Translate was used to translate the Facebook posts from the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments.
This story was originally published December 7, 2023 at 10:55 AM with the headline "12-year-old notices metal object in dirt driveway — and finds medieval weapon. See it."
