Archaeologists have discovered a bronze artifact created around 1,200 years ago that depicts a snake devouring a frog-like creature.
The object, a type of belt fitting, was uncovered during metal-detecting prospection near the town of Břeclav in the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, a landlocked country in Central Europe.
The "exceptional" scene that it depicts represents an important origin myth—which references the creation of the world—known to various early medieval populations living in Central Europe, according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The iconography is also associated with fertility myths.
Intriguingly, almost identical bronze belt ends with the same depictions have been found in Central Europe at other locations hundreds of miles apart.
In the study, researchers analyzed four of these belt ends, including the one found near Břeclav, that have been discovered in the past decade. The remaining three were found in Germany, Hungary and another location in the Czech Republic, in the region of Bohemia.
According to the study, the belt ends likely came from the same workshop and/or are derived from a common model, even though they were found in very distant regions. The find suggests the existence of a previously unknown pagan cult that connected populations of different origins in the early medieval period of European history.
"When the belt with the motif of a snake eating a frog was discovered with the help of metal detectors in the South Moravian location near Břeclav, we believed that it was a unique find with a unique decoration," said Jiří Macháček, a co-author of the study who is with the Czech Republic's Masaryk University, in a press release.
"However, we later found out that other almost identical [artifacts] are also found in the territory of Germany, Hungary and Bohemia," he continued. "I realized that we are on the trail of a hitherto unknown pagan cult that connected different regions of Central Europe in the early Middle Ages before the advent of Christianity. That's why we organized an international scientific team that began to deal with the findings in detail."
According to the archaeologists, the artifact found near Břeclav belongs to a group of so-called Avar belt fittings, which were produced in Central Europe in the seventh and eighth centuries. These ornate belt fittings were an important part of the costume of the Avars, an originally nomadic people of Asian origin who eventually created a multi-ethnic empire covering parts of Central and southeastern Europe that lasted over 200 years. The fashion of the Avars was also adopted by surrounding peoples, such as the Slavs.
Scientific analysis of the belt ends confirmed that there was long-distance contact between Avar and non-Avar elites across Central Europe, according to Macháček.
"The motif of a serpent or serpent devouring its victim appears in Germanic as well as Avar or Slavic mythology," Macháček said. "It was a universally understood and important ideogram.
"Today, we do not understand its exact meaning, but at the beginning of the Middle Ages, it united the different peoples living in Central Europe on a spiritual level," Macháček told Newsweek.
Update 12/22/23, 12:12 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comments from Jiří Macháček.
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