Paweł Valde-Nowak

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

# Session of the Commission on the Prehistory of the Carpathians on the subject of numerous bronze deposits in the Slanské Mountains

On May 6, 2025, a session of the Commission on the Prehistory of the Carpathians was held in the Small Hall of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. It had the character of a session devoted to the topic of mountains that, in prehistoric times, could have been places chosen for ritual and votive behaviours, and could even have served sacred functions. The guests, as well as the speakers, were representatives of the environment of monument protection and museum services in the Slovak Republic. They were: Mgr. Peter Bisták, PhD. - Head of the Archaeology Department of the Regional Office for the Protection of Monuments in Bratislava, Mgr Juraj Timura - Office for the Protection of Monuments in Prešov, Mgr Erika Makarová, Ph.D. - Office for the Protection of Monuments in Bratislava and Ing. Samuel Bruss - Deputy Director of the Regional Museum in Prešov, Head of the Museum in Hanušovce nad Toplí. Their block of statements, delivered in Slovak (PowerPoint presentation in English), was entitled *Posvätná hora Oblík v Slanských vrchoch*.

The meeting aimed to present the exceptionally numerous archaeological findings recorded for many years on Mount Oblik in the Slanské Mountains, located in the village of Hermanovce, district. Vranov nad Topľou.
The first speaker was Dr. Peter Bistak, who presented a brief history of discoveries on Mount Oblik, referring to old press reports and archival notes (Fig. 1). The first monuments, in the form of elements of treasures of objects from the Bronze Age, were found already in the 19th century. However, an increase in this type of discovery has been observed in recent years. This coincided with the popularity of metal detectors and the activity of detectorists, which in turn coincided with the already large-scale market of traders in archaeological relics, mainly relics from the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. Further referents, Juraj Timura and Samuel Bruss, highlighted the scale of the phenomenon, providing information about hundreds of bronze and even gold objects, a small part of which ended up in nearby museums, mainly the Regional Museum in Prešov and its branches. It was noted that many local

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**FIG. 1.** Small Hall of the Polish Academy of Arts. MA Peter Bisták, PhD., during the opening speech. They are sitting from the right, Mgr Erika Makarová, Ph.D., Mgr Juraj Timura, Ing. Samuel Bruss</figcaption></figure>
finders, including school children, cooperate with the conservation services and selflessly transfer finds to museum collections, informing about the circumstances of a specific discovery. Erika Makarová provided a lot of specific data on the finds from Oblik in her presentation. She demonstrated a series of multi-element deposits of bronze bracelets, armlets, necklaces and pins, as well as swords, indicating that the vast majority of them can be dated to the younger Bronze Age and associated with the Gava culture. Individual gold objects are also noteworthy. One of the gold objects discussed in the presentation by E. Makarová was considered in the discussion to be a belt end fitting from the La Tène period.

The speakers emphasised that these finds are not accompanied by settlement or grave traces, and that there are many bare rocks on the top and slopes of the mountain. On one of the monoliths at the very top, a petroglyph in the form of a necklace typical of the Bronze Age was carved.

In conclusion, a cult interpretation of the deposits, deposited repeatedly on the exposed mountain peak, was proposed, also emphasising its location on the trail leading north through the Carpathian massif.

Several listeners took the floor in the discussion, including Prof. Renata Madyda-Legutko, Prof. Wojciech Blajer, Dr. Krzysztof Tunia, Dr. Paweł Madej and the undersigned. Attention was drawn to the increasingly boldly signalled phenomenon of sacred mountains in archaeology, pointing to Mount Sinai, which has long been discussed in this context (Anati 1986). Reference was also made to the Mount Wrocławski massif, similar to Mount Oblik, on the Polish side of the northern foreland of the Low Beskids, studied for several seasons (Blajer et al. 2022), where a concentration of deposits from the Bronze Age and the period of Roman influence was also found, as well as to Mount Ślęża in Lower Silesia, visible from many kilometers away, associated with a prehistoric and Slavic cult object (Domański 2002). Also mentioned was the doctoral dissertation on the sacred Mayan mountains defended in 2024 at the Jagiellonian University (Więckowska 2023).

## REFERENCES

* Anati E. 1986. *Har Karkom Montagna di Dio*, L’Umana Avventura, autumn’86, 57-67.

* Blajer W., Bochnak T., Cywa K., Garbacz-Klempka A., Glinianowicz G., Jurecki P., Kotowicz P., Kuropka P., Łucejko J. J., Maciejewski M., Mueller-Bieniek A., Nowak K., Przybyła M. M., Skowron K. (eds.) 2022. *Ku czci bogów i ludzi. Skarby z okolic Sanoka*, Lublin-Sanok.
Domański G. 2002. Ślęża w pradziejach i średniowieczu, Wrocław.

Więckowska M. 2023. Góra jako byt żywy w ujęciu archeologii krajobrazu. Architektura inspirowana krajobrazem sakralnym w Centralnym Meksyku, typescript of the doctoral thesis in the Archives of the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków.

ADDRESS OF THE AUTHOR

Paweł Valde-Nowak

Institute of Archaeology
Jagiellonian University
Gołębia 11, 31-007 Kraków, Poland
p.valde-nowak@uj.edu.pl
ORCID 0000-0003-1023-7389