A rare, enamelled fibula unearthed near Grudziądz is being hailed as only the second discovery of its kind in Poland.
Members of the Grudziądz Fortress Association found the artefact during a routine metal-detector survey.
Association president Patryk Budziński described the moment the team realised they had uncovered something extraordinary and immediately notified the Voivodeship Conservation Authority.
Previous surveys in the surrounding area yielded Roman ceramics, several fibulae, a cosmetic spoon, fragments of belt pendants, a spur, a hair ornament, a Teutonic coin, and even a Scythian spearhead.
Such a varied assemblage suggests a multicultural settlement located near the historic Amber Road, an important trade corridor linking the Baltic with the Roman world.
Although the newly found brooch is still under analysis, researchers cautiously compare it with a similar fibula excavated from a child’s grave at the barrow cemetery in Babi Dół-Borcz in the Somonino commune.
This site, investigated between 1978 and 2015 by teams from the Jagiellonian University and the University of Łódź, is associated with the Wielbark culture, which is connected to the arrival of Goths from Scandinavia in the first centuries AD.
The Babi Dół-Borcz fibula is a 3.3-centimetre circular disc with a central knob, decorated with alternating white and blue enamel and a red enamel ring around the centre. The Grudziądz example appears nearly identical, though slightly larger and featuring 12 protrusions rather than eight.
Enamelled brooches of this type were produced across the Roman provinces, particularly in Gaul and Rhaetia, from the late first to the mid-second century AD. Often worn by girls, they likely served not only as ornaments but also as toys or protective amulets.
All finds have been secured and reported to the Provincial Conservation Office and will eventually be exhibited at the Museum in Bydgoszcz.
Sources : Grudziądz Fortress Association
