Mysterious 3,500-Year-Old Metal Hand Discovered in Ancient Swiss Burial. #ancient #treasure
57In the vicinity of Prêles village, treasure seekers in Switzerland looked for riches in 2017.
They disturbed an old burial in the process.
A bronze knife, an odd metal hand, and a rib bone were among the objects they discovered.
The hand was the main attraction when the treasure seekers turned over this cache to the Canton of Bern's Archaeological Service.
The artifact, which was somewhat smaller than a human hand and adorned with a gold cuff, was fashioned from bronze and tin.
It had a hollow socket at the bottom and weighed over eighteen ounces .
The hand may have been a prosthetic, a ceremonial piece originally carried on a scepter, or a component of a statue, though none of these theories can be verified beyond a reasonable doubt.
Given that the man was buried with it, it was either a status symbol or a prosthetic.
Whatever it was, the rare relic is the oldest known metal sculpture of a human body part found in Europe, dating back 3,500 years.