Stumbling Bear
The stumbling bear is a figure made of amber . It is named after the place where it was found near what is now the Polish city of Slupsk (German Stolp). Originally, the Middle or Neolithic piece may have served as an amulet .
The bear is a maximum of 10.2 cm long, 3.5 cm wide and 4.2 cm high. Its weight is 85 grams. The material is transparent and honey yellow, the surface smooth and shiny. The animal shape was created by carving and polishing from a well-shaped piece of sea amber that had a natural opening. The body is compact and massive. While the legs were worked as only indicated bulges, the head shows clearly modeled ears, a snout with a carved mouth and two nostrils as well as two circularly framed eyes. The opening is in the back of the figure just before the hind legs begin. Remains of a dark substance were found on the head, suggesting that the eyes, nose and mouth were originally partially painted.
The figure cannot be definitely dated. Both a Mesolithic and a Neolithic origin were discussed, and a location in the Metal Age is not excluded. According to prehistorian Thomas Terberger and Jörg Ansorge, parallels are most likely to exist with Jutland amber bears, which are attributed to the Maglemose culture (8500-6500 BC ). Although there were other attempts at interpretation, such as a seal or a pig , the amber sculpture was quickly addressed as a bear . Signs of abrasion on both sides of the perforation prove that it was worn on a strap; nor can the bear stand on the bulging legs. A purely decorative function as a necklace seems unlikely, however, since the sculpture, worn as a pendant, hangs upside down and shows the viewer's back. On the other hand, it only unfolds its characteristic silhouette when viewed from the front at an angle. This effect is achieved when, for example, it is held in the hand and presented in this way. A magical function also suggests the importance of both the bear and amber in prehistoric imaginations.
The figure owes its discovery to the Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology in Stettin , whose collection it was acquired in 1887. All that is known about the find is that it was discovered in the peat near the town of Stolp. The figure is in excellent condition, but after it was recovered it was most likely polished by an unknown hand and the peat patina removed . The company later stored its inventory including the Stolper Bear in the Museum of the Provincial Collection of Pomeranian Antiquities in Stettin . Shortly before the end of the Second World War, the bear was moved to the Kulturhistorisches Museum Stralsund . In the course of a German-Polish exchange of cultural goods between 2007 and 2009, it was returned to the Szczecin Museum.
literature
- Thomas Terberger , Jörg Ansorge: The Amber Bear from Stolp (Słupsk, Poland) - a Mesolithic amulet? In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 30, 2000, pp. 335–352.