Archaeological excavations – stock image.Photo:Getty
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Archaeologists in the Czech Republic have stumbled acrossan incredible find— an apparent 1,000-year-old ice skate!
In an interview withRadio Prague Internationalpublished on March 14, archaeologist Zdeněk Schenk, who led a team of researchers, said that the ice skate was made with an animal’s bone rather than metal.
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“The object has a specific shape,” Schenk explained in the interview, perThe Debrief. “On one side, it is curved into a tip which has a hole drilled in it, and there is another hole at the back.”
archaeologist excavating – stock image.Getty
According to the outlet, the ice skate was discovered in the city of Přerov, near the Monrovia region during a “rescue” excavation in the basement of a home in the area.
Researchers with the Comenius Museum in Přerov had been on a different assignment for the house when the discovery was made, perNewsweek.
During the interview, Schenk said that the centuries-old innovation was resistant to rust thanks to the material being built from the bone of an animal, though it is unknown what type of mammal remains were used. He said it may have been made from a horse bone.
He also described how the ice skates were made.
“[The holes] were used to thread a strap through, which was used to attach the skate to a shoe or to a wooden sledge,” Schenk told Radio Prague International.
Archeologist – stock image.Getty
“It dates back to the time when there was a very important fortress in the area of the Upper Square,” the archaeologist said. “It served as a stronghold for Polish King Boleslav the Brave, who occupied Moravia at the time and had his soldiers stationed there.”
Schenk told Radio Prague International that whoever used the ice skates likely did so for more practical use instead of sporting or leisure activities seen in modern times.
“Rather than skating, they would shuffle along the frozen surface with the help of a stick or two,” Schenk said.
As remarkable as the discovery is, the archaeologist noted that similar finds have been reported in other European locations, possibly linking them to Nordic origins.
“We know of other similar pieces found in Central Europe and especially in north-western Europe, in Scandinavia,” Schenk told Radio Prague International. “They mostly come from the same time frame as the one from Přerov, and they are often found in 10th-century Viking settlements.”
“The bone skate from Přerov is nearly identical to skates recovered in northern Europe, for example from Birka in Sweden—a very famous archaeological site from the Viking Age—and also from York in England or Dublin in Ireland,” the archaeologist also told Newsweek.
source: people.com
