Pin

The title relic is a small piece of jewellery discovered in the village of Kosiorów, in Opole district. It was made over 2.5 thousand years ago by representatives of the Lusatian Culture, who inhabited the present Lublin region.

Pins similar to the one shown here were used by people in the past both as decoration and to perform a more useful function; they could be used to fasten clothes or fix hair.

And how such items were made?

The pin described here was made of bronze, which is an alloy of two metals - copper and tin (in proportions of approximately 9:1). It was made using the “lost wax” method, which involved making a model of the pin in wax with small tools and then covering it with clay. The clay was then allowed to dry and the clay model was placed in the fire so that the wax spike inside melted and flowed out. This resulted in a clay mould with a hollow negative of the spike inside. The next step in the process of making the pin was to pour liquid bronze inside, which carefully filled the space left by the wax. After waiting for the metal to cool, the clay mould was broken and the artist saw the bronze pin. Any unnecessary residue from the casting process could be removed by grinding the pin on a stone. At the end, the finished product was rubbed with animal skin to achieve the best possible shine.

The pin made in this way was characterized by one more thing. As the clay mould was destroyed with the lost wax method, each pin created in this way was unique.