The large bronze treasure from Klein Neundorf is coming to Görlitz and will be shown to the public for the first time in an exhibition in the Kaisertrutz from January 16 to March 15, 2026. The State Office for Archaeology of Saxony in Dresden only officially presented this sensational find in August of this year.
Background information on the exhibition
Weighing over 16 kilograms in total, the find from the summer of 2023 is the second largest Bronze Age hoard to come to light in the Free State of Saxony to date. It will now be on display in the Kaisertrutz Görlitz from January 16 to March 15, 2026 - a unique opportunity, as the treasure will then disappear from public view for a long time. It will then be extensively restored, scientifically examined and can only be shown again once this work has been completed.
This important bronze treasure was buried near Klein Neundorf around 3,000 years ago. It comprises over 300 objects: 136 sickles, 50 hatchets, several arm and neck rings, a decorative pin, a garment clasp, parts of a horse harness and a sword broken into pieces. Burying and hiding valuable objects was widespread in the Bronze Age. Archaeologists suspect religious motives behind this - offerings to the gods.
As early as 1900, children found two bronze daggers and an axe in a field near the village. They later ended up in the Görlitz Collections of History and Culture; one dagger and the axe were lost during the Second World War. The shape of the daggers clearly shows contacts to the Eastern Caucasus, but they were probably made locally according to foreign models.
In August 2023, the Görlitz Collections for History and Culture and the Saxon State Office for Archaeology attempted to find the old site again and, if necessary, to recover further finds. Shortly before the search was abandoned, the volunteer archaeologist Henry Herrmann came across fragments of bronze crescents. In a subsequent excavation, the largely untouched hoard was recovered compactly in a block of earth and carefully uncovered and scientifically documented in the laboratory of the Saxony State Office for Archaeology in Dresden.
The presentation of the treasure is an extraordinary moment for the Görlitz collections.
Background information on the exhibition
Weighing over 16 kilograms in total, the find from the summer of 2023 is the second largest Bronze Age hoard to come to light in the Free State of Saxony to date. It will now be on display in the Kaisertrutz Görlitz from January 16 to March 15, 2026 - a unique opportunity, as the treasure will then disappear from public view for a long time. It will then be extensively restored, scientifically examined and can only be shown again once this work has been completed.
This important bronze treasure was buried near Klein Neundorf around 3,000 years ago. It comprises over 300 objects: 136 sickles, 50 hatchets, several arm and neck rings, a decorative pin, a garment clasp, parts of a horse harness and a sword broken into pieces. Burying and hiding valuable objects was widespread in the Bronze Age. Archaeologists suspect religious motives behind this - offerings to the gods.
As early as 1900, children found two bronze daggers and an axe in a field near the village. They later ended up in the Görlitz Collections of History and Culture; one dagger and the axe were lost during the Second World War. The shape of the daggers clearly shows contacts to the Eastern Caucasus, but they were probably made locally according to foreign models.
In August 2023, the Görlitz Collections for History and Culture and the Saxon State Office for Archaeology attempted to find the old site again and, if necessary, to recover further finds. Shortly before the search was abandoned, the volunteer archaeologist Henry Herrmann came across fragments of bronze crescents. In a subsequent excavation, the largely untouched hoard was recovered compactly in a block of earth and carefully uncovered and scientifically documented in the laboratory of the Saxony State Office for Archaeology in Dresden.
The presentation of the treasure is an extraordinary moment for the Görlitz collections.