“Looted Warriors” from Eastern Europe

Abstract

The study discusses and calls attention to assemblages that are recent victims of illicit metal detectoring in Eastern Europe. The first one is a Ha B1 sword hoard, allegedly from Mátészalka (Hungary, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County). The assemblage was looted in 2017. In less than a year, two of the finds have entered the British antiquities market and they were sold under fake provenance. The second find could have been a late Period V (Ha B3) elite burial. The looted assemblage has appeared on the domongol.org metal detectorist blog, and it is allegedly originating from “Ternopil Oblast” (Ukraine). It contains a bell helmet with solar barge decoration and a fragment of a unique Hajdúböszörmény-type situla, the parallels of which relate this find to the Rivoli (Italy) burial and the metallurgical sphere of the Eary Iron Age.