Starting from the 15th century BCE, ancient people buried at least six metal treasures around a mysterious settlement located atop the extinct Somló volcano in western Hungary. This was revealed by a new study utilizing lidar technology and metal detectors.
Between 2023 and 2025, archaeologists unearthed over 900 artifacts from the Late Bronze Age (1450-800 BCE) and Early Iron Age (800-450 BCE), including jewelry, military awards, and weapons.
The oldest finds from the Late Bronze Age date back to 1400-1300 BCE. While most items belong to the Bronze Age, particularly from the period of 1080-900 BCE.
In addition to metal objects, the team discovered amber beads, remnants of textiles and leather, as well as boar and domestic pig tusks.
What Did the Scientists Report?
According to the scientists’ report, archaeological work was conducted on the volcanic hill of Somló, which rises above the relatively flat landscape. Today, this region is primarily known for its wine production. However, in the late 19th century, researchers recognized it as an important archaeological site. The first ancient artifacts were unearthed by local farmers and winemakers, explained lead researcher Bence Soos, an archaeologist from the Hungarian National Museum, to Live Science.
Farmers and vintners discovered, among other things, jewelry, weapons, and bronze vessels. The quantity and quality of the finds indicated a significant settlement that existed on the hill between the 13th and 6th centuries BCE. However, researchers still do not know which specific people inhabited this area during that time.
Among the oldest finds here are burial items from the Early Iron Age, uncovered in monumental burial mounds. Some researchers have suggested that notable sites like Somló served as centers for an elite class of warrior leaders.
Beginning a new major study, Soos’s team employed metal detectors as well as lidar (a technology that gathers information about distant objects using lasers, relying on the principles of light reflection and scattering).
Most of the metal artifacts were found on a plateau in the southeastern part of the hill. Among them were many items related to bronze processing.
The discoveries clearly indicate a transition between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the region at the end of the ninth century BCE. According to Soos, this period has not been extensively studied by researchers.
In particular, the so-called Treasure V is the first evidence of the practice of burying metal objects for ritual or symbolic purposes. It also features metal artifacts stored in ceramic vessels: this is the first such example in western Hungary from the end of the Late Bronze Age.
The finds at Somló suggest that between the 13th and 6th centuries BCE, there were likely tribal or clan communities led by elite warriors. This area may have been one of their centers of power, as well as a residence for a developed society whose culture involved the storage of metal treasures, Soos stated.
He and his colleagues discovered parts of a structure that could have been a metalworking workshop. The team hopes that further research will shed more light on the timeline of the settlement of Somló Hill and the traditions of its ancient inhabitants.
The study’s results were published in the journal Antiquity.