Archaeologists have discovered a remarkable medieval artifact: an ice skate made from animal bone, produced around 1,000 years ago.
Radio Prague International (RPI) reported that the object was uncovered during excavations in the center of Přerov, a city in the Czech Republic’s Moravia region.
Experts from the Comenius Museum in Přerov were in the midst of a rescue dig in the basement of a house located on the city’s Upper Square when they came across the bone skate while sifting through soil.
An archaeologist with the museum, Zdeněk Schenk, told Newsweek that the artifact probably dates to the second half of the 10th century or the first quarter of the 11th century. This estimate comes from the fact that researchers found it amid pottery fragments that are characteristic of this period.
Zdeněk Schenk/The Comenius Museum in Přerov
“It dates back to the time when there was a very important fortress in the area of the Upper Square. 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 RPI.
The object is most likely made from a horse bone, probably one from the shin, according to the archaeologist.
“The object has a specific shape. On one side, it is curved into a tip which has a hole drilled in it and there is another hole at the back. They were used to thread a strap through, which was used to attach the skate to a shoe or to a wooden sledge,” Schenk said.
According to Schenk, the people who used this item around 1,000 years ago did not use the blades for sports or leisure but simply to get around in the frigid winter months.
“Rather than skating, they would shuffle along the frozen surface with the help of a stick or two. They would also attach the blades to sledges to carry a load of goods across the frozen water,” Schenk said.
The bone skate is not the first such object to be found in Přerov. In 2009, a similar artifact was uncovered in the city, for example. In addition, ice skates made of cattle or horse bones have been found in other parts of Europe.
“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,” Schenk told Newsweek.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.