Metal artifacts found in a volcano belonged to ancient people that we know very little about

A new study documents six hoards of metal objects at Somló Hill, a 1,414 foot (430 meter) volcanic butte in western Hungary. Including these hoards, hundreds of artifacts were logged by the team during only one season. The oldest items date back as far as 3,400 years.

The discoveries do more than fill shelves in a museum. They help close a long-standing knowledge gap between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in Central Europe.

Somló Hill metal hoard

The project was led by Bence Soós, an archaeologist and museologist at the Hungarian National Museum (HNM). His team set out to test whether Somló Hill served as a seat of power for elite groups.

Somló stands above the Marcal Basin and has drawn attention since the late 1800s. Farmers once turned up bracelets, weapons, and bronze vessels as they worked the surrounding vineyards.

Most of the first year’s artifacts were retrieved on the southeastern plateau. That pattern hints at a busy community center where people lived, worked, and likely controlled access.

Unraveling the story

Archaeologists use the word hoard for a collection of deliberately buried objects. Sometimes this is for ritual reasons and sometimes for safekeeping.

The Somló finds include jewelry, military decorations, and weapons, along with metal casting waste and ingots.

The oldest pieces date at around 1400 to 1300 B.C., while the majority fall between 1080 and 900 B.C. Those dates map to the Late Bronze Age and the early Hallstatt period.

This was the long pre-Roman era that frames much of early European metalworking.

One stash, Hoard V, was sealed inside a ceramic vessel. Archaeologists suspected that buried hoards would likely be found inside ceramic pots.

The only example ever found previously contained deposits from the tail end of the Late Bronze Age but it did not have a secure context.

So Hoard V matters in western Hungary because archaeologists gain information about how people chose and packed metal objects that they buried inside a ceramic receptacle.

Six metal hoards on Somló Hill

“Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers, our investigations documented the first metal hoards on Somló. In the first year of research, six Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age metal assemblages were discovered,” said Soós.

By April 2025, the team reported more than 900 metal finds. Most came from that same southeastern plateau.

Somló’s height and isolation make it easy to spot from miles away. That visibility often marks places where power was staged and displayed.

The 19th century finds already hinted at a strong presence on the hilltop between the 13th and 6th centuries B.C. The new work gives those hints a more precise shape.

Grave goods in nearby burial mounds indicate elite individuals who were tied to weapons and display items. The metal hoards strengthen the picture of clan-based communities that used the hill as a central place.

High-tech tools used

The team paired field walking and metal detection with airborne lidar. Lidar sends laser pulses from an aircraft and records their return to build a high-resolution model of the ground.

Those scans revealed subtle terraces and pathways that human eyes can miss. They also guided surveys toward areas with the best chance of preserving ancient features.

Magnetometry covered about 6.2 acres despite the presence of tough, volcanic bedrock that complicated readings. Even with that challenge, the data added context for where people moved and worked.

Bronze lumps, droplets, casting jets, and broken plano-convex ingots are not glamorous. They are the breadcrumbs of metalworking on site.

Together with the finished items, those scraps suggest local production, repair, and recycling. The hill was not only a lookout, it was a workshop.

Somló Hill diet and metal use

Sediment samples from one metal hoard held lentils, cereal fragments, and a handful of tiny grains. That mix matches what we know about Late Bronze and Early Iron Age diets in the region.

Across Europe, broomcorn millet spread quickly in the mid-second millennium B.C., as shown by a large radiocarbon study. The grains at Somló fit that larger story of flexible farming and fast moving crops.

The late ninth century B.C. is a murky time in the history of Transdanubia. The metal hoards from Somló now offer a clearer view into that transition.

Hoard V appears to mark the very end of the Late Bronze Age. Its mix of items shows that local groups maintained deposition customs even as new technologies and styles arrived.

Phalerae – ornate disks worn on harnesses or gear – turn up in the Somló assemblage. Fibulae – the pins that fastened clothing – do too.

These are not random belongings lost in the dirt. Their condition and combinations indicate planned deposition that could be tied to identity and rank.

Science inside the vessels

The researchers lifted two intact pots containing hoards so that nothing shifted or spilled. Researchers then used computed tomography (CT) to inspect how pieces sat inside the vessels, without opening them.

A large spearhead from Hoard I went one step further. Neutron tomography (NT) captured production traces and defects that ordinary X-rays would miss.

Next steps for Somló Hill metal study

Parts of a building have surfaced, but a full workshop has not. More excavation is planned around Hoard V to test whether it sits in a ritual zone or in a lived-in space.

Zooarchaeological material from Hoard I can be radiocarbon dated. That step will anchor the chronology of hoarding and habitation on the hill in absolute terms.

Taken together, the evidence points to a hilltop community with skilled craftspeople and leaders who used metal to project status.

They also used metal in ceremonies that mattered enough to them to bury the valuable goods.

The balance of weapons, ornaments, and working debris shows a society that made and managed metal at home. It protected that knowledge, and it marked power with carefully staged deposits.

Somló Hill does not answer every question about who lived there. It narrows the field and sets the stage for the next season.

The study is published in Antiquity.

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