3D model of a Bird Wagon (NHMW-PRAE-4.490)

<p>3D scan of a bronze bird wagon from the Bronze/Iron Age (ca. 800 BC). It was found in Glasinac near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1880. The bird wagon is an outstanding piece of art made by prehistoric bronze casters and a rare cult object with high symbolic content from an illiterate culture.&nbsp;</p><p>In the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age the people north of the Alps were
still illiterate. As a result, their myths and legends have not been
preserved. Symbolic items like this wagon of Glasinac show that people
had a wealth of mythical ideas in the first millennium BC. The wagon was
discovered in 1880 in a burial hill on the Glasinac plain and was sent
to Vienna as a gift.&nbsp;Except for the iron axels, the chariot is built out of bronze. The
rectangular chassis is decorated with two small bird figures, one
forming a vessel, the other the lid. The birds - sometimes interpreted as ducks - are thought to be seen as indicators of dominant
religious ideas, as water birds are able to navigate between the three
elements water, air and earth. Bird wagons are rare cult objects which
exact function is unknown.
Unlike this 3D model, the bottom duck is actually hollow.</p>