"The small devotional object is extraordinary due to its age, bearing witness to the early Christianization of the Brandenburg region, but most remarkably, it exactly matches a casting mold found 43 years ago. The cross was found by volunteer archaeological monument conservator Juliane Rangnow during an authorized metal detecting survey. She discovered several artifacts from the same period coins, fragments of gilded jewelry and iron weapons at the site. The mold it fits was unearthed in a 1983 excavation of a Slavic hillfort in Spandau. It was found next to the remains of a wooden church, and is one of the oldest Christian artifacts found in the region."
"The cross was conserved and documented at the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM). When precise measurements were taken, conservators realized it might be a match to the Spandau casting mold, now on display at the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin. When the two were compared, they were found to be a precise fit. The casting mold and cross bear witness to the early Christianization of the region , one of the most fascinating periods in its history."
A 10th- or 11th-century bronze wheel cross was recovered in western Havelland, Brandenburg, by volunteer archaeological monument conservator Juliane Rangnow during an authorized metal detecting survey. Several contemporaneous finds accompanied the cross, including coins, fragments of gilded jewelry and iron weapons. Precise measurements linked the cross to a casting mold unearthed in 1983 at a Slavic hillfort in Spandau, found near wooden church remains and now exhibited in Berlin. The cross was conserved and documented at the Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM). The paired objects provide physical evidence for the early Christianization of the region amid 10th-century East Frankish influence and subsequent Slavic resistance.
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