"A copper alloy ingot from the from the Scandinavian pre-Roman Iron Age that emerged from Sardal on the west coast of Sweden, in 2022 is the first of its kind ever found in Sweden. An analysis of its composition has found it is also a metallurgic twin to metal hoards from the same period found in Poland. It was actually discovered almost 50 years ago by the Pedersen family when they were digging a fence post hole in their garden."
"No other objects were found with it or in the immediate area. They didn't recognize it as a prehistoric artifact and stored it in their workshop for night on five decades until a friend of the family who was an amateur historian suggested that they show it to archaeologists at the Halland Museum of Cultural History. It is a plano-convex ingot, a disc-shaped artifact with a flat topside and curved underside manufactured by open casting into a shallow mould or cavity in the ground."
A copper alloy plano-convex ingot from Sardal on Sweden's west coast, recovered in 2022, is the first of its kind found in Sweden and is metallurgically identical to contemporaneous Polish hoards. The ingot was dug up nearly fifty years earlier by the Pedersen family, stored in a workshop, and identified only after an amateur historian recommended showing it to archaeologists. The disc-shaped bun ingot was produced by open casting into a shallow mould. Such ingots circulated across the Mediterranean and Europe, indicating massive long-distance copper trade into Scandinavia from southern Europe during the Bronze and early Iron Ages. Lead isotope and elemental analysis can pinpoint ore origin and chronology, making ingots key evidence for metal sourcing and trade.
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