Cast bronze Celtic ritual sickle from the Hallstatt Culture (about 800 to 475 BC). The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture during the local Bronze Age, and introduced the Iron Age. It is named for its type site, Hallstatt, a lakeside village in the Austrian Salzkammergut southeast of Salzburg.
The Roman Author Pliny the Elder described the Celtic ritual gathering of mistletoe which was found growing on an oak tree. A Druid, dressed in white, cut the mistletoe using a sickle and allowed it to fall on to a white piece of cloth. This ritual took place on the 6th night after the new moon. From this account, we see that the Druids held some importance to the color white, and use of a sickle.
MEASUREMENTS: 8 inches (20.3 cm) long.
CONDITION: green patina with earthen encrustation
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