Czech researchers examine a stone spear mold once used to prop up a shed — ScienceAlert

In the village of Morkůvky in Moravia, Czechia, researchers examined a rare Late Bronze Age stone mold for casting spearheads. The artifact was found in 2007 by J. Tomanec during earthworks on his own property. Previously, one half of the mold was used as a support for an old shed, ScienceAlert reports.

Mold for casting spearheads

The find is made of rhyolitic tuff, a volcanic rock. It is 227 millimeters long and weighs about one kilogram. This is one half of a mold used to cast a socketed spearhead with longitudinal ribs.

Czech researchers, including specialists from the Moravian Museum, where the object is now kept, analyzed it using X-ray fluorescence analysis and X-ray diffraction. The results of the study were published in the journal Archeologické rozhledy in mid-2025.

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Traces of use

Numerous cracks and glassy bubbly slag formations, according to the researchers, indicate intensive use of the mold about 3,000–3,300 years ago, during the Urnfield culture of the Late Bronze Age.

The casting assembly consisted of three parts: two halves of the mold, fastened with copper wire, while the cavity was filled with tin bronze. A metal or clay rod formed a socket, allowing the finished spearhead to be attached to a wooden shaft.

Only two other similar molds have been reliably documented in Moravia, while such technologies are more common in the Carpathian Basin, particularly in Hungary and Transylvania. Researchers suggest that the rhyolitic tuff may have originated in the Bükk Mountains area in northern Hungary. In their view, the find indicates that raw materials for making stone molds may have been transported across Central Europe over tens or hundreds of kilometers.