Amazing Artefacts: The Amber Bear Of Slupsk

This is the Amber Bear of Slupsk. It looks delightfully like a gummy bear, but it’s actually 3,000 years old!

Found in a peat bog near Slupsk, Poland, this little amber bear is thought to be roughly 3,000 years old. Some archaeologists think it might be even older as similar amber bears (and other little amber animals like birds and elk) have been found at sites in Jutland, Denmark, dating to the Mesolithic period (12,000-3,900 BC).

Many of them have faint grooves on which look as though they were caused by the rubbing of string. Were they worn as a lucky charm? Archaeologists seem to think so! Either way, they’re adorable and whoever lost this little bear to the bog all those years ago must have been devastated. Thankfully, it’s now safe and sound at Szczecin Museum in Poland.