3D model of a Bird Wagon (NHMW-PRAE-4.490)

3D scan of a bronze bird wagon from the Bronze/Iron Age (ca. 800 BC). It was found in Glasinac near Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1880. The bird wagon is an outstanding piece of art made by prehistoric bronze casters and a rare cult object with high symbolic content from an illiterate culture. 

In the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age the people north of the Alps were still illiterate. As a result, their myths and legends have not been preserved. Symbolic items like this wagon of Glasinac show that people had a wealth of mythical ideas in the first millennium BC. The wagon was discovered in 1880 in a burial hill on the Glasinac plain and was sent to Vienna as a gift. Except for the iron axels, the chariot is built out of bronze. The rectangular chassis is decorated with two small bird figures, one forming a vessel, the other the lid. The birds - sometimes interpreted as ducks - are thought to be seen as indicators of dominant religious ideas, as water birds are able to navigate between the three elements water, air and earth. Bird wagons are rare cult objects which exact function is unknown. Unlike this 3D model, the bottom duck is actually hollow.

As this exhibit is quite fragile and handling should be kept to a minimum, scanning the surface was tricky. For these reasons and insufficient data on the inside of the front wheels, the back wheels were duplicated and used as front wheels as well. The original bottom part is hollow.