A pocket sundial made of bone at the end of the 16th century was found by archaeologists during excavations at the construction site of an apartment building in Kaliningrad, told reporters in the regional art and history museum.
“The most valuable find for archaeologists is a pocket sundial made of bone. On the inside of the lid, there is a vertical dial with Roman numerals, in the lower part - the date of manufacture (ANNO 1599). On the inside of the case, we see a horizontal dial with Arabic numerals and a magnetic compass,”the museum said.
As the museum specialists noted, this type of sundial was developed for local use, that is, only for a certain latitude (approximately from the modern city of Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region to the Polish city of Malbork). On the body and the lid there are holes for fastening the string, by the shadow of which the time was determined.
According to Evgeny Kalashnikov, director of the research and production organization Baltspetsarcheologiya, which was engaged in archaeological excavations, only a literate person, perhaps a professor at Albertina University, could use such a mechanism. This watch was very expensive and rare even at that time. Previously, there were no such finds in the area.
The museum added that in addition to watches, archaeologists discovered two more rare items that were used by the inhabitants of Königsberg in the 16th-17th centuries. It is a pewter goblet from 1590 and a 16th century brass dish, decorated with a bird and circular floral designs. Such finds are considered a great success for researchers, since household items made of tin and brass at the end of their service life were most often sent for melting.
"Baltspetsarcheologiya" conducted archaeological field work in 2017-2018 on the territory of the identified archaeological heritage site "Cultural layer of the city of Konigsberg of the 17th - early 20th centuries" in the construction zone of an apartment building on Klinicheskaya Street in Kaliningrad. The construction site is located in the historical part of Konigsberg (formerly Kaliningrad), which was formerly called Forder Rossgarten.