Hoarding bronze objects has become a widespread phenomenon towards the end of 2nd millennium BC in Europe.

Bronze age hoards mostly contained broken and used items like weapons, tools, pieces of attire and ingots.
these depots were places of supplications and items as votive or purification offerings. In some places, rituals also took place nearby the hoards, and items donated to the underworld.

Some such places had interregional fame and were visited by people from far and wide, bringing with them artifacts of their own cultures and customs. These continued into the iron age, as first iron weapons were placed into such hoards.

The majority of such items are indeed weapons, which had already taken some damaged. It is presumed that victorious warriors had taken equipment of their defeated foe and offered it to the underworld. Similar rituals are described in some of the first written records of Italic, Etruscan and Venetian records, and much later by ancient Greek and Roman authors.

While some hoards were not meant to be withdrawn, others were placed so they could still be accessed - items taken out or replaced at a later time. These sites had a function more similar to a temporary treasury, rather than a religious sanctuary.


Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…

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