A pair of anklets from Wielgolas Duchnowski, Mińsk Mazowiecki County, was discovered by chance in 2021. The place of their discovery indicated by the finder was designated as site 3 of the village in question and as number 35 in the sheet AZP 57−70 (Fig. 1). The damaged surface of the items and the brown patina covering them indicate that the artefacts were deposited in a wet environment, which does not correspond to the location provided by their finder.

The anklets, twisted quite tightly in opposite directions, in a 1⅓ coil, were made from a rod of round cross-section, slightly tapered at the ends (one end has a button-shaped thickening, the other—preserved only in specimen No. 1—is diagonally bevelled on the inside). They differ slightly in size (Figs. 2 & 3). They are decorated with an uninterrupted engraved ornament (now mostly destroyed) composed of asymmetrically arranged groups of transverse grooves, which intersect fields depicting spaced pairs of triangles hatched in opposite directions. Extending from the vertices of the triangles along the extensions of their sides, there are lines forming rhomboidal figures in the centre of the fields. The designs differ in the number of fields and the motif engraved on the ring terminals—transverse grooves in the case of specimen No. 1 and a ‘herringbone’ pattern in the case of specimen No. 2.

The rods used to make the anklets (measuring 53 cm in length in the case of specimen No. 1) were made in a perishable mould, presumably using the lost-wax method. They were cast in tin-lead bronzes obtained from various batches of raw material (Table 1). The alloy of specimen No. 1 is characterised by a very high tin content (24.2% on average) and an average lead content (7.9% on average), while the alloy of specimen No. 2 is distinguished by a high tin content (14.2% on average) and a low lead content (4.2% on average). The higher percentage of tin and lead in the patina than in the cleaned areas is the result of corrosion processes. The significant iron content, especially in the patina layer, is most likely the result of the exposure of the objects to a wet environment. In terms of elemental composition, the Wielgolas Duchnowski pieces find no analogies among other anklets. The alloys used, especially in the case of specimen No. 1 (it is highly probable that recycled material was used), appear to have the lowest performance parameters among all analysed pieces. It is possible that such a raw material was selected on purpose, assuming that the Wielgolas Duchnowski rings were intended for sinking.

The anklets discussed are examples of tightly coiled specimens of the classic type of the Masovian version, as classified by Małgorzata Mogielnicka-Urban, and type Vb1, as classified by Marcin Maciejewski—symmetrical, with button-shaped terminals and Mazovian ornamentation. Their dimensions, 1⅓-coil twist, one thinned terminal and ornamentation are typical of Stanomin-type anklets produced in local workshops. Pieces decorated with patterns featuring spaced pairs of hatched triangles, with selected motifs placed in between, are found from western Mazovia to Podlachia (Fig. 4).

To date, pairs of anklets where one specimen has terminals decorated with a herringbone pattern and the other with transverse grooves have only been discovered at Wielgolas and Rzążewo, Siedlce County. The herringbone pattern on the specimens from both these localities was rendered by separating bands of diagonal lines with longitudinal lines. Both the aforementioned pairs of anklets are decorated with patterns featuring spaced, hatched pairs of triangles, which differ in the motifs placed between the triangles. The context of the discovery of the anklets ornamented with spaced pairs of hatched triangles does not provide grounds for dating them more precisely than phase D of the Hallstatt Period.