Iron Age 'Mickey Mouse' Found

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June 15, 2007 — One thousand years before the cartoon character Mickey Mouse was even a glint in Walt Disney's eye, a French artist created a bronze brooch that looks remarkably like the famous rodent, according to archaeologists at Sweden's Lund Historical Museum, which houses the recent find.

The object, dated to 900 A..D., was excavated at a site called Uppåkra in southern Sweden.

Although made of bronze, the brooch ornament likely adorned the clothing of an Iron Age woman. Excavations at nearby sites, such as at Järrestad, have yielded other unusual pieces of jewelry, such as a necklace with a pail fob at the end and another necklace strung with 262 pieces of amber.

The bronze brooch may remind modern viewers of Mickey Mouse, but archaeologist Jerry Rosengren from Lund University told Discovery News that it actually represents a lion.

"Similar shaped jewelry representing lions originated in France around 700 A.D.," he said. "After 200 years, some French artist, who probably never saw a lion in his entire life, came up with this fantasy version."

Rosengren explained that lions became an important symbol to Scandinavian royals and warlords, particularly after Judeo-Christian teachings were introduced to the area.

The Bible mentions lions 157 times. Even before the Biblical era, this wild cat was an important symbol representing power, strength and victory in battle for some of the earliest Middle Eastern cultures.

Prior to the lion symbol's introduction to Sweden, royals there associated themselves with the wild boar, an ancestor to pigs that aggressively defends itself with its sharp tusks when threatened.

At Uppåkra, Rosengren also excavated Roman coins, stamped gold foil, various surgical instruments, figurines depicting Scandinavian gods and goddesses and a large temple complex that once was devoted to the Norse religion.

Since the figurines primarily show the Norse mythological god Odin and the goddess Freya, locals at the time probably conducted pagan ceremonies for these gods at the temple. Freya was a goddess of beauty, love, fertility and attraction, while Odin was a god of wisdom, war, battle and death.

The lion symbolism of the "Mickey Mouse" brooch, therefore, would have been in keeping with the popular culture and beliefs of the time in Sweden's Iron Age (500 B.C.-1050 A.D.), although the object's charm has not diminished over the years.

A spokesman for the Walt Disney Company told Discovery News, "Mickey has always been a timeless Disney character with universal appeal across the generations. This certainly reinforces that notion in a way we never expected."

It is possible the connection between the two images might have to do with the simple "circle upon circle" design. The Disney company's website mentions that the earliest drawings of Mickey Mouse in the 1920's consisted of multiple circles, even for the character's body. Changes over the following decades, such as the addition of Mickey's pear-shaped body and eye pupils, gradually led to how the character looks today.

One generation's rodent turned out to be another's fierce lion.

As Rosengren said, "An elite Swedish woman from the Iron Age never would have worn a mouse on her clothing, but the lion object certainly does look like our culture's modern Mickey Mouse."