1000 year old Mickey Mouse

Mickey mouse, an Academy Award-winning comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Ub Iwerks. This inspiration became one of Disney's most recognisable characters in the world.

Unbelievably, someone has the similar imagination 1000 years before the first Mickey Mouse appearance! Before the cartoon character was even a glint in Walt Disney's eye, a French artist created a bronze brooch that looks remarkably like the famous Mickey, 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.

The bronze brooch may remind modern viewers of Mickey Mouse, but archaeologist Jerry Rosengren from Lund University told Discovery News that in fact it is actually representing a lion. "Similar shaped jewelry representing lions originated in France around 700 A.D.," he said. Some French artist, who probably never saw a lion in his entire life, came up with this fantasy version, inadvertently stumbling upon the most famous cartoon character of all time.

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

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. Hard to imagine that one generation's fierce lion turned out to be another's most popular cute looking rodent.

Source : dsc.discovery.com

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