Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Gold/silver objects : Gold frog pendant [Χ-Α386]

Vaulted Tombs of Mesara ➔ Gold frog pendant

Χ-Α386

Metal (Gold)

Intact

Length: 0.8 cm. Height: 0.3 cm. Weight: 1.1 gr.

Koumasa

Tholos Tomb Β

Early - Middle Bronze Age. Prepalatial - Protopalatial period, Early Minoan ΙΙΒ - ΜΜ I period.:

2400 -1800 BC:

Gallery:

Case:

Exhibition thematic unit:

Early Bronze Age - Prepalatial period (3000 - 1900 BC). Settlements and cemeteries - the rise of ruling groups

For the dead. From personal event to communal practices

Description

Microscopic gold ornament in the shape of a crouching frog. It has a lengthwise hole for a very fine thread. It may have been used as an amulet in Minoan Crete, as frog pendants are known to have been used in Pharaonic Egypt. It accompanied a burial in the collective Tholos Tomb B of Koumasa, excavated by Stephanos Xanthoudides in the early 20th century. This is thought to be the earliest piece of goldwork carved in the round in Prepalatial Crete. Although it cannot be precisely dated, the granulation technique used to render the blotches on the frog’s body does not appear before the early Middle Bronze Age, c. 2000 BC. Making the tiny gold spheres and attaching them to the very small gold surface of the pendant is the work of an exceptionally skilled master craftsman.

Bibliography:

Evely, D. Minoan Crafts. Tools and Techniques. An Introduction. Volume II. Jonsered, 2000, 407, 409, 421. Legarra Herrero, B. "About the Distribution of Metal Objects in Prepalatial Crete." Papers of the Institute of Archaeology 15 (2004): 29-51. Xanthoudides, St. The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara. An Account of Some Early Cemeteries of Southern Crete. London, 1924, 29, pl. IV:386.

Author:

E. S.

Photographs' metadata