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Silver pendant

Χ-Α682
Metal (Silver)
Intact
Height: 9.2 cm. Diameter: 6.3 cm.
Amnissos
Cave of Eileithyia
Stone Age - Early Bronze Age. Prepalatial period, Final Neolithic period - Early Minoan I period.:
4500 - 2700 BC:
Gallery:
I
Case:
4
Exhibition thematic unit:
Stone Age (7000-3000 BC). The first communities
Figurines. Small images of the Neolithic world
Description
Silver ring pendant. The circular and the tongue-shaped section each have a central hole with a repouss? dot on either side. The pendant belongs to a type of ornament that was widespread in the Balkans and the Aegean in the 4th millennium BC. They have been interpreted as amulets, perhaps representing a very stylised human form. This example was made of a thick silver sheet and stands out for its size, being one of the largest, if not the largest, found in Greece. The pendant was probably a funerary offering accompanying a burial, as the Cave of Eileithyia seems to have been used for burials in the Late Neolithic and early Minoan I-IIA periods. From the Middle Minoan period to the end of the Bronze Age and into historical times it was a place of worship.
Bibliography:
Betancourt, P.P. and Ν. Marinatos. "Το Σπήλαιο της Αμνισού: Η Έρευνα του 1992". Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς 139 (2000): 179-236. Dimakopoulou, K. (ed.) Κοσμήματα της Ελληνικής Προϊστορίας. Ο Νεολιθικός Θησαυρός. Κατάλογος της ομώνυμης έκθεσης στο Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο, 15 Δεκεμβρίου 1998 - 28 Φεβρουαρίου 1999. Athens, 1998, 64, no. 63. Marinatos, S. "Ανασκαφαί εν Κρήτη." Πρακτικά της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας (1930): 91-99, fig. 9.
Author:
E. S.


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