Sagrajas-Berzocana group of finds

Choker from the gold discovery of Sagrajas ( Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España )

A number of archaeological finds from the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula are summarized under the Sagrajas-Berzocana group. These are artifacts from the late Bronze Age , from which a number of gold bracelets and chokers protrude.

The first of these gold rings were found in Portugal in the 19th century , where some of the pieces were later melted down or sold to European museums. These and other golden neck bracelets in the museums stimulated investigations into the connections between the Late Bronze Age cultures in Europe. In the 1970s in Spain, first in Sagrajas , later in Berzocana, further hoard finds with Bronze Age gold rings were made, which had similar decorations as the Portuguese pieces. Finally, around 40 similar find complexes were combined to form the Sagrajas-Berzocana group of finds. A characteristic of this group of finds from the Iberian Peninsula is the incised gold jewelry, including massive chokers with a characteristic clasp.

Sintra hoop

Locations in Portugal and Spain

In 1895 a gold choker 14 cm in diameter and 1.26 kg in weight was found two kilometers north of Sintra ( Lisbon district ). The piece consists of a 300 ° bend made of three bundled round bars that taper towards the ends, unite and then form two eyelets. They are decorated with punched or chiseled bundles of lines and triangles as well as hatched diamonds. In front of the eyelets are two clip-shaped attachments. The locking piece of the choker forms a plate with two hooks that fit into the eyes of the choker.

The golden choker is unique in Portuguese prehistory, but the locking system is reminiscent of the Torques of Serrazes ( São Pedro do Sul district ), the decorations on the Baiões torques (also São Pedro do Sul district), both finds date to the 9th century v. The owner of the site offered the gold circlet to the Ethnological Museum in Lisbon for sale, but this did not materialize. José Leite de Vasconcelos (1858–1941) published the "Xorca de Sintra" (also Xorca de Oura da Penha Verde ) in the 2nd volume of his magazine "O Archeologo Portugues", founded in 1895. In 1902 the piece was acquired by the British Museum . In the first listing of the gold maturity known to him in Portugal, José Leite de Vasconcelos mentions 21 pieces regarding the find from Sintra, of which, however, quite a few were lost or melted down even then.

Penela hoop

In terms of ornamentation, the best comparison piece to the find from Sintra is the massive gold ring from Penela ( Coimbra district ). It was found by a child by chance near the surface in 1883 and acquired by the Portuguese King Ferdinand II of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha house , known as "o rei artista" (artist king ). It was in the Museu Real in Lisbon. During the storming of the royal palace in the course of the proclamation of the republic in 1910, it was lost and was probably melted down. The lost hoop weighed 1.8 kg. Like the Sintra circlet, it was decorated with a geometric incised line pattern with angular zones, hatched rhombuses, groups of lines and interlocked and hatched triangles.

Portel ring

In 1883 the Portel gold ring was found in the Herdade das Lentiscas between Portel and Oriola , ( Évora district ). He weighed 2.14 kg. It is very similar to the Penela circlet in shape, construction and decoration. The circlet was sold and inherited several times. The last buyer wanted to sell it to the Portuguese state "on favorable terms", the state had no money for it. To prevent the piece from being melted down, the director of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, Jose de Figueiredo , brokered the sale to the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Paris , in 1920 . Salomon Reinach published it in 1924 as "The Evora Gorget" in "The Antiquaries Journal" in London. In Saint-Germain-en-Laye, it is now on display in the Gold Room of the Bronze Age Department.

context

Finds from the Sagrajas hoard

The maturities mentioned, as well as the other gold finds, including gold spirals, bracelets, chokers, gold lunulae as well as so-called tutuli , gold discs, etc. have form and ornament elements that are geographically very widespread and suggest relationships in the Atlantic area. They belong to the Atlantic Bronze Age , to which, in addition to gold finds, a large number of bronze hoards are also counted.

In the Sala de Tesouro (treasure chamber) of the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (MNA) in Lisbon, the majority of the more than 100 prehistoric gold finds that have remained in the country since 1989 can be viewed again after a long interruption.

literature

• Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva: A Cultura Castreja do Noroeste de Portugal . Museu Arqueológico da Citânia de Sanfins 1986, ISBN 978-972-9408-28-1
• Charles FC Hawkes: The Sintra Gold Collar. In: The British Museum Quarterly 35 (1971), pp. 38-50.
• B. Armbruster: “Sur la technologie et la typologie du collier de Sintra (Lisbonne, Portugal)”. Trabajos de Prehistoria 52, 1, pp. 157-162, 1995 ( online )
• Philine Kalb: Treasures from the Bronze Age. In: Hermanfrid Schubart et al. (Ed.): Finds in Portugal. Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7881-1512-2 , pp. 87ff.
• Philine Kalb: The gold rings from Castro Senhora da Guia, Baioes. Co Sao Pedro do Sul. In: Otto-Herman Frey, Helmut Roth, Claus Dobiat (eds.): Festschrift for Wilhelm Schüle for his 60th birthday . Leidorf, Buch am Erlbach 1991, ISSN  0939-1592 , (= publications of the Prehistoric Seminar Marburg, special volume 6, international archeology 1), pp. 185-200.
• Volker Pingel: The prehistoric gold finds of the Iberian Peninsula. An archaeological study to evaluate the spectral analyzes. De Gruyter, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-012337-1 , pp. 73-84 & 282-292.
• Thomas George Eyre Powell : The Sintra Collar and the Shannongrove Gorget: aspects of Late Bronze Age goldwork in the west of Europe. In: North Munster antiquarian Jornal NMAJ Volume XVI (1973-4) pp. 3-33.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alicia Perera: Mecanismos identitarios y de construcción de poder en la transición Bronce-Hierro. Trabajos de Prehistoria 62, 2, pp. 91–103, 2005 (illustration p. 99)
2. ↑ Xorca de Oura da Penha Verde ( Memento of the original of September 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Description at the bottom of the page (Portuguese)  
3. ↑ Philine Kalb: Senhora da Guia, Baiões. The 1977 excavation on a hilltop settlement from the Atlantic Bronze Age . Madrider Mitteilungen, 19, pp. 112-138, Heidelberg 1978
4. ↑ Reg. 1900, 7-27, 1; Digitized
5. ↑ Volker Pingel: The prehistoric gold finds of the Iberian Peninsula. An archaeological study to evaluate the spectral analyzes. De Gruyter, Berlin 1992, (description p. 290)
6. ↑ Volker Pingel: The prehistoric gold finds of the Iberian Peninsula. An archaeological study to evaluate the spectral analyzes. De Gruyter, Berlin 1992, (description p. 292)
7. ↑ Martin Almagro Gorbea: Los tesoros de Sagrajas y Berzocana y los torques de oro macizo del Occidente Peninsular. Crónica del III Congreso Nacional de Arqueología, Porto, 1973 (1974), p. 270 gives in Table 1 2300 g.