Treasure find from Gaio
Coordinates: 37 ° 53 ′ 41 ″ N , 8 ° 42 ′ 58 ″ W.
The Gaio treasure hunt was made in 1966 while working in the fields 13 kilometers southeast of Sines in the Portuguese district of Setúbal .
In ancient times, the bay of Sines was one of the few safe harbors on the rocky coast of Portugal between the Cabo de São Vicente in the south and the estuary of the Sado and Tejo rivers in the north, which are important for trade . The treasure belonged to the equipment of a funeral from the 5th century BC. Chr. In a constructed from plates stone box , on the grave mound bulged. The entire plant was destroyed by the plow. The site was not examined until two months later. When sifting through the earth it was possible to add a few smaller pieces to the accessories.
description
A pair of earrings and a choker stand out in the grave inventory. The earrings, which have a diameter of eight cm, consist of a crescent-shaped element in the center with twelve oversized calyxes on 14 small human heads. The almost complete goblets are closed by round plates, the stylized decoration of which looks like a shining star.
From the necklace , 16 approximately 3.6 cm high plates have been preserved, which could be put together to form a 31 cm long necklace. They consist of a double, folded sheet of metal and hang on a cord pulled through the folding eyelets. The illustration on the platelets is repeated because they were driven out of the gold sheet using the same stamp . It is composed of an open flower on the inner edge, a striding griffin with small sickle-like wings and a beak, which is reminiscent of a horse's mouth, in the middle and of two palmettes and an interposed rosette on the outer edge.
The other pieces of jewelery are a small pendant in the shape of a flower, two conical links of a chain with granulate ornamentation, which surround a turquoise , pearls of various sizes made of agate , amber , colored glass base and gold, which were combined with the pendants to form three chains, colored ointment bottles made of glass.
Find context
The buried woman was certainly one of the nobles of local society. The grave goods testify to what extent one was able to honor the deceased through “ wasting ” and thus to secure a position in the hereafter similar to that in life.
The finds offer very precise information on the origin of the pieces from different areas with different motifs and craft traditions. The earrings and the necklace lead into the technical and the individual motifs into the iconographic tradition of the Middle East . The composition and the design of the motifs find their closest comparisons in Andalusia , Extremadura and Hispania . These areas provide the parallels for the griffin and the little brain. The earrings are comparable to those from the treasure of Aliseda ( province of Cáceres ). In contrast to the extreme couple, the one from Gaio lacks the granules that trace and exaggerate the driving work . Its inflorescences appear coarse compared to the elegant latticework of flowers, palmettes and birds. In terms of their shape, however, the earrings remain the same. The artistic distance between the earrings reflects the work of two workshops that can only be localized in a blurred manner. The specimens from Aliseda that stand up to any comparison with the best traditional treasures of this time must be sought in Gadir , (today Cádiz) the center of the region. The couple from Gaio, on the other hand, come from the realm of the metropolis. The less virtuoso working master limits himself to a minor manual and iconographic repertoire from one of the orientalizing Tartessian workshops.
The evidence suggests a polymorphic picture of cultural and commercial relationships between the western Phoenician metropolis of Gadir and its hinterland. Gadir was not only a place of production, but also a place where foreign goods were handled. The glass ointment vessels come from an Eastern Mediterranean, probably Rhodian, workshop. The scarab found near the treasure came from Egypt , while the home of amber must be sought in the north .
Only indications are available for the dating of the treasure find. Unique pieces can have been inherited in a family over generations in order to end up in the grave with jewelry acquired later. So the earrings from Gaio emerged later than the couple from Aliseda, which was probably made in the 2nd half of the 7th century BC. Chr. Was created. The glass vessels cannot have been made before the end of the 6th century and represent the most recent part of the find. They thus provide a final date, after which the burial was not carried out until the 5th century BC. Could take place.
literature
- Michael Blech: Traders and Craftsmen Early Relations between Portugal and the Mediterranean World In: Hermanfrid Schubart et al. (Ed.) Finds in Portugal. Göttingen / Zurich, Muster-Schmidt 1993. ISBN 3-7881-1512-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Celtas e Púnicos ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , pt., on sines.pt, accessed January 26, 2011
