You are here
Larnax – Jewellery box
Section:
- Archaeology›Prehistory
A rectangular bronze jewellery box with an iron lid-hinge and a small lock.
It was part of a cache of blacksmith and jeweller's tools discovered in 1977 at the foot of the fort in Ošanjići. The cache included 245 iron, bronze, glass, and silver artefacts and a multitude of fragments, with a total weight of over 34 kilograms. In archaeological parlance, a cache is a collection of personal items that is buried in a situation where a person must flee (as in war).
When the box was discovered, it contained jewellery: a silver earring, a cowry-shell pendant, glass beads, a violet engraved gem, and other items. The box shows similarities to the two golden larnakes (large and small chests) from the tomb of Philip II of Macedonia found near the village of Vergina in the vicinity of Solun, that is, it points to ties with Mediterranean culture.