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The Aegina Treasure

Related Images

  • Fig. 6 - Ring from the Aegina treasure - British Museum - [1892,0520.5](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1892-0520-5)
  • Fig. 7 - Beads from the Aegina treasure - British Museum - [1892,0520.106](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1892-0520-106)
  • Fig. 8 - Earrings (?) from the Aegina treasure - British Museum - [1892,0520.11](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1892-0520-11)
  • Fig. 9 / 26 - Pectoral from the Aegina treasure - British Museum - [1892,0520.7](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1892-0520-7)
  • Fig. 10 - Ornament from the Aegina treasure - British Museum - [1892,0520.9](https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1892-0520-9)
  • Fig. 11 - The location of Aegina - [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Aegina/@38.7414287,24.8910216,6.45z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x14a1ce1d13892565:0x6a93b74d8ed9e424!8m2!3d37.7408815!4d23.5014213)

This pendant was found as a part of the so-called Aegina treasure. Besides this pendant, it consisted of various pieces of jewellery, such as earrings, diadems, pectorals, rings, and beads, made from gold and semi-precious stones like lapis lazuli, amethyst, and carnelian (Figs. 6-10).

The treasure was found in the late 1800s on the small Greek island of Aegina (Fig. 11), by an Englishman called George Brown. Brown allegedly found it in a tomb he discovered in his vineyard. The exact circumstances of the find, however, have long been unclear. Apparently it was found ‘roughly buried in a corner of the tomb’, and the tomb itself appeared to have been robbed before. A. J. Evans, ‘A Mykênæan Treasure from Ægina’ 13 (1892-1893), p. 195-226.

So where did the treasure come from? It was first published in 1893 by Sir Arthur Evans, who would later become famous for discovering and excavating the palace of Minos on Crete. He dated the treasure to around 800 BCE and identified it as Mycenean The Mycenaean civilisation existed on the Greek mainland and many islands from around 1600 to 1100 BCE. The classical Greeks remembered this time as the ‘Heroic Age’, in which almost all mythical events like the Trojan war took place., which would have been the most obvious conclusion, given the fact that it was found in a Mycenaean tomb on a Greek island. Evans did point out that there were some elements of the treasure that did not quite seem to be Mycenaean, but ascribed those to the fact that it was late Mycenaean, from a period when the culture was already in decline.R. Laffineur, ‘Jewelry’, in E. H. Cline (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford, 2012).

However, this theory has some problems, since the Mycenean age ended around 1100 BCE.R. Higgins, The Aegina treasure, an archaeological mystery (London, 1979). Most of the earlier publications about the treasure, and still some now, argue it is Mycenaean, but many other theories have since emerged.

Let us have a look at some more details of the pendant to find out more.