Gold

This golden appliqué came from the burial mound of a member of the Iron Age elite of the eastern Carpathian Basin.

This spiral pendant is part of a hoard that was found in 1847 by a cowherd after heavy rain exposed the objects, which were lying on the surface of the ground. The original assemblage consisted of several kilograms of gold, but because the collection was looted, many objects ended up in private collections. A significant part, however, was confiscated by the Treasury of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Currently, the remaining objects are divided between the Hungarian National Museum and the National History Museum of Romania.

This unique gold sheet armband with high silver content lacks exact parallels—only an armband from Bilje in Croatia and another specimen from Tápióbicske in Hungary show similarities with the object.

This bracelet is part of a hoard that consists of a total of twenty gold bracelets with tapering ends, of which nine are featured in the exhibition, and four heavy gold bracelets with spiral ends. The assemblage represents a characteristic deposition tradition that emerged in the territory of the upper Tisza region and Transylvania during the thirteenth century BC. These gold bracelet hoards show similarities in terms of object types, and they were most likely communal offerings of several individuals.

To the east of the Tisza River, in the eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain and in Transylvania, following the Neolithic tradition of the use of Spondylus shells and jewelry of colored stone beads, copper and gold objects started to be manufactured in large numbers during the Copper Age. These artifacts, such as heavy copper axes and gold anthropomorphic pendants that were fastened to clothing, were frequently deposited in hoards and burials (see Catalog Nos. 19, 20, 23, and 24).