Original scientific paper

SHELLS AND CORALS IN LIBURNIAN JEWELLERY

Sineva KUKOČ ; Odjel za arheologiju Sveučilište u Zadru Mihovila Pavlinovića bb HR - 23000 Zadar

Abstract

Although cardium (common cockle), the cowry sea
snail, and coral have been found only in a few Liburnian
inhumations (grave 9, grave-mound 13, Nadin; gravemound
Sali-Ćuh, Dugi Otok, grave 8, coela I, Nadin), they,
and particularly the cockle, link Liburnian society with the
long-lasting prehistoric (and later) use and symbolism
of this kind of jewellery. One can argue about the
symbolism of the cowry in Liburnian society, because the
Liburnians introduced this motif, applied in bronze, into
the system of their pectoral type jewellery with the central
anthropomorphous (female) figure in the Potnia Theron
scheme (Kastav); cowries, natural and shaped in various
materials, represented prehistoric jewellery of symbolic
significance in the neighbouring cultures from the 7th and
6th centuries BC and during the Late Iron Age (Picenum,
Lower Carniola, the Iapodes) and, finally, in North
Dalmatian folk costumes of the 19th and 20th centuries,
although certainly much older folk costumes were also
adorned with cowries. Their symbolism in Liburnian
society, as well as in Iapodic society and in Lower Carniola,
has primarily to do with the “female” principle. Similar
symbolism is most pronounced in Picenian society, where
the cowry appears in direct or indirect iconographic and
symbolic relations of the motif: “a hatchet - a wild boar’s
tusk - a hand - an anthropomorphous female figure,” that
is, Potnia Theron. The shell and the cowry, as symbols of
fertility, general wealth, and welfare in life (and death),
as well as the (curative and life-giving) coral, provide
fertility/fecundity and protection to the world of women
(and children).

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

85462

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/85462

Publication date:

1.11.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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