Preliminary communication
The Harpocrates pendant from the Roman pottery workshop in Crikvenica (Ad Turres, northern Liburnia)
Ana Konestra
orcid.org/0000-0002-7726-6515
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Goranka Lipovac Vrkljan
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
A pendant representing a human figure was found during the 2015 excavation campaign within the Roman pottery workshop in the town centre of today’s Crikvenica (northeast Adriatic), in the area pertaining to the remains of roofed rooms with pavements. The iconographic analysis ascertained that, with all probability, it represents the Hellenised Egyptian deity Horus, that is, the Greco-Roman Harpocrates; along with the rest of the gens of Isis, he belongs to the “Alexandrine family” or triad/tetrad. The pendant, made of faience, can be placed alongside similar objects uncovered in the eastern Adriatic, within the wider context of spread of the cult of Isis and with it associated beliefs in the Adriatic area, but it can also be regarded in the light of personal religiousness or belief, possibly with the apotropaic, individualised significance of an amulet.
Keywords
Crikvenica pottery workshop; pendant-amulet; Harpocrates; faience
Hrčak ID:
269891
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2021.
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