What is the biography of a Bronze Age necklace? How many and what kind of memories does it carry?
In Thessaloniki Toumba, at the interior of a late Bronze Age building (1220-1150 BC), a rare find had been came to light: ten shell apertures and four stone beads of a necklace were found in situ for the first time in a settlement of this period in Macedonia (Inv. No.: TO KE 535).
The artificial mound of Toumba, formed by successive anthropogenic deposits, dominated in the open landscape of the period, between low hills and deep streams which projected from Mount Hortiatis towards the Gulf of Thessaloniki. The coastline was about 1.5 km away. In this environment with its varied ecological zones, the inhabitants of Toumba practised agriculture and livestock farming. Mollusc gathering and fishing in the marine and estuarine ecosystems was constant throughout life of the settlement and was intensified during the late Bronze Age.
The shell apertures, light brown in colour with dark brown spots, were collected worn from the beach, thus bearing a natural abrasion and gloss and have not been worked. They are local species that the prehistoric inhabitants knew well: nine of them are horn shells (Cerithium vulgatum) and one is a murex (Hexaplex trunculus). The former was edible while the latter was used for the production of purple dye. Both were also used to make objects of adornment.
The grey-coloured stone beads are made of talc slate, a local rock, common in the nearby streams. Its naturally flat surfaces and the fact that it is quite soft made it suitable for processing and use.
The reasons for the selection of the two raw materials were probably their colour, workability, provenance, as well as their interconnection with other communal activities (e.g. lithic raw materials procurement, food gathering and consumption, the production of purple dye and the manufacture of other tools or objects).
Their transformation to a necklace was made in the context of the domestic workshop activities that were taking place in the households of the settlement. The shell apertures did not require any further modification. Plant or leather suspension thread was probably put through their natural opening between the last whorl and the aperture and it is documented by the relative traces of wear in the holes, which are visible under the microscope. In contrast, the stone beads, discoid in shape, were manufactured by the craftsman/woman with grinding that resulted in their smoothed and shiny sides. They were also pierced through with a pointed tool.
What did the necklace represent on a symbolic level? Researchers believe that as a personal object, it was probably negotiated psychological (perception of beauty), sensory (sense of the polished surface, colours), social and economic needs (declaration of gender, age, position/role of the individual/group in the community) and cosmological perceptions (possible metaphysical connections of the raw materials) by interacting between the natural and human environment.
The Thessaloniki Toumba excavation, which began in 1984 by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is still in action, counting in 2024, 40 years of uninterrupted research.
You may see the necklace in the permanent exhibition of the museum "5,000, 15,000, 200,000 years ago...An exhibition about life in Prehistoric Macedonia", showcase 17Α.
