Miloš JEVTI´C, Miroslav LAZI´C, Miodrag SLADI´C The Židovar Treasure. Silver Jewellery Hoard from the Settlement of Scordisci Vršac – Belgrade 2006

The volume, published in English and Serbian, presents one of the most spectacular discoveries from the eastern Celtic environment – a treasure containing several jewelleries, recovered from the late La Tène settlement at Židovar, not far from Vršac, in north-eastern Serbia, during the excavation season of 2001.

The settlement from Židovar can be included amongst the most important La Tène sites from the Carpathian Basin. The archaeological discoveries have been resumed in 1996 by a team of specialists from the Faculty of Philosophy of Belgrade and the City Museum of Vršac, and established the general stratigraphy of the site. It was therefore observed that three phases of habitation belong to the Second Iron Age and can be dated between late 2nd or early 1st century BC and the end of the 1st century AD.

The jewellery hoard presented in this book was mostly recovered from a pit that belongs to the first phase of the settlement. It consists of 160 silver pieces, 128 amber beads, two bronze finger rings and two pendants made of brown bear fangs.

The silver pieces include two miniature cylindrical boxes for valuables (one have a silver chain of intertwined wire – Fuchsschwanzkette – and is decorated with precious red stones), eight massive silver brooches of type Jarak, two chains of intertwined wire – Fuchsschwanzkette –, dozens of prosopomorphic, anthropomorphic, ornithomorphic, entomorphic and phitomorphic pendants, eight bi-conical filigree pendants,  24 beads of entomorphic shape, two saddleshaped finger rings, rings and tubes (some with filigree decoration), two folding razors and a rectangular mirror. The bronze rings have been found inside the decorated box for valuables.

The treasure is probably an accumulation of valuables that belonged to a family.The authors consider that the jewellery sets belong to at least two individuals. At the same time, the typological structure of the inventory indicates that the pieces were made by different workshops from various areas. Some of them were very probably made by Scordiscian craftsmen, while others may have a Mediterranean origin.

As concerning the context of discovery, given the stratigraphic data, the treasure was probably hidden towards the middle of the 1st century BC.This moment corresponds to the territorial expansion of the Dacian Kingdom towards west, during Burebista.

The structural complexity of the treasure from Židovar, as well as the information which will be provided through the systematic analysis of all pieces, will open many debates concerning this region and its population. Many artefacts may help identifying new details concerning the activity of the jewellery workshops from north-western Balkans.At the same time, some garments accessories and jewelleries may contribute to the identification of the prototypes that lead to the subsequent evolution of similar pieces from this region, during the early imperial period.

Site conçu par Lorenz Baumer et François Queyrel et réalisé par Lorenz Baumer, 2006/7