The Aegean Meets Europe

Two Ornaments with Solar Motifs from Mycenaean Kefalonia (Greece)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7988948
AutoresChristina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood (0000-0003-2368-1219, University College Dublin, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Volume29
Fascículo2
Páginas1-19
Data de publicação2026-01-08
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEuropean Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-9571 • E-ISSN: 1741-2722
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/eaa.2025.10031
OpenAlexW7118639804
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas18

This article presents an analysis of two sheet gold ornaments of the Mycenaean post-palatial period (twelfth–eleventh centuries bc ) found in two cemeteries on the island of Kefalonia. These unusual ornaments bear solar symbols of Nordic and central European type, the closest parallels being those on the contemporary gold discs from votive deposits on the Italian peninsula. The study considers the technological, morphological, and iconographic particularities of the Kefalonian ornaments and how they differ from each other and from other finds. The ornaments’ use in a funerary context is examined against Aegean practices, burial rites, and ideology. The examination of their iconographic and conceptual antecedents in the Aegean cultural sphere reveals that the exogenous input in their creation—linked to transcultural exchange within the Adriatic—was matched by indigenous engagement with aspects of cosmology

Context (archaeology · Indigenous · Ornaments · Parallels · Period (music · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis