Searching for Gold – Conference in Vienna
Photo: http://www.orea.oeaw.ac.at/aktuelles/news-detail/article/das-erste-gold-2/
Searching for Gold. Resources and networks in the Bronze Age of the Eastern Balkans – this is the title of the conference organized by the OREA Institute (Vienna), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna) and the NIAM (Sofia), on 9-10 June 2017, and in which our research team also participates with a poster project. The evening before the conference, Thomas Stöllner holds the key lecture, titled Prehistoric gold mining. From technical practice to social control.
Our poster title and abstract:
Szathmári, Ildikó – Maróti, Boglárka – Tarbay, János Gábor – Kiss Viktória
Archaeological and archaeometallurgical analyses of Bronze Age gold hair rings from the collection of the Hungarian National Museum
The Hungarian National Museum has been curating a great number of Bronze Age metal hoards since the second half of the 19th century, including depots which comprise solely of gold objects. There are nearly 230 pieces of gold hair rings (Lockenrings and Noppenrings) that belong to hoards consisting exclusively of gold hair rings or were found in depots together with other type of artefacts. Our poster presents the recent archaeological and archaeometallurgical study of 15 gold hair rings form three Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BC) hoard assemblages found in the Carpathian Basin, that were formerly unpublished or mis-interpreted.
See the detailed programme of the conference here.
The theme of the conference is closely related to a temporary exhibition of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, titled “Das erste Gold”, where more than 300 gold and silver items borrowed from 14 museums in Bulgaria can be seen from 7 March to 25 June 2017. The exhibition and the conference were also organized under the FWF supported OREA project, called Bronze Age Gold Road of the Balkans – Ada Tepe Mining.
It is also worth to see the project’s short film on the most ancient golden mine of Europe, Ada Tepe, South Bulgaria!
