Bronze Age · c. 2000–1500 BC · Kolona, Aegina, Attica (Saronic Gulf), Greece
Bronze Age gold jewellery resembling the British Museum's Aegina Treasure found in Greece
Excavators at Kolona on Aegina found gold pendants, beads and carnelian, probably from one necklace of the first half of the second millennium BC, but no tomb.
Official announcement
Kolona, Aegina, Greece Archaeologists have found a group of gold and carnelian ornaments on the hill of Kolona, on the Greek island of Aegina. The pieces date to the first half of the second millennium BC. The team thinks they all came from a single necklace or hanging ornament.
The Greek Ministry of Culture announced the find, which was made during the 2025 excavation season. The ministry reports that the jewellery resembles pieces in the Aegina Treasure. That prehistoric hoard from the island has been in the British Museum since 1892.
The University of Salzburg runs the excavation in cooperation with the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Athens. Alexander Sokolicek directs it. The Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and the Islands, the regional Greek antiquities service, supervises the work.
Pendants, beads and copper fragments in one trench
The objects lay in a trench opened inside a large stone structure. The structure stands just outside the wall that protected the Middle Bronze Age expansion of the settlement. In the specialist literature this area is known as the "inner suburb".
The team recovered eight two-sided disc-shaped gold pendants and one single-sided disc pendant. There were also seven gold beads with a biconical profile and one cylindrical gold bead. Eight decorative pieces were cut from gold leaf, and seven spherical beads were made of carnelian.
Alongside them lay twelve copper fragments, probably from small tools such as knives. A metal pin or needle was also found.
Reports describe the condition differently. Archaeology Wiki, summarising the announcement, says the jewellery is preserved in a fairly good state. La Brújula Verde calls its condition excellent.
The context is the difficult part. The stratigraphy of the find spot had been disturbed. Stratigraphy is the sequence of soil layers that archaeologists use to date objects and relate them to one another. The excavators have not been able to say when or how the disturbance happened.
They assume the ornaments were grave goods from a Middle Bronze Age burial. However, no evidence of a preserved tomb has been found. No skeletal remains or tomb structure tie the gold to a particular person.
Similar to the Aegina Treasure in London
The new jewellery shows similarities with some of the ornaments in the Aegina Treasure. The disc-shaped pendants are the closest match. The treasure is a prehistoric assemblage of jewellery in precious and semiprecious stones.
It was found on the island at an unspecified date in the 19th century. According to Archaeology Wiki, it was retrieved illegally. The British Museum in London has held it since 1892.
La Brújula Verde reads the resemblance as a sign that both groups belong to the same goldsmithing tradition. That tradition belongs to the Aegean of the second millennium BC.
Gold and carnelian were not local materials, Arkeonews points out. Their presence indicates long-distance routes that likely linked Aegina with other parts of the Aegean.
Kolona lies on the northwestern side of Aegina, near the harbour and the modern town. It is best known for its temple of Apollo, built in the 6th century BC. But the hill has a much longer record.
It held a prehistoric settlement, a sanctuary of historical times, the acropolis of the ancient city and a Byzantine settlement. The Austrian team's work there is part of a long-term project on the development of the hill.
According to La Brújula Verde, laboratory and conservation work will follow in the coming months. One aim is to establish the composition of the gold alloys. Another is to trace the geological origin of the carnelian through isotope analysis. The team will also look for surviving fibres or cord from the necklace's original stringing.
The results should help date the ornaments more closely. They should also allow comparison with finds from the Mycenaean grave circles, Cretan sanctuaries and the Cycladic islands.
For now the pieces are kept in a temporary store on Aegina rather than sent to a museum. This allows them to be studied on the island.
The project directors plan to document the areas next to the stone structure in more detail. They are looking for clues to the looted or displaced tomb from which the grave goods may have come.
Sources
- A Set of Gold Jewelry Linked to the Famous British Museum Treasure Discovered on the Island in the 19th Century Found in Aegina (La Brújula Verde)
- 3,500-Year-Old Gold Jewelry Set Unearthed in Aegina Linked to Mysterious Bronze Age Treasure (Arkeonews)
- Valuable finds at Kolona, Aegina (Archaeology Wiki)
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