Joalharia lusitana

Abstract

The A. begins by referring to the abundance of gold in Ancient Hispania and to the flourishing jewellery industry which arose in the Peninsula at that time. He goes on to discuss the insufficient protection given in Portugal to the frequent chance finds of ancient pieces of jewellery, the deficiencies in the present laws dealing with these finds and the advisability of the State claiming the right to these pieces and handing them over to archaeological museums. He then studies a fine example of a golden bracelet, unearthed in Portalegre and very similar to another one discovered near Estremoz and acquired by purchase in 1936 for the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, where it now is. The A. puts forward the theory, after making a detailed, comparative study, that the two pieces of jewellery may have been made in the workshop of the same goldsmith. He concludes by analysing examples which have come to light in Portugal, comparing them with others from outside the Peninsula but of the same type, and suggests the possibility of the prototype of these pieces having originated in Central Europe, in the region of the Rhineland and the Northern Alps, and being introduced into Hispania somewhere about the vi-v century B.C. by the groups of invading Celtic peoples who introduced the final Hallstatt culture here.