Bodin
This pectoral was part of a hoard found accidentally at Jakovo. It deserves special attention because of its unique character, its splendid appearance and its complex workmanship. Basically, it consists of three rows of cast round plaques, connected by a very imaginative system of links and pendants, which produce an very decorative effect. It is a work of high artistic quality, and since it was undoubtedly made in a workshop in the environs of Belgrade, it provides valuable evidence of the ability of the local masters to fashion inspired forms in metal. This object of adornment might have been part of a belt or worn on the breast of some outstanding tribal chief wishing to proclaim his renown and power by such luxurious trappings.
The end of the Bronze Age saw extensive movements of tribes, known as the "Great Aegean Migration". This caused the dislocation of populations over an extensive territory. The uncertain times aroused fear in the native populations, and as a result some people buried their valuables in the so-called "hoards", hoping that one day, when circumstances became more secure, they would dig them out. Many owners never came back for them.
The hoard found at Autokomanda in Belgrade contained 19 objects, mostly bracelets, covered with pale green patina, but well preserved and decorated with particularly rich geometric ornaments. The hoard shows that some decorative elements, which are associated with Central Europe, originated in this region as a result of the advanced development of mining and the art of casting.
Unlike the late Bronze Age that preceded it, and the fully developed Iron Age that followed, the early Iron Age is characterized by pottery forms which are completely subordinated to the function of the vessels. This fact is admirably illustrated by this firepot used for the preparation of food. It has a grill between the lower part, in which fire was made, and the conical stand for the vessel in which the food was cooked. It is simple, void of all decorative details and strictly functional. Vessels of the stove-pot type are characteristic products of several Bronze Age and early Iron Age cultures in the Carpathian-Danubian region. They were usually found in dwellings, near the hearth, which indicates that they were used for the warming of food. The fact that they are easily portable may indicate, however, that they also had a broader use. It seems that the basic idea when they were first made was to ensure that members of the community, when absent from home (shepherds tending flocks on distant pastures, travelling traders), had always with them a part of their home ambience – the hearth. One can only surmise what feelings did the warmth of the fire and the pleasant odour of the food being cooked in a familiar vessel inspire in a man during the nights and days spent far from his home.
Outstanding among the finds from the early Iron Age is this splendid belt lavishly decorated with geometric designs and palmettes. Most of the objects of this type come from tombs discovered by chance in the lower reaches of the Velika Morava, i.e. in the territory which was inhabited, according to scant historical evidence, by the tribe of the Triballi. Several examples, also chance finds, come from southern Bačka, and two belts made of gold sheet were found in a princely mound near Novi Pazar, where they were reliably dated, on the basis of the accompanying luxurious objects from the Greek colonies in southern Italy, into the end of the 6th or the beginning of the 5th century B.C. In the majority of cases such belts were found in pairs, and it is supposed that they were also worn in pairs. Luxurious adornments of this type represent the most brilliant products of prehistoric metal-working. These belts are inspired by Greek and Macedonian models, but they were undoubtedly products of local workshops. This symbiosis of native and alien, Greek, artistic tendencies and conceptions is reflected in the selection of ornamental motifs. The geometric designs of rhombs and swastikas belong to the autochthonous tradition and were known in the Balkans from the Bronze Age, while the palmette motif is typical of the Greek area. The appearance of precious objects of Greek provenance and of products made of precious metals by local craftsmen testifies to the rapid rise of the Triballi, within whose community a class of aristocrats, or "princes", developed in the course of the 6th-5th centuries B.C. The richly decorated belts, made to please the taste and wishes of the local grandees, show that a kind of "court style", characterized by the use of precious metals and by superb craftsmanship, was developed by local craftsmen in response to the demands of this class.
Archaeological excavations at Karaburma have brought to light remains of prehistorical cultures dating from the late Eneolithic to the beginning of the Christian era. The most important of the discoveries was a late Iron Age cemetery which had been in continuous use from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C. This chronological span embraces in fact the entire independent life of the tribal community of the Scordisci from the historical date of its foundation (279 B.C.) to the coming of the Romans.
Outstanding among the finds from the time of the earliest Celtic presence in the Balkans is this jewelry found in the grave of a woman. Apart from providing a precise chronological clue for the arrival of the Celts in the Balkans, these objects give us an insight into the structure of the newly formed community. The set consists of a pair of earrings made of torded silver wire, with one end fashioned in the form of a ring, and a bronze fibula, to which four small chains are appended. As an analysis of these finds has shown, they belong to two cultural spheres. The earrings are of local origin and represent the latest variant of a type common in the Balkans and southern Pannonia in the 6th-4th centuries B.C. Several graves with female burials from the early La Tène period, in which similar earrings were found, show that they were a part of the female costume less susceptible to foreign influences or changes of fashion. On the other hand, the fibula represents the earliest kind of Celtic objects of adornment in the northern and western Balkans, and its occurrence is associated with the arrival of the Celts in this territory. Seen from this point of view, the jewelry from Karaburma shows that two ethnic communities, Daco-Mycaenean and Celtic, were present in the Danubian region in the late 4th century B.C. Together with some brief references in the works of classical historians, this and similar finds show that a fusion between the Celtic newcomers and the native populations took place at the beginning of the formation of the early Iron Age culture in the Balkans. This ethnic amalgamation brought about cultural changes reflected in the new material culture, which differs from the preceding one in almost all respects.