Bronze belt clasp

Fine triangular plaques with incised decoration such as this one were only found in Western Macedonia and Thessaly. A similar example was discovered in a woman’s tomb at Kozani (modern Greek province of Macedonia), placed on the body’s pelvis, indicating its function as belt clasp. The type belongs to the group of the so-called Macedonian bronzes, a wide range of bronze ornaments made in the northwest Aegean and south-central Balkans (late 8th-early 5th c. BCE) and mostly found in elite female graves and Greek sanctuaries. The group has strong stylistic connections with the neighboring Hallstatt culture of central Europe and the Greek presence in the south.