Dacian gold bracelets as a symbol

The discovery of the gold bracelet hoards sheds a particular light on the significance of the Dacian archaeological landscape of the Grădiștii Hill area.

Cultural significance

The gold spiral bracelets are not the first pieces of goldsmith's work discovered in the vicinity of Dacian fortifications and sanctuaries in the Orăștiei Mountains. They are, however, the first that modern times have managed to recover. Older finds, recorded in Renaissance or 19th-century sources, have been recycled for the noble metal they contained and thus lost. This is the case of a 'golden snake' sent to Vienna in the mid-16th century or of silver fibulae found by a shepherd around 1800 at the root of a fallen tree on the Grădiștii Hill. Only under the influence of Romanticism and as they matured into modernity did state structures begin to establish laws and mechanisms for the recovery and preservation of ancient remains. In these circumstances, the first Dacian spiral bracelets (those from Orăștie and Hetiur) were not saved and preserved until the mid-19th century. Later, other similar pieces were discovered by chance, but never through systematic archaeological research. This is precisely because prehistoric valuables were often not abandoned in settlements, but buried in the natural environment, in places that were difficult to reach or less well-traveled.

Discovered on steep, wooded slopes, the gold bracelet hoards are part of a unique cultural landscape, exceptionally marked by fortifications and sanctuaries (Fig. 1/1), by terraces carved into the rock of the Grădiștii Hill and the Căprăreața Hill (Fig. 1/2). The buildings here are the oldest cast-stone constructions in Transylvania and even in present-day Romania, with the exception, of course, of the Greek fortresses and their neighboring regions. They reflect the aspiration towards a monumental architectural organization of the space and constitute an expression of power and the conception of the sacred. The stone vestiges on the Grădiștii Hill have not yet fully revealed their significance, having been superficially and methodologically investigated. It should be emphasized that the Dacian construction effort was concentrated precisely in isolated mountain areas, deprived of the resources necessary for prehistoric daily life, at altitudes at which it was uncomfortable, if not impossible. The erection of the fortifications and sanctuaries in the Orăștiei Mountains is therefore the result of the action of a hierarchical and complex ruling superstructure capable of mobilizing efficient, multi-purpose and skilled productive forces. Involved in the effort to transform an entire mountain landscape, this elite developed its own repertoire of signs and symbols, promoted an original mythology and established particular rituals. A part of the Dacian heritage of signs and symbols can be recognized in the goldsmith's art of the 1st centuries BC- AD I. Within this local creation in precious metals, alongside ceremonial clasps and luxury carvings or vessels, spiral bracelets occupy a prominent position, due to their technological and ornamental complexity, their massiveness and their widespread distribution throughout Dacia (Fig. 2).

The discovery of the gold bracelet hoards only a few hundred and even a few dozen meters from the sanctuaries (fig. 1/3) sheds a new and particular light on the significance of the Dacian archaeological landscape in the area of the Grădiștii Hill. These hoards can be seen as the first evidence of depositional practices with possible votive votive significance carried out in the immediate vicinity of the monumental buildings here. The similarities between the gold bracelets and the other silver specimens discovered over time in Transylvania, Muntenia and (rarely) even south of the Danube (fig. 2) make it possible, for the first time in the research of the Dacian period, to grasp an aesthetic and symbolic link between the cultural nucleus of the Orăștiei Mountains and the sumptuous manifestations of the rest of pre-Roman Dacia. These analogies indicate the adherence of the members of the Dacian regional elites to a symbolic, identity-heraldic code, perhaps elaborated precisely around the monumental center of Grădiștea de Munte.

Anatomy of a symbol

Like their many silver analogies (Figs. 3/4-6 and Figs. 8-9), the gold bracelets from Grădiștea de Munte (Figs. 3/1-3 and Figs. 4-7) were made according to common technical, morphological and ornamental rules. They are all made from a single massive rod of precious metal, worked by hammer-hammering and decorated by stamping, engraving and punching.

The finials have the appearance of elongated plaques, configured on the basis of the same tripartite scheme of registers: zoomorphic protoma, mane and palm-leaf register (figs. 3, 10, 11). This compositional solution was adopted not only by the gold bracelet craftsmen of Grădiștea de Munte, most probably grouped in a workshop, but also by various itinerant craftsmen in pre-Roman Dacia (fig. 2). Thus, the comparison of gold and silver bracelets allows us to outline a center-periphery relationship that extended throughout the entire Dacian cultural area. The attractiveness of the center could also be glimpsed in the gilding of the end-plates of most silver specimens (fig. 8-9).

The craftsmen of the bracelets from Grădiștea de Munte and other regions of Dacia (fig. 2) followed the tripartite compositional scheme with surprising scrupulosity, regardless of their skill or clumsiness or the amount of raw material at their disposal. Exceptions are rare and illustrate deviations from an established canon. On the other hand, the bracelets are not identical (Fig. 3). The uniqueness of each specimen was ensured by the varied contour of the protomes, the free engraving of the coping or the different combinations of motifs within the palms.

The only significant compositional variation in the end-plates is determined by the number of palmettes: seven or six and only exceptionally five (Fig. 2). This variation was not correlated to the choice of precious metal (gold or silver). It could have been related to the degree of proximity or distance from the "center": specimens with seven palmettes at each end are found only in Transylvania, while those with six occur outside the Carpathian arc (fig. 2). From this perspective, the bracelets are likely to have contained a particular symbolic code.

A significant difference between the gold and silver specimens appears only in the ornamentation techniques of the palmettes (Fig. 3; compare Figs. 4-7 with Fig. 8). In the case of the gold pieces, the entire decoration of the palmettes, composed of ribs and round protuberances, is the result of stamping only. On the other hand, the palmettes of the majority of the silver examples were partially or completely ornamented by engraving and poanson. This difference reflects an adaptation of the ornamentation techniques to the specific plastic properties of the two precious metals used: gold, which is more malleable, is more easily stamped than silver, which is more rigid.

The massiveness of gold and silver spiral bracelets is considerable. The weight of the gold ones varies between 700 and 1,200 grams, while the weight of the silver ones, kept whole, varies around half a kilogram. Such pieces cannot be considered as mere ornaments for everyday wear, but must be integrated into the sphere of symbolic representation, as specific symbols of ceremonial rituals. The spiral body and the similarity to the point of identity of the ends of the same bracelet give the piece the appearance of a two-headed ophidian creature. References to the serpent could also be glimpsed in the interpretation of the palms as scales or in the serpentine waving of the raised edges of the end-plates - perhaps a suggestion of the sinuous movement of the reptile. On the other hand, the representation of the "mane" between the protomata and the stringing of palmettes contradicts a simple representation of an ophidian and requires, once again, the integration of the being represented by the bracelets into the realm of the bestiary of the fantastic. The origin of such a symbol must be sought in the fantastic collective imagination rooted in the mythological background of the time. If the serpent symbolized the heroization of the knight in local pre-Roman mythology, the doubling of its image in the structure of the same object could be interpreted as an allegory of a double immortality ensured by alternative cyclical regeneration.

Sources of inspiration for the Dacian spiral bracelets could be found in late Hellenistic goldsmiths, in the Celtic-Central-European or Sarmatic-North Pontic environment. However, the originality of the tripartite compositional scheme of the terminations, the unusual combinations of motifs and the plastic abstraction of the forms distinguish Dacian gold and silver bracelets as the masterpieces of a particular medium of precious metalwork. They reveal themselves to us as the ultimate expression of a particular symbolic system.

Literature of the subject

B. Deppert-Lippitz, Spiralele dacice din aur din Munții Orăștiei/Dakische Goldspiralen aus den Orăștie Bergen, in: A. Lazăr, B. Deppert-Lippitz, P. G. Ferri, S. Alămoreanu, M. Ciuta, A. Condruz (ed.), Combaterea criminalității contra patrimoniului arheologic european/Combating the criminality against the european archaeological heritage, Patrimonium, București, 2008, p. 203-288 ● M. Ciută, G. T. Rustoiu, Considerații asupra unui complex deosebit în proximitatea Sarmizegetusei Regia. Un experiment arheologico-judiciar, Apulum 44, 2007, p. 99-111 ● B. Constantinescu, E. Oberländer-Târnoveanu, R. Bugoi, V. Cojocaru, M. Radtke, The Sarmizegetusa bracelets, Antiquity 84, 326, 2010, p. 1028-1042 ● E. Oberländer-Târnoveanu, B. Constantinescu, Surface and compositional analyses on the authenticity of some gold plurispiral bracelets from the 2nd-1st centuries BC discovered in the Sarmizegetusa Regia area by illegal detection actions: exploring the limits of classical and modern type expertise in archaeological objects, in: A. Lazăr, B. Deppert-Lippitz, P.G. Ferri, S. Alămoreanu, M. Ciuta, A. Condruz (ed.), Combaterea criminalității contra patrimoniului arheologic european/Combating the criminality against the European archaeological heritage, Patrimonium, București, 2008, p. 289-332 ● E. Oberländer-Târnoveanu, G. Trohani, Comorile dacilor. Catalog de expoziție, Ploiești, 2009 ● D. Spânu, Misterioasele descoperiri de monede și podoabe de oro dacice din secolul al XVI-lea. Contribuție la istoricul history of Dacian discoveries in the Orăștiei Mountains, Argesis. Studii și comunicări (Pitești) 15, 2006, p. 77-90 ● D. Spânu, Research Issues regarding the Grădiștea de Munte Spiral Gold Bracelets Hoards. An Essay, Revue Roumaine d'Histoire 48, 1-2, 2009, p. 3-17 ● D. Spânu, Considerații pe marginea primei publicații științifice dedicata brățărilor de gold brățaces de aur dacice (review), Studii și Comunicări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie 59-60, 2009-2010, p. 193-202 ● D. Spânu, Zur Analyse der Goldspiralen von Grădiștea de Munte, Rumänien, Das Altertum 55, 4, 2010, p. 271-314 ● D. Spânu, Meanings of the Dacian golden spiral bracelets. Outlines, Caietele ARA (București) 2, 2011, p. 23-37.