Macedonian bronzes
Exhibition organizer: Museum of Macedonia
Authors of the exhibition: Strahil Temov, Zlatko Videski
The exhibition is open from 18 May 2005 (now closed)
The most significant part of the Iron Age collection in the Museum of Macedonia includes the group of finds called "Macedonian Bronzes". The idea for displaying them in an exhibition has arisen from the fact that this collection has never so far been presented as a whole, but rather fragmentarily whitin several exhibitions concerning the prehistory in R. Macedonia in general terms.
The exhibition "Macedonian Bronzes" presents over 400 items considered in 305 catalogue units. The objects have been classified according to their stylistic and typological features in jewellery worn on arms, head and breasts, sets of articles adorning the waist, a large group of pendants, whereas a special group is composed by s.c. "Paeonian Bronzes", which are actually cult bronzes related with religion and beliefs. The exhibition also includes reconstruction of three Iron Age burials in the way they have originally been discovered at the site.
The exhibition is an accomplishment of the thorough research policy of the Museum of Macedonia in the past thirty years. The excavations carried out in this span have resulted in systematic research of numerous sites, among which the most important are the large necropolises along the lower course of the Vardar river: Suva Reka and Milci near Gevgelija, Dedeli near Valandovo and Lisičin Dol, village Marvinci near Valandovo, which yielded some 400 burials. These researches have became leading model for many foreign and Macedonian scholars in their studies of the Iron Age in a wider geographic area.
This exhibition is aimed at presenting the most attractive archeological material from the collection "Macedonian Bronzes" in possession of the Museum of Macedonia.