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 An offprint from

Exotica
in the
Prehistoric Mediterranean

Edited by
Andrea Vianello

© Oxbow Books 2011

ISBN 978-1-84217-424-1
 2.  Insignia of Exotica: skeuomorphs of Mediterranean shells
in Chalcolithic south Eastern Europe
Dragoş Gheorghiu
Introduction
A couple of years ago in Krakow I had the chance to
witness an interesting performance about the power
exerted on the viewer by exotica, performed by an
individual whose costume was covered with exotic shells
(Fig. 2.1). This one-man show was fascinating due to the
otherness of materials and the shapes; I have stared at
him for minutes, captivated by the power of the unusual
materiality. Far from the southern seas, the shells and
crustaceans look as outworldish strange objects, creating
an un-familiar tension (see Moscovici 1984) (Fig. 2.2),
and a singular status for the performer.
This exotic character and his performance inspired
the present paper.
Exotica from the Mediterranean
One of the most eloquent examples of exotica from
European prehistory are the Mediterranean shells
present in the South Eastern Europe Mesolithic (Borič
et al. 2009), the Linear Pottery (see Jeunesse 2002, 50
ff.), the Lengeyl, Sopot-Lengeyl and Bükk (Borello
and Micheli 2004, 72), as well as in the South Eastern
Europe Chalcolithic traditions (Berciu 1966; Comşa and
Cantacuzino 2001).
The value of exotica can be proportional with the
distance from where the foreign material was brought
(see Guglielmino et al. this volume), in the case of South
Eastern Europe the source of exotic shells being the
Mediterranean basin, including the Aegean and Adriatic
Seas (Séfériadès 1995a; 1995b; 2000; this volume;
Renfrew and Shackleton 1979; Shackleton and Elderfield
1990), due to a long distance trade with exotic goods
(Rodden 1970) along the river valleys of the Balkans and
Central Europe (Dimitrijevič and Tripkovič 2002, 48; see
also Todorova 2000). In the archaeological record exotic
shells represent the visible part of the exotica imported in
the Balkan-Danubian area, and their trade, the result of a
mix of economic, religious and social reasons (Séfériadès
2010, 179), lasted from the emergence of farming
economies, late 7th millennium BC (Dimitrijevič and
Tripkovič 2002, 56), up to the societies with emergent
social hierarchy (Müller 1997) of the 5th millennium
BC.
The goal of the present paper is to show how this
economical and axiological process changed with the
emergence of metals, whose role was to attract or enhance
status (see Renfrew 1992, 146), and which, in time, will
substitute the quality, the form, and subsequently the
function, of the exotic shells.
Exotic Shells
Shells share with metal money a series of features like
“homogeneity, divisibility, portability and durability”
(Claassen 1998, 209). Like money they circulate on long
distances (as in the Kula Ring, Malinowski 1922), and
were indexes of the circulation/movement of their owners’
in pilgrimages (Goode 1884, 709, cited in Claassen 1998,
209), and were used to communicate messages (the case
of the shell wampum in the New World).
Shells in their natural form or as beads had also a
therapeutic role (Safer and Gill 1982), being medicine
or charms (Hamell 1983), or repulsers of evil eye,
consequently their presence in child burials could
represent “well-being extended to the sick child by
parents and kin” (Claassen 1998, 206).
All these examples from different times and world
regions confirm the importance of shells in the human
economy and imaginary in past societies.
Archaeological data confirm also this statement,
since, as raw and processed material, shells from the
Mediterranean (Shackleton and Renfrew 1970) played
an important role in the prehistory of the South Eastern
Europe. Exotic shells belong to that division of the
Neolithic package (see Çilingiroğlu 2007; Budja 2008)
adopted by forager populations (Borič and Dimitrijevič
2007) whose symbolism lasted until late Chalcolithic.
Among the exotic bivalves and scaphopods imported
from the Mediterranean basin, i.e. Spondylus gaederopus
14 Dragoş Gheorghiu

Figure 2.1. Performer with exotic shells in Krakow, 2008.

Figure 2.2. Detail of the costume of the Performer in Krakow, 2008.

 2.  Insignia of Exotica 15

(Linnaeus)), Glycymeris and Dentalium, the first one

seems to have been the most important. Difficult to
find (Séfériadès 2010, 180), because of its rarity and
of the depths where she lived (Haimovici 2007, 295),
necessitating special conditions of temperature and
salinity, the living shell was sometimes replaced with
fossils (Dimitrijević and Tripcović 2006, 240; Jeunesse
2002, 52) or with marble skeuomorphs (Berciu 1966).
What was the reason why this shell was utilized as a
material of prestige and magic in different places and
different times? Could it have been the otherness of its
shape?
In Pre-Columbian Peru its spiked shape was known to
people (as the painted vases and rock art demonstrate; see
Velarde 2004, 118 ff.), as well as its effects on perception
(Glowacki 2005), and its colour was part of the Andean
symbolism (Mester 1989, 162). On the contrary, in the
South Eastern Europe it seems that the valves arrived
already processed (Chapman et al. 2008, 142; Séfériades
2010, 184), so probably its original shape was unknown
to indigenous populations.
Consequently an explanation for the value of Spondylus
in the South Eastern Europe could have been the Figure 2.3. Spondylus pendant in dorsal position, and
phenomenal experience of the visual and perceptual necklace made of cylinder beads, Linear Pottery tradition,
quality of this material, i.e. the quale (Jackson 1982; Kleinhadersdorf, Natural History Museum, Vienna.
Peacocke 1983): the result of the experimentation of
the stratified, silk-like, milk-white, purple to yellowish
brown coloured valves (Dimitrijevič and Tripkovič 2002,
47; Chapman 2007; Gaydarska and Chapman 2008).
Although used quite often in the current literature
to express the characteristics of the objects and the
engagement of humans with “the things of the world”
(DeMarrais, Gosden and Renfrew 2004, 2), the concept
of materiality is still close to that of material culture
(see Fahlander 2008, 130) and does not communicate
the visual and tactile qualities of the material, that is
why I employed quale to express it. For the prehistoric
societies of Europe the materiality or the quale of this
exotic porcellaneous material seems to have been more
important than the shape of the unprocessed mollusk.
Spondylus shell was common in the Linear Pottery
Early Neolithic Central Europe (Jeunesse 2002, 52),
being processed as pendants, bracelets, ring and tubular
and discoid beads (Fig. 2.3).
In the north Danube area Early Chalolithic there is
evidence of objects made of Spondylus dead shells, with
polychaetous perforations, like the pendant I found at
Vadastra (Fig. 2.4), or the bracelets from Cernavoda
(Berciu 1966, 79, fig. 38/5) or Mangalia (Berciu 1966,
89, fig. 39/1; for the reverse proportion between dead
and living shells collected in Greece; see Tsuneki 1989,
14). Figure 2.4. Spondylus pendant in dorsal position, with two
The second exotic shell from the Adriatic and eastern perforations, polished valve, probably an import from Boian
Mediterranean was Glycymeris. Its emergence in the South tradition, surface find, Vadastra settlement.
Eastern Europe could be related to the Early Neolithic
16 Dragoş Gheorghiu
Figure 2.5. Glycymeris valve in ventral position, Starčevo
tradition, Cârcea, Museum of Slatina.
dispersion, being present in the Starčevo tradition from
Oltenia (Fig. 2.5) to Transylvania (Vlassa 1976, fig. 14/
11), as well as in the Early Chalcolithic (Comşa and
Cantacuzino 2001; Todorova 2002, 179; Tripkovič 2006,
94) and Chalcolithic traditions (Nikolaidou 2003) of this
region like Boian, Hamangia II–IV, Vinča or Sitagroi
I–III.
Bracelets or rings made of living or fossil Glycymeris
shells still preserve the triangular umbo (Fig. 2.6) and
their perimeter small tubercles (Gee et al. 2008, 116)
even after a high polishing operation (see Dimitrijevič
and Tripkovič 2006, 243). Their small diameter, similar
to the Chalcolithic Spondylus bracelets raised objections
concerning their role as bracelets for adults (Gaydarska et al.
2004, 24; see also Dimitrijevič and Tripkovič 2006, 245).
The third type, the scaphopod Dentalium is to be
found in the Linear Pottery of Central Europe, where it
competed with the cylindrical beads made of Spondylus
(Jeunesse 2002, 53), and in the Chalcolithic Gumelniţa
tradition from South Eastern Europe, in Varna cemetery
(Ivanov 1978, 22).
In addition to the three significant exotic shells
presented, there were also two other Mediterranean types,
frequent also in the Black Sea: the triangle-shaped Ostrea
edulis (Comşa 1973, 65, fig. 2/ 44 and 45; Comşa and
Cantacuzino 2001, 90, fig. 17/266 and 122, fig. 19/ 314)
and the round-shaped Cardium (Cerastoderma) (Georgiev
et al. 2009).
Since Ostrea edulis and Cardium were easy to find
they were occasionally used (Comsa 1973, 65, fig. 2/ 44
and 45; Comsa and Cantacuzino 2001, 90, fig. 17/266
Figure 2.6. Glycymeris ring with perforation to be hung
as a pendant, Boian tradition, Cernica cemetery (after
Comşa 2001).
and 122, fig. 19/ 314) to replace the rare shells to which
they have some likeness in shape, like Spondylus and
Glycymeris.
Skeuomorphs
As being the product of a long distance trade (Chapman
2003), therefore difficult to be obtained, and subsequently
being an investment of value, exotica generated
skeuomorphs. “When something is originally made in
one material and is then translated into another, but by
its form and decoration reveals the original model which
it imitates, this is called a ‘skeuomorph’ (Shaw 1977, 15)”.
I suggest the cultural process of copying the exotica into
a lower quality material to be a key to interpret the social
changes of the South Eastern European Chalcolithic, and
I will center my interpretation on the skeuomorphs from
the Gumelniţa Chalcolithic tradition’s cemetery in Varna
(Ivanov 1988), where gold functioned as a skeuomorph
(Fig. 2.7).
Geological as well as historical data from the Danube
(Koleseri 1789) – Balkan (Higgins and Higgins 1996, 108)
areas confirm the fact that in prehistoric and historical
times alluvial gold was easily procured from local rivers,
so its value was not so high like that of exotica in spite
of its luminosity and reflective surfaces (see Keates 2002,
111). In the areas mentioned there are assemblage of small
gold objects discovered in cemeteries (Ivanov 1988) or in
settlements (Makkay1989, 40, figs 1–6; Halcescu 1995;
Andreescu et al. 2009, 92, fig. 1–5), which I identify as
being skeuomorphs of Mediterranean exotic shells.
 2.  Insignia of Exotica 17

Figure 2.7. Inventory of a tomb from Varna cemetery (after El nacimiento de la civilizacion europea (1992) Sofia,
Borina).

The iconic contour of the gold skeuomorph (Fig. instant analogies with the contour shapes of the valves
2.8), as well as its bright colour, shining polished texture of exotic shells, copying the auriculate (ear-shaped
(which together are the attributes of an efficient visual projections) profile of the left valve, its isodont (the
identification of an object; see Ware 2008, 49), permits very large hinge teeth located on either side of a central
18 Dragoş Gheorghiu
Figure 2.8. Gold skeuomorph made of hammered metal
foil, with perforations, Durankulak cemetery, Museum of
Dobrich.
ligament pit) shape (Fig. 2.9), as well as its shine and
tactile qualities.
Imitation of mollusks in stone, metal, shell, bone, clay,
was common practice in many cultures (Claassen 1998,
204); for example in the 12th Dynasty (c. 1950–1800
BC) of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (Tait 1991, 33),
a popular amulet was the gold skeuomorph of a fan-like
shell, probably Avicula (Meleagrina) margaritacea, whose
auriculate part was transformed into a ring to hang the
pendant.
Categories of Skeuomorphs
A comparative analysis of the gold pendants from
the Gumelniţa Chalcolithic tradition will reveal ten
categories of skeuomorphs whose iconic shape could be
related to that of exotic shells present in the archaeological
record (Table 2.1)
From the above list, one can identify four types of gold
objects that correspond to the four main stages of the
chaîne-opératoire of the processing of a Spondylus valve:
1) the valve with the spikes cut-off, 2) the valve with a
central perforation (Tsuneki 1989, 9, fig. 6/ IV; see also
Chapman et al. 2008, 140) in the process of becoming
a bracelet or a ring, 3) the ring to be fragmented (Fig.
2.10), and finally 4) the bead. It is supposed that flat left
valves were used for making rings (Tsuneki 1989, 13)
and the right valves, which were more convex, for small
objects and the large cone-shaped bracelets.
From the ten types of skeuomorphs presented, number
five deserves a special attention.
Figure 2.9. A Spondylus perforated left valve in ventral
position, showing its auriculate, isodont and monomyarian
features.
This kind of gold pendant discovered in all the
Chalcolitic traditions of the South Eastern Europe (for
the Danube and Hungarian regions see Dumitrescu 1961:
72; for the Greek area see Koletsis 2010) was interpreted
as symbolising a female figurine (e.g., ring-idols; Kiparissi
Apostolika 2005, 134, fig. 1).
I believe that the two protuberances en repoussé are
first of all the representation of the two teeth of the left
valve of a Spondylus shell, and the central perforation
stands for the notch of the central ligament of the
valve, or monomyarian (Fig. 2.11), so that the perforated
valve or its gold skeuomorph could have symbolized an
anthropomorphic shell, an inference supported by more
iconic images, like the Hamangia anthropomorphic
figurine with a perforation in the abdomen, made of
a Spondylus valve (Voinea et al. 2006/2007, 11, fig. 2),
which displays a torso perimeter similar with the profile
of a Spondylus shell.
As one can see from the ceramic production, for example,
the iconography of the South East European prehistoric
populations has a very obvious anthropomorphic character,
with intermediate categories between humans, animals
and objects. Seen as anthropomorphic objects, the shell or
its skeuomorph do not have a total anthropomorphic
 2.  Insignia of Exotica
Table 2.1
Gold Objects
1 Small convex disks
2 Small convex disks with a perimeter pattern en repoussé
3 Small convex disks with ear-shaped projections
4 Small convex disks with ear-shaped projections and a central
perforation
5 Small perforated disks with ear-shaped projections and two
protuberances en repoussé
6 Thin wire rings
7 Lunule
8 Narrow strips, spiral twisted (labeled also saltaleone)
9 Thin, small cylindrical beads
10 Large bracelets, with a slight convex profile
Figure 2.10. Three types of gold pendants from Varna cemetery illustrating the three stages of the chaîne-opératoire of the
processing of a shell valve: a) the valve with the spikes cut-off, b) the valve with a central perforation in the process of
becoming a bracelet or a ring, c) the ring to be fragmented.
significance, as they are perceived today, but belong to
the vague category of in-between.
It is well known that shells generated a genital
imagery of fertility and sexuality (Claassen 1998, 203),
and consequently, the passing of a material through a
perforated object (for the symbolism of fertility of this
rite see Eliade 1949) with anthropomorphic features
like the left valve of a Spondylus shell, could have had
some meaning in relationship with a rite of passage with
reference to the human body. This perspective on the
ritual role of exotic shells allows us to relate the Early
Neolithic Linear Pottery Spondylus V-shaped cut valves
to the Chalcolithic perforated objects made of Spondylus
shell, as both categories allowed an operation of passing
a material through the material of an exotic one.
In support of this rite of passage through objects could
be the example of the anthropomorphic clay figurines
with abdomen perforation from Early Chalcolithic
Oltenia region (Fig. 2.12).
The small dimensions of a grand majority of the
rings and bracelets from the Gumelniţa tradition (see
19
Type of Shell
round shells with small umbus (Glycymeris, Cardium)
round valves with perimeter tubercles of Glycymeris and Cardium
shells
the auricular profile of the left valve of a Spondylus shell
a perforated left valve of a Spondylus shell in the process of
becoming a ring or bracelet
the isodont dentition of a perforated left valve of a Spondylus
shell with auricular profile
thin Gycymeris or small Spondylus rings
curved fragments of rings or bracelets made of Glycymeris or
Spondylus
the specific shape of Dentalium necklaces
Spondylus beads
rare large Spondylus bracelets
also Gaydarska et al. 2004, 24) infer that these objects
were not principally made to be wear/worn on the arm
but could serve to another/some other? purpose, even if
some were found as bracelets in funerary contexts.
Another type of skeuomorphic gold objects could
be the necklaces made by spiraling a narrow sheet of
metal, discovered in Gumelniţa tradition in the Varna
cemetery (Ivanov 1978, 20) and the Sultana hoard (Fig.
2.13), which copy the shape of the necklaces made of the
Mediterranean scaphopod Dentalium. A skeuomorphic
intention to copy the Dentalium shape could be
distinguished also in the technical effort to produce
minuscule tubular beads from Spondylus shell, to cite
only the items from Sultana – Malul Rosu cemetery (see
Lazar et al. 2009, 198, fig. 16).
A crypto skeuomorph of the exotic shells could have
been the large gold bracelets from Gumelniţa tradition
cemetery at Varna and the one from Sultana hoard,
which have the same dimensions like the large Spondylus
bracelets from Hamangia tradition, but do not copy the
specific truncated shape of the cut valve. The symbolic
20 Dragoş Gheorghiu
compatibility of gold with Spondylus shell is evidenced
at Varna in Grave 43, under the shape of a Spondylus
bracelet broken in the past and mended with gold foil
to reach the diameter of the large gold bracelets. A
comparative analysis of the diameters of the bracelets
from Hamangia tradition (see Berciu 1966) with the
diameters of the same objects from Gumelniţa tradition
will reveal a significant decrease in several centuries of the
dimensions of the valves. Bracelets of large dimensions
were rare also in Hamangia tradition, this fact explaining
the production of marble skeuomorphs, copied with
Figure 2.11. Overlapping of the image of Durankulak gold
pendant on the image of a Spondylus left valve, to show the
similar shape of the ears, dentition and central ligament
notch.
Figure 2.12. Early Chalcolithic anthropomorphic clay figurines, Museum of Oltenia, Craiova.
minute details after the particular truncated shape of
the large shell bracelets. Marble, which was also an
exotic material imported from the south of the Balkans,
deserved a significantly more elaborate work than the
simple abrasion (Borello and Rossi 2004, 85; Tsuneki
1989, 10), or the perforation of the softened valves with
acetic acid, as experiments demonstrate (Figs 2.14–2.15).
One reason for this rarity of large shells could have been
also a diminution of the Spondylus gaederopus populations
in the eastern Mediterranean in the 5th millennium BC.
It is not exaggerated to infer that the gleaming copper
and gold bracelets of Gumelniţa tradition could have
been the skeuomorphs of the shell bracelets from the
previous tradition.
From the gold skeuomorphs listed, the lunule is
a unique item, being present only in the funerary
inventory at Varna. Its crescent-like shape with two small
perforations is similar with the fragments of rings or
bracelets with perforations (Dimitrijievič and Tripkovič
2002, 51, Plate I; Kiparissi-Apostolika 2005, 140, fig.
6), so it could have been an image of a final stage of the
process of transformation of the valves.
As one can see when examining a fragmented polished
ring (Fig. 2.16), the first operation of partition was to
demarcate the length of the fragment by making slight
incisions, followed by the fracture of the ring, which
left irregular the ends of the piece. This crude chaîne-
opératoire suggests that breakage of the ritual object was
the wished result of a ritual ceremony, and not the result
of a technological, specialized, process of cutting it into
pieces. Breaking the shell ring meant the object could be
shared among many individuals who would benefit from
its qualia, or from the magic contained in the lunule or
released from it (Küchler 1997, 48).
The Inventory of Chalcolithic Status Objects
All the skeuomorphs discussed previously are present in
the funerary record of cenotaphs and some Gumelniţa
graves in the Varna Chalcolithic cemetery, together with
various gold objects, ceramics painted with gold powder,
copper instruments, long flint blades, a marble vase,
 2.  Insignia of Exotica 21

Figure 2.13. Replicas of the Sultana hoard, Museum of Olteniţa.

Figure 2.14. Experiment of the author to perforate a

Spondylus valve, previously softened with acetic acid,
Vadastra 2008.

carnelian beads and Spondylus and Dentalium shells,

creating a broad inventory of status objects, components
of which are present in graves and settlements all around
the tradition.
For example, part of these status objects is to be
found in hoards containing only gold skeuomorphs Figure 2.15. The perforated valve, abraded on a grinding
of exotic shells (like at Sultana, see Halcescu 1995), stone, Vadastra 2008.
22 Dragoş Gheorghiu
Figure 2.16. A fragment of a Spondylus ring, surface find,
Gumelniţa tradition, Uzunu tell.
or skeuomorphs of exotic shells among other objects
analogous to those in Varna (like at Carbuna, see Monah
2003, 132), or as disparate objects found in settlements
(Comşa 1974). The gold pieces of the Sultana hoard,
copying Spondylus and Dentalium shells (see Fig. 2.13)
are practically similar with the gold objects from Varna
cemetery (for example with the pieces from the cenotaph
“Tomb 1”; see Ivanov 1978, 19, fig. 11), as well as with
some pieces from Durankulak cemetery (see Fig. 2.8).
Although being discovered in the Precucuteni tradition,
the Carbuna hoard displays strong Gumelniţa traits:
beside two gold disks, at least eight pieces of copper
show analogies with the skeuomorphs of exotic shells
discussed previously, some having the auricular elements
oversized (see a presentation of these objects in Monah
2003, 138, fig. 3). Other items of the hoard, like a copper
axe, copper disks and copper and marble beads present
analogies with the status objects in Varna, although some
of them are made of different materials.
All the materials belonging to the Chalcolithic status
inventory, like the copper, gold, flint, ceramics or marble
had a role of representation and display. For example
a skeuomorph ceramic plate in Sultana, which copies
the large plate painted with powder gold from Varna
cemetery using a special firing technique (Gheorghiu
2006), has a perforated protuberance on its back, to hang
on the wall. In a similar way, the gold pieces from Varna,
Durankulak Sultana or Hotnita, which copied the exotic
shells, or other elements of value (as cattle, symbolized
rhetorically by the horns), had small perforations with
the function to fix them for display on a costume (an
inference issued from their position on the skeletons in
Varna cemetery).
One can perceive that a large majority of the items
forming the Chalcolithic inventory of status objects,
from vases to costume paraphernalia or axes and sceptres,
had a role of display, a role of insignia (i.e. symbols of
Figure 2.17. Shaman costume with shells and bones, Natural
History Museum, Vienna
something real). Made of exotic materials, sometimes
replaced with skeuomorphs, part of these insignia had a
twofold existence: one as an exhibit item, and one as a
part of a hoard. An insigne stood for a real object, or for
an assemblage: for example at Varna a herd was symbolized
by a set of gold insignia representing only the horns, and
a hoard of exotic shells by a set of gold convex discs.
Insignia, Costume and Social Performance
Insignia solved a social problem raised by the emergence of
social inequality in the South East European Chalcolithic:
how to display all the personal wealth and authority
with a minimal effort of communication. The fact that
gold skeuomorphs had the possibility to be fixed easily
on the surface of the costume (because of their small
dimensions and weight) offered a good support for the
visual message related to the status of the owner.
Even though almost absent from archaeological record,
the prehistoric costume is an important subject to be
studied for understanding past societies (Stig Sørensen
and Rebay-Salisbury 2008, 61), and in the case of Varna
cemetery it could be partially recreated due to the
position of the costume accessories on the skeleton.
The qualia, the shape, number and positioning of
insignia on the human body suggests a high degree
of theatricality and performance of the possessor. It is
conceivable that such a costume was destined to special
performances, with a ritual and political role, where
the character displayed the indexes of his/her status (see
Veblen 1915), evoking the multitude of possessions of
local and exotic materials, like a shaman (Fig. 2.17).
Séfériades (2010; this volume) attributed a shamanic
role to some kits with various objects discovered in
settlements, and extended this interpretation to the exotic
shells too. I agree with this interpretation and believe
that not only exotica but also its insignia could have
 2.  Insignia of Exotica
had a syncretic role, mixing status with ritual power, as
shamans do (Turner 2005).
Until today the Varna cemetery is still unique in this
type of representation of status, wealth and power, where
the costume and insignia played a central role.
I come back now to the exotic character from Krakow
who performed with the fascinating qualia of the exotic
shells, mentioned at the beginning of this paper. His body
movements insisted on putting on view the various shells
positioned on his costume, indicating the possession, and
control this individual had on the objects he displayed,
as well as on the audience.
In my opinion, this example of theatricality and
play with exotica was the best model to explain my
interpretation of the Chalcolithic performers.
I will re-approach now the Chalcolithic inventory of
status objects as the furnishings for a political and ritual
theatricality, including the costume as support for social
indexes materialised as insignia.
The Chalcolithic theatrical act exhibited simultaneously
the local (cattle) and exotic (Mediterranean shells)
items of value belonging to a distinct and standardized
inventory of status objects, insisting on the idea of
“control”: the insignia evoking the stages of the chaîne-
opératoire of Spondylus or Glycymeris shells, for example
could infer a control of shell trade or of shell processing
technology, the performance of the rite of passage through
a specialized object, or the ownership of a hoard with
different stages of shell work, like the hoards discovered
in Hârsova (Galbenu 1962), or Ormutag (Gaydarska et
al. 2004).
The use of metal insignia to exhibit status seems to
have been an original contribution of the Balkans to
the emergent social process of stratification in the 5th
millennium BC (for the originality of this metallurgic area
see Renfrew 1978; 1992), the use of gold skeuomorphs
being borrowed by neighbouring Chalcolithic traditions,
probably with slightly different meanings.
Conclusions or “Far from the Mediterranean”
It seems that the Chalcolithic societies of South Eastern
Europe had a general symbolic system to express status,
under the shape of substitutes of local and exotic values.
At the beginnings of metallurgy gold and copper played
the same role as the plastics did at the beginning of
modernity: they generate new forms, but at the same
time they created numerous skeuomorphs.
All these copies of objects of value should not be
perceived only from the social perspective as representing
merely wealth and power indexes (Kiparissi-Apostolika
2005, 135), but also as a result of, and a product for, a
ritual activity. One can imagine every piece of the list of
gold skeuomorphs previously discussed as representing
a ritual tool, and, every hoard as a ritual kit.
23
The skeuomorphs of exotic shells, which appear in
the Chalcolithic traditions far from the Mediterranean
area, could be seen as an economic and politic strategy
for the construction of an identity for the new emergent
elite, using gold, a local material, to replace, or symbolize,
the more valuable, but difficult to obtain, exotic shells.
Probably insignia (i.e., a local production of emblems
of exotica) were part of the strategy of an emergent elite
to support its status, more controllable than the long
distance trade with exotic materials.
I believe that the originality of the South Eastern
Europe Chalcolithic can be identified in the utilization
of skeuomorphs (i.e. transfer of value) that transformed
the long distance trade with Mediterranean exotica into a
local activity, which is a unique economic idea that merits
a place in the history of economics. Unfortunately the
collapse of the Balkan-Danubian Chalcolithic Gumelnita
tradition during phase B ended this economic experiment
in a preliminary stage.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank to all who helped me along the
elaboration of this paper: Dr Lolita Nikolova – Salt
Lake City, and Dr Todor Dimov – Museum of Dobrich,
Bulgaria, for image of the gold piece from Durankulak,
Dr Marin Nica – Museum of Oltenia, Dr Laurenţiu
Guţica – Musum of Slatina, and Dr Done Şerbanescu
– Museum of Olteniţa, for the kind permission to take
photos, and Professor Andreea Hasnaş for the shells she
offered me to study. The drawings and artwork are by
Radu Damian. Last but not least, many thanks to my
friend Dr Andrea Vianello for the kind help with the
text and processed illustrations.
I dedicate this paper to my parents who opened
my eyes in my childhood to the beauty of Hamangia
Spondylus objects.
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