ARCHAEOMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF A HELLENISTIC GOLDEN FUNERARY BELT: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Archaeometric analysis based on Optical Microscopy, X-Ray Fluorescence and Ion-Beam analysis were used

to study a golden funerary belt with an anthropomorphic and zoomorphic iconography. This complex gold

and enamel work shows the portraits of a man and a woman, as well as a libation scene, can be dated to the

Early Hellenistic period. The data obtained point to a Near Eastern workshop (Babylon) as the place of man

ufacture, while comparative typology leads us to the Far East (Afghanistan) as the presumable origin of the

morphotype. Elemental analysis results raise anew the old debate on the use of cadmium in the solder al

loys.

Finally, from the iconography we suggest to identify the manly figure with one of the few small format por

traits of Alexander the Great.