adorn

Some of the loveliest items on display at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb are the most personal— jewellery. There is a fine array of prehistoric pendants, earrings, and pins from the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as pretty pieces from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. This is only a tiny taste of what hangs in the museum's glass cases.



Time colours hand-twisted wire and hammered abstract designs with a patina in every shade of green. Lichen, moss, fir, kelp... I wonder about the artists who created these pieces, but I must admit I'm more curious about the people who wore them with pride. As a person who loves to accessorize and appreciates every silver ring she has, I am intimate with the feeling that arises when you pull that special pin out of the old jewellery box and hold it in your hands, eyeing its details and curves— if it was a gift, then you are transported to its giver, which is particularly wonderful.

So who did these belong to, and in what context were these pieces worn? Were they gifts? Mere status symbols? Were they loved?

a museum to sketch

The first museum we visited was the Arheološki Muzej u Zagreb, one of the finest archaeological museums I have ever visited. The building was unassuming, but the displays, from lighting to the colour of the walls, were stunning. There was something for everyone: Neolithic figurines, Ancient Greek and Roman artifacts, Ancient Egyptian canopic jars, and a mysterious Etruscan mummy. If I had all weekend to spend in the museum alone, I'd try and sketch the whole collection.



As we entered the Egyptian Collection, a television crew of three came out from around a sarcophagus with a camera pointed in our direction. The museum had seemed empty until this point, and we must have looked like two deer caught in headlights, but the pretty lady with the microphone was reassuring, and politely asked if we would like to be interviewed for Croatian TV.

This is how we learned about Noć muzeja, or the Long Night of the Museums.



I have to follow this up with a second post, because that's how much I love this museum. If you're a jewellery enthusiast, get ready. Zagreb's Arheološki Muzej has a wonderful collection of ancient adornment.