Sunday 21 June 2020

Kličevac idol


This is the famous Kličevac idol, made by the people of the Dubovac-Žuto brdo Bronze Age culture, who inhabited parts of Eastern Serbia between 1500-1000 BC...

This large figurine (34cmX17cm) was discovered in 1881 in a grave in the village of Kličevac. The grave contained an urn with the cremated remains of the deceased, next to which were various ritually buried objects, including this idol...

Many similar graves were discovered in the village of Kličevac. It seems that today's village was built on top of the Bronze Age village and the attached Bronze Age graveyard...

This is the drawing showing both front and back of the Kličevac idol. 


The significance of this idol was that it was the first discovered idol of this type. Later more idols like this were found in Vršac and Banat...

Unfortunately, the figurine from the original post is just a replica. The figurine, was destroyed during the Austro-Hungarian bombing of Belgrade museum during WWI. This photo, taken at the beginning of the 20th c, shows what the original idol, in the state it was found in.


One interesting thing about this idol is that it is showing us how Bronze Age torcs found in female graves in the area were actually worn.


This is a reconstruction of how female jewellery set found in the Bronze Age (c 1500 BC) female tumulus grave, western Serbia, was worn. 


Woman (Goddess???, Priestess???, Aristocratic woman???) depicted by the Kličevac idol is wearing exactly the same torc around her neck...

Here is the example of a male version of the same torc with spiral ends. A middle Bronze Age (mid 2nd millennium BC) warrior tumulus grave, Jančići, western Serbia. You can see the warrior skeleton with a bronze torque in situ around his neck vertebrae. 


The same torque can be seen on this picture together with a bronze pendant.



4 comments:

  1. The torque did not function as a clasp, to hold a collar or garment? Was the bell-like base hollow or filled solid?

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  2. An interesting detail I noticed. Here are two paintings by Nicholas Roerich, based on pagan idols of Ancient Russia. The main idol we see is strikingly similar to the Klichevac Idol.

    http://allpainters.org/wp-content/themes/paint/paintings/full/pen-drawing-of-two-idols-in-his-letter-to-v-stasov-1901.jpg

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/10/ac/aa/10acaa5401fb3a6471e911f9218c0625.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks the same like Serbian national clothing from that part of Serbia still today in folklore used

    ReplyDelete