A pair of gold pins, real masterpieces of archaic period craftsmanship, stand out at the exhibition The Gold of the Macedonians in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and are reminders of the wealth and exquisite taste of the people who lived and died at the vicinity of modern Sindos, during the 6th century B.C.
A few kilometers west of Thessaloniki, in the area of present-day Sindos, a part of a cemetery was uncovered in 1980, during salvage excavation, by archaeologist Aikaterini Despoini. The site revealed richly furnished tombs dating from the Late Archaic to the Classical period.
Among the impressive ensemble of 121 graves, Grave 28—a pit grave—held the burial of a young woman around 560 BC. Among the numerous and luxurious grave offerings that accompanied her on her final journey, two masterpieces of Archaic goldsmithing stand out: the gold pins ΜΘ 8079 and ΜΘ 8080. These refined artifacts, which can now be admired in Display Case 59 of the exhibition The Gold of the Macedonians, are presented alongside other jewelry from the same burial. They clearly reflect both the high social status of the deceased and the elevated aesthetic standards of the era.
The gold pins consist of a long solid needle and a head formed by two consecutive topped with a floral ornament. The two spheres that make up each head are hollow and made of gold sheet. The lower, smaller sphere is decorated with leaf-shaped motifs in two horizontal bands, while the upper one features rosettes arranged in eight vertically separated panels. Granulated wire was used for the decoration. Between the spheres and the disc-shaped floral top, plain cylindrical bands are inserted. The intricate flower at the top, forms a rosette from which rises a second, smaller conical rosette that ends in a small bead.
The pins were a matching pair, found one on each shoulder of the young woman, with the heads facing upward. Their positioning indicates the type of garment worn by the deceased: a Doric peplos. They were likely crafted by Euboean artisans who had settled in Sindos and played a key role in the development of the first goldsmith workshops in Macedonia. Similar examples of gold pins have been found in tombs at Sindos, Thermi (Sedes), Archontiko of Pella, Vergina, and Aiani.
Pins of this type are closely associated with women’s dress during the Archaic and early Classical periods, specifically the Doric peplos, which was fastened at the shoulders using such pins. The simpler and more common types were made of bronze or silver, though more elaborate versions exist, featuring iron or bronze shafts with heads adorned or overlaid with precious materials such as gold, ivory, or amber. These pins date from the Late Bronze Age to the 5th century BC. After the 5th century BC, their use gradually declined as the Doric peplos was replaced by the Ionian chiton, which was fastened with fibulae (clasps) instead.
Dimensions: Height 21 cm; diameter of the larger sphere 3.2 cm.
