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ΕλληνικάGOLDSMITHING · ANCIENT IBERIAN
Condomina Earring
Seventeen millimetres of invisible work
This small gold earring combines fine wires, spheres and thirty-eight soldered cylinders.
Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.
Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Interpretative AI recreation based on Arracada_de_la_Condomina.jpeg, published by Qoan and credited to Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez on Commons; the Author field also lists the author as unknown. CC BY-SA3.0, adaptation CC BY-SA3.0. Background and gold finish altered. This is neither an archaeological photograph nor a certified reconstruction. Fine details, finish and colour are interpretative approximations.
Tracekeepers / OpenAI ImageGen; source photograph: Author field: unknown. Credit information block attributes the photograph to Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan). · Villena Museum / MUVI · Inventory: Número individual no localizado · CC BY-SA 3.0
History and context
The circular gold earring was constructed with openwork filigree, twisted wires, small spheres and thirty-eight finished cylinders. Its fastening and symmetry required controlling heat and soldering on a scale where any error could deform the piece.
The chance find destroyed its archaeological context and prevents assigning it to a person or ceremony. Precisely for this reason the most certain figure is the artisan: we know the technical decisions better than the identity of whoever wore it.
The jewel documents technological and formal changes in Ancient Iberian without needing to imagine a portrait of its owner.
Evidence and interpretation
Documented fact: material, technique, dimensions, chronology and general provenance. Interpretation and caution: owner, gender, status and circumstance of loss are unknown.
Catalogue facts
- Narrative date
- 6th century BCE
- Location
- Condomina site, Villena (Alicante)
- Material
- Gold · filigree · soldering
- Context
- Chance find without stratigraphic context
- Classification
- Iberian collection or explicit interpretive resource
- Visual reference
- Catalogue photograph from the Villena Museum
A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS
Objects connected through time
Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.
The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.
Gold32 dated objects
Towards 4600–4200 BCE
The Gold of Varna
Thracians
Date of the Varna funerary assemblage, not of an individual piece.
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ca. 2600–2450 BCE
Puabi headdress
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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ca. 2600–2400 BCE
The goat from PG 1237
Sumer
The function as support is not resolved.
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20th–18th centuries BCE
Before Phoenicia
Phoenicians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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death towards 1323 BCE
Tutankhamun's grave goods
Ancient Egypt
Approximate date of burial, not date of manufacture of the entire trousseau.
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14th–13th centuries BCE
Stag Vessel
Hittites
Approximate dating according to the record.
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second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze.
Valchitran
Thracians
The full 14th–13th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 14th and early 13th century according to NAIM; other chronologies for the assemblage are broader.
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Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE
Before the Iberias
Iberians
Date of the treasure, not of the preceding general period.
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c. 800 BCE
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate date of the funerary context.
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c. 721–664 BCE
Kushite king
Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Interval attributed to the specimen in the catalogue.
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c. 800–550 BCE
Overlapping datesGold at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate dating according to the record.
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ca. 675–650 BCE
Regolini-Galassi tomb
Etruscans and Rome
Date of the funerary assemblage.
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You are viewing6th century BCE
Condomina Earring
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
Current record
Towards 510 BCE
Overlapping datesUni was also Astarte
Etruscans and Rome
Approximate dating according to the record.
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5th century BCE · chronology discussed in the bibliography
Ezerovo Ring
Thracians
The attribution to the 5th century BCE is discussed.
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Second half of the 5th century – beginning of the 4th century BCE
Coțofenești helmet
Thracians
The full 5th–4th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 5th and early 4th century.
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Early 4th century BCE
A battle on a comb
Scythians and Saka
The fourth century BCE is used in its full extent as an outer ordering framework; the entry specifies the beginning.
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4th century BCE
The Kul-Oba vase
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
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4th century BCE
The Solokha gold comb
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Type introduced from the late 6th century; specimen from the 4th century BCE.
The archer in gold
Achaemenid Persia
Century of the specimen; not an earlier introduction date of the type.
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4th century BCE
Treasure of Jávea
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 350 BCE
Susa grave goods
Achaemenid Persia
Date of the funerary assemblage.
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664–30 BCE
Overlapping datesThoth in the form of a baboon
Ancient Egypt
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 4th century BCE
Faces of the Steppe
Scythians and Saka
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 4th century BCE
Poroina Mare Rhyton
Thracians
Second half of the 4th century BCE; the specific ritual is not known.
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Jewellery from the 4th–3rd centuries BCE; concealment at the end of the 3rd century BCE.
Treasure of Cheste
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the later concealment.
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Jewellery: 5th–2nd centuries BCE; concealment probably around 80–73 BCE.
Marina Alta Hoard
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the Sertorian concealment.
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late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE
Panagyurishte
Thracians
«Towards 300 BCE.» It is explicit orientation of the whole.
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3rd century BCE
Mairena Hoard
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE
Patera from Perotito
Iberians
The full 2nd–1st centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 2nd century and the early 1st.
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9th–11th centuries CE
Moulds for gold
Mande Worlds
Date range of the archaeometallurgical material in its documented context.
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ca. 1220–1290; found in 1933
Gold rhinoceros
Bantu-speaking worlds
Date of the object/context; 1933 is the year of discovery.
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A closer look
About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .
A hollow prepared for another material
At the centre of the filigree cross there is a small ring soldered on both sides. The museum interprets that it may have held a stone now lost; it does not identify what mineral it might have been. The fastening also does not consist of simply extending the circular band: it uses a semicircular notch whose ends carry vertically soldered rings. When observing the piece, it is advisable to distinguish this mechanism from the exterior decoration, where twisted wires and small balls alternate. The central setting and the fastening joints show two different constructive solutions within a tiny jewel.
- Museum · MUVI · Condomina EarringAccess recorded: .
Reference images and provenance
View full-size photograph ⛶Documentary photograph without semantic retouching. Preserves the condition and visible details of the reference piece.
Documentary original · Exact correspondence
Author field: unknown. Credit information block attributes the photograph to Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan). · Villena Museum / MUVI · Inventory: Número individual no localizado
Where it is held
Museum of Villena · MUVI
Item or group in the record · Permanent exhibition
Piece from the stable B1 route of the MUVI.
The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.
Sources and references
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