11 April – 18 May 2014

Authors: Dárius Gašaj, PhD, Ján Rakoš (Východoslovenskè museum Košice).

Photos: Jan Garncarski (Muzeum Podkarpackie, Krosno), Robert Kubit

Exhibition organisers in Poznań: mgr Piotr Pawlak, mgr Magdalena Poklewska-Koziełł

The jewels of the title are the most valuable archaeological artefacts from the collections of the Museum in Koszyce, itself over 140 years old. The objects shown at the exhibition are dated to the Stone Age (5-6 mil. BC), ie the times of the first farming settlements in the region, until the modern era (17^th c.) when Koszyce was one of the major cities of the Kingdom of Hungary.

One of oldest exhibits is the clay model of an oven used for cooking meals – a very rare find, dated to the 5-6 millenium BC.  The finds from the early Bronze Age (end of the 3^rd mil.) include necklaces of clay, pearls,  faience and shells. The fortified settlement at Barca (ca 1500 BC) produced clay vessels with unusual shapes and decoration. Figural presentations of the Bronze Age that we can  admire include clay anthropomorphic and zoomorphic fugurines. There are numerous finds made in bronze from the Middle and Younger Bronze Age: weapons, tools and ornaments, either a part of garve furnishings or hoards hidden away in the earth.

Towards the end of the 1^st c. and the beginning of the 2^nd c. AD eastern Slovakia was inflirtrated from the north by a people of Germanic origin, identified with the Przeworsk culture, which ousted the Celtico-Dacian population.The characterisitc objects of the Przeworsk culture include weapons and pottery. Apart from local products there appear imports – luxurious terra sigillata pottery from the Rhine area, glass and  jewellery, eg an enamelled fibula; all categories of artefcats are on display at the exhibtion. Interesting, though much younger, artefacts are two 17^th – century wine jugs from the inn in Levočký dom, discovered during the construction of an air-raid shelter in 1943.

The artefcats that can be admired at the exhibition are not just objects of immense scientific and educational significance but also of great artistic value. The craftsmanship reveals the high level of civilisation  of their makers. The exhibition of the “archaeological jewels” from the collections of the Východoslovenskè muzeum in Koszyce  offers a unique opportunity to catch a glimpse of the distant and more immediate past of Slovakia.

The exhibition “Archaeological jewels from the Východoslovenskè muzeum in Košice” was mounted by the Východoslovenskè  muzeum in Koszyce in cooperation with the Muzeum Podkarpackie in Krosno.

Text: Magdalena Poklewka-Koziełł. Literature: D. Gašaj, Klejnoty archeologiczne Muzeum Wschodniosłowackiego w Koszycach.Exhibition catalogue, Krosno 20