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Gorget (peritrachelion)

• Φάκλαρης, Παναγιώτης Β.

In 1983 a silver gilt iron gorget was found in an unplundered cist tomb at ancient Pydna (P I. 1 a), on the southern edge of the modern village of Makriyalos in Pieria. The greater part of it has survived; it measures 0.305 in height, 0.30 in width and has an internal diameter of 0.165-0.172 m (Pis 1 β-2 β, 4-5). It is lunate in form. A vertical raised band (collar) is attached to the inner edge of the gorget to protect the neck (P 1 s 3 α-β, 7 β).The materials used in it were iron, leather, silver and gold. The main body is made of iron sheet, which was covered and reinforced by the other materials. The back was covered with two sheets of leather, and the front surfacewas overlayed with a thin sheet of silver gilt (P1. 7 a).The silver sheet was very finely worked with various decorative motifs in the repoussé technique. The motifs are arranged in four concentric bands: two have spiral shoots that start in the middle and run towards the ends, one has large palmettes and one a tongued decoration. The overlay on the collar is decorated with a row of square panels each containing a large rosette.Illustrations of gorgets on ancient works of art are rare, as are references by ancient writers. According to the available evidence the gorget is to be classed as part of the defensive armour worn by the Greeks. This can be inferred from the materials used, the way it was made, its shape and the fact that similar gorgets have been found in men's graves together with the dead man’s cuirass and weapons. L. Ognenova identified it as the στέγασμα mentioned by Xenophon. However, the answer to its true name is supplied by Plutarch, who writes that in the battle of Gaugamela Alexander the Great wore an iron helmet, a linen cuirass and an iron περι- τραχήλιον ornamented with precious stones.A number of gorgets like the one from Pydna have been found in earlier tomb excavations. Three were found in the region of Thrace (Mezek, Värbica, Jankovo Pis 8a, 9α-β, 11 β), three at Vergina (PI. 8 β) and one at Katerini (PI. 12a). In five instances the decorated silver plating was gilt, like the one from Pydna. These six gorgets have many common features both in fabrication and style, which surely indicates that they were made in the same workshop. The latter may have been at Amphipolis, which is located between Macedonia and Thrace on the Strymon river and near the sea. This city had easy direct access to the territory of the Thracians as well as to the silver and gold mines of Mt. Pangaion. Furthermore, as a colony of A- thens, it possessed a rich artistic tradition (F ig. 12).The gorget seems not only to have formed part of the defensive equipment, but was above all the insignia of the rulers and certain of the officials —no doubt the hetairoi— of Macedonia (PI. 11 ε). In the Early Christian and Byzantine periods it was replaced by the μανιάκης, an ornamantal gorget worn by officials.The Pydna gorget can be dated by the rest of the tomb contents, as well as by the chronology of the other gorgets from the same workshop, to the 3rd quarter of the 4th centuty BC.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Decorative arts

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