Aegina Treasure
The Aegina Treasure or Aigina Treasure is an important Minoan gold hoard said to have been found on the island of Aegina, Greece. Since 1892, it has been part of the British Museum's collection. It is one of the most important groups of Minoan jewellery.
The Aegina Treasure is composed largely of gold jewellery that has been dated, based on its style and iconography, to the Greek Bronze Age between 1850 and 1550 BC, so "Middle Minoan II" and III in most versions of the Minoan chronology. It includes two pairs of ornate earrings, three diadems, a chest pendant, a bracelet, a gold cup, four rings, ornamented plaques and plain strips. There are also five hoops or rings and many beads and pendants made of a variety of materials including gold, lapis lazuli, amethyst, quartz, cornelian and green jasper.
Discovery
The treasure was said to have been found in a tomb on the island of Aegina, not far from Athens, in 1891, although the exact circumstances have never been determined. The British Museum purchased the bulk of the treasure in 1892 from the Cresswell Brothers, a London firm of sponge dealers. Further pieces from the treasure were bought by the museum in 1914.Many, or most, scholars now believe the hoard was actually excavated at the Chryssolakkos necropolis at Malia, where what the locals called the "gold hole" into tombs near the Minoan palace, had been largely cleared out by the time archaeologists got there. However, the locals had overlooked the spectacular Malia Pendant and some other pieces, now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.