Marine shell hoard from the Late Neolithic site of Čepin-Ovčara (Slavonia, Croatia)

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the ornament hoard from the Sopot culture site of čepin-Ov-čara in eastern Slavonia (the Republic of Croatia). The hoard contained pendants and beads made of shells of marine clam Spondylus gaederopus and scaphopod Antalis vulgaris. The paper analyses the context and use wear of the objects in the hoard. The results form a basis for: The reconstruction of the role of some of the items and the ways in which they were worn; the premise that the dynamics and mechanisms of acquisition of ornaments made of the two Mediterranean mollusc species could have differed; and the identification of a cross-cultural pattern of deposition of ornament hoards.