Room VI.4, the kit of golden flies

National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia

DESCRIZIONE:
The Kit of Golden Flies is one of the most fascinating and original treasures found in the necropolis of Aquileia. In 1885, archaeologists in the service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire discovered it inside an urn still sealed, in the tomb of a woman who died at the beginning of the second century AD.

The refined funerary kit consists of a silver mirror with the image of the three Graces, two gold ivy leaves destined to adorn the owner's sandals, a cylindrical pendant with the function of an amulet and 203 golden flies to be applied on the clothes.

The nature of the jewelry suggests that the woman they belonged to was a high-ranking lady, probably a priestess of oriental origin.