LOOKING THROUGH GLASS

Discover the Museum of Kosovo with me - Edona Mehmeti

Vessels, decorations, jewelry... and a glass which is something so simple, no color to it, yet, through it you could see but not touch any of those marvelous artifacts. The Museum of Kosovo, located in Prishtina, is a two-part museum complex. The Archaeological Museum and the History Museum. In this blog you will see the many pieces our Museum holds, through glass.

This will be a memorable and exciting tour guide for me and for you as well. The Museum of Kosovo contains collected artifacts from Ancient Greek and Kosovar culture and history, such as the ones shown below. Each one has its own fascinating story.

 The first photo shows the Middle and Late Neolithic ritual vessels, storage vessels which were used to save food, also cups, pan, bowls and lids. The sites where they were found are: Glladnicë and Fafos. Whereas, the second is Eneolithic – Chalcolithic (Copper Age), working tools and vessels of daily use such as: dishware, vases, beakers and cups. They were all found in Hisar and Gadime e Epërme. I was amazed at how they were designed and shaped.

As I continued my walk through the museum, I had the chance to see “The Goddess on the Throne'', which was first found in a bus station in 2004. It was returned to Kosovo after being unjustly kept in Serbia for a long time, along with many other artifacts that belong to us.  It represents a female deity and the symbol of Prishtina.

 

Furthermore, we can see how the dead bodies were buried in the Early Neolithic. The position of the buried body was exactly the same as the baby’s position in the mother’s womb.

“The Runner of Prizren”, interestingly, was the main object that caught my attention. The figurine runs to the right, forward looking down to the right and holding the dress with one hand. It is registered in the British Museum in London. 

Dardanian Antiquity was also a part of the tour. This one gave me goosebumps. Here you can see a stone which is a carved relief showing a funeral procession scene, that reflects a funeral of a man, whose coffin is followed by his wife.

The tour around the museum started getting a bit scary for me when I saw two tombs. One was where the remains of a young woman were found, and the other the remains of another woman along with some golden beads and beads of glass paste. 

Another exciting item to look at was “The Bust of the Dardanian Goddess”, the interesting part of it was that it was all sculpted in marble. Alongside her are some of the gold jewelry that was worn by the women at the time. 

A thought crossed my mind, as a person who loves jewelry, I wanted to hold them in my hands and analyze them closely but unfortunately, they were on the other side of the glass sealed and protected. 

One thing that is worth being mentioned is the way people used to express the pain of the loss of a loved one. They collected the tears into some ‘tear catchers’ called Lacrimia. The mourning/love for that person would depend on how big or small the cup would be.

I actually gained a wonderful insight by this tour and learned about the characteristics of each age. The intention of my blog was to encourage you to visit the Museum of Kosovo and gain more knowledge on archaeological artifacts. What did you enjoy most about the tour guide?