A package with the restored grave contents and an analysis of them arrived at the museum in Karlovac, 50 km southwest of Zagreb, from the Romano-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. The analysis is being translated and will be presented to experts and the media, together with the restored jewelry, in September.
The analysis of a dental crown confirms that a woman was buried in the rich grave and her headdress is unique in the world because it has two horns woven in metal ornaments and decorated with amber and glass pearls. Few horn-shaped headdresses have been found in Europe and one decorated like this one has not been found, said Cuckovic.
He said that when the grave was discovered in August 2009, the headdress, necklaces, leg and arm ornaments led archaeologists to believe that they had found a chief or princess from the Iron Age, whom they named Blanka, after Croatia's high-jump champion.
The grave was found by an Illyrian open-air temple, a site where more than 600 clay idols have been found over 30 years, proving the pre-Christian practice of idolatry.
The grave supports an earlier assumption that the shrine is located by a settlement of the Colapiani, a culture mentioned by the ancient Romans, but Cuckovic said it was too early to claim that the location was proof of that, because not enough evidence of customs had been found to prove that the way of life in the settlement differed from that of the Iyapides people in Lika or the Segestani tribe in Pannonia. He added, however, that the characteristic ornaments found in the grave strongly supported that theory.
Cuckovic said it was indisputable that Turska Kosa was the biggest shrine found between this location and Olympia in Greece. Of all the idols found in Croatia, more than 90 per cent were found in Turska Kosa.
As in Olympia, the Turska Kosa shrine is a hill of ash created from the sacrifices made to the dead as well as from thanksgiving for something important and powerful, most probably for iron ore and successful iron production, Cuckovic said, adding that those rewards were clay idols in the shape of animals and man.
He said the copper, the iron, and the tiny amber and glass pearls making up Blanka's headdress have no material value now but in her time represented a status symbol and wealth, adding that metal had been the source of wealth of the local population, whether the Colapiani, the Iyapides or the Segestani.
Apart from the shrine and the 25 graves found so far, the 10,000 square metre area consists of a small hill with furnaces dug around it, indicating that iron ore was poured into them and that the settlement was producing iron, Cuckovic said, but added that further research was necessary to ascertain what the furnaces had been for.
He said the assumption that Blanka's jewelry and the entire settlement dated from the fifth century B.C. would be further researched.
Ancient Roman texts say the Colapiani lived along the river Kupa (Colapis in Roman) and the Romans distinguished them from the Iyapides, with whom they fought, and from the Segestani.
"Only 25 graves, the shrine with 600 clay idols, a large loom and the furnaces have been processed so far. We know that warriors didn't live there, that they were different from the other cultures, notably Blanka's grave. The only problem is that Turska Kosa isn't near the Kupa but near the Glina river, which is a tributary of the Kupa though. There is still a lot of research ahead," said Cuckovic.