Ostrich eggshell lid

This piece is an engraved and painted ostrich eggshell. It is clipped from one of the poles. It has a 2 cm diameter hole, displaced in relation to the center, surely to empty the content. It appeared as trousseau inside a rectangular chamber tomb in the Phoenician cemetery of Casetes.

The decorative technique of the piece is mixed; in the concave part it has two parallel red bands painted with a brush, while the convex part has a sunken relief decoration. 

The technique of the sunken relief consists of protecting with wax or resin the part that you want to leave with relief and then the piece is immersed in an acid bath. This achieves the corrosive action of the acid that acts on the part that is not protected and highlights the chosen motif. Although the painted decoration is much more frequent, relief decorations have been documented, among which some pieces from Ibiza stand out. 

The lid has in its concave part a radial decoration that seems to be drawn from the off center carved disc. That motif suggests the shape of a star or the solar star. This decoration and the fact that it is adapted to the cavity, are unique cases of decorated shells in the Iberian Peninsula. 

This motif is very similar to the symbol of Shamash, the oriental god of the Sun, well known in Mesopotamia and also in the Phoenician and Punic environment, but not yet documented in the Peninsula. It is unknown whether their presence in this territory is the result of a casual situation or it is intentional. 

In Phoenician and Punic societies, ostrich eggshells deposited on tombs are symbols of exoticism and luxury, in addition to the symbolic meaning of soul rebirth and life after death. 

Tomb GU 503 of the Necropolis of Les Casetes, Jovada sector.
Chronology: 4th century BC
Height: 19 mm; diam.; 79 mm
Nº inv. Vilamuseu 022238