Engraved onyx Medusa found in Hallstatt

A tiny but exquisitely carved cameo of Medusa has been discovered in Hallstatt, Austria. It is one of only three Roman cameos in Upper Austria, and even at just 1.5 cm (.6 inches) high, the size of a fingernail, it’s the largest of the three. It is also the most detailed and finely worked of them.

The cameo was carved from a black and white banded agate (onyx) in the 2nd century A.D., likely in Aquileia which was a major center of craftsmanship and commerce on the Adriatic. The opaque black of the onyx serves as the background, while the head and snake hair of the gorgon is carved out of the white band. It is almost translucent in the thinnest areas around the hair, a glowing white in the denser areas of the face and top of the head. The petite gem was still too large to be a ring or earring, so archaeologists think it was probably inset in a pendant.

The Roman Empire controlled the lakeside Hallstatt settlement and the rest of Upper Austria by the middle of the 1st century. Salt had been extracted there since the Neolithic period 7,500 years ago, and the underground salt mine is the oldest working salt mine in the world to this day. The Romans continued to operate the mine and founded a civilian settlement associated with the administration of the salt works.

The settlement was centered in the area of the modern town’s new funicular railway station. The area was first excavated in a system fashion in 2015, and this year the excavations resumed in advance of construction of the state-of-the-art station and railway that will transport visitors from the center of town to the Hallstatt salt mine.

The Medusa of Hallstatt will go on display in 2026 in the new permanent exhibition on archaeology in Upper Austria at the Linz Castle Museum.

* This article was originally published here