DOMASLAW, POLAND—Phys.org reports than an unusual necklace made from insects may have been intended as a gift for a deceased child more than 2,500 years ago. The artifact was placed in a funerary urn that was among 800 Lusatian Urnfield culture cremation graves from the Hallstatt Period (ca. 850–400 b.c.) found at a site in Domaslaw, Poland. One vessel, excavated from a burial known as grave 543, held the remains of a nine- to 10-year-old child along with burnt sheep or goat bones, fragments of birch bark, and a bronze harp-shaped fibula. However, the most unusual items in the container were 17 whole or fragmented exoskeletons from the beetle species Phyllobius viridicollis. Since the heads, legs, and abdomens of the insects had been removed, they appeared to have been intentionally deposited in the grave. Further examination revealed that some of them had been strung onto a preserved blade of grass that would have once resembled a necklace. Some historical sources record that young girls from the Hutsuls, an ethnic Slavic group from western Ukraine and northern Romania, were known to have made jewelry of rose and copper chafer beetles that were worn for protection. Researchers suggest that the recently discovered beetle ornament may have been specially made to be interred with the young child’s remains. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Antiquity. To read about a necklace made from beetle legs that was found in the American Southwest, go to "The Beauty of Bugs."
