Once More about the Silver Orant from Gardun

Abstract

The silver figurine of orant from Gardun (ancient Tilurium) was acquired for the Archaeological Museum in Split in 1886. From the first publication on it to date, it has been dated and attributed differently in the literature. L. Jelić (1894) assumed that the figurine originates from the early Christian era, Th. Klauser (1959) thought it was a Roman cult pagan figurine, and M. Nikolanci (1989) thought that it displays the priest of Izida, or some other oriental cult. N. Cambi (2007) has designated it as an Italic-Etruscan ritual sculpture, and I labeled it as an early Byzantine Christian product (2007). Here, I argue that none of the previous opinions is acceptable since this figurine is actually a forgery made by blacksmith Petar Pezelj in the surroundings of Trilj in the last decades of the 19th century.