29. 05. 2025 Project website now also in English
The project website has been newly translated into English. Just click on the flag and you will be taken to the globally understandable language version. News and Artefact search will be continuously added in both language versions. We wish our foreign visitors a pleasant reading!
19. 05. 2025 New exhibition of Great Moravian jewellery in Great Moravian Treasury
The archaeological open-air museum Modrá has started the current visitor season by exhibiting a new collection of jewellery and other exclusive archaeological finds in the premises of the Great Moravian Treasury. On display are again original earrings, spherical buttons or rings from Mikulčice,…
30. 03. 2025 Great Moravian spherical buttons on Czech Radio’s “Experiment” show
We recommend watching a short report in Czech Radio’s “Experiment” magazine (in Czech language). You can learn more about our reconstruction of spheciral buttons and how it benefits our research.
07. 03. 2025 First project result – scientific study on luxury jewelry – completed
We are pleased to announce that the first result of our project was completed on time and approved by the Council of the Minister of Culture. It is a scientific study: POLÁČEK, L., UNGERMAN, Š., KRUPIČKOVÁ, Š., GALUŠKA, L., PŁYGAWKO, M., FOŘT, M., VALÁŠKOVÁ, L. Great Moravian Luxury (“Veligrad”)…
16. 12. 2024 Happy New Year 2025
Dear supporters, May the Christmas star* light your way into the new year! Wishing you the best, the team of the project “Into the Great Moravian Jewellery”. *The star is an SEM image of a gombík from grave 580 in the interior of the Mikulčice basilica.
29. 11. 2024 Jewelry research in 120 seconds
Colleague Michał Płygawko introduced the community engaged in electron microscopy and microanalysis to the challenges and pitfalls of applying this type of research to archaeological artefacts, using the example of Great Moravian jewellery from our project. His presentation was strictly limited to…
12. 09. 2024 We are producing scientific replicas of spherical buttons (gombíky)
During the summer, scientific replicas of Great Moravian spherical buttons were produced at the research base Mikulčice-Trapíkov. The material composition and manufacturing procedures identified during microscopic examinations of the originals were faithfully followed. The replica of the golden…
30. 06. 2024 Great Moravian Treasury presents original jewellery
At the end of June, the Great Moravian Treasury opened its doors. The space is part of the Archaeological Open-Air Museum in Modrá near Velehrad. Until the end of November, you can see around 150 original pieces of Great Moravian jewellery, including those processed within our project. Come have a…
02. 04. 2024 Radio report for Czech Radio – Věda Plus
Project colleagues discussed the processing of jewellery in a report for the Věda Plus show on Czech Radio. You can listen to the recording in the program archive: A few microscopic scratches on 9th-century jewellery reveal how Great Moravian society functioned
19. 03. 2024 News report by Czech News Agency
The Czech News Agency published a report about our project: https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/2493697
02. 01. 2024 Happy New Year 2024
We wish all fans of Great Moravian jewellery a joyful start to the new year.
14. 10. 2023 Workshop with colleagues from the Institute of Scientific Instruments
In our new electron microscopy laboratory, we welcomed mentors from the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Czech Academy of Sciences, associate professor Vilém Neděla and Dr. Eva Tihlaříková. Prof. Neděla leads the Group of the Environmental Electron Microscopy at his home institution,…
19. 09. 2023 The first phase of analyses begins – golden spherical buttons on stage
The long-term process of exact analyses and conservation-restoration treatment of artifacts is divided into individual phases. Each phase includes objects of the same type and basic material composition. First up are the spherical buttons (gombíky) made of gold. Spherical buttons are unique…
05. 09. 2023 We’re getting equipped – this time with boxes for artifacts
This is what it looked like when we unpacked a hundred airtight boxes. What are they for? They are a suitable outer packaging material for the long-term storage of jewelry we are processing within our project. We intend to store artifacts individually to minimise handling during transport. In…
25. 08. 2023 We installed an electron microscope
In August, we acquired a fourth-generation Tescan Vega electron microscope for our project. The device can be seen as an exceptional combination of a local product (manufactured in Brno-Kohoutovice) expected to yield regionally significant results. Electron microscopy is an important analytical…
