Brass and silver white jewellery, decorated with elaborate ornaments, coloured glass eyes and various hooks, tell us not only about the richness and uniqueness of the material, but also the spiritual culture of the Curonians. It is not surprising that both professional archaeologists and amateurs have focused their attention on the jewellery of the men and women of the Baltic tribes. Some jewellery was favoured by both men and women, while circular pendants, pins and massive cross-headed pins were only worn by women. 

The Curonians in the 8th to the 9th centuries, their heyday, were richly decorated. Cross-headed pins are the most characteristic jewellery of the Curonian tribe from the second half of the 1st millennium until the Middle Ages. These are among the favourite ornaments of the white tribes and were used for centuries not only for outerwear but also for headdresses. In the Middle Iron Age, as the Curonian tribe's wearing traditions developed, the Curonians began to fasten their outerwear with a single, massive and highly ornate pin. 

One of the exhibits in the exhibition "Subtle Blue: What did the glass eyes see?" presents a unique massive cross-headed pin with a band of attached compound quotation marks, found in a woman's grave in Palanga cemetery. The pin and the hooks are brass, covered with thin ornamental silver plates, the head decorated with cones and the hook plates inlaid with blue glass eyes. Blue glass ornaments - necklaces, jewellery eyes - were both a luxury and a coveted fashion item at the time. 

The deceased was sumptuously dressed for her post-mortem. Her headdress may have been fastened with a brass hoop with a headpin decorated with a silver plate and a blue glass eye. A large cross-headed pin with plate hooks found on the deceased's chest was probably a woven shawl or scarf. The pin is brass, plated with thin silver plates, the crosses of the head terminating in circular plates with cones. The pin is attached to a pendant made of a crescent and variously sized rectangular plates connected by chains. The hooks, like the head of the stud, are silver-plated and ornamented. The upper and lower plates of the hook are inlaid with blue glass eyes. Attached to the lower plate are five chains with maple seed-shaped hooks at the ends. 

Around the woman's waist, a circular hook-ball is attached to a belt, of brass, covered with a silver plate and (like the stud) inlaid with blue glass eyes and carved with ornament. The arms of the lame woman are covered with brass bracelets and wrap-around rings. In accordance with custom, when the deceased was sent on her journey to the grave, the following was placed in her tomb: an amber spindle with a flywheel, three blue glass necklaces and an iron yoke. The headpiece contains a drinking horn and a small earthenware cup: these may have contained offerings to the gods or food for the deceased until she travels to the next world. An amber bowl, 4.5 cm in diameter, was placed on the top of her head as a protection, which probably functioned during her lifetime.

The rich and unique tombstones - the objects and jewellery that she possessed - are a testimony not only to the uniqueness of the woman in her family, but also to her position in the community among most of the other Kursi women. This knowledge prevents the women of the early medieval Baltic tribe from being lost in the twists and turns of history. With their way of life and their distinctive worldview, the Curonians and Curonian women have significantly contributed to the history of the region of their time and left a rich heritage of material culture that can still be admired today. 

An exhibit unearthed in the Palanga cemetery has shone its blue light back to its native land after 60 years. Visitors to the exhibition can see a replica of the burial mound, which looks back at the original with the same blue eyes, and a hand-woven curonian shawl, which can be wrapped in the museum's weavers' hands. And when you tie the shawl with a pin and feel its weight, it will be easy to imagine yourself in the 9th century, or to think about the social position of women in the so-called "blue period".