Academic literature on the topic 'Ancient jewellery'

Dytynets of ancient Kyiv is an inner fortified part within the “city of Volodymyr”, with a total area of 10—12 hectares. At different times, its territory has been explored by many archaeologists. During the period from 1907 to 2013, 22 archaeological objects were discovered and researched on the territory of the Kyiv Dytynets, as well as separate buildings, furnaces and various finds from ancient Rus’ cultural strata related to jewellery. All of them were located within the “city of Volodymyr” and were recorded at the sites of 10 excavations, namely: five objects were located at the address — Volodymyrska st., 2 (territory of the National Museum of History of Ukraine); two — on Volodymyrska st., 7—9; one — on Desiatynna st., 2; eight — on Velyka Zhytomyrska st., 2; four — on Volodymyrska st., 8; two — on Desiatynna st., 3—A—B, 5—D. According to their chronology, these objects are dated by the XI — first half of the XIII c. After analyzing the location of jewellery workshops, there can be identified at least two large focuses — the quarters of jewellers, where the masters lived and worked. The first (largest) was located along the even side of modern Volodymyrska st. and stretched from the northern slope of Starokyivska Mountain to Volodymyrska st., 8. From the west it was limited to Goncharnyi ravine, and from the east — the carriageway of Volodymyrska st. There were 11 jewellery production facilities on its territory. The total area of this quarter was about 3.5 hectares. This centre at different times could serve the Grand Ducal court with its palace complexes, work for the needs of the boyar nobility and clergy. The second was located between the streets: Volodymyrska (from the west) and Desiatynna (from the east). In the south, it was limited by the carriageway of Velyka Zhytomyrska st. There were 10 jewellery production facilities on its territory. The total area of this quarter was about 1.2 hectares. Most likely, this centre belonged to a greater extent to the estate of the Fedoriv monastery of the XII c. and served the princely court of Mstyslav Volodymyrovych, who built the monastery. Thus, since the XI c. on the territory of Kyiv Dytynets the jewellery manufacturing had been developing rapidly. Production workshops spread over an area of almost 5 hectares and existed until Kyiv devastation in 1240.

In this paper, we re-examine inscribed items of Minoan jewellery in the light of the increasing number of studies on ancient eastern Mediterranean jewellery and its meanings. We reach a fourfold conclusion. First: as these objects, with one exception, are clearly associated with adult females, while the exception (a ring) cannot be affiliated with a particular gender or age, inscribed Minoan jewellery seems so far to lie mostly outside the purview of men. Second: these objects were almost certainly used to construct and broadcast the elite identity (and perhaps authority) of the people who wore them. Third: the objects may also have served as apotropaic amulets and/or symbols of rites of passage for their wearers, thus expressing certain rituals associated with the lives of the people who wore them. Fourth: inscribed items of Minoan jewellery may have played an active role in linking elite Minoan (and particularly elite Minoan female) identity and authority to the divine.

This paper presents a review of ornaments and objects related with jewellery production provenient from undisturbed early mediaeval deposits with organic remains of the 9th–10th century in the fill of the ancient ditch at Ryurik Gorodishche (Rurik’s Hillfort). The categories of finds here discussed include 49 items from almost 750 artefacts here uncovered.

Al-Buhais 18 is a Neolithic site in the United Arab Emirates. It consists of a graveyard with more than 420 individuals, an ancient spring, and a campsite. It is interpreted as a central place for a group of mobile herders in the 5th millennium BC. More than 24 000 ornamental objects have been found, many of them in a secure funerary context, making it possible to reconstruct ornamental ensembles, and shedding light on specific rules concerning the way jewellery was worn by different sub-groups of the population. Based on these observations, some hypotheses are developed on the intentions and beliefs structuring mortuary practices and the role of jewellery within these rites. Finally, questions of continuity and change in mortuary practices can be addressed by comparing al-Buhais 18 with other, younger, sites in the region.

The Thetford Treasure of late Roman gold jewellery and silver utensils was published in 1983 by Catherinejohns and Timothy Potter, who believe it to be connected with the cult of Faunus, an ancient Latian god hitherto unattested in Roman Britain. There do appear to be iconographical links between the jewellery and several of the inscriptions, yet a number of inscriptions would, in another fourthcentury context, have been considered Christian. Johns and Potter have rejected such identification. The purpose of this paper is to re-examine these particular inscriptions and also to investigate the possible use for the silver implements in the Treasure. Such examination suggests a Christian element. An attempt is made to explain the presence of this component in an otherwise pagan hoard against the background of religious instability in the second half of the fourth century.

The motif of Medusa had significant importance in Roman visual culture, reflecting the comprehension of ancient people about this frightful being. Visual material from the territory of the Central Balkans suggests a widely known understanding and belief of the protective as well as apotropaic functions of Medusa. The motif of Medusa i.e. the Gorgoneion, was one of the well known and most represented motifs in architecture, funerary art and artiminori and a widely appreciated decoration of jewellery, signifying the importance of Medusa?s protection for people, especially for women.

Thesis (MPhil(R)) - University of Glasgow, 2008.
MPhil(R) thesis submitted to the Department of History of Art, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

The dating of ancient jewellery is given by the archaeological context. Technology applied by the ancient goldsmith is traceable through archaeometallurgy. The aim of this research is to analyse historical jewellery and to construct copies based on the known technology of the era. Resultant laboratory constructions with their historical correctness and the new knowledge of jewellery structures will then be available for reworking to convey a contemporary visual relevance and a statement of history. The results of these analyses and reconstructions will form the basis of metalwork objects in which contemporary aesthetics are informed by historical practice. Jewellery offers a view into history, of cultural descriptions of stylistic, chemical and methodological correctness. For diagnostic purposes there is the expectation of an archaeological correctness within the fabric and manufacture of the jewellery object. From the vantage point of a contemporary goldsmith, t his has provided me with an arena for artistic interpretation-for 'play'. Historical jewellery becomes contemporary jewellery forms and the 'play' functions as a stumbling block and an upheaval within orthodox classification of authenticity. There is in this disturbance an intervention with coontemporary ephemeral materials into the jewellery artefact in which I manufacture a semblance of an identified 'correctness'. Jewellery remains in a better state of preservation when hidden or concealed-not exposed. The jewellery object once surfaced, discovered, excavated or plundered or even worn becomes part of our time for reworking. Knowledge and applications of technology become the vehicle for scrutinizing these objects. We live in an era where the ancient and the recent, the authentic and the bogus, have begun to mingle and interbreed in the corridors of hyperspace. Television stages Xena the Warrior Princess encountering the young Buddha in the entourage of King Arthur. Fakes with historical associations can s ometimes be considered authentic as a shroud of 'history' can encompass the object to the satisfaction of the naive connoisseur who wants to believe, wants to believe, wants to believe, wants to believe ... . Jewellery as document is available for interpretation-for'play'. There is potential to return to an imaginary history where ffictional detail has been confused with historic fact and this can be both intentional and unintentional. Jewellery of the past therefore exists in the present and the jewellery artefact becomes available for evaluation and for 'play'. In the analysing and categorizing of type, jewellery as vehicle conveying the past can become a mixture of one's own inventions and cultural inheritance. From the vantage point of a goldsmith, I am considering how formulated heritage is available for reference, questioning and modification. The option to copy, to replicate, or to modify the historic document jewellery is a possibility and new input can verify authenticity or engender falsehood throu gh the artistic reinterpretation.

Thesis (MPhil (Ancient Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008.
A particular motif in Egyptian art is that of avians. This is frequently depicted in a significant number and variety of visual sources from the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62) (1336-1327 BC) and other find contexts throughout Egyptian history from c. 3000 BC, but is little understood. The motif mostly depicts an avian creature with wings outstretched, talons grasping the Egyptian hieroglyph symbol for eternity (shen). In some instances the avian’s falcon or vulture body or parts of the body is/are replaced with parts of another creature, namely that of a snake, cobra, ram, human, duck, or a hieroglyph sign. A study was undertaken to assess how and why this avian motif was composed and what the function in Egyptian culture was. A manual search of published material for relevant visual sources depicting specific versions of the avian motif was undertaken and selected sources were indexed into a representative graphical database including one hundred and ninety-one items. Textual sources (academic literature and literature from ancient Egypt) were then consulted to support and/or expand on the iconographic, symbolic, and functional aspects of the motif: - At the iconographic level, the historical development and ‘structural dynamics’ of the motif are investigated to deduce the artistic rules that applied to its creation. - At the symbolic level, the symbolic meaning of the artwork is ascertained by theorizing on the meaning of the motif and its parts in an Egyptian context. - At the functional level, the function of the artwork is ascertained by investigating how the motif’s symbolism was intended to be applied to benefit the individual. The results of this research is that the avian motif developed over time according to strict artistic rules; that it symbolized the king, eternity and protection; and that its function was to protect the king in all phases of his existence in a political and mythological context in order to ensure that the he would attain an eternal life in the afterlife. In the mind of the ancient Egyptian this was achieved through the transference of the avian motif’s magical qualities to the user. The intended outcome of this study is to highlight the avian motif’s importance in the context of the ancient Egyptian culture.

L’Histoire des écoles d’horlogerie de Besançon est inhérente à la naissance et à la continuité d’une industrie spécifique très localisée sur un territoire. Avec elles nous partons de l’ère « proto-industrielle » qui plonge ses racines dans les idéaux révolutionnaires de 1793 pour aboutir aux bouleversements technologiques de l’électronique et du « quartz » des années 1970… S’inscrivant sur la longue durée, trois « écoles » vont se succéder. Pour répondre aux attentes d’une industrie horlogère qui doit constamment faire face aux évolutions techniques, chacune à sa manière, va innover pour constituer un « corpus » original de formation qui n’est pas sans bousculer les rites et usages du temps. Si les deux premières « écoles » eurent une durée de vie limitée, la dernière entité, née en 1861 de la volonté municipale, va pendant plus d’un siècle, accompagner toute une ville (et sa région) dans sa réussite industrielle. Dès sa création, et au fur et à mesure des adaptations qu’elle a su mettre en place, par la qualité et la spécificité des formations dispensées, elle va irriguer de ses élèves toute une industrie toujours à l’affût de personnels qualifiés. Au plan national elle va diffuser le nom de Besançon comme « capitale française de l’horlogerie » en formant nombre d’horlogers-rhabilleurs tenant boutiques et autres ateliers de réparation par tout le territoire… Elle va servir de référence pour implanter dans la Cité des laboratoires de recherche et d’enseignement supérieur : un Observatoire chronométrique, une École d’ingénieurs, un Centre d’études horlogères et de développement industriel (Cétéhor)… Elle va contribuer à la diversification industrielle de la ville dans des domaines connexes à l’horlogerie, notamment dans le découpage, la micromécanique, l’appareillage et les microtechniques… Nationalisée en 1891, elle fait dès lors partie de la petite élite des Écoles Nationales Professionnelles (par assimilation), qui vont marquer le développement industriel du Pays. En 1933, quand elle intègre ses nouveaux locaux, par le nombre et l’originalité de ses filières (de l’ouvrier qualifié à l’ingénieur), par sa dotation en matériels modernes, elle est signalée comme étant le « premier établissement de l’enseignement technique » en France. Le cheminement de cette dernière école fait aussi ressortir une histoire « humaine », « prosopographique », qui met en exergue les nombreux anciens élèves qui se sont lancés avec grande réussite dans la création d’entreprises. Restés fidèles à leur école, ils ont contribué au renom et au développement de la richesse économique de la cité et de sa région… Avec ces écoles d’horlogerie, on aborde enfin l’histoire de l’Enseignement Technique en France. Pour répondre à la demande d’une industrie horlogère en pleine croissance qui déplorait les carences de l’apprentissage en atelier, elles ont été pionnières en ouvrant la voie de « la scolarisation » de la formation professionnelle. Par leurs innovations pédagogiques, et soutenues par les Anciens Élèves, elles ont su établir un lien « École-Entreprise » des plus fructueux qui marque encore la mémoire collective des Bisontins…En 1974 elle perd toute référence à l’horlogerie pour devenir le Lycée Jules Haag. Le temps de l’histoire est désormais advenu pour tenter de comprendre ce qui a fait la force et la réussite de ces « Écoles d’horlogerie » dans leur participation active, sur la durée, à la prospérité économique et industrielle d’une ville et de sa région…
The history of the watchmaking schools in Besançon is part of the birth and continuous development of a specific industry in a very limited sector of the French territory. When studying those schools we start at the « protoindustrial » time with its roots in the revolutionary ideals of 1793 and end up with the technological upheavals of electronics and the « quartz » technology in the 1970s. Three « schools » followed one another over the long term. Each school aimed at satisfying the demands of a watchmakng industry confronted to rapidly changing technical evolutions ; so it innovated in its own way by creating an original « corpus » in the students training and most of the time upset the practices and common ideas of the time. If the first two « schools » had a limited lifespan, the last one created in 1861 by the town council itself has been supporting the industrial growth of the city and the surrounding region. Since its foundation it has stuck to the industrial reality by placing the emphasis on high standards and opening new specific branches whenever necessary, thus answering the needs of firms always looking for highly qualified staff. For a large number of French people Besançon became the « capital town of the watchmaking industry » thanks to the shops or repair workshops kept by Besançon-trained former students all over France… It served as a background to set up research and university laboratories in the city : Observatoire Chronométrique, Ecole d’Ingénieurs, Centre d’Etudes Horlogères et de Développement Industriel (Cétéhor)… It contributed to the industrial diversification of the town in fields related to watchmaking such as mechanical cutting, micromechanics, equipment and microtechniques. It was nationalized in 1891 and then belonged to the very small elite goup of the Professional National Schools that influenced the future industrial development of the country. In 1933 it moved into sparkling-new premises and was acknowledged as the flagship of technical education in France : it offered a large number of innovating courses ranging from the skilled worker to the engineer and was granted the latest equipments in every field. The path of this new school also enhanced a « humane » and « prosopographical » history ; it highlighted the part played by the numerous former students who created their own successful businesses. Being faithful to their old school they contributed to the renown and economic growth and prosperity of the city and its region… Beyond the local impact we must regard the history of the watchmaking schools as an important part of the history of Technical Education in France. To meet the needs of a soaring watchmaking industry they opened the way to the transfer of professional training from apprenticeship in workshops with its observed shortcomings to education in technical high schools. Their pedagogical innovations, the strong support of their former students created a vital school-business link that still lives on in the collective memory of the town inhabitants.In 1974 its name changed to Lycée Jules Haag thus losing any reference to watchmaking. Let us now try and understand the strong influence and success of those watchmaking schools, the active part they played in the economic industrial prosperity of a town and its surrounding region…

Central Asia, crossroads of ancient trade routes known as the Silk Road, absorbed for centuries the pulses of travelling cultural influences and created an environment for the existence of original artistic expression, which can be seen in jewellery making as well. The dissertation thesis deals with analysis of the findings from excavation units and individual pieces of jewellery, in most cases made of gold, which were often largely inspired by the culture of the ancient Mediterranean. The historical - geographic perspective of the work is focused primarily on territory of ancient Bactria and Gandhara - southern part of the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, then northern and eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. These areas were in the past centers of military activities and political formations, followed up in many aspects on the Mediterranean traditions. These political formations contributed distinctly to the dissemination and preservation of some elements of ancient cultural heritage in Central Asian architecture, sculpture and other fine arts and crafts. Most jewelry findings come from a fairly turbulent period of the 1st century AD, when the territory of Central Asia saw the progressive formation of Kushan Empire. The main part of the thesis consists of summary of the...

Text in English
Ancient Egyptian distinctive headdresses made from precious or semi-precious materials date to prehistoric times, indicating a growing sense of individuality and hierarchy. Women’s headdresses were indicators of rulership, divinity, social status, cultic affiliation and wealth. Visual evidence indicates that female identity was emphasised by external and outward appearance and headdresses in the form of diadems followed recognised stylistic dictates throughout the Dynastic Period. The floral and faunal motifs used in the embellishment were believed to have protective amuletic and magical powers. Although a considerable amount of investigation has been undertaken into the use of materials and techniques used in the manufacture of diadems, the incorporation of symbolism and iconography of these gendered artefacts as a means of interpreting visual messages and self-expression has largely been unexplored. The study has been limited to well-provenanced, extant Old, Middle and New Kingdom diadems housed in various museums worldwide.
Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
M.A. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)

This chapter explores jewellery in the Hebrew Bible in light of the material evidence from the ancient Levant. I consider the function of jewellery in biblical texts, focused upon how these objects modify and ritualize the body. The ability of jewellery to index personhood is utilized in order to explore and unpack the use of jewellery in votive offerings. Moving beyond these insights, I then turn to the recovery of amulets inscribed with biblical passages—the earliest written evidence for biblical literature. As amulets, these objects served an apotropaic, ritual function. In biblical texts, we see this in action in the production of the golden calf, which is made from the jewellery of the Israelites. Such items therefore provide access to dimensions of personal religion and religious worship carried out outside of the official sphere. But by making sure that jewellery was utilized in the furnishing of the Temple, the biblical writers circumscribe this personal piety, making it compliant to the larger dominant model of the official Temple cult.

This paper deals with names in Anatolia which allude to various material goods of exceptional quality and/or rarity such as precious stones, aromatics, incense, etc., a large group of ‘exotics’ amongst them being imported from India, South Arabia and East Africa. The names’ occurrence shows a striking concentration in the imperial period; one might say that many were not deeply rooted in Greek onomastic tradition but attest to a recent fashion promoted and enhanced by the flourishing in particular of the Red Sea trade. The main attraction of such names may have consisted in their vague allusion to luxury, as is also regularly depicted on tombstones even in villages by symbols such as jewellery boxes, unguent jars, oil and perfume bottles, cases and chests.

This is a book about clothing and adornment in the world that gave rise to the Hebrew Bible. On the one hand, then, this is a book concerned with material culture: with the various garments and items of adornment that we read about in the pages of the Bible, or with the material remains of objects such as jewellery and cosmetic cases that have been recovered from the ancient Levant....

This chapter centres on the spectral stories and rumours which orbited ancient Egyptian artefacts in the possession of literary authors, along with the Egyptological connections such authors made. It focuses on Marie Corelli, her one-time friend Oscar Wilde, reading Wilde’s scarab ring that recalled the rare and expensive objects in his own writings as finding a literary counterpart in Corelli’s The Sorrows of Satan (1895). Corelli’s devil is Wilde’s double, Wilde’s scarab ring represented as a live beetle within which resides the soul of a mummified princess. Such a depiction, this chapter claims, reflects Corelli’s condemnation of Wilde, and decadence more broadly. Also considered is a necklace that Corelli was given by Sir John Aird, partially comprised of ancient Egyptian beads. This object’s renderings in a heretofore neglected archival source along with Corelli’s lifelong companion’s memoirs, illuminate her belief that ancient Egyptian jewellery allowed spiritual connections between the ancient and modern worlds. Ultimately, this chapter unearths how Corelli, proposing that she was a reincarnated Egyptian princess, fashioned herself as an alternative Egyptological authority at odds with masculine, scholarly Egyptology represented by figures such as E. A. Wallis Budge of the British Museum.

This chapter focuses on Trakhtemirov, one of the most important ancient settlements of the Early Iron Age in the Ukraine. During the ancient period, the trade routes and caravans met at Trakhtemirov which was situated over the three crossing points of the Dneiper. Its location on the steep heights assured residents of Trakhtemirov security of settlement. On three sides it was protected by the course of the Dnieper while on the other side it was defended by the plateau of the pre-Dneiper elevation. The ancient Trakhtemirov city is located around 100 km below Kiev, on a peninsula which is jutted into the river from the west. Trakhtemirov in the Early Iron Age was important as it was the site of the Cossack capital of Ukraine. It was also the site of the most prestigious artefacts of the Scythian period and a site for various items of jewellery, tools and weaponry. The abundance of artefacts in Trakhtemirov suggests that the city is a central place among the scattered sites of the middle course of the Dneiper.

This chapter takes its starting point from the notion that, for the biblical authors, clothing and jewellery symbolically encoded the personhood of its wearer. These items could thus manifest and modify the body in ritual contexts. As such, the manipulation and destruction of clothing items in the ritual context took on a heavy symbolic value. After the ritual use of textiles in the wider ancient Near East is explored, this insight is shown to explicate a number of the more difficult references to clothing in biblical literature. Moreover, since the production of textiles was gendered in the ancient world, this special function of clothing provided women with agency in ritual and religious settings. In these texts, textiles afford women with the means to become experts in rituals associated with life and death. These references therefore attest to the use of clothing and textiles in an important but largely unacknowledged aspect of female ritual expertise.

Historians of the ancient states of the north coast of the Black Sea were often faced by the challenge on how to estimate the presence of barbarians in the populations of early communities. Although it is generally understood that there was indeed a presence of barbarians in the early Mediterranean communities, the problem is there is no systematic means to gain material remains that may shed light on the numbers and social-ethnic characteristics of such non-Greek components. Although attempts have been made to generalize the existence of barbarians through archaeological evidence, such methods have failed due to lack of firm methodology. This chapter examines cities wherein the barbarian cultural level cannot be clearly established. It focuses on the two aspects of the issue of barbarian presence in Olbia. It examines the artefacts and assemblages, and how much materials can attest the presence of such ethnicities in Olbia. This qualitative approach examines the presence of dug-out dwelling places, handmade potteries, burial practices, jewellery and prosopography. The second aspect uses a quantitative approach which examines the statistics and percentages of particular ethnicities in Olbia. In these considerations and examinations, no objective criteria that would establish the number of barbarians in Olbia have been established. Although specific cultural features may be connected with the barbarians, they are otherwise represented slightly and in a fragmented fashion which nullifies the argument that Olbia contained substantial barbarian social stratum.