Article: Jewelry from the Ancient Near East: A Story from Antiquity
Jewelry from the Ancient Near East: A Story from Antiquity
Jewelry design has a long history, dating back to some of the most advanced ancient civilizations.
Ancient jewelry is extremely precious and uncommon. A large number of these jewels are kept in state collections and museums. When a high-quality antique item does come up for sale, it usually commands a high price, particularly if it has a unique history or significant gemstones.
Beyond the rudimentary use of objects like beads and shells, the craft of jewelry creation originated in ancient Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago.
Ancient Sumerian Stone Barrel Seal Gold Pendant, 1300–800 BC, Source DSF Antique Jewelry
The Ancient Near East
The Ancient Near East is typically used to refer to the civilizations that flourished in Asia from Iran westward to the Mediterranean between 3000 BC and Alexander the Great's invasion in the fourth century BC.
This generic phrase encompasses such different peoples as the East Semitic-speaking Babylonians and Assyrians, as well as the Sumerians, whose language was unrelated to any other, the Hebrews, and West Semitic Canaanites. The most well-known are the East Indo-European Persians of Iran and the West Indo-European Hittites of Asia Minor.
The list could be expanded to include many more names. The region's political landscape changed constantly, frequently brutally. Even so, we can legitimately consider the Ancient Near East to be a cultural entity because the civilizations there had a lot in common.
This was partly caused by extensive trade, which emerged early due to the uneven distribution of natural resources in the region.
The need for the shiny metals and vibrant stones used to produce jewelry was a significant driver of trade. In the Ancient Near East, one could even assert that jewelry's mystical properties served as a catalyst for civilization, said Jeanny Vorys Canby, an American archaeologist and scholar of the ancient Near East, in the book Jewelry: Ancient to Modern.
The lack of stone and metal in ancient Sumer, the "cradle of civilization" in southern Iraq, where writing and the idea of cities originated, is at least historically significant.
The Sumerians' search for lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and gold and silver from as far away as Turkey's west coast must have played a significant role in disseminating information about their civilized ways throughout the region.
Jewelry was popular among Sumerian women and men alike. They wore necklaces, rings, gold pectoral ornaments, bracelets, and earrings.
The Babylonians, Assyrians, Scythians to the north, and Hittites to the west all inherited Sumerian jewelry-making methods and design repertoire.
Ancient Human-Faced Scarab – Rare Archaeological Revival Gold Rin, Source, DSF Antique Jewerly
From the seventh to the third century BC, the nomadic Scythians of the Eurasian steppe created exceptionally exquisite jewelry and artwork. Greek and Scythian art and jewelry were impacted by one another when the two cultures interacted. The Scythians were fond of ornate horse trappings, beautiful weapons, and personal jewels.
Museums place a high value on Scythian gold jewelry, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is home to many of the most priceless pieces.
Casting, engraving, gilding, inlaying, and stone setting were among the methods used in Scythian metalworking.
The "Scythian animalistic" style refers to the depictions of fantastical animals, such as gryphons, sphinxes, and winged creatures with human heads.
Fresco of a griffin - a mythological creature with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion - attacking an Arimaspi, one of a legendary tribe of one-eyed people from northern Scythia. The battles between the Aramaspi and griffins are known via a lost work by Aristeas, reported in Herodotus. The battles took place in the Hyperborean lands near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind, with the griffins defending their hoards of gold against the Arimaspi, Source, Naples National Archaeological Museum, Photographer Chappsnet, via Wikimedia Commons
Amulets & Talismans
It makes sense that basic stone amulets from the heartland of the Ancient Near East would appear first in this catalog of exquisite jewelry.
Canby claims that these worn talismans, meticulously restored in antiquity, serve as a reminder of the original amuletic function of jewelry — something magical, worn on the body to protect the wearer or enhance his powers.
The amuletic meaning of jewelry in antiquity was never entirely lost.
Ancient Iranian Bracelet, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Via Wikimedia Commons
This is evident in Ancient Egypt, where symbols, such as the signs in hieroglyphic writing, persisted throughout as tangible images. Because writing and symbols in the Ancient Near East took on abstract shapes fairly early on, it is less noticeable there.
However, we are aware of the religious importance of rosettes, stars, floral features, and quadruple spirals. The gods received jewelry as votive offerings. It was worn by statues of the gods used in ceremonies and made up a sizable portion of the temples' coffers, which were crucial components of the economies of ancient towns.
The evidence about the history of jewelry in the Ancient Near East is both abundant and inconsistent. There are very few actual examples of jewelry. Given the region's volatile past and the repeated storming of cities — and, perhaps, of royal graves and graveyards — this is not shocking.
The Royal Tombs of Ur
The Royal Tombs of Ur in Sumer and Alaca Hüyük in Asia Minor are two examples of the rare intact tombs that have been found. According to Canby, none of the coffins of the great empire rulers — whose wealth may have rivaled that of Egypt — have been discovered undamaged.
Only a few hoards, hastily gathered and concealed during a siege, remain of the vast treasures kept in palaces and temples, never to be recovered.
These treasures are probably a patchwork of fine and crude craftsmanship, imported and local pieces, modern diamonds, and others that date back thousands of years — mixtures that demonstrate the other significant role that jewelry had in ancient times. It functioned as a gauge of wealth and a medium of commerce in a society without money.
Because of its inherent significance, it was gathered from numerous sources and preserved for generations. A few hoards from jewelers' workshops and more antique jewelry molds that have remained aid us in separating the many sources for items in a treasure.
Royal Thomb of Ur, Mosaic, made of lapis lazuli and shell, Source Alma E.."Reader's Digest: Mysteries of the Bible: The Enduring Question of the Scriptures".Pleasantville, New York/Montreal.The Reader's Digest Association, Author Alma E. Guinness, via Wikimedia Commons
The amount of jewelry we are lacking is revealed in ancient Near Eastern writings. According to Canby, descriptions of gifts, listings of tribute and loot, and inventories of temple coffers and royal dowries all include jewelry. On the other hand, jewelry is sometimes misrepresented in artwork.
The Royal Tombs of Ur in Ancient Sumer, which date to the second half of the third millennium BC, include the largest collection of ancient Near Eastern jewelry.
The deceased were lavishly, almost ostentatiously, decorated with headdresses, necklaces, earrings, rings, hair decorations, and pins made of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and carnelian in this sequence of funerals, some of which were sacrificial.
The Aristocratic Classes
Hard stone polishing and cutting, solid casting, repoussé, granulation, and gold filigree work were already advanced methods. It was possible to create thick gold chains with interlocked loops that formed a square section.
However, there is almost no jewelry displayed on the statues that depict the aristocratic classes of the time. Actually, only extremely basic jewelry — a high-collar necklace for women, a single strand of heavy beads for men, and the occasional rudimentary bracelet — is visible on statues of kings or officials up until the ninth century BC.
Syrian frescoes dated circa 1800 BC show some amulets around the neck. According to Canby, the intricate jewelry of the Ur tombs can only be matched on crude clay figurines or plaques that depict votaries (typically naked women) or deities. The meaning of this contradictory evidence about jewelry styles is still unclear.
The statues that have survived from these eras depict people with religious beliefs, and it's possible that wearing expensive clothing "in church" was prohibited.
People are depicted wearing a lot of jewelry, including diadems, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, armlets, crowns, and robes adorned with gold appliqués. This may be because the palace reliefs, which started to be created in Assyria and Syria in the ninth century BC, are more secular in nature.
Ancient Artisans
Canby claims that ancient Syrian ivories depict ladies wearing ornate headdresses. The renowned gold crowns seen here are exceedingly valuable despite their somewhat rudimentary construction, since real specimens of jewelry from this era are incredibly uncommon.
Antique Ethnic Face Jade Diamond Platinum Ring, Source DSF Antique Jewelry
It is clear that the jewelry worn by the figures in the Assyrian reliefs originates from multiple sources. A few items might have been loot or tribute. Since artisans from all over the Ancient Near East were transported to Assyria to work at the court, foreign kinds might also have been produced there.
Since jewelry is rarely representational, stylistic analysis based on other forms of art is not very helpful in classifying the various types shown on the reliefs. On the other hand, burials of common people are excellent resources for identifying local customs.
For example, bracelets with stylized lion heads, which are frequently seen on Assyrian reliefs, were actually indigenous to the mountains of Iran because they were discovered in burials in Lorestān.
Like in Ma's collections, the majority of the Walters' exquisite old Near Eastern jewelry originates from isolated regions of Iran. According to Canby, "it is likely that our knowledge of ancient Near Eastern jewelry will always depend on finds in such areas, which were in contact with the great centers of civilization, but off the beaten track of sacking armies."
In actuality, a picture can only be created from the hazy remnants of this rich yet turbulent history by gathering numerous types of evidence for jewelry.
In ancient Mesopotamia, jewelry was used to decorate both human bodies and god statues. Even though thin gold leaf was typically used to create jewels, a number of intricate metalworking methods, including filigree, engraving, cloisonné, and granulation, were also employed.
Large quantities of colored stones, including agate, jasper, lapis lazuli, and carnelian, were often used to set jewelry. Cones, spirals, leaves, and grapes were common motifs. Near the ancient mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, hundreds of burial sites were unearthed in a 20th-century finding hailed as the biggest find since the Tomb of King Tutankhamun.
The world of Ancient Near Eastern jewelry is so complex and vast that it cannot be covered and described in a single article. We invite you to visit our website for other articles on this topic, which are sure to capture your attention.
Cover Photo: Sumerian queen Puabi, author Rowyn flowerdew, Via Wikimedia Commons
