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Ancient jewelry

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m not all that fond of precious jewels. That’s very fortunate, because I don’t own many.

Richard Burton would have gotten off easy with me. When I got married, I wore a plain gold wedding ring, one that had been in my family since the 1800s, and never missed or thought of a diamond engagement ring. It just wasn’t my thing.

I have plenty of non-precious pieces of jewelry, though, and I’m particularly keen on this guy’s work (if you’re interested in a gift for somebody—they look better in real life than in the photos, for some reason). On reading the maker’s bio, it occurs to me that the following may be the underlying reason I’m so fond of his jewelry:

I was inspired as a young boy by visiting the great art museums in New York City, and spent many hours in the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at the gold jewelry.

Aha! Ancient jewelry was his inspiration. Now that, I’ve always liked. And the thing that has long fascinated and amazed me about very ancient jewelry is that the design of most of it could be easily worn today; it never dates. And what’s more, jewelry that is thousands of years old and displayed in museum collections looks, for the most part, practically new.

For example, please take a look at the stunning examples here and reflect on how very old most of them are.

Care to guess the age of this one?

lapis

Hint: it’s from Ur.

Which makes it about 4500 years old, give or take a few.

Here’s one that’s practically modern:

goldnecklace

And to the inhabitants of Ur, it would be futuristic. But to us, it’s a bit old: it’s made of emeralds, garnets, and gold, and is a Helenistic piece from about 200 BC.

And of course, the whole thing also reminds me of poetry, in this case Yeats:

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Although neither Grecian nor Byzantine (the latter being the site of where Constantinople and now Istanbul lies), and made in the late 1700s in India, this is something akin to the way I always pictured the artifact in the last verse of the poem:

humabird

Or this, also from India and the same period, which includes enamel and gold (as in the poem):

enamalparrot

Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Comments

Ancient jewelry — 30 Comments

  1. Well the whole point of the draw of rare jewels is that they are rare, not everyone can have them. Then they would be common, even if cut specially.

    But the same standard applies to skill. Humans are conditioned to obey their hierarchy/authority and thus they tend to be drawn towards things that are rare. The rarely good and the rarely evil, in equal measure.

    So a type of skill which generates beauty, is its own rareness. Cause not everyone has it, and even the ones that do, they generate a slightly different aesthetic.

    In many cultures and hierarchies, being unique or the nail that stands out, gets you persecuted or killed. For people who want the safety of their civilization, they can get a taste of those who don’t conform via rareness.

  2. Neo,
    We have the same taste. I don’t care what something costs. I care about the colors and whether a piece will complement my clothes.

  3. Next time someone badmouths the good ol’ days — two Stooge fingers to the eyes.

    Paris fashion show celebrates the decline and fall of the West.

    Run out of ideas? Can’t get inspired by the giants of the past? The ancients too passé? You’ve sacked your muse and hired a Gnostic? Wouldn’t be caught dead being derivative? Try revolting the bourgeoisie.

  4. Hint: it’s from Ur.

    Which makes it about 4500 years old, give or take a few.

    Any Idea when this item was collected?

    Is it after 2003? the famous Iraqi Museum lotting with US troop stand out side looking to the looters?

    Take alook to the Treasures of Nimrod King Of Shinar(Babylon, South Mesopotamia) Jewelry which taken by Paul Bremer to US no one knows where ended?

    “Looting and Aftermath: the Lost Heritage of Iraq. Session at 49e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, British Museum, 7 July 2003

  6. I recall listening to CNN’S Blitzer during this raiding & destruction going on along with the
    gratuitous Christian beheadings by ISIS,
    Wolf was more perturbed about the lost antiquities then the lost lives. Gives credence to the observation that Lefties hate humans.
    Abort them, euthanize them, sterilize them,
    they just take up room & waste resources.
    However if they are a vile murderer, or mass murderer or repugnant criminal then they are
    ever so *fascinating*, & must be fawned over.

  7. ISIS?

    Can you tell what your massive power done to stop those shadow “vile murderer, or mass murderer or repugnant criminal then they are ever so *fascinating*?

    Let remind you before 2003, under the inhuman sanction where are you for the suffering of human?
    What about human lose due to war in 2003 and aftermath?
    13 years and millions killed or displaced or disabled directly or indirectly due to war?

    Keep Molly NH yourself near you pits so human lover ……

  9. Diamond wedding rings are ridiculous, but they do serve a purpose. I hate trying to guess what a non-diamond ring means.

  10. JR is not just English-challenged, he’s fact-challenged.

    The Iraqui Museum antiquities meme that will not die:

    The extent of the looting of Iraq’s National Museum has been disputed. News organizations for weeks reported that as much as 100 percent of the museum’s 170,000 catalogued lots (501,000 pieces) had been looted, when no more than 3 percent of the artifacts in fact were removed, and perhaps only 1 percent of them stolen by outside looters…About 15,000 of the museum’s 501,000 artifacts were stolen, and about two-thirds of the missing pieces probably were taken in an inside job before American troops arrived. About 5,000 pieces, most of them tiny beads and amulets, were taken by looters. According to The Washington Post (Sept. 15, 2003), investigator Col. Matthew Bogdanos estimated that most of the looted items could have fit into one large backpack…[T]the number of major pieces removed from the museum’s public gallery was in the dozens.

    Nothing like a few outdated links from JR to keep the false meme going.

  11. I don’t go to reply to your “false” accusations Neo.
    There are more sources telling about the looting, you are not been there, or knowing what going there you just setting in you comfort zone, trying to convince other with your picks of your mindset.
    When the Allies invaded Iraq,The main source are those people who worked there in the museum for years before your “Abu Ghraib” liberators heroes (I hope not going to tell “Nothing like a few outdated links from JR to keep the false meme going.”) opened (Bombed) the doors for the looters, then stood watching the looters (they are not just local as some source telling also Iraqi Museum officials, they are professionals knew what to for and took)

    While accusing other like me, can you tell us how much truth you hold to make others to believe in you rather those men and women like Donny George Youkhanna, an Assyrian Christian, was director of research at the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage
    Should we believe in someone setting in his comfort zone at home and accuse those who were working there and saw what happen and whats lost as false folks?
    Be real Neo please, give me a break with all these misleading sources that you listed.

  12. Hahhh……… this is Nothing like a few outdated links from JR to keep the false meme going. this the link: Dr. Donny George
    Here his Interview here
    Neo I did qoute this sourceThe Iraq War & ArchaeologyReviewed Articles Archive Seven: First 1/2 of July 2003.

    All these folks below are laiers? Just you speak all and full truth?
    This site is edited by Belgian archaeologist Francis Deblauwe, Ph.D., living in Streamwood, Illinois (USA), who is affiliated with Archaeos, Inc., and a research associate of the University of Vienna (Austria).

  14. neo…

    I read a piece that admitted that what looting that had occurred was perpetrated ( Louvre style ) by the museum’s own experts.

    Not with the intent of profit… but like the Parisians… to keep the best stuff in their hands during the final days of Saddam and the early days of American occupation.

    These lost items have all been ‘recovered’ by the Iraqi nation.

    Similarly, the Egyptian experts ‘stole’ every manner of ancient artefact when the Muslim Brotherhood was enthroned.

    For they knew that the MB would destroy them — taking their careers entirely into the abyss… right along with Egypt’s primary income stream.

    Would you believe that some MB players have seriously suggested that the Pyramids of Ghiza be razed ?

    They must have been on drugs, or we are being trolled.

  16. As for ancient jewelry, I suggest doing a search for “Sutton Hoo ship burial.”

    These are from the 6th or 7th century (the pieces are in the British Museum and are remarkable. The garnet of the small bracelets is exquisite; it has the depth and color of the red on a taffy apple (or is that candied apple). The photos are nice, but the gemstone artifacts are actually breathtaking.

  18. It’s not really jewelry but if you are ever in Venice go behind the alter of St. Mark’s and look (stare?) at the alter piece made in Constantinople in 900. It has to be the largest and most exquisite artwork in the world made of emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls that surround countless enamel portraits of saints. It makes you wonder what Constantinople looked like before it was sacked by the Crusaders (led by the Venetians!) in 1201 and finally done in by the Turks in 1453.

  22. Paul in Boston Says:
    October 4th, 2015 at 12:58 am

    It’s not really jewelry but if you are ever in Venice go behind the alter of St. Mark’s and look (stare?) at the alter piece made in Constantinople in 900. It has to be the largest and most exquisite artwork in the world made of emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls that surround countless enamel portraits of saints. It makes you wonder what Constantinople looked like before it was sacked by the Crusaders (led by the Venetians!) in 1201 and finally done in by the Turks in 1453.

    &&&

    No-one can imagine.

    MOST of the palimpests that triggered the Renaissance came from that haul.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    THAT’S why the Renaissance was the Renaissance.

    What happened is the the looting was so pervasive that the Doge of Venice and his crew were auctioning off ancient parchment — in STACKS.

    This was sold IN BULK to monasteries all across Europe.

    THIS was how Grecco-Roman scribblings even became the substruct for palimpests.

    The monasteries were merely looking for vellum on the cheap !!!

    Many of these were purchased by monks that ran ‘non-profit’ Christian enterprises.

    The moment they saw// read the ancient texts — hydro-power was rediscovered in Europe. Practically overnight ( late Fifteenth Century ) the brothers / friars were economic king pins — because of European hydro-power.

    At all times prior, they had not the wit to realize that they could run engines on low-head water potential.

    After the Black Death, such hydro-power made the wet north the economic powerhouse of Europe.

    Even today, this connection is not made.

    %%%

    Where would Canada be without astoundingly cheap hydro-power?

    Heh.

    Ask Alcan.

  23. Extend and amend my remarks…

    It happened — the vellum auction — even earlier.

    Nix the 15th Century.

  26. I cut stones… mostly cabachon… (yes, on top of photography, graphic arts, design/inventing, new technology and more.. )

    if anyone wants to see some of my cut Opals let neo know and i will send along some images. while not ancient, depending on what type they can be from new or older deposits… many from eithiopia. but i have some very high grade ethiopian opals, black opals (australia), various jade (white fat jade, hotan pebbles, etc), rubies, and all kinds

    i was thinking later in life i may pick up faceting, but now do cabachon..

    the oldest stuff you will find will be cabachon as one can literally shape them with grit and your hand or a piece of leather (Takes a while though).

    faceting didnt come till later, and is quite a bit harder, except today now they cheat and often use lasers to burn away material. however the best stuff is cut the old way. A hasidim friend of the family cuts diamond and we have a perpetuity deal for any we can get from indonesia (which has diamonds, rubies, a lot of sapphire, and more)

    i would say its the second oldest business, otherwise what do you give the woman in the oldest profession… heh heh..

    last week i did have a treat to check out some carved jade from china that was over 1000 years old and in general would blow the average persons mind away. reasonable prices to comparatively. some incredible cut bowls, inksets and more, including chops (seals for documents and art signing in jadeitte)

    i do so many different thigns most people dont believe me… the idea is that you cant learn that or do all that (compared to their lives in which they barely do anything)

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