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ARCHAIC GREEK JEWELLERY With the “Mycenaean Age” (II Millennium BC) and the advent of the civilization of great palaces, jewellery making developed in the Aegean. The workmanship was highly skilled and the production served the wealthy aristocracy. Jewellery took on an important role as a symbol of luxury and status and allowed the rich to impress the lower social classes with their position of power. This tradition continued in Greece through the millennia and it was further enriched by contacts with eastern craftsmen. In the archaic period (VII – VI centuries BC) a particular interest was shown in the creation and display of jewels, generally made of silver. With the beginning of colonization, production also spread to the new cities of Asia Minor and the western Mediterranean, and varied according to the classes it supplied. In many tombs in the Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily dating from the VII – VI centuries BC, jewellery has been found, much of it made of silver. SOCIAL WEALTH AND DISPLAY IN THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD (IV-I CENTURY BC) In the fifth century BC, the art of jewellery making continued to develop significantly, but reached its peak in the search for luxury and display of wealth with the fourth century BC. Gold and ornamental stones had become more accessible and were used to produce ornaments, even though sumptuary laws tried repeatedly to restrict the use of jewels and expensive clothes in order to avoid social conflict. Jewellery included diadems, crowns, gold hair caps to fasten the hair at the nape of the neck, earrings, necklaces, strings of necklaces to wear across the chest, seals worn as pendants, bracelets worn on the arm or forearm and rings, as well as gold and silver trimmings and decorations for buttons, dresses and shoes, together with fine, almost transparent fabrics which were richly coloured with purple dye or painted with pictorial scenes and embroidered. All this bears witness both to the wealth and the culture of the middle and upper classes in the cities around the Mediterranean. Some of the jewels are true works of art. Coloured inlays were added to the gold, and they were made of metals, vitreous paste enamels or precious stones like cornelian, garnets, emeralds, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, amber and pearls. The main centres of production were Alexandria in Egypt, Athens and Tarentum; to these one may add major capitals such as Syracuse, where some unusual and highly decorative jewellery was also produced. THE SYMBOLS AND THE MAGIC USE OF HELLENISTIC JEWELS Even the smallest objects have attached doves, birds, cats, small flying cupids or winged Nikai. These representations had a symbolic meaning which concerned both the every day life, and hopes for the afterlife. Stones and images almost always had a particular meaning, which could be just a wish of good luck or a more specific protection for an organ of the body. Pendants of various shapes might contain good luck charms hidden from view, or perfumed essences which were considered to be equivalent of magic potions. Even features like the knot which is known in Italy today as the Savoy knot and was called in ancient times the “Hercules’ knot”, had a special meaning and served to protect the wearer from negative influences, “tying him up” as though he were encased in a protective shell. In other cases, the jewels identified members of a particular group, often of a religious nature. Clothes and jewels worn for an important religious initiation rite could be worn for the whole of one’s life as part of a vow, or they could be dedicated in the sanctuaries. Generally, a woman of the middle classes owned a set of jewellery which was more or less complete; so, even earrings which were a gift for a special occasion, like a wedding, were worn for the whole of one’s life. In some cases, the pierced hole in the ear lobe was gradually enlarged for particular earrings, such as those of a spiral shape, on show in the exhibition; once the hole had reached the right size, the earrings were inserted and they could not be removed again.
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