Saturday, December 19, 2009

Minoan Jewelry

The Bronze Age civilization that flourished on the Mediterranean island of Crete is known as the Minoan.
Because Crete lay near the coasts of Asia, Africa, and the Greek continent and because it was the seat of prosperous ancient civilizations and a necessary point of passage along important sea-trading routes, the Minoan civilization developed a level of wealth which, beginning about 2000 bc, stimulated intense goldworking activities of high aesthetic value. 
Minoan gold pendant of bees encircling the Sun, showing the use of granulation, from a tomb at …
[Credits : Dimitri]From Crete this art spread out to the Cyclades, Peloponnesus, Mycenae, and other Greek island and mainland centres. Stimulated by Minoan influence, Mycenaean art flourished from the 16th to the 14th century, gradually declining at ...
the beginning of the 1st millennium bc.
 

Among the techniques used in Minoan-Mycenaean goldworking were granulation and filigree, but the most widely used was the cutting and stamping of gold sheet into beads and other designs to form necklaces and diadems, as well as to decorate clothing. 

The kings from Period I of Mycenaean civilization (c. 1580–1500 bc), discovered in their burial places, wore masks of gold sheet, and scattered over their clothing were dozens of stamped gold disks. The disks reveal the rich variety of decorative motifs used by the Mycenaeans: round, rectangular, ribbon-shaped—including combinations of volutes, flowers, stylized polyps and butterflies, rosettes, birds, and sphinxes.
 

A pendant from a Minoan tomb at Mallia, Crete (Archaeological Museum, Iráklion, Greece), is one of the most perfect masterpieces of jewelry that has come down to us from the 17th century bc (see photograph). 
The Sun’s disk is covered with granulation and is held up by two bees, forming the central part of the composition. 
Ring bezels (tops of the rings), with relief engravings of highly animated pastoral scenes, cults, hunting, and war, are also fine. Like those of the other jewelry forms, the ornamental motifs of the necklaces are varied, including dates, pomegranates, half-moons facing each other, lotus flowers, and a hand squeezing a woman’s breast. 
During the late Mycenaean period, earrings appeared in the shape of the head of a bull, an animal frequently represented in early gold plate.
In addition to goldworking, Minoan-Mycenaean craftsmen also excelled at engraving gemstones for seals and rings.

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