Alexis Castor | Franklin & Marshall College (original) (raw)

Papers by Alexis Castor

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 9, 2023

Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2008

Journal of Greek archaeology, 2017

Proceedings of the Xvith Intrnational Congress of Classical Arachaeology Common Ground Archaeology Art Science and Humanities 2006 Isbn 1842171836 Pags 625 627, 2006

A Companion to the Etruscans, 2015

Chapter 19 1. Introduction When etruscan jewelry is found, it is already displaced from its inten... more Chapter 19 1. Introduction When etruscan jewelry is found, it is already displaced from its intended purpose. In a tomb, the typical archaeological context that yields gold, silver, ivory, or amber, the ornaments are arranged in a deliberate deposit intended for eternity. they represent neither daily nor special occasion costume, but rather are pieces selected and placed in ways that those who prepared the body, likely women, believed was significant for personal or ritual reasons. Indeed, there is no guarantee that the jewelry found on a body ever belonged to the dead. For an element of dress that the living regularly adapted to convey different looks, such permanence is entirely artificial. today, museums house jewelry in special cases within galleries, further separating the material from its original display on the body. Simply moving beyond these simulations requires no little effort of imagination on the part of researchers who seek to understand how etruscans used these most personal artifacts. the approach adopted in this chapter draws on anthropological methods, especially those studies that highlight the changing self-identity and public presentation necessary at different stages of life. as demonstrated by contemporary examples, young adults can pierce various body parts, couples exchange rings at weddings, politicians adorn their lapels with flags, and military veterans pin on medals for a parade. the wearer can add or remove all of these accessories depending on how he or she moves through different political, personal, economic, social, or religious settings. Cultural anthropologists who apply this theoretical framework have access to many details of life-stage and object-use that are lost to us. Many answers about etruscan jewelry will remain elusive because our interpretations rely on fragmentary, incomplete, and unrepresentative evidence. however, the scenarios prompted by these theories can move us beyond generic interpretations of jewelry as expressions of wealth, gender, or ethnicity categorized apart from other artifacts of the past. For example, the application of a life-stage model means that the first question asked about a piece of jewelry is not how or when it was made, but rather when might a man or woman have worn it. Scholars can use that prompt to interrogate further: how might the meanings differ if a child wore a ring versus if an adult male slipped one on his finger? etruscan women wore jewelry more flamboyantly than many of their Mediterranean neighbors, so what jewelry might a married

… a dynamic canvas: adornment in the …, 2008

edisk.fandm.edu

... heroic or divine children were far more independent; Herakles, for example, easily strangled ... more ... heroic or divine children were far more independent; Herakles, for example, easily strangled the snakes sent by Hera.5 Lesley Beaumont notes that ... Most recently, Greta Ham has argued that the day of Choes marked the important transition of boys in their third year into the next ...

Etruscan Studies, 2010

truscan jewelry of the late 5th and 4th centuries B.C. has several distinctive characteristics. 1... more truscan jewelry of the late 5th and 4th centuries B.C. has several distinctive characteristics. 1 It highlights the reflective properties of gold by contrasting smooth convex and concave components with little surface decoration to detract from the gleam of the metal. More decorative ornaments, usually necklace pendants, were made using engraved molds to create figural scenes in high relief rather than by adding filigree or granulation to the surface of the sheet gold. A mid 4th century tomb group from Vulci, now in the Vatican, is representative of the forms in vogue during this era. 2 (Fig. 1) This jewelry includes two gold leaf crowns, one of laurel, the other of oak. The gold leaves were set in flat, overlapping rows and the headdress would have tied closely around the head, creating a wide, gleaming band. A pair of horseshoe or a grappolo earrings from the tomb illustrate the impressive size of some late Classical ornaments; these are 7.6 cm long. Here, the smooth convex boss contrasts with the alternating rows of plain and embossed bands on the upper disk and the cluster of concave hemispheres below. Several pendants formed two different necklaces, one made up of eleven alternating rectangular and oval pendants, the other using the three large (6.5 cm) round pendants. All of the pendants had figural decoration in relief: sphinxes and a bejeweled frontal female head on the rectangular and oval pendants respectively, a divine group of Aphrodite, Eros and Adonis in high relief on two of the round pendants, and Helios driving a winged quadriga on the third. The crown, large earrings and the three large round pendants, in addition to the other pieces, would have created a notable impression simply because of the sheer amount of reflective surface the set produces. Less apparent would be the fact that, although the pieces themselves are sizeable, their sheet gold construction makes them quite lightweight. There are two practical benefits to this type of jewelry manufacture; the objects are easy to wear and they required relatively little gold even for large pieces. In short, Late Classical Etruscan jewelry can be characterized as golden, smooth, displaying myth as its main decorative element, and perhaps even economical. 3-29