Alexis Castor - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Alexis Castor

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 9, 2023

Archaeologists have traditionally assigned gender to artifacts such as jewelry and weapons. Indee... more Archaeologists have traditionally assigned gender to artifacts such as jewelry and weapons. Indeed, examples of sexed burials in Europe and the Mediterranean that locate weapons on male bodies and ornaments on female bodies seem to reinforce those assumptions. But a closer look at burial practices also reveals numerous exceptions to so-called gendered goods paired with either sex (Robb and Harris 2013: 74-82;. And even a cursory reflection about these assumptions reveals fatal flaws: Both men and women in the ancient world wore finger rings, bracelets, clothing fasteners, accents, amulets, and pendants. Even earrings were standard for men and women in Egypt, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Persia . So the notion that jewelry was not part of male dress cannot be sustained. That recognition leaves us with the more interesting question of how and under what circumstances men in Etruria and Anatolia wore jewelry. In this study, 1 I will examine three instances of male jewelry: the use of ornaments as a royal reward throughout the Achaemenid empire, a small group of Anatolian figurines that show males and females wearing necklaces, and Etruscan bulla necklaces. Neck ornaments are distinctive jewelry types because they highlight the throat and chest of the wearer and thus draw attention to the face. They are not utilitarian, and, unless they hang low, a wearer is unable to see what he is wearing. Necklaces therefore are intended for an audience of onlookers, and they form part of the "social skin" that individuals don to visually describe their position within a community. While the corpus of evidence for bejeweled males is not substantial, I will argue that what does survive testifies to the capacity of jewelry to mark essential social identities of wearers in ways that do more than signal gender. In these examples, men's necklaces denoted their achievements in political, military, and ritual roles as part of their public costume. 1 I would like to thank Lizzie Baughan and Lisa Pieraccini for their expert guidance in the bringing this volume to publication and their specific input on this essay. I am also grateful to Gretchen Meyers for her insightful questions and comments during my research into this topic.

Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2008

Macedonian lionesses: Herakles and lion jewelry in elite female dress (c. 325–275 BCE)

Journal of Greek archaeology, 2017

Protecting Athena's Children: Amulets in Classical Athens

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

Grave Garb: Archaic and Classical Macedonian Funerary Costume

… a dynamic canvas: adornment in the …, 2008

Protecting Athena's Children: Amulets in Classical Athens

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

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 9, 2023

Archaeologists have traditionally assigned gender to artifacts such as jewelry and weapons. Indee... more Archaeologists have traditionally assigned gender to artifacts such as jewelry and weapons. Indeed, examples of sexed burials in Europe and the Mediterranean that locate weapons on male bodies and ornaments on female bodies seem to reinforce those assumptions. But a closer look at burial practices also reveals numerous exceptions to so-called gendered goods paired with either sex (Robb and Harris 2013: 74-82;. And even a cursory reflection about these assumptions reveals fatal flaws: Both men and women in the ancient world wore finger rings, bracelets, clothing fasteners, accents, amulets, and pendants. Even earrings were standard for men and women in Egypt, Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Persia . So the notion that jewelry was not part of male dress cannot be sustained. That recognition leaves us with the more interesting question of how and under what circumstances men in Etruria and Anatolia wore jewelry. In this study, 1 I will examine three instances of male jewelry: the use of ornaments as a royal reward throughout the Achaemenid empire, a small group of Anatolian figurines that show males and females wearing necklaces, and Etruscan bulla necklaces. Neck ornaments are distinctive jewelry types because they highlight the throat and chest of the wearer and thus draw attention to the face. They are not utilitarian, and, unless they hang low, a wearer is unable to see what he is wearing. Necklaces therefore are intended for an audience of onlookers, and they form part of the "social skin" that individuals don to visually describe their position within a community. While the corpus of evidence for bejeweled males is not substantial, I will argue that what does survive testifies to the capacity of jewelry to mark essential social identities of wearers in ways that do more than signal gender. In these examples, men's necklaces denoted their achievements in political, military, and ritual roles as part of their public costume. 1 I would like to thank Lizzie Baughan and Lisa Pieraccini for their expert guidance in the bringing this volume to publication and their specific input on this essay. I am also grateful to Gretchen Meyers for her insightful questions and comments during my research into this topic.

Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2008

Macedonian lionesses: Herakles and lion jewelry in elite female dress (c. 325–275 BCE)

Journal of Greek archaeology, 2017

Protecting Athena's Children: Amulets in Classical Athens

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

Grave Garb: Archaic and Classical Macedonian Funerary Costume

… a dynamic canvas: adornment in the …, 2008

Protecting Athena's Children: Amulets in Classical Athens

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