Images of Jewellery on Neolithic Stelae from the 3rd Millennium BC (original) (raw)
Related papers
How can the study of personal ornaments contribute to gender studies for the Neolithic in Italy?
This dissertation will focus on the study of personal ornaments and in which ways their study contributes to the research of gender studies for the Neolithic in Italy. Personal ornaments in this dissertation are defined as beads and pendants. Bracelets, which are evident in Neolithic Italian contexts, are included in the sample, however, as they are often treated as separate from other ornaments, they are not discussed in detail here. For the study of personal ornaments, a great amount of work has been conducted in the Levant and Anatolia in Neolithic sites such as Çatalhöyük and the Jilat-Azraq basin in Jordan. European study on personal ornaments has so far mostly been dominated by Upper Palaeolithic assemblages, with a great deal of research coming from France and Spain. Italy has a very rich literature when it comes to gender research; work has been conducted in aspects of the archaeological record such as art, human skeletons and gendered zones. More recently, work on the body in archaeology has allowed greater theoretical insights into various aspects of Italian archaeology, such as the study of human anthropomorphic figurines. All this combined provides a good backdrop in which to study the impact personal ornaments may have on gender studies within Neolithic Italy. This dissertation will use case studies from both funeral contexts and non-funeral context sites, using the data to draw conclusions on any patterns observed with regard to ornaments and gender.
2024
30th EAA Annual Meeting (Rome, 2024) - The report presents the results of PhD research completed in 2019, which primarily focuses on two categories of anthropomorphic vessel the face-pot and the vessel adorned with one or more human figure motifs. One of the main objectives of the study was the analysis of the archaeological context of discovery. These artefacts, dating back to the period between the 7th and 5th millennia BCE, originate from 229 sites across the Levant, Anatolia, the Balkans, Central Europe, and Italy, with a specific emphasis on those from the Italian Peninsula and Sicily. Out of the 927 identified pieces, only 197 provide reliable information on the archaeological context in which they were found. Most of these artefacts have been found in fragmentary form, in contexts that suggest a potential cultic and ritual nature, such as funerary contexts, caves, and “house of worship”. An assemblage of artefacts retrieved from pits, often interpreted as waste deposits, is possibly linked to ritual practices, as anthropomorphic vessel remains are accompanied by fragments of symbolic items like querns, deer antlers, miniature vessels, clay figurines, rhytons, animal parts, and polished stone axes. This consistent archaeological pattern suggests a “structured deposition”, where the above-mentioned specific objects are intentionally deposited in fragmentary form, a practice already observed in various geographical and chronological contexts by other scholars. The discussion primarily focuses mainly on the analysis of the practice of “structured deposition”, a performance crucial for reconstructing the social practices related to the deposition of artefacts with a symbolic value, in the central-northern part of the Italian peninsula. It uses data from 37 artefacts, found in 16 different archaeological contexts, from 9 localities.
Not Just for Show: The Archaeology of Beads, Beadwork and Personal Ornaments [2017]
2017
Beads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities’ past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind’s technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs. Papers discuss the social narratives behind bead and beadwork manufacture, use and disposal; the way beads work visually, audibly and even tactilely to cue wearers and audience to their social message(s). Understanding the entangled social and technical aspects of beads require a broad spectrum of technical and methodological approaches including the identification of the sources for the raw material of beads. These scientific approaches are also combined in some instances with experimentation to clarify the manner in which beads were produced and used in past societies. Table of Contents 1: The archaeology of beads, beadwork and personal ornaments. Alice M. Choyke and Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer PART 1: SOCIO-CULTURAL REFLECTIONS 2. Traditions and change in scaphopod shell beads in northern Australia from the Pleistocene to the recent past. Jane Balme and Sue O'Connor 3. Magdalenian “beadwork time” in the Paris Basin (France): correlation between personal ornaments and the function of archaeological sites. Caroline Peschaux, Grégory Debout, Olivier Bignon-Lau And Pierre Bodu 4. Personal adornment and personhood among the Last Mesolithic foragers of the Danube Gorges in the Central Balkans and beyond. Emanuela Cristiani and Dušan Borić 5. Ornamental Shell Beads as Markers of Exchange in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Southern Levant. Ashton Spatz 6. Games, Exchange, and Stone: hunter-gatherer beads at home. Emily Mueller Epstein PART 2: AUDIO AND VISUAL SOCIAL CUES 7. The Natufian audio-visual bone pendants from Hayonim Cave. Dana Shaham and Anna Belfer-Cohen 8. Bead Biographies from Neolithic Burial Contexts: Contributions from the Microscope. Annelou van Gijn 9. The Tutankhamun Beadwork, an Introduction to Archaeological Beadwork Analysis. Jolanda E. M. F. Bos PART 3: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES 10. A Mother-of-Pearl Shell Pendant from Nexpa, Morelos. Adrián Velázquez-Castro, Patricia Ochoa-Castillo, Norma Valentín-Maldonado, Belem Zúñiga-Arellano 11. Detailing the bead maker: Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) of steatite disk beads from prehistoric Napa Valley, California. Tsim D. Schneider and Lori D. Hager 12. Exploring Manufacturing Traces and Social Organization using Prehistoric Mortuary Beads in the Salish Sea Region of the Northwest Coast of North America. David Bilton and Danielle A. Macdonald
Roman Jewelry in Funerary Context: Female Adornment in Late 2nd Century Stobi
MONUMENTA V, 2020
The cemeteries of Roman cities are one of the best places to identify the wealth of the population of a city. Unfortunately, from the excavated part of the West Cemetery at Stobi (2800 graves excavated so far), not many burials that imply a higher social status and wealth through grave offerings have been discovered. The citizens of Stobi buried in this cemetery did not receive significantly impressive jewelry as gifts for the afterlife. Grave 1009 is one of the few excavated so far that has imported jewelry as grave offerings, in the shape of golden cameo earrings, as well as a few gemstones most probably from finger-rings. Two amber pendants provide an additional interesting aspect to this burial.