Mycenaean affinities (fig. 15) includes necklaces, brooches, bracelets
(g), hair-pins (a), ear-rings (c, d, e, f), with and without pendants,
beads and twisted wire drops. The majority of these are ornamented
with spirals of twisted wire, or small rosettes, with fragments of
stones in the centres. The twisted wire ornaments were evidently
portions of necklaces. A circular plaque decorated with a rosette
(h) is very similar to those found at Mycenae, and a conventionalized
eagle (k) is characteristic of much of the detail found at that place
as well as at Hissarlik. They were all of pure gold, and the wire
must have been drawn through a plate of harder metal—probably
bronze. The principal ornaments differing from those found at
Mycenae are diadems or head fillets of pure hammered gold (b)
cut into thin plates, attached to rings by double gold wires, and
fastened together at the back with thin twisted wire. To these
pendants (of which those at the two ends are nearly three times the
length of those forming the central portions) are attached small
figures, probably of idols. It has been assumed that these were
worn across the forehead by women, the long pendants falling on
each side of the face.
Fig. 15.
The jewelry of the close of the Mycenaean period is best represented by the rich finds of the cemetery of Enkomi near Salamis, in Cyprus. This field was excavated by the British Museum in 1896, and a considerable portion of the finds is now at Bloomsbury. It was rich in all forms of jewelry, but especially in pins, rings and diadems with patterns in relief. In its geometric patterns the art of Enkomi is entirely Mycenaean, but special stress is laid on the mythical forms that were inherited by Greek art, such as the sphinx and the gryphon.
| Figs. | 37–48 (Plate I.) are examples of the late Mycenaean treasures from Enkomi. | ||
| ” | 37, 38 | ” | Ear-rings. |
| ” | 39 | ” | Diadem, to be tied on the forehead. The impressed figure of a sphinx is repeated twelve times. |
| ” | 40, 41, 46 | ” | Ear-rings, originally in bull’s head form (fig. 40). Later, the same general form is retained, but decorative patterns (figs. 41, 46) take the place of the bull’s head. |
| ” | 42 | ” | Pin, probably connected by a chain with a fellow, to be used as a cloak fastening. |
| ” | 43 | ” | Pomegranate pendant, with fine granulated work. |
| ” | 44, 45 | ” | Pins as No. 42. The heads are of vitreous paste. |
| ” | 46 | (See above.) | |
| ” | 47 | ” | Pendant ornament, in lotus-form, of a pectoral, inlaid with coloured pastes. |
| ” | 48 | ” | Small slate cylinder, set in filigree. |
Another find of importance was that of a collection of gold ornaments from one of the Greek islands (said to be Aegina) which also found its way to the British Museum. Here we find the themes of archaic Greek art, such as a figure holding up two water-birds, in immediate connexion with Mycenaean gold patterns.
| Figs. | 49–53 | (Plate I.) | are specimens from this treasure. |
| ” | 49 | ” | Plate with repoussé ornament for sewing on a dress. |
| ” | 50 | ” | Pendant. Figure with two water-birds, on a lotus base, and having serpents issuing from near his middle, modified from Egyptian forms. |
| ” | 51 | ” | Ring, with cut blue glass-pastes in the grooves. |
| ” | 52 | ” | Pendant ornament, repoussé, and originally inlaid with pieces of cut glass-paste. |
| ” | 53 | ” | Pendant ornament, with dogs and apes, modified from Egyptian forms. |
For the beginnings of Greek art proper, the most striking series of personal jewels is the great deposit of ornaments which was found in 1905 by D. G. Hogarth in the soil beneath the central basis of the archaic temple of Artemis of Ephesus. The gold ornaments in question (amounting in all to about 1000 pieces) were mingled with the closely packed earth, and must necessarily, it would seem, have been in the nature of votive offerings, made at the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century B.C. The hoard was rich in pins, brooches, beads and stamped disks of gold. The greater part of the find is at Constantinople, but a portion was assigned to the British Museum, which had undertaken the excavations.
| Figs. | 54–58 | (Plate II.) | Examples of the Ephesus hoard. |
| ” | 54 | ” | Electrum pin, with pomegranate head. |
| ” | 55 | ” | Hawk ornament. |
| ” | 56 | ” | Electrum pin. |
| ” | 57, 58 | ” | Electrum ornaments for sewing on drapery. |
The cemeteries of Cyprus have yielded a rich harvest of jewelry of Graeco-Phoenician style of the 7th and following centuries B.C. Figs. 16 and 17 are typical examples of a ring and ear-ring from Cyprus.
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| Fig. 16. | Fig. 17. |
Greek, Etruscan and Roman ornaments partake of very similar characteristics. Of course there is variety in design and sometimes in treatment, but it does not rise to any special individuality. Fretwork is a distinguishing feature of all, together with the wave ornament, the guilloche, and the occasional use of the human figure. The workmanship is often of a character which modern gold-workers can only rival with their best skill, and can never surpass.
Fig. 18.
