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Jewellery-making in
Antiquity
The Mesopotamians and the Egyptians had developed advanced
metalworking techniques long before the Greeks, and so it is
natural. that the Greeks learned these from them. However, as in
other forms of art so in metalworking, the craftsmen selected
those elements they wanted and quickly adapted them to their own
aesthetic perceptions, creating decorative themes that far
outshone the commonplace repetitive designs of the artifacts of
the East.
Fig. 1 Gold hair ornament, 200-150 BC (Athens, National
Archaeological Museum, ET369).
Ancient Greek jewellery constitutes a characteristic example of
this process. Whereas for the Oriental peoples semi-precious
stones were structural elements of their jewellery, in Greece
emphasis was placed on modelled decoration. The jewellers used
gold and silver, as well as baser metals such as copper, lead
and iron., to fashion diadems, necklaces, bracelets, earrings
and rings of unrivalled artistry (figs 1,2,3,4). Jewellery
decoration depended on the characteristic traits of each period,
moving gradually from simple to complex. In Hellenistic times
semi-precious stones began to feature too, which is not
fortuitous, since after the campaign of Alexander the Great
there was direct contact with the East.
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