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Middle Eastern Jewelry
Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian tombs of the 3rd and 2nd
millennia BC have yielded a great quantity of headdresses,
necklaces, earrings, and animal amulet figures in gold, silver,
and gems. A well-known example is a royal diadem from Ur made in
the shape of thin gold beech leaves (British Museum, London).
Fine gold and silver jewelry was also made in ancient Anatolia,
Persia, and Phoenicia. Techniques included granulation (in which
surfaces are decorated with clusters of tiny grains of gold),
filigree, inlaid gems, and cloisonné and champlevé enamel.
Evidence of Egyptian influence on Phoenician work and of
Mesopotamian styles on Persian work suggests widespread trade or
other contact.
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