Stop press: Archaeologists have just unearthed a hidden stash of gold jewelry (above) near the site of the ancient city of Armageddon, where the New Testament says the final battle between good and evil will take place. The jewelry was found inside a clay pot as if it had been hidden from an enemy, perhaps during a siege. The owner of the jewelry never came back to claim it.
Women have always used jewelry to show their status and wealth, and enhance their beauty
Jewelry is portable wealth. It is also an in-your-face status symbol, letting everyone know just how rich you are.
On both counts it was important in the ancient world - even the Cro-Magnons had primitive necklaces and bracelets.
Jewelry on this page is from Troy, Egypt, Sumeria, Assyria, Greece and Rome.
Why some jewelry survived
A treasure-trove of ancient jewels from the tomb at Nimrud (see information below)
One way or another, almost all the jewelry from ancient times has been destroyed. A few pieces survived in hiding places, put there long ago for safe-keeping during wars and invasions. These precious pieces were left untouched for millennia because the people who knew where the treasure was hidden were slaughtered or taken captive, never to return. The secret of the jewelry's location died with them.
Other pieces of jewelry survived because of some natural disaster, such as the volcanic eruption at Pompeii (see bracelet below, which was found alongside a body). People trying to flee the cataclysm snatched up any portable valuables they could carry, then found they had left their escape too late. The valuables, often pieces of jewelry, lay hidden and forgotten for many centuries.
Gold bracelet in the form of a coiled snake, 1st century AD, Roman, Pompeii
What style of jewelry was worn?
We have very little to go on, but we know that the Jewish people borrowed craftsmen from surrounding countries like Phoenicia. These men produced designs similar to the ones they made in their native countries, so it is fair to assume that Jewish women wore jewelry similar in design to Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Assyrian pieces.
Egyptian, 22nd dynasty. During this dynasty, Shoshenq I invaded the kingdom of Judah and Israel, and overran Jerusalem and nearby cities in about 925 BCE. He took the Temple and palace treasures, including the golden shields of Solomon, back to Egypt.
Gold diadem embellished with blue, green, red, and white enameled flowers;
from a tomb at Canossa, 3rd century BC
from a tomb at Canossa, 3rd century BC
During the later Greek and Roman periods, admiration among the upper classes for foreign fashions and design was strong, and Jewish women wore jewelry similar to pieces worn in ancient Greece and Rome.
Various designs of jewelry from the Fayum coffin portraits, 2-3rd century AD Egypt
See
See
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Links with the Bible
- During the reign ofZiyaretçiler için gizlenmiş link,görmek için Giriş yap veya üye ol.'s son Rehoboam, Judah was overrun by the Egyptian ruler Shoshank I. Rehoboam was forced to pay a huge ransom to get rid of him, including not only the Temple treasures, but the jewelry belonging to the royal women of Judah. This jewelry was probably taken back to Egypt to be melted down and re-used, and then after that, who knows?
Ancient Egyptian bracelet or gold and semi-precious stones
Ancient Persian bracelets/clasps
Gold bracelet and earrings from Pompeii
- 'The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold....'. King Sargon II of Assyria (721705BC) is famous for his conquest of Israel. He took the ten tribes of Israel, the Lost Tribes, into captivity (2 Kings 17:6). SeeZiyaretçiler için gizlenmiş link,görmek için Giriş yap veya üye ol..
The woman on this ivory plaque wears an Egyptian-style wig and an elaborate ornament with pendants in her hair. The image fits the description of Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:30-37.
- The woman at the window with her head adorned (above), is a frequent motif in the ancient near-Eastern world.Ziyaretçiler için gizlenmiş link,görmek için Giriş yap veya üye ol.is described like this immediately before her death (2 Kings 9:30-37).
- See also Genesis 24:53, Exodus 32:24, 35:22, Hosea 2:13 for references to ancient jewelry.
A simple bracelet and necklace from Mesopotamia,
original home of
original home of
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and
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Canaanite bracelet
Rare bronze 3,500 year old bracelet.
Photo: Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Photo: Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
A bronze bracelet dating to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 15501200 BC) has been found during an excavation at Ramat Razim in the vicinity of Zefat (Tsefat, Safad). Karen Covello-Paran, director of the excavation, says,
We discovered a wide rare bracelet made of bronze. The ancient bracelet, which is extraordinarily well preserved, is decorated with engravings and the top of it is adorned with a horned structure. At that time horns were the symbol of the storm-god and they represented power, fertility and law. The person who could afford such a bracelet was apparently very well off financially, and it probably belonged to the village ruler. It is interesting to note that in the artwork of neighboring lands gods and rulers were depicted wearing horned crowns; however, such a bracelet, and from an archaeological excavation at that, has never been found here.
Large Canaanite cities, such as
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, have been excavated, but this is the first time a village of the Late Bronze Age has been excavated in the north of Israel. This site, Ramat Razim, is located southeast of Zefat, and is thought to have constituted part of the periphery of
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, according to Covello-Paran
Jewelry of Queen Puabi
The flattened skull and jewelry of Queen Puabi just as it was found in her tomb at Ur in Sumeria -
where Sarah and Abraham were born. Notice, too, her perfect teeth...
where Sarah and Abraham were born. Notice, too, her perfect teeth...
Jewelry taken from Queen Puabi's tomb at Ur in ancient Sumeria, 3rd millennium BC.
The various pieces could be arranged in several different ways, as necklace or crown
The various pieces could be arranged in several different ways, as necklace or crown
Polished beads found in the tomb of Queen Puabi
The Nimrud Jewelry
'Last year, exploring an inner room of the palace, a team of laborers (headed by Muzahim Mahmoud Hussein, leader of the Iraqi team at Nimrud) stumbled across a tomb that contained a small collection of necklaces, earrings and gilded pins. In April, Muzahim found what looked like a piece of pavement. When he and his workers cleared off the dirt, they uncovered a small ceramic pipe resembling an air vent. The "pavement" turned out to be the arched roof of a small rectangular tomb. Inside: a dusty sarcophagus. "I pried the top off with an iron bar," says Muzahim. "There was more dust inside, but when I held up the light, it was reflected back into my eyes by the gold."Much of that gold turned out to be priceless jewelry draped around the skeleton of a young princess named Yabahya, tentatively identified as the daughter of one of Assyria's most renowned and feared kings, Sargon II. Nearby, still more jewelry and gold ornaments were piled. Mingled with the dried bones were dozens of delicately sculpted gold rosettes, scattered like flowers over the body of the dead princess.' (Quoted from Time magazine article, Philip Elmer-Dewitt, October 13 1989)
Necklace from a tomb at the ancient city of Nimrud, in Iraq.
Nimrud was the capital of Ashurnasirpal II, an Assyrian king of the 9th century BC
Nimrud was the capital of Ashurnasirpal II, an Assyrian king of the 9th century BC
Nimrud: ugal or headdress worn by the Queen
Nimrud: gold bracelets
Jewelry from Troy
Gold jewelry from Troy II, 3rd millennium BC
Gold pin with filigree work, from 'Priam's Treasure', Troy
Luxury Objects
Mycenaean gold pendant, 17thcentury BC
Gold hairnet fragment
Jewels of a tribal princess like Sarah, circa 1500BC
An early piece of Egyptian jewelry from the 5th dynasty: collar and bracelet
Necklace circa 14-13th century BC, found at Mari, a flourishing city west of the Euphrates
Necklace beads, 13th century BC
Gold necklace, 5th century BC
This Roman bust of Antonia Minor shows her wearing a diadem, probably of beaten gold
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