| Antique Jewellery
Antique JEWELLERY Mesopotamian Jewellery In this first in a series of occasional features on the cultural significance of jewellery throughout ancient history, Amy Oliver BA (Hons) looks at the adornment of one of the earliest civilisations – Mesopotamia ewellery is one of the earliest forms of creative art. Since prehistoric times, humans have adorned themselves with decorative materials such as shells, stones and garlands. Technological advancements allowed people to begin mining; working metals and mineral deposits to produce items which we in the modern age would recognise as jewellery. Throughout history, cultures all over the globe have created and valued jewellery differently and for different reasons. Jewellery holds huge cultural significance and is integrated into the most personal and memorable moments of our lives: wedding rings, baby bracelets, birthday and anniversary presents, and the like. Mesopotamia is a title bestowed upon a large geographical area and chronological era. When people say Mesopotamia, what they mean is an area of land which covered most of modern day Iraq, all of Syria, parts of Turkey, Iran and Egypt; and a time period which spanned from 8,000 BC to 539 BC. It was a space and time inhabited by a great many peoples, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians.
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made using gold, silver, electrum, lapis lazuli and cornelian, as well as a smattering of chalcedony, agate, jasper, onyx and sardonyx. The most fascinating thing about these materials in relation to the cultures of Mesopotamia is this – none of them actually originate there. It’s an interesting fact that, considering the extensive amounts of jewellery found at the Royal Tombs of Ur and the treasuries of Nimrud, the land of Mesopotamia was completely devoid of
58 The Jeweller May 2012
Motifs Mesopotamian jewellery was strong on nature themes. Common motifs included leaves, flowers, fruit and quite often spiral or conical shapes representing shells. This is unsurprising as the Mesopotamian cultures after the 4th millennium BC were predominantly agricultural. The northern parts of Mesopotamia (Turkey) were fairly verdant due to good levels of rainfall and therefore supported farming, and in the southern parts (Iraq) the people established settlements and farms near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for the purposes of irrigation and fishing. Animals were also popular images used in jewellery, especially domesticated animals such as bulls, cows and calves, goats and so on. Again, as most people were farmers and Mesopotamia’s main resources were food and vegetation, the use of animal designs is pretty understandable. Fish were a common motif too as most of southern Mesopotamia relied on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers for food and water. Many of the gods and goddesses of the Mesopotamian religion had either animal body parts or were accompanied by animals, and so it’s a fair assumption that wearing animal motif jewellery would also have been religiously symbolic.
Jewellery and religion
The materials used Though the span of time is enormous, the actual jewellery produced during the Mesopotamian era is remarkably uniform in design and the materials used. Of all the jewellery to be found in the archaeological excavations of Mesopotamia, most are
these precious metals and minerals. All of them had to be imported from neighbouring countries or much further afield: lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and eastern Pakistan; cornelian from India, south-eastern Iran and Pakistan; gold, silver and electrum from Anatolia (southern Turkey) and northern Iran. We can assume that due to the necessary importation of these materials, that they were not cheap and most likely would have been highly valuable luxury items purchased mainly by the upper classes (royalty, courtesans, and religious figures for instance) or those with money (like merchants).
Head-dress and jewellery of an attendant of Queen Pu-abi, Trustees of The British Museum
Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic with a vast array of gods, goddesses, demons and spirits. As with most religions, jewellery had a part to play in the theology – as supreme beings, gods were deserving of (and expected) the best mankind had to offer… which meant his most-prized objects of high value, like jewellery.