Ancient Anatolian Jewellery
in Turkey
In
the Neolithic age, when a wandering life of hunting
and gathering made way for settled communities,
the people of Anatolia began to place burial gifts
in graves. These gifts included necklaces, bracelets
and rings made of diverse stones, teeth, horns
and bones of animals, and sea shells. The earliest
Anatolian jewellery in Turkey, dating from between 7000
and 5000 BC, has been found in excavations of
ancient anatolian cities Çayönü in Diyarbakir,
and Çatalhöyük, Asiklar
Höyük and Kösk Höyük
in central Anatolia.
Jewellery made of precious metals begins in the
4th millennium BC, although very few examples
from this period have been discovered. By the
3rd millennium BC, however, skilfully crafted
metal jewellery was being produced, and that made
of gold found in tombs at Eskiyapar and Alacahöyük
in central Anatolia dating from 2600-2000 BC is
exquisite both in design and technique. Jewellery
made by the Hittites, who established a powerful
empire in Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BC, also
shows great sophistication, although examples
are too scarce to make any generalisations about
its characteristics. Finds dating from the 7th
century BC, however, are more numerous, particularly
in western Anatolia. At this period city states
founded by Hellenic Anatolian peoples ruled the
Aegean coast, while the inland areas were under
Lydian domination. The Lydian capital of Sardis
was the main centre of gold jewellery production.
Jewellery dating from the 7th and 6th centuries
BC has been found in the votive pit at the Temple
of Artemis in Ephesus, and in tumuli in the province
of Usak. The Ephesian Artemis evolved from
the Anatolian mother goddess, a universal deity
who was a guardian of civilisation, ruler over
nature, and queen of bees. She represented three
aspects of womanhood: virginity, the married woman
and motherhood. This trinity is symbolised in
jewellery by the use of motifs like rosettes and
double-headed axes in triplicate. The most frequently
used emblems of the mother goddess are the bee,
the crescent and the sparrowhawk.
Bees
often feature on earrings, brooches, and the finials
of pins. The crescent, representing Artemis as
goddess of the moon, appears as crescent-shaped
earrings and pendants. Sparrowhawks, often found
on brooches and pendants, symbolise the goddss'ss
power over nature, and plant motifs represent
fertility. Granulation is the most common decorative
technique on jewellery of this period.
Jewellery made in the Aegean coastal region was
mainly worn by women, the men wearing only rings
or sometimes wreaths. In Lydia, however, where
the influence of eastern cultures was stronger,
men worn jewellery to a much greater extent. From
500 BC onwards, Anatolian cultures absorbed many
aspects of Persian art, giving rise to a characteristic
style known as Anatolian Persian. Large quantities
of jewellery found in tombs near Sardis and Usak
provide a detailed picture of this period of Persian
domination.
Since the costume of the period had changed, pins
and fibulas were no longer made.
Instead we find earrings, necklaces and pendants,
bracelets, rings, buckles and appliéet
ornaments for clothing. During this period the
use of semi-precious stones and glass imitations
of these became widespread, and hence jewellery
much more colourful. Two main centres of jewellery
production stand out during this period. One was
Sardis, where fine jewellery had been produced
since Lydian times, and the other Lampsakos (the
modern Lâpseki) on the Strait of Çanakkale.
Triangles and lozenges are forms characteristic
of this period. The monotheist Zoroastrian faith
of the Persians featured a trinity consisting
of Anahita, the world mother, Ahura Mazda, representing
light and righteousness, and Ahirman representing
the force of evil, and it may be that the triangle
was a symbol of these three aspects of divinity.
Necklaces often combined beads in various forms
relating to fertility, such as pomegranates and
sea snails. Decorative metal work techniques were
filigree and granulation, the former being found
from the 4th century BC onwards.
When Alexander the Great overthrew the Persian
state in 330 BC, and carried his conquests as
far as India, the resulting synthesis of traditional
Aegean and eastern cultures is referred to as
Hellenistic. During this period we find new features,
such as earrings with animal motifs and mythological
figures, resulting from the modification of Persian
elements by Hellenic traditions and tastes. The
principal centres of production at this time were
Lampsakos, and subsequently Antioch and Alexandria.
The new motifs which appear at this time include
the knot of Heracles and Isis or Hathor (two Egyptian
goddesses who are sometimes identified).
But it was Aphrodite, goddess of love, that
jewellery symbolised most often; sometimes in
the form of Eros, and sometimes by doves or
myrtle, the sacred tree of the goddess. Other
plants held sacred by association with various
deities are the oak of Zeus, the bay of Apollo,
the vine of Dionysus and the olive of Athena. Under eastern influence the use of semi-precious
stones begins at this time, leading to a new
diversity in jewellery. As well as earrings,
wreaths and diadems, hair pins, necklaces, bracelets
and rings, we now find such new types as breast
ornaments and hair nets.
Declining prosperity from the mid-2nd century
BC became even more marked in the 1st century
BC, and economic difficulties led to a demand
for less costly jewellery. At this time Anatolia
became part of the Roman Empire, and the precious
and magnificent jewellery of the Roman period
was produced not in the provinces but in Rome.
Earrings and rings of very diverse
types were made in the Roman period, and necklaces and rings often
incorporated coins or medallions representing the emperors. Medallion
pendants bearing mythological designs are also typical of the period, as
are head and hair ornaments. During the Byzantine period jewellery
production in other cities ceased, as Constantinople became the sole
centre for jewellers and goldsmiths.
Yildiz Akyay Mericoglu, Archaeologist Photos Ali Konyali
- Sky Life
Source:
Ataman Hotel, Cappadocia
TransAnatolie Tour
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