Considered to be one of the cradles of civilization, the Mesopotamian, or "Sumerian" culture flourished from the pre-pottery Neolithic (Hassuan) period of around 8,000 BCE, through the Late Bronze Age of around 1,200 BCE. Mesopotamian civilization relied on the life-giving rainfall of the region's "Fertile Crescent," and by the Ubaid period, around 5,000 BCE, village settlements began to spring up near the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in present-day southern Iraq.
The first great city of the Sumerian culture was Eridu (present-day Tell Abu Shahrain, Iraq), which may have been founded as early as 5,400 BCE. Until recently, it was believed that the Sumerians developed the first written language [6], but this is now being attributed to the ancient Egyptians. After a long succession of ruling dynasties beginning with the First Dynasty of Kish, and ending with the Third Dynasty of Uruk, the first great empire arose in the land of Sumer. The Akkadian Empire was founded by Sargon of Akkad (aka: Sargon I, Sargon the Great) who ruled from 2270 to 2215 BCE.
Towards the end of the Akkadian Empire, king Ur-Nammu (2112—2095 BCE) ushered in the 3rd dynasty of Ur (aka: Ur III, or the "Sumerian Renaissance"), and a complex network of trade developed around the city of Ur. After the fall of Ur III, greater Mesopotamia was ruled by the Amorites (1953-1730 BC), then by the Babylonian Empire (1728—1686 BC) which ruled the lower Mesopotamian marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Babylon), and the Assyrians who ruled upper Mesopotamia from the city of Assur along the Upper Tigris river near Anatolia. In around 1180 BC, the Assyrians were conquered by the Hittites, who had ruled the Central Anatolian plateau since the 18th century BC, but to the south, Babylonia continued to flourish.
Mesopotamian Jewelry
Mesopotamian jewelry was constructed from bronze, gold, silver, and the natural alloy known as electrum, which was imported from Lydia (Anatolia). Exotic gemstones such as agate, chalcedony, carnelian, jasper, onyx, lapis lazuli, and sardonyx were not locally produced [3], and had to be imported from such far-away lands as Anatolia, Egypt, and Persia (Iran and Afghanistan). Jewelry production extended from the cities of Akkad and Assur in Assyria, to the Babylonian cities of Nineveh, Sumer, and Ur.
Raw materials such as ivory, lapis lazuli and exotic hardwoods, as well as carved carnelian beads were also purchased from Harappan merchants who sailed over 1,500 miles from the Indus Valley [4].
Jewelry in Mesopotamia was worn liberally by both women and men, and popular items included multi-strand necklaces of carnelian and lapis (photos below), gold earrings, hair ribbons made from thin gold leaf, ankle bracelets, silver hair rings, gold medallion pendants with elaborate filigree, signet rings, cylinder seals, and amulets.
Popular jewelry design motifs in Mesopotamian included leaves, twigs and bunches of grapes, or cone and spiral shaped objects and pendants. Jewelry craftsmen employed a wide variety of metalworking techniques such as cloisonné enameling, engraving, granulation (later history), filigree and repoussé. Jewelry was made for human use, as well as for adorning statues and idols.
The Babylonian cylinder seal was a type of signet stone that was one to three inches long, and carved with an elaborate intaglio design that depicted both mythical scenes, and a unique personal signature [8]. Text was in cuneiform which was the written language of the Sumerian, Akkadian and Elamite cultures. These cylinder seals were typically made from chalcedony, jasper, serpentine or soapstone. These cylinders were used to mark/seal shipments that were destined for some distant land along the ancient Silk Road.
The use of signets or personal seal-stones may have also been responsible for creating the art of gem-carving known as "glyptic art." Glyptic carvings were used on ring-stones which were worn by men, women and children. The ancient lapidary would use emery fragments or flint to carve softer stones, and rotary tools driven by a bow were used on harder materials.
Jewelry was buried along with its male or female owner, and in the Royal tombs at Ur an extensive amount of jewelry was uncovered in the graves of both noblemen and noblewomen.
No comments:
Post a Comment