By Rena Veropoulidou
For the manufacture of jewels, a large variety of raw materials is chosen. During the Neolithic, people use shells, stones, bones and teeth of domesticated and wild animals, and more rarely metals (bronze, gold). During the Bronze Age, there is continuity in the choice of raw materials, but metals are used more frequently. Meanwhile, new materials are imported, such as faience, amber, glass, as well as semi-precious stones, for example rock crystal. Other perishable materials should be added (wood, leather, flowers, feathers), as well as other ornamentation practices (headdress, tattooing) that prehistoric people may have used, but have not left any archaeological remains.
The term “jewellery” characterises artefacts that constitute components
of personal adornment, such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, buckles
and pins. Jewels, among the oldest archaeological findings, have been connected
with human cognitive development, as they represent one of the first
indications of symbolism and of self-cognition. Though traditionally they were
interpreted as decorative objects, excavational data and ethnographic
information have suggested that they have had multidimensional uses and were
transferring multiple meanings, thus being related to all aspects of human
life. More particularly, jewels were used to cover aesthetic, social, economic
and symbolic needs, such as the adornment of the body and the stress of
“beauty”, the state of gender, age, position and role of a person/group in a
community, the connection and solidarity with some people and the
differentiation with others, the negotiation of psychological, physical and
sensual needs, as well as metaphysical beliefs.
The socially constructed meanings of jewellery for Neolithic and Bronze
Age people and communities in Macedonia will remain elusive for modern
researchers, but the study of their biography, the reconstruction of
consecutive cycles, where they participated from production and consumption up
to deposition, contextually, and not as stand-alone objects, may contribute
significantly in their interpretation.[1]
In the Aegean area, perforated shells and animal teeth dated to
Palaeolithic Age are the first jewels, while the first indications of jewellery
manufacture appear already from the Mesolithic Age (Franchthi cave).[2]
With the passage of time, the number, the types and the techniques of
jewellery manufacture increase. During the Neolithic Age, people made, either
with minimum intervention or with total transformation of the raw material,
annulets of several diameters (bracelets? rings?), beads, buckles, buttons,
pins, pendants of several shapes with interesting examples a human tooth,
anthropomorphic and ring-shaped pendants (“ring-idols”), necklaces with beads
and pendants, as well as plates. The majority comes from habitation contexts,
rather than from the limited in number Neolithic burials, thus posing
difficulties in deciphering their usage and users.[3]
During the Bronze Age, there is a decrease in the quantity of jewellery in
sites, but an increase in cemeteries especially during the Late Bronze Age.
Though the types do not differ considerably from those of the Neolithic Age,
the use of particular jewels, such as annulets of large diameter and
ring-shaped pendants, decreases or eventually comes to an end.[4]
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| ΔΕΞΙΑ: Κοσμήματα από τον θησαυρό Αραβισσού Πέλλας. ΑΡΙΣΤΕΡΑ: Νεολιθικό κρεμαστό περιδέραιο-μενταγιόν-φυλακτό από την Σταυρούπολη Θεσσαλονίκης. |
For the manufacture of jewels, a large variety of raw materials is chosen. During the Neolithic, people use shells, stones, bones and teeth of domesticated and wild animals, and more rarely metals (bronze, gold).[5] During the Bronze Age, there is continuity in the choice of raw materials, but metals are used more frequently. Meanwhile, new materials are imported, such as faience, amber, glass, as well as semi-precious stones, for example rock crystal.[6] Other perishable materials should be added (wood, leather, flowers, feathers), as well as other ornamentation practices (headdress, tattooing) that prehistoric people may have used, but have not left any archaeological remains.
The reasons behind these choices are difficult to be discerned, but a significant role must have been played by the colour and nature of morphology, the possibilities of working, the knowledge of manufacture and in total, the meanings attributed in these raw materials. Those that originated from the local natural environment are usually remnants from other activities (food consumption) or were used in the manufacture of various artefacts (pots, tools), thus connecting the different bodily experiences and indicating the interaction between people and their natural and social environment.[7] Meanwhile, there are examples of imported raw materials and artefacts that were ascribed with a special status, due to the difficulty of procurement, the possible restriction and the different (possibly unknown) methods of manufacture. During the Neolithic, the most characteristic is the shell of the molluscan species Spondylus gaederopus, which is fished in the Aegean Sea (and probably also the Adriatic Sea) and, usually as an artefact, is distributed in inland Macedonia, the Balkans and the rest of Europe. Not only it constitutes one of the earliest indications of exchange networks and movement of products, people and ideas in distant areas, but also the production, consumption and distribution of these objects, as of other valuable raw materials (marble, metals), has been associated with the emergence of social inequality among the members of the Neolithic communities.[8] During the Bronze Age, the movements and contacts with southern Greece, Anatolia and northern Europe become more systematic and have been associated with the institutionalisation of social hierarchies and complex political forms in Macedonia.[9]
The various methods of jewellery manufacture, simple or more complex, suggest a high standard of skill. Shells, bones, teeth and stones were worked with grinding and polishing, while perforations were made with direct percussion, grinding, scratching and drilling. During the Neolithic, metal was hammered and cut into sheets, while during the Bronze Age, with the advances in the technique of metal working, smelting was also used. The tools of jewellery manufacture do not differ considerably from those used in other activities, thus posing difficulties in determining specific workshops and craftsmen.
On the contrary, artefacts in various stages of manufacture and tools are found dispersed in household units in most settlements, thus suggesting a household activity that served particular personal and group needs and may have also had a ritual status. Interestingly, some methods of manufacture have been preserved for thousands of years, while the integration of different methods and raw materials indicates the connection between local traditions and modern elements in jewellery manufacture.[10]
Jewels, at least those made from imperishable materials, must have been items of special significance for the prehistoric people in Macedonia. This suggestion is based on their small quantity in most settlements, possibly due to restrictions in use, on the repair and re-working of destroyed items, on the removal from circulation of both usable and intentionally destroyed artefacts, on their circulation in great distances, as well as bequeathed items (“heirlooms”).[11] Such an heirloom must have been the part of a Spondylus annulet, which was kept for almost two millennia and finally was found stored in the Thessaloniki Toumba settlement, possibly as a reminder of other people and previous ages.[12]
Bibliography
- Andreou 2010: Andreou S., Northern Aegean, in: Cline E. H. (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Bronze Age Aegean, Oxford-New York 2010, 643–659.
- Ifantidis 2006: Υφαντίδης Φ.,
Τα κοσμήματα του νεολιθικού οικισμού Δισπηλιου. Παραγωγή και χρήση μίας
“αισθητικής εργαλειοθήκης”, MA thesis, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης,
2006.
- Ifantidis & Nikolaidou (eds.) 2011: Ifantidis F. & Nikolaidou M.
(eds.), Spondylus in Prehistory: New Data and Approaches. Contributions to the
Archaeology of Shell Technologies, BAR IS 2216, Oxford 2011.
- Miller 1997: Miller A.M., Jewels of Shell and Stone, Clay and Bone: The
Production, Funtion and Distribution of Aegean Stone Age Ornaments, PhD thesis,
Boston University, 1997.
- Nikolaidou 2010: Νικολαΐδου
Μ., Κόσμηση και κοσμήματα στο προϊστορικό Αιγαίο: μια θεωρητική πρόταση. in:
Μερούσης Ν., Στεφανή Ε. & Νικολαΐδου Μ. (eds.), ΙΡΙΣ. Μελέτες στην μνήμη
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Αρχαιολογικές καταδύσεις στα βαθιά της αιγαιακής Προϊστορίας , in: Στεφανή Ε.,
Μερούσης
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1912–2012. Εκατό χρόνια έρευνας στην Προϊστορική Μακεδονία. Πρακτικά Διεθνούς
Συνεδρίου, Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Θεσσαλονίκης 22–24 Νοεμβρίου 2012, Θεσσαλονίκη
2014 645–659.
- Pappa & Veropoulidou 2011: Pappa M. & Veropoulidou R., Neolithic
Settlement of Makriyalos, Northern Greece: The Spondylus gaederopus Artifacts,
in: Ifantidis F. & Nikolaidou M. (eds.), Spondylus in Prehistory: New Data
and Approaches. Contributions to the Archaeology of Shell Technologies, BAR IS
2216, Oxford 2011, 105–121.
- Pilali 2013: Πιλάλη Α., Το
κόσμημα στην προϊστορική Μακεδονία, in: Γραμμένος Δ. (ed.), Μελέτες για την
προϊστορική Μακεδονία, ΠΡΟ-ΙΣΤΟΡΙΜΑΤΑ, Παράρτημα 1, 2013, http://proistoria.wordrpess.com.
- Veropoulidou 2011:
Βεροπουλίδου Ρ., Οστρεα από τους οικισμούς του Θερμαϊκού Κόλπου. Ανασυνθέτοντας
την κατανάλωση των μαλακίων στη Νεολιθική και την Εποχή του Χαλκού, praca doiktorska,
Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, 2011.
- Veropoulidou 2015: Veropoulidou R., Exploring the Material Qualities of Shells: Cockle Artefacts from Neolithic and Bronze Age Coastal sites at Central Macedonia, Greece, in: Tsoraki Ch., Sherratt S. & Doonan R. (eds.), Material Worlds of the Aegean, Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, Oxford, in print.
ΠΗΓΗ: Rena Veropoulidou Jewellery στο συνέδριο «EVERYDAY
LIFE IN PREHISTORIC MACEDONIA», ISBN: 978-83-60109-45-8, Co-financed by the
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Project co-financed by the City of
Poznań, Project realisation: Archaeological Museum in Poznań, Project partner: State
Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. ΑΡΧΕΙΟΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΟΥ, 1.3.2022.
[1] Veropoulidou 2011, 77–84, 461–468.
[2] Miller 1997, 132–135.
[3] Veropoulidou 2011, 77–84, 461–468; Ifantidis 2006.
[4] Pilali 2013.
[5] Nikolaidou 2010; Ifantidis 2006.
[6] Pilali 2013.
[7] Veropoulidou, in print.
[8] Ifantidis & Nikolaidou 2011 (eds).
[9] Andreou
2010.
[10] Ifantidis
2006; Nikolaidou 2010; Veropoulidou 2011, 77–84, 461–468; Pilali 2013.
[11] Ifantidis
& Nikolaidou 2014; Veropoulidou & Pappa 2011.
[12] Veropoulidou
2011, 412.
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