The Crimea: Gold From the Black Sea

The objects were found in tombs in the Crimea explores “the interaction and diversity of cultures on the Crimean peninsula in the period from the seventh century BC to the seventh century AD”.

The Scythians were a people of skilled craftsmen, skilled and brave conquerors pastoralists. They built their civilization in VII century BC in what is now Ukraine and southern Russia. Like other nomadic tribes, they buried their dead in bulk mounds. But the Scythians literally filled the grave with gold. The precious metal was considered a symbol of eternal life. Burial clothes of ordinary people were decorated with medallions. In the tombs of the nobles and the Scythians put massive gold jewelry.

The collections consists of over 500 archeological finds, including artifacts from Scythian gold, a ceremonial helmet, precious stones, swords, armor, house ware of the ancient Greeks and Scythians, taken from five Ukrainian museums, including one in Kiev and four in Crimea.

The most valuable items are dating back to the late Scythian and Alanian periods: a Scythian tabernacle roof top in the form of a griffin, a Scythian bronze boiler and horse ornaments, vessels in the form of sheep from the Neusatz necropolis.

 A spiraling torque from the 2nd century, an object in the exhibition at Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum. The pieces in the exhibition were borrowed from Crimea before the Ukrainian territory was seized and annexed to Russia. (Peter Dejong / Associated Press)

A spiraling torque from the 2nd century, an object in the exhibition at Amsterdam's Allard Pierson Museum. 

One of the most famous pieces of Scythian gold is beautifully-detailed, 4th century B.C. pectoral (necklace) with three rows of incredible evocative and detailed images.

Scythian Gold Tsar Pectoral

Gold Pectoral dates to the second half of the 4th century BC. The central lower tier shows three horses, each being torn apart by two griffins.

Details include winged griffins tackling a horse, warriors making a sheepskin garment, a young shepherd milking an ewe, a mare nursing its foal, lions ripping apart pigs, deer, sheep, dogs and grasshoppers.

A golden helmet with the silhouettes of soldiers engraved.

Scythians were very fond of gaudy, gold jewelry, covered with images of animals. Some headdresses and pendants made a huge racket when their wearers walked. Pieces found at the tomb in Tuva include a 3.3-pound gold pectoral (necklace); a couple of elaborately carved neck pieces, a headpiece ornament; headdress plums; a gold diadem; gold bracelets; mysterious top-hat-like gold objects; a thimble-size gold pendant with a Greek depiction of a Scythian goddess. 

Gold Armband

Gold Broche

Gold Ring

A grave circlet excavated from the Scythian burial ground outside Bakhchysarai

The Scythians loved gold. Scythian gold artifacts---that included finely-wrought, lifelike animals and human figures with exquisite details and wonderful filigree work.

 

Scythians, the steppe nomads that roamed the lands between Mongolia and Ukraine, were great warriors but also skilled craftsmen and connoisseurs of golden vessels, as revealed by a wealth of finds in a burial mound they left behind.
 

Gold Diadems From The Royal Tombs of King Philip II at Vergina

A fresco painting of a hunt tops the facade of a tomb believed to belong to the ancient Greek King Philip II of Macedon

 
Three Macedonian tombs were discovered: the intact tomb of Philip II (II) with a hunting scene fresco painting. Intact is also the so-called Tomb of the Prince (III), which may belong to Alexander IV, grandson of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great and another ruined and plundered Macedonian tomb (IV) of the third BC century  known as the “Tomb of Persephone”, with the incomparable fresco of the abduction of Persephone by Hades and a ruined building named "Heroon", probably used for the worship of the dead royal members buried next door.

Some of the major finds were the two golden urns, containing the bones of Philip II and one of his wives, two oak and one myrtle golden wreaths worn by the royal dead. Also the rare gold-and-purple embroidered cloth, which wrapped the bones of the royal wife, along with her golden diadem of a unique art, two ivory symposium beds, weapons and armor of Philip II, valuable symposium utensils of the royal family and the silver urn of "Prince."

Golden funerary crown of Philip II of Macedon (382-336BC) father of Alexander the Great. Found in his tomb at Vergina

Golden myrtle wreath of Queen Meda found in the tomb of Philip II of Macedon

Another magnificent piece , a crown found in the Macedonian Tomb of Vergina, exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki

A diadem from 4th century BC discovered in one of the Macedonian royal tombs in Vergina

Gilt silver diadem from the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, Vergina, c. 340–300 BCE.

Study Confirms Remains as Philip II of Macedon

Philip II of Macedon was the King of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty, the third son of King Amyntas III, and father of Alexander the Great and Philip III. The famous phrase "divide and conquer" is attributed to him.

Vergina. Tomb II ("Philip's Tomb"). View of the marble door separating the antechamber from the main chamber of Tomb II ("Philip's Tomb") at Vergina, with objects in situ: The gold cover of the gorytus (bow-and-arrow case), a pair of gilt bronze greaves, a "Cyprian" amphora, and several alabastra. 350 - 325.

An anthropological team investigating cremated remains found in a royal tomb in Vergina, Greece, has claimed that the remains belong to King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, and an unknown woman warrior. Theodore Antikas, head of the Art-Anthropological research team of the Vergina excavation, suggests that she may have been the daughter of Scythian King Ateas.

The Golden Larnax of Philip II

The golden larnax contains the remains from the burial of King Philip II of Macedon and the royal golden wreath. It was made of 25kt. gold and weighing 24.25 pounds. Inside the larnax were Philip's bones and a golden wreath of 313 oak leaves and 68 acorns weighing 1.6 pounds.

The golden larnax of Philip II [Credit: Protothema]

The face of King Philip II of Macedon, reconstructed
by a team from Manchester University. Philip had lost an eye in
battle when it was penetrated by an arrow.

Study Confirms Remains as Philip II of Macedon

The tomb was one of three excavated from the same mound in the late 1970s by Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos. This tomb, known as Tomb II, had been intact, and it contained silver and bronze vessels, gold wreaths, weapons, armor, and two gold larnakes, or caskets. Antikas told Discovery News that the identification of the middle-aged, male skeleton was based upon marks on the bones. “The individual suffered from frontal and maxillary sinusitis that might have been caused by an old facial trauma,” he said. Philip II was blinded when his right eye was hit with an arrow during the siege of Methone in 354 B.C. “He had signs of chronic pathology on the visceral surface of several low thoracic ribs, indicating pleuritis,” Antikas added of the warrior’s skeleton, which also showed signs of frequent horseback riding. Traces of an object made of royal purple, huntite, textile, beeswax, and clay had been placed on top of the bones in the gold larnax. A pelvis bone fragment from the other casket indicates that the remains belonged to a woman who died between the ages of 30 and 34. She had suffered a fracture in her left leg that had shortened it. “This leads to the conclusion that the pair of mismatched greaves—the left is shorter—the Scythian gorytus, or bow case, and weaponry found in the antechamber belonged to her."

Alexander the great is represented on an accessory of the suit of martial armor in the Royal Tomb II of Vergina

Iron and gold breastplate from Tomb II at Vergina. 

Sword trimmed with gold from the armor of Alexander the Great. It is a gift of the city of Kition, Cyprus. Due to corrosion, the decoration of gold and ivory was not preserved. It was found in the tomb II of Vergina.

Gold Quiver, from the Tomb of Philip II (359-336) at Vergina

Golden gorgon head ornament from the armour of Philip II of Macedon, c. 336 BCE.  

Silver wine jug from the tomb of Philip II.

Ancient Gold: Ganymede Jewelry

Ganymede Jewelry, Hellenistic, 330–300 B.C.
Greek

The pieces in this group were found together in Macedonia, near Thessaloniki, sometime before 1913. Although the assemblage forms an impressive parure (matched set)—earrings, necklace, fibulae (pins), bracelets, and a ring—it is not certain that they belong together. Many do not share a clearly uniform style.

The gold strap necklace, dated circa 300 B.C., is made of three double loop-in-loop chains with double interlinking, and a fringe of beechnut pendants. The terminals take the form of an ivy or grape leaf and have a border of beaded wire and a rosette in the center. Strap necklaces have been found in many areas of the Greek world, including southern Italy, Asia Minor, and the northern Pontus region (around the Black Sea).

The superb gold earrings, dated circa 330–300 B.C., consist of a large honeysuckle palmette below which hangs a finely worked three-dimensional figure of the Trojan prince Ganymede in the clutches of Zeus, who has assumed the guise of an eagle. Zeus coveted Ganymede for his beauty, and carried him off to Mount Olympus to be a cupbearer for the gods. The pendants are sculptural masterpieces in miniature, no doubt reflecting in their basic conception a famous large-scale bronze group of the same subject, made by Leochares in the first half of the fourth century B.C. The idea of airborne figures is ingeniously adapted here to an object that hangs freely in space.

The rock-crystal hoops of the bracelets (ca. 330–300 B.C.) have been carefully cut, carved, and polished to produce a twisted appearance, highlighted by wire bindings fitted into the valleys. The rams heads emerge from long elaborate collars decorated with three friezes enclosed within bands of darts and bordered by plain beaded wire. The upper frieze, an ivy chain on a vine, is tied at the center with a Herakles knot and bears four bunches of grapes; the middle frieze has palmettes with pointed leaves; the third frieze, a palmette complex.

The two pairs of gold fibulae, of Macedonian type, date to 330–300 B.C. Such fibulae (pins), which belong to a northern Greek type characterized by "paddle-wheel" decoration, were usually worn in sets of six. Two more matching fibulae have been identified, one in Berlin and one in the Gans collection. Each hinge plate, all produced with the same die, is decorated with the head of a woman wearing a lion skin. She can be identified as either Omphale, the queen of Lydia, wearing Herakles' lion skin, or Artemis, goddess of the hunt.


Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ancient Gold: Hellenistic Jewelry

When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian empire in 331 B.C., his domain extended from Greece to Asia Minor, Egypt, the Near East, and India. This unprecedented contact with distant cultures not only spread Greek styles across the known world, but also exposed Greek art and artists to new and exotic influences. Significant innovations in Greek jewelry can be traced even earlier to the time of Philip II of Macedonia (r. 359–336 B.C.), father of Alexander the Great. An increasingly affluent society demanded luxurious objects, especially gold jewelry. With technical virtuosity, Greek artists executed sumptuously ornate designs, such as the beechnut pendant, the acanthus leaf, and the Herakles knot.

Armband with a Herakles knot, Hellenistic, 3rd–2nd century b.c.
Greek, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This massive armband, of the highest quality Hellenistic metalwork and in superior condition, belongs to a type of which there are only a few other complete examples. It is constructed of a Herakles knot and an openwork band decorated with ivy tendrils bearing leaves and berries. The leaves are delicately chased, and each group of three berries is soldered to a triangular pallet. Their stems are made of hammered and tapered solid-gold wire.

The knot is composed of inlaid garnets set between two large rectangular cabochons. Its design is enriched by a flowering plant bearing six gold blossoms and a whorl of leaves at its base. The large center leaf is represented by an emerald, and the lesser leaves were enameled in green, which survives on only one small leaf. Distal to the garnet cabochons are imbricated filigree bands with extensive traces of reddish purple (manganese), green, and possibly white enamel. According to the Roman writer Pliny, the decorative device of the Herakles knot could cure wounds, and its popularity in Hellenistic jewelry suggests that it was thought to have the power to avert evil.

Pair of armbands, Hellenistic, ca. 200 b.c.
Greek, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

These imposing serpentine armbands represent two tritons, male and female, each holding a small winged Eros. The hoops behind the tritons' heads were used to attach the armbands to the sleeves of a garment, for otherwise their weight (each over 6 1/2 ounces) would have caused them to slip down the arms.

Bracelet with central medallion, Hellenistic, 2nd century b.c.
Greek, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The most distinctive feature of this bracelet or armlet is the treatment of the outer surfaces of the hoops, which are covered with a delicate network of filigree created by placing parallel rows of wire in a zigzag pattern and dotting the points of contact with granules. This unusual decoration is best paralleled in a few exceptional works from Thessaly. It is a rare forerunner of a popular kind of Roman bracelet featuring twisted hoops and hinged box settings decorated with gemstones.

Openwork hairnet with medallion, Hellenistic, 200–150 b.c.
Greek, Ptolemaic, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This hairnet, with its combination of delicate filigree, carefully hammered decorative bust, and spool-shaped beads, is a superb example of the Hellenistic goldsmith's skill. The medallion represents the head of a maenad, a female follower of the god Dionysos, wearing spiral earrings, a wreath of vine leaves and grapes, and a panther skin.

Hinged ring, 2nd–1st century b.c.; Hellenistic
Greek, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This large and flamboyant ring belongs to an unusual group of finger rings distinguished by the fact that they are hinged. Despite their wide distribution across the Mediterranean world and the minor variations in their design, this and the few other known examples were mostly likely produced in a single workshop. The size of the hexagonal bezel set with a plain but impressively large oval garnet and the circular bezel with a smaller garnet placed on the bottom of the ring suggests that it was meant to be worn on the thumb, and in fact the hinge mechanism allows it to be fitted securely onto the thumb below the knuckle. The mechanism, with its tiny gold pins, must have been rather awkward to open and shut, however, and probably required the assistance of a servant. The use of garnets is typical of jewelry of the late Hellenistic period, when it became fashionable to decorate gold ornaments with colorful exotic gemstones and pearls. This ring is a striking example of the extravagant and ostentatious lifestyle of the rich in the Hellenistic world.






Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Oxus Treasure

Assorted small objects from the Oxus treasure

The Oxus treasure is the most important surviving collection of Achaemenid Persian metalwork. It consists of about 170 objects, dating mainly from the fifth and fourth centuries BC. This was the time of the Achaemenid empire, created by Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC), when Persian control stretched from Egypt and the Aegean to Afghanistan and the Indus Valley.

The two hollow heads, with the statuette perhaps of a king in front

The Treasure seems to have been gathered together over a long period, perhaps in a temple. It includes vessels, a gold scabbard, model chariots and figures, armlets, seals, finger-rings, miscellaneous personal objects, dedicatory plaques and coins It was found on the banks of the River Oxus, probably at the site of Takht-i Kuwad, a ferry station on the north bank of the river.

This is one of the earliest pieces in the treasure and is a scabbard for an akinakes, a short sword which is also shown on reliefs from Persepolis and on plaques within the treasure itself.

The London group includes bowls, a gold jug, and a handle from a vase or ewer in the form of a leaping ibex, which is similar to a winged Achaemenid handle in the Louvre. No rhyton drinking vessels were found, but the British Museum has two other Achaemenid examples, one ending in a griffin's head similar to that on the bracelets in the treasure.

Gold jug and two bowls

 A hollow gold fish, apparently representing a species of carp found only in the Oxus, has a hole at its mouth and a loop for suspension; it may have contained oil or perfume, or hung as one of a group of pendants.

Gold Fish Vessel

Other sculptural objects include two model chariots in gold, one incomplete. The wheels of the complete chariot would originally have turned freely, and it had received at least one repair in antiquity. It is pulled by four horses (rather small, and with only nine legs surviving between them) and carries two figures, a driver and a seated passenger, both wearing torcs. The chariot has handrails at the open rear to assist getting in and out, while the solid front carries the face of the protective Egyptian dwarf-god Bes.

Gold model chariot

In May 1880 Captain F.C. Burton, a British political officer in Afghanistan, rescued a group of merchants who had been captured by bandits while traveling between Kabul and Peshawar. They were carrying with them this rich collection of gold and silver objects. Burton bought from them a gold armlet, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The two griffin-headed bracelets or armlets are the most spectacular pieces by far from the hoard and are typical of the 5th to 4th century BC court style of Achaemenid Persia. Bracelets of a similar form to ones from the treasure can be seen on reliefs from Persepolis being given as tribute, whilst Xenophon writes that armlets (among other things) were gifts of honor at the Persian court. Glass, enamel or semi-precious stone inlays within the bracelets' hollow spaces have now been lost.

One of a pair of armlets from the Oxus Treasure, which has lost its inlays of precious stones or enamel

There are a number of small figurines, some of which may have been detached from larger objects. The single male figures appear to show worshipers rather than deities. The largest is most unusual for Persian art in showing a nude youth (in silver) standing in a formal pose, with a large conical hat covered in gold foil. The statuette shows Greek influence, in the figure and the fact of being nude, but is not typical of ancient Greek art.

Other pieces from the Treasure subsequently emerged in the bazaars of Rawalpindi. Some of those now in The British Museum were acquired by Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham (1814-93), Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, and others were obtained by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, who was both a curator in the Museum and a generous benefactor. In due course Franks bought Cunningham's share of the treasure, and eventually the entire Oxus treasure was bequeathed by him to The British Museum.

Sources: The British Museum, Wikipedia