ANCIENT ANATOLIAN JEWELLERY
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, dating
from between 7000 and 5000 BC, has been found in excavations of
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. l
By YILDIZ AKYAY MERIÇBOYU*
Photos ALI KONYALI
* Yildiz Akyay Meriçboyu is an archaeologist
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