Name: Ancient Jewelry of the Middle East
SKU: 17358
Availability: InStock

Description

The art of jewelry has influenced many cultures. Traditionally, jewelry displays distinctive character, presents intense artistic images, and carries rich cultural assets through plasticity and expression. The language of jewelry is fairly complex and hard to interpret. Just like popular ancient languages that dominated in certain historic periods, such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Persian, Greek and Latin, the language of jewelry and the jewelry items themselves have changed and developed in time, according to laws and customs of historical development.

Stylistic evolution from the Early Oriental to the Hellenistic-Romanian trends served as a basis for the stylistic changes in the art of jewelry making. Aside from its external beauty properties, every jewelry object has a second, internal life triggered by its semantic significance and perceived through one’s mind, intuition or aesthetic sense. Every artifact serves as a symbol of information. Apotropaic emblems, borrowed from everyday life, epos, or myths, and used in the art of jewelry making, carried a certain magical connotation. The popularity of a particular mythological plot line was connected to the very zeitgeist of the given time period, since the jewelry maker lived through it and tended to be deeply involved in contemporary events. The art reflected the master’s interests in what was currently happening within society.

Through the evolution of jewelry items it is possible to trace not only the historical and cultural situation, but also the economical, political and social sides of ancient civilizations,
as well as the symbolism and semantics of the art produced. The ancient masters employed various techniques, including casting, granulation, filigree, and inlay, among others. Certain items of jewelry serve as a testament to the advanced artistic skills of the jewelers. Among precious and semi-precious stones used by jewelers in the ancient world the most popular were garnets, rubies, cornelian stones, pearls and emeralds.

About the author

Dr. Elena Neva is a distinguished scholar and multifaceted individual whose expertise spans the realms of art, music, history, linguistics, and more. She earned her Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Art in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History of Music and Art History cum laude from Moscow State University, Russia; and a BA in Music Theory and History from the Dushanbe College of Music, Tajikistan.

Her academic endeavors have resulted in the publication of numerous research articles and four books, and she is known worldwide for her expertise in art history and the history of jewelry. Moreover, she is only scholar with expertise in Bactrian jewelry. Dr. Neva has visited twenty-eight countries, taught in Tajikistan, Israel, Russia, and the United States, and has lectured at some of the world’s finest academic institutions, including Columbia University and Harvard University. She currently teaches at several schools and colleges around the Boston area, where she specializes in the Russian language and art history. She also produces and hosts two programs, Meeting Interesting People, and Russian Time (in Russian), on community cable TV in Medford and Arlington, MA. Some of these episodes are available on YouTube and Instagram.

Dr. Neva is fluent in English, Russian, and Hebrew, and has a working knowledge of French, German, and Tajik.