Many grand civilisations inhabited the area of Western Asia in antiquity, and their wealth and prosperity is witnessed by the very sophisticated precious metal crafting of jewellery. Gold would have been hammered down to a thin layer and manipulated into different shapes. Fine granulation, as we can see on this item, along with filigree, were at the centre of Near Eastern and Western Asiatic jewellery production and were later adopted by the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. Precious and semi-precious stones were also widely used. Agate has been known to fill veins or cracks in volcanic or altered rock underlain by granitic intrusive masses. Such agate, when cut transversely, exhibits a succession of parallel lines, often of extreme tenuity, giving a banded appearance to the section. Such stone is known as banded agate, riband agate, and striped agate, and is exemplified in these beads.
To discover more about gemstones in Antiquity, please visit our relevant blog post: The History and Mythology of Jewellery in Antiquity.
