Mycenaean

Being an offspring of the Minoan culture, the Mycenaean civilisation comes to its height at around 1450 BC when it conquers the Minoan palaces on Crete. Jewelry produced by the Mycenaeans doesn’t differ much from Minoan jewelry. Reynold Higgins, co-author of 7000 Years of Jewellery mentions that:

“Mycenean jewelry is more plentiful but less adventurous in content than the Minoan”‘

The Mycenaeans had access to larger quantities of gold and subsequently more gold jewelry was produced.

Large-scale manufacture of beads shaped as spirals, flowers, human heads, flowers, beetles and other stylized forms was developed. Parts of the basic shapes would be stamped out of sheet gold in parts with the aid of dies. Next, the parts would be joined and the bead filled with sand. The Mycenaean craftsmen booked progress on the techniques of engraving of precious stones illustrated by complicated seals for rings, the use of simple enamels, colored stones for inlay and the art of making fine chains from gold wire.

Around 1100 BC the Mycenaean civilisation disappears suddenly. The reasons for this abrupt discontinuation are subject to suggestion, a natural disaster, disease, war, all are possibilities. Fact is we don’t really know for sure what happened. What we do know is that for 200 years hardly any jewelry is being produced in the Greek lands.

Greek Revival

There is little to no evidence that there has been a continuation of jewelry production in the Greek areas. This makes it remarkable that the jewelry produced after the 1100-900 BC period strongly resembles that of the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures. A possible explanation could be that the Phoenicians, traders from the Levant, reintroduced the styles and techniques which they had picked up from the Minoans and Mycenaeans before the Dark Ages (1100-900 BC). The Phoenicians are well known for their excellent craftsmanship around the turn of the second to the first millennium BC. Their influences came, amongst others, from the Myceneans only to return the favor and teach the Greeks of the 8th and 7th century BC what they had learned from their ancestors. The Eastern techniques and styles the Phoenicians imported make jewelry from this period a mix of old Greek tradition with new oriental accents.

Some superb 9th and 8th century BC gold work from Athens, Corinth and Crete has been excavated. Over the period that follows we see a shift of wealth: the Greek islands are producing more and more high-quality jewelry while the manufacture in Athens decreases. A shortage of gold on the Greek mainland may have been the cause. A 100-year period between 575 and 475 BC saw another decline in jewelry production, the little jewelry that has been found from this time didn’t come from the Greek mainland but from Greek colonies in Italy. After the Persian wars between 490 and 480-479 BC gold became more plentiful again.

Classical Period

During the beginning of the Classical Period (475 – 330 BC), the jewelry style was a continuation of the styles we see in the 7th century. The workmanship lost a bit of its finesse but the general idea stayed the same. Over the course of the classical era, we see some changes though. Naturalistic wreaths emerged over the 5th century BC and became popular during the 4th century BC.

Elaborate earrings featuring human figures, typical for the later Hellenistic period, start to appear around 350 BC. The old-style beads and pendants were adapted to fit into the ‘modern times’. Complicated necklaces with acorns, birds and human heads became popular. Bracelets were produced in the form of spirals or nearly closed circles with elaborate covers. Some finger rings acted as purely decorative jewelry and others were engraved as signets or featured engraved seal stones. Granulation and inlay were used rarely, filigree and enamel became more popular and we encounter the first engraved stones set in finger rings.