Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T10:44:52.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Casting Finger Rings in Mycenaean Times: Two Unpublished Moulds at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi  and
Maria Kontaki
Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi
Affiliation:
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Maria Kontaki
Affiliation:
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The recording of two unpublished moulds in the storeroom of the Prehistoric Collections of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, presented here, provide the stimulus for a re-examination of the construction method of the bezeled/signet rings of Mycenaean times. The moulds, one of semi-cylindrical shape and the other rectangular, belong to a limited class of items from Crete, Mainland Greece, and Enkomi, Cyprus.

It is possible that such moulds have served for the construction of the wax model of the artefacts, in the lost wax technique and not directly for the cast of gold, since the very construction of them, which is time-consuming and necessitates the skills of specialized craftsmen, indicates that they did not serve for a single use but rather for several uses. On the other hand, even steatite, the stone mostly used for such moulds, cannot adhere to continuous pressure to high temperatures, necessary for casting gold.

Στην παρούσα μελετη καταγράφονται δύο αδημοσίευτες μήτρες από την αποθήκη της Προϊστορικής Συλλογής του Εθνικού Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου στην Αθήνα, προσφέροντας το ερέθισμα για μία επανεξέταση της τεχνικής κατασκευής των δακτυλιδιών με σφενδόνη της Μυκηναϊκής εποχής. Οι μήτρες, από τις οποίες η μία είναι ημικυλινδρική και η άλλη ορθογώνια, ανήκουν σε μία περιορισμένη τάξη ευρημάτων, που προέρχονται από την Κρήτη, την Ηπειρωτική Ελλάδα και την Έγκωμη της Κύπρου.

Είναι πιθανό ότι αυτές οι μήτρες να χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την κατασκευή των κέρινων εκμαγείων των δακτυλιδιών κατά την τεχνική του «χαμένου κεριού» και όχι για την απευθείας χύτευση χρυσού. Η ίδια η κατασκευή τους, που προϋποθέτει πολύ χρόνο και ειδικευμένους τεχνίτες, υποδεικνύει ότι δεν χρησιμοποιήθηκαν μόνο για μία φορά. Από την άλλη πλευρά, ακόμη και ο στεατίτης, ο λίθος που κατεξοχήν χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την κατασκευή αυτών των αντικειμένων, δεν θα μπορούσε να αντέξει τις υψηλές θερμοκρασίες, που απαιτούντοα για την χύτευση του χρυσού σε διαδοχικές χρήσεις.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 104 , November 2009 , pp. 311 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrews, C. 1990. Ancient Egyptian Jewellery (London).Google Scholar
Catling, E. 1984. ‘The Bronzes’, in Popham, M.R.et al., The Minoan Unexplored Mansion at Knossos (London).Google Scholar
Demakopoulou, K. 1974. Mυκηναïκόν ἀνακτορικόν έργαστήριον ἐν Θήβαις, AAA 7. 2, 162–73.Google Scholar
Evely, D. 1992. ‘Stone Vases and Other Objects’, in Taylour, W.D., et al. (eds.), The Helleno-British Excavations within the Citadel of Mycenae, 1959–1969 (Well Built Mycenae, 27; Oxford).Google Scholar
Evely, D. 2000. Minoan Crafts: Tools and Techniques. An Introduction (SIMA 92. 2; Jonsered).Google Scholar
Higgins, R.A. 1980. Greek and Roman Jewellery (London).Google Scholar
Hughes-Brock, H. 2008. ‘Close encounters of interesting kinds. Relief beads and glass seals: design and craftsmen’, in Jackson, C.M. and Wager, E.C.W. (eds.) Vitreous Materials in the Late Bronze Age Aegean (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology, 9; Oxford), 127–51.Google Scholar
Konstantinidi, E.M. 2001. Jewellery Revealed in the Burial Context of the Greek Bronze Age (BAR S912; Oxford).Google Scholar
Laviosa, Cl. 1967. ‘Una forma minoica per fusione a eira perduta’, ASA 45–6, 499–510.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2003. ‘Precision Measurements of Minoan and Mycenaean Gold Rings with Ultrasound’, in Foster, K.P. and Laffineur, R. (eds.), Metron: Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the 9th International Aegean Conference (Aegaeum, 24; Liège), 475–81.Google Scholar
Müller, W. 2005. ‘Gold Rings on Minoan Fingers’, in Burdet, B., Detournay, B., and Laffineur, R. (eds.) Kρης Tεχνίτης. L'Artisan crétois: Recueil d'articles en l'honneur de Jean-Claude Poursat (Aegaeum, 26; Liège), 171–6.Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. 1956. ‘᾿Aνασκαφή Nεκροταφείου ᾿Eλευσῖνς’, PAE 1953 (Athens), 77–87.Google Scholar
Mylonas, G. 1975. Tό Δυτικόν Nεκροταφεῖον τής ƿEλευσῖνος, 3 vols. (Athens).Google Scholar
Noble, J.V., ‘The wax of the lost wax process’, AJA 79 (1975), 568–9, pl. 67.Google Scholar
Ogden, J. 1982. Jewellery of the Ancient World (London).Google Scholar
Pini, I. 1983. ‘Chronological Problems of Some Late Minoan Signet Rings’, in Betancourt, Ph. P. (ed,), Gold in the Aegean Bronze Age (Temple University Aegean Symposium, 8; Philadelphia), 39–49.Google Scholar
Sakellarakis, J.A. (ed.). 1981. Matrizen zur Herstellung kretisch-mykenischer Siegelringe (CMS Beiheft 1; Berlin), 167–79.Google Scholar
Sakellariou, A.Die minoischen und mykenischen Siegel des Nationalmuseums in Athen (CMS I, Berlin).Google Scholar
Shaw, J.W. and M.C., 1995. Kommos I: The Kommos Region and Houses of the Minoan Town (Princeton).Google Scholar
Tournavitou, I. 1997. ‘Jewellers' moulds and jewellers' workshops in Mycenaean Greece: an archaeological utopia’, in Gillis, C., Risberg, C., and Sjöberg, B. (eds.), Trade and Production in Premonetary Greece: Production and the Craftsmen: Proceedings of the 4th and 5th International Workshop, Athens 1994 and 1995 (SIMA 143; Jonsered), 209–56.Google Scholar
Untracht, O. 1975. Metal Techniques for Craftsmen: A Basic Manual on the Methods of Forming and Decorating Metal (New York).Google Scholar
Xenaki-Sakellariou, A. 1989. ‘Techniques et évolution de la bague-cachet dans l'art créto-mycenien’, in Müller, W. (ed.), Fragen und Probleme der bronzezeitlichen ägäischen Glyptik (CMS Beiheft, 3; Berlin), 323–38.Google Scholar
Younger, J. 1984. ‘Seven types of ring construction in the Greek Late Bronze Age’, in Aux origines de l'hellénisme: La Crète et la Grèce. Hommage à Henri van Effenterre présenté par le Centre G. Glotz (Histoire Ancienne et Médiévale, 15; Paris), 84–90.Google Scholar