Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean XXIII/2, Special Studies, Beyond Ornamentation, Jewelry as an Aspect of Material Culture in the Ancient Near East

Warsaw: Warsaw University Press, 2014. 1st Edition . Soft cover. New/No Jacket. 24x17 cm. Description: softcover, 326 pp., (24x17cm), figs (drawings, phots., map) Condition: new Weight: 665g. Personal adornments, modern and ancient, are often perceived as merely decorative objects used for embellishing body or robe. This book refutes this simplified opinion by showing that jewelry carries a load of information regarding the social and financial status, gender, ethnic affiliation and religious beliefs of its wearers. Investigations into the function and meaning of personal adornments have been undertaken here in 12 papers dealing with this subject in antiquity and prehistory - from the 6th till the 1st millennium BC - from Egypt and the Near East, through the Persian Gulf to the Caucasus. Their authors, affiliated with several research institutions worldwide, analyze various aspects of jewelry, focusing foremost on the context of its discovery. This approach affords a better understanding of who and why was using the jewelry and shows how many nuggets of significant information regarding the functioning of ancient societies can be gained from a careful study of personal ornaments. Most of the articles published in this volume are the result of a workshop of the same title organized by the volume editors at the 8th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) held at the University of Warsaw in 2012. The bead workshop at site MPS4, Mil Plain, Azerbaijan: Craft specialization and the manufacture of shell jewelry in the Neolithic Ilia Heit A Badarian-Naqadian cognitive link? Apossible insight on the basis of a Badarian hippopotamus-shaped pendant from Egypt Maarten Horn Cowrie shells and their imitations as ornamental amulets in Egypt and the Near East Amir Golani Tracing the "diadem wearers": an inquiry into the meaning of simple-form head adornments from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Near East Zuzanna Wygnanska Amulets? On the possible function of zoomorphic pendants from child burials in Tell Rad Shaqrah (Syria) Dariusz Szelag Jewelery manufacture in the Kura-Araxes and Bedeni cultures of the southern Caucasus: analogies and distinctions for the reconstruction of a cultural changeover Eleonora Carminati West Anatolian beads and pins in the 2nd millennium BC: some remarks on function and distribution in comparison with neighboring regions Magda Pieniazek, Ekin Kozal Beads, pendants and other ornaments from late 3rd-2nd millennium BC occupation on Failaka, Kuwait Ann Andersson Vitreous beads from the Uluburun shipwreck Rebecca S. Ingram Personaldisplay in the southern Levant and the question of Philistine cultural origins Josephine Verduci Revealed by their jewelry: ethnic identity of israelites during the Iron Age in the southern Levant Amir Golani Personal ornaments at Hasanlu, Iran Megan Cifarelli