1. Introduction

The term ‘Orientalizing Rhodian jewellery’ refers to an extraordinarily wealthy and homogeneous group of jewellery of the Orientalizing period (7th cent. BC). These are works of exceptional artistry and unique detail, made mainly from gold and electrum (a natural alloy of gold and silver). A variety of jewellery types are included, with diadems, rosettes, pectorals and earrings being the most important. Most of them were found in Rhodes and other few islands of the Cyclades and it is believed that the jewellery workshops which produced them had actually been on these regions.

2. Materials and Techniques

The jewellery of the orientalizing Rhodian and Cycladic production are made from gold, electrum and scarcely silver. The raw material was available not only from the deposits in the Aegean (Sifnos), but also from Asia Minor (Astyra, Paktolos, Cilicia etc.). The techniques applied for their manufacture were already known from earlier periods; nevertheless some of them had never before reached such a level of artistry and fine detail. The jewellers embellished the jewels with embossed decoration, that is to say the relief ornaments were created by gentle hammering on metal or wooden moulds. Rarely did they add incised details. Semi-precious stones on the jewels are the exception to the rule. Quite often human or animal heads and insects appear in plastic form (sculpted rather than in relief) as features of the jewel. However, the most widespread and developed techniques are filigree and granulation, already known since the Minoan period. Filigree is a technique based on the use of a very thin wire of gold or electrum which creates the frame or the filling of the decorative motives, often in spiral pattern. Granulation uses the exceptionally small granules of the precious metal to decorate the surfaces. The difficulty lies in joining the globules firmly on the smooth surface of the metal, without them melting completely or being deformed. Greek jewellery, which was never surpassed in these techniques with the exception of the Etruscan, has not yielded a more exquisite and fine granulation than the Rhodian. The final result lends a great gradation of lucidity to the jewel, as some parts reflect light more than others.

3. Types of jewellery

3. 1. Pectorals

Pectorals are called the ornaments which consist of a row of similar embossed plaques, whose number varies between 3 to 9. The plaques were suspended with a string or a thread and were hung from shoulder height, creating a curve over the breast. In other cases they were pinned directly onto the clothes by a small hook at the back. In second use, they could be sewed directly on the cloth. In certain cases, their upper part was embellished with a big rosette, either in bas-relief or with granulation or filigree outline. Quite often pomegranate pendants were suspended on the bottom side of the plaques.

The representations on the plaques depict deities, mythological figures and humans. The representation of a female frontal figure, often winged, and flanked by two felines, occurs more frequently. This is known as the ‘Potnia Theron’ or the ‘Mistress of the Beasts’, an Anatolian goddess that through syncretism was eventually identified with Artemis. Another female figure also appears, with her hands over her breast or her arms raised in prayer, as well as human faces with the typical daedalic coiffure (hair divided in horizontal braids). Another type is called by the archaeologists ‘Astarte at the window’, as it portrays the upper half of a naked woman; the style follows the Phoenician art. A particular case is the woman-bee, a type which combines the upper half of a woman's torso with the bottom of a bee. It is considered to be a reminiscent of Hittite goddess Kubaba. Finally, the popular mythological monsters of the period appear on the ornaments, such as the sphinx, centaur, griffin and panther’s head.

3. 2. Medallions

The medallions consist of an individual metal plague decorated with embossed figures of a woman-bee or a siren and floral motives. Some of them are in the shape of disc, bearing geometric patterns and reflect Late Geometric influence. It appears that these are slightly earlier in date than the bulk of the production.

3. 3. Head ornaments

These ornaments consist of a central plaque with a representation of a Mistress of the Beasts or a human figure, surrounded by elaborately composed pendants, such as rosettes, chains and pomegranates. Their use reminds of the Byzantine long earrings (perpendulia), as they were attached on a diadem or a headband and fell down each side of the face, along the temples and in front of the ears. These ornaments are among the most elaborate.

3. 4. Diadems

The diadems are usually a simple band of gold or electrum. They sometimes bear embossed geometric designs, dots and lines or stars and rosettes. They often have rosettes added, cut in the right shape from another leaf of metal. An exceptional example from Kos is richly embellished with sphinx and rosettes with elaborate granulation.

3. 5. Tongue-shaped rosettes

A distinctive type of rosette usually consists of six petals with very rounded edges, shaped as tongues. This design is probably of a Mycenaean rather than Oriental origin. The petals are decorated with a navel, faces in relief, sculpted heads of griffins and bulls or birds and insects. They have a suspension ring at the back. They were parts of diadems or ornaments for hair plaits. They could also be sewed on the clothes or worn on the neck with a string. These rosettes mark some of the most successful moments of ancient Greek jewellery, as far as both inspiration and artistry are concerned.

3. 6. Earrings

The earrings of this group of jewellery are made of a stem with more or less decorated ends. The stem is a wire from precious metal, either spiral or in U shape. Level discs are attached at the ends, which in the best examples are decorated with pomegranates or plastic griffin and ram heads with granulation.

3. 7. Other types of jewellery

Other types of jewellery are less widespread. There are some necklaces with simple spherical beads, and one with a lion head as the central pendant. Bracelets are rather rare and simple. A unique example from Kamiros is bronze and both ends bear gilded lion heads. There are also few rings, either with lozenge bezels, which reflect Minoan influences, or with an Egyptian type bezel (cartouche). That type was copied by the Phoenicians in Egypt and was imported to Greece and Etruria. Finally, there are some buttons, either plain or with rosettes or human heads.

4. Tradition and sources of inspiration

The variety of shapes and the iconography reveal a constellation of influences by different artistic centres of the Aegean, Asia Minor and Near East. In Rhodes a Late Geometric jewellery production had already flourished (second half of the 8th century BC), which included mainly diadems with animal figures and medaillons in the shape of disc with geometric decoration. From Crete (Praisos and Arkadi) derive certain rosettes of the 8th century BC with shapes and decoration styles which prefigured the Melian parallels. The same techniques and many common iconographical themes and decorative motives (female figures, women-bees and rosettes) are encountered in jewellery dated to the 8th and 7th cent. BC from Ephesus and Tralleis in Asia Minor. However, there seems to be a close connection with jewellery of the same period from Cyprus, Syria and Phoenice. In these regions the diadems -with or without rosettes- are widely spread, while the occurrence of gold plaques with female deities, mainly Astarte is equally frequent.

5. Provenance, distribution and workshops

The majority of these objects of art come from the three ancient cities of Rhodes, Kamiros, Ialysos and Lindos. Although more than half of the jewels were found in early, not well-documented or illegal excavations, it is estimated that almost the 70% of the finds belong to graves at Kamiros. A percentage of 6-7% had been placed in graves at Ialysos and even less in a depository at Lindos. Individual finds come from other sites of Rhodes (Exohi, Vroulia) and other Aegean islands as well (Kos, Thera, Milos, Delos). Less than 10% of the total, all tongue-shaped rosettes, comes from the island of Milos. An extraordinary button with a dedalic head was found at Megara. Other similar jewels, which, however, are not all directly related to the basic group, originated from Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna) and Crete (Idaian Cave).

The jewellery forms and their ornamental motives bear parallels to the designs on the Wild Goat pottery style, which was once attributed to Rhodes but now we know that it was produced mainly in Miletus. Nevertheless, this modification did not alter the opinion that considers Rhodes to be the centre of jewellery, while secondary workshops were found on Milos (for the tongue-shaped rosettes) and perhaps on Thera. It is remarkable that not only the distribution but also the production spread out in the Dorian Aegean and Dorian mainland Greece (Rhodes, Kos, Thera, Milos, Megara). Moreover, a clay figurine from Dorian Sparta represents a woman wearing a tongue-shaped rosette on her neck, similar to the jewellery from Milos. The themes appear to be directly influenced by Phoenician art, not surprisingly if we take under consideration not only the great amount of imported Phoenician artefacts found in Rhodes in the same period, but also the obvious Phoenician influences on other types of objects, such as faience pottery.

6. Chronology, use and importance

All the scholars agree on dating the production of these jewels in the 7th century BC. The prevailing opinion places the heyday of the workshops in the period between 660 and 620 BC. The Belgian archaeologist Robert Laffineur, who published the most thorough study on the subject in 1978, also supports this view. In addition, there has been no new evidence since then to justify a revision of their chronology or of the production centres.

These elaborate and expensive jewels were worn by rich women of the aristocracy of the period and accompanied them to their grave after their death. It has been suggested that some of them, the most plain, were probably made exclusively for funerary use, but their inextricable integration into the total renders this assumption rather arbitrary. In two cases (Kamiros and Lindos) it appears that they had been offered as votives to a sanctuary, probably of a female deity.

The Orientalizing Rhodian jewellery enlightens many important aspects of the life in south and east Aegean in the Early Archaic period. It reveals the extremely high -and insuperable - level of craftsmanship of the jewellers, and on the same time the desire for luxury and display of wealth by a society organised according to aristocratic standards. Moreover, it becomes evident that this wealth, which was the result of prosperity due to trade and the transactions of Rhodes with the centres of Eastern Mediterranean, was also combined with an integration of Oriental patterns into the aesthetic, religious and social ideals of the Greek society. These works reveal in a vivid way the critical moment of assimilation and composition of themes and forms that centuries later will lead to the ‘marvel’ of the Greek classical art.