Greek Gold

"The consummate mastery of Greek goldsmiths and the beauty of their designs elevated jewelry in the Classical period to glorious artistic heights. This volume presents nearly 200 of the finest surviving pieces made between the fifth and the early third century B.C., the era that also saw the creation of the Parthenon at Athens and the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the sculptures of Polykleitos, Praxiteles, and Lysippus, and the paintings of Polygnotos, Apollodoros, Zeuxis, and Nikias." "Drawn from the unrivaled collections of the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, London, the works in this book represent jewelry produced throughout the Greek world. Regional variations and preferences are seen in jewelry from Greece itself, as well as from the wealthy Greek cities in Asia Minor, the Crimea, and South Italy and from partially Hellenized areas such as Cyprus, Egypt, and the Eastern Mediterranean. The authors describe the goldsmiths' techniques in detail, with the aid of specially taken scanning electron microphotographs, and they discuss how the jewelry was worn, its iconography, and how it relates to other arts, such as drawing and sculpture. Each piece is illustrated in full color, with numerous color details showing the intricacy and subtlety of these masterpieces of ancient Greek craftsmanship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Although much is left to the imagination, the basic facts do come to light, and the facets and surfaces of the Getty's golden treasure enrich us with new understanding."--BOOK JACKET.

During the classical period in ancient Greece, the skill of Greek jewellers and the beauty of the designs they created raised their craft to a miniature art. Published to accompany an exhibition, this catalogue describes and illustrates 200 of the finest surviving pieces of Greek jewellery dating from the 5th to 3rd century BC. Drawn from the collections of the Hermitage, St Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, many of the pieces are being exhibited for the first time.

Of all the areas colonised by the Greeks, the Black Sea is one of the least-known in the West, although the area is gradually opening up to Western scholarship. This volume presents the work of Western and Eastern scholars - archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphists - on the Black Sea. Contents: Greek colonisation of the Black Sea Area: Stages, models and native population (G. R. Tsetskhladze) ; Greek ideas of the north and the east (M. Vassileva) ; Pontic interactions: the cult of Sabazios (A. Fol) ; Notizen zur griechischen Kolonisation am westlichen Schwarzen Meer (M. Lazarov) ; Apollonia Pontica: Recent discoveries in the Necropolis (K. Panayotova) ; Zum beginn der r�mischen Kontrolle der griechischen St�dte an der Westkueste des Pontos Euxeinos (A. Avram) ; Megaran colonisation in the Western half of the Black Sea (J. Hind) ; The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea region in the light of private lead letters (Y. Vinogradov) ; Ionia and the North Pontic Area: Archaic metalworking (M. Treister) ; Olbia and Berezan: the early pottery (J. Boardman) ; Archaic Berezan: Historical-archaeological essay (S. Solovev) ; The foundation of Tauric Chersonesus (S. Y. Saprykin) ; Greek Colonisation of the Bosporus (G. A. Koshelenko and V. D. Kuznetsov) ; The Achaeans and the Heniochi: reflections on the origins and history of a Greek rhetorical topos (D. Asheri) ; Writing and re-inventing colonial origins (D. Braund) ; Die Gruendung von Sinope und die Probleme der Anfangsphase der griechischen Kolonisation des Schwarzmeergebietes (A. L. Ivantchik) .