gems, ancient gemology, ancient jewelry, early metallurgy, collection, comparanda, catalog

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Würth Group in 1995, a unique exhibition on the history of the screw and the thread in antiquity was presented for the first time through a joint effort by the Museum Würth in Künzelsau-Gaisbach and the Archaeological State Museum of Baden-Württemberg. The exhibition was supported by over twenty museums in Europe and the USA with precious Late Antique jewelry exhibits. Special thanks are due to co-initiator Dr. Rüdiger Krause, director of the Archaeological State Museum and president of the State Heritage Office of Baden-Württemberg, to Prof. Dr. Dieter Planck, and especially to Reinhold Würth and all the scholars involved in the research project, for making this exhibition possible, which has now been crowned with a scholarly publication on a topic previously neglected in general cultural history. The exhibition’s preparation and the development of the volume were preceded by intensive and thorough research on the topic of threads in antiquity. This involved not only ancient threading techniques based on archaeological remains or written sources attesting to such techniques, but also the political and social conditions of Late Antiquity, which were particularly defined by rank insignia and prestige objects (fibulae, arm rings, bracelets, pectorals, pectoral crosses, belts, etc.) using screw fastenings. The richly illustrated and high-quality volume, featuring numerous (including full-page) color and black-and-white images, drawings, and maps, is structured as follows: after the introductory foreword by Reinhold Würth (pp. 7–13) and the exhibition introduction by Dieter Planck (pp. 14–22), the main thematic section is divided into four specific areas: Rüdiger Krause writes on “The Thread in Antiquity” (pp. 23–54), Astrid Schürmann on “The Transmission of Ancient Authors” (pp. 55–76), Barbara Theune-Großkopf on “Onion-Head Fibulae and Their Wearers – Jewelry and Rank Insignia” (pp. 77–112), and Barbara Deppert-Lippitz on “The Golden Jewelry of Late Antiquity” (pp. 113–140). A special feature of the volume is the inclusion of English and French summaries preceding each article, along with trilingual captions (German, English, French) for all images.