corundum, History.1, gems

The gemstones believed to have been known in Classical Antiquity – their mineralogical identities and their geographic sources – were inferred almost exclusively from literary sources until the turn of the 20th century. Typological and thematic classifications of ancient glyptic were first proposed in Adolph Furtwängler’s monumental work, Die antiken Gemmen (1900), and for the first time objective empirical criteria were employed to organise gemstones according to their materials. Furtwängler set a standard that gem scholars would follow and develop further. Gem catalogues came to feature a materials index, comparanda of materials related to engraved subjects, and typologies of gem and jewellery shape, toolwork, and carving style. Analysis of distribution patterns of gem materials revealed cultural preferences for specific gemstones and also artists’ and workshop associations, which improved the overall picture of the gemstones used in different periods of Classical Antiquity. Gems and jewellery recovered from archaeological contexts enabled firmer dating and cultural attribution of glyptic otherwise based on iconographic or stylistic features. This is a superb article. Highly recommended.