EGYPT AND AssyimlA. Among the Egyptians the earliest rings were extremely simple, either single hoops of gold, from 1 to 3 inches in diameter, or several hoops—as many as six—soldered to gether. Royal earrings were sometimes in the shape of an asp, set with precious stones. Later forms, copied from Asiatic and Hellenic mod els, show the ring ending in the form of a dragon or antelope's head; others are pendants in the form of a vase. with incrusted work or with heads of divinities in relief. But the earliest homes of the really artistic earring were Babylo nia, and later Assyria, where it a sign of rank among the men. Kings, nobles. and soldiers, as well as and genii wore earrings; the Assy rian has-reliefs slum the variety of their design. Their general form is of a pendant, sometimes a long drop or cone at invited to a heavy ring or cres cent, and often, especially under the later kings. in the form of a (.ross: or groups of balls, lion headed or hull-headed genii, the symbols of As shur and other gods. The materials were gold and silver; pearls were sometimes added. Molds for earrings have been found among the palaces at and \intrud. While the size and decoration were always kept Within bounds by the Assyrian jewelers, greater gorgeousness was :timed at by the Persians, as well as by the artists of Plamieia, Syria, and the pre-Hellenic peoples of the ..-Egean. The statues from Cyprus. the tombs of Syria and of Sidon. show Assyrian influence enriched.
IREEli AND ETRI'SCAN. The Mvcuaean and Homeris women used rich earrings. At NIVPI'lla' and the discoveries 1/f pr. Schliemann included many early gold earrings of shapes—the bell-and-chain pendant. the fringe pendant, the gondola, the claw-shaped, the circular plaque, and several more. In the Mad :-t.2-83 , Hera wears earrings ending in three limps. The true gorgeousness of this period may be inferred from the examp14.s found at Camiros in Rhodes; they are long pendants, with gular plaques, diversified by zones of nude fig urines and heads joined by little chains hanging from rosettes of tiligree-work. Ileneeforth ear• rings fall into t WO main classes: (I) those worn against or close to the lobe of the ear. and t hues entirely concealing it: (2) those that hang below the ear and aim to continue its lines, not to conceal them.
The pre-Hellenic and Hellenic earrings, form ing an elaborate network of design in several stories, appear to have influenced the Etruscans more than the later Greeks: for the Greek ear rings of the sixth and lifth centuries n.c. are ex tremely simple and small. and it is not until the fourth, and especially the third. century it.c. that the rieher Hellenistic art returned to the more elaborate style of design. The Etruscan tombs furnish the largest number of examples for the early part, those of southern Russia for the biter part of this period. The museums con taining the largest number are: the Gregorian Museum at the Vatican, the Compana Collection at the Louvre, the Castellani Collection at the British Museum, the Metropolitan .NItiscum in New York—all of which have been gathered from the contents of Etruscan tombs—and the Hermit age Collection at Saint Petersburg, with the su perb series from southern Russia. especially from
Hertel. They must be classified into two series: votive earrings, of very thin gold and frail work manship. made only for burying with the de ceased: and earrings for use, of heavier workman ship. The Etruscan tombs contain earrings that are both Italian and Greek—it is not easy to dis dinguish them. They form the most numerous and continuous series of :mcient times, giving the styles during about six hundred years. The ma terial is gold, embossed, with filigree and granu lated work, of the famous technique which modern jewelers. headed by the great antiquarian artist, Castellani, have tried to revivify. The main Etruscan designs arc the following: The hand-bag shape, formed of a plaque with handle, decorated with spirals, granulations. balls or figured de signs, linear or in relief—an early form. seventh eentury: the gondola shape, with a bunch of three drops decorated with little groups of pearls, popular in the sixth century: the ear-plaque, a disk usually eireular, but sometimes oval, square. or oblong, with borders and zones of orna mental designs in relief and filigree and with its pendent 1)1111(.11 of drops, as in the previous kind used in the fifth and fourth centuries: the ring with pendant, usually large and sometimes with a diminishing series of single drops. a style fre quent in the latest tombs of the fourth and third centuries. Some unusual specimens do not be long to any of these types. An exquisite pair of late workmanship from Bolsena, now in the Louvre. has for its central piece a vase, sur mounted by Apollo as sun-god. drawn by four horses in a chariot, and accompanied by winged Victories; its artistic beauties are to be seen only under a magnifier. Another beautiful pair front southern Russia, among the many at Saint. Petersburg, has as -(litre a circular plaque with Neteid on a Triton in relief. Siteli elaborate works have a profusion of hanging figurines, flowers, fruits, birds. vases, chain-nets, and their gold-work is often enhanced by colored enamels. The late-1;reek artists in the service of the kings of the region of the Bosporus, whose works abound in southern Russia, appear to have ex celled all others. Both Greek and Roman statues exist with the lobes of their ears bored for ear rings—as in the Mediei Venus.
RomAN. The Romans naturally inherited the taste from the Etruscans and later borrowed forms from late-Greek art. Pliny says Ixi.
501 that there was no part of dress on which greater expense was lavished: Seneca men tions one worth a patrimony, t•m-listing of four pearls above and below a central precious stone. Roman artists popularized for the first time the use of precious stones in earring,. it was char acteristic that they valued them, not as the Greeks had, for beauty or workinanship, but for the value of the material. Rinintn earrings were therefore nmeh less artistic. and jewels—espe cially pearl. and emeralds—r•placed gold almost entirely. excluding the old metinals and designs entirely. Thi- decadence was accent mated during the later Empire. It is interesting to note that the Roman poet, and writers speak of distinguish ing an Oriental man by his use of the earring.