Byzantine Jewellery: The Evidence from Byzantine Legal Documents
By Maria G. Parani
Intelligible Beauty: Recent Research on Byzantine Jewellery, ed. Ch. Entwistle and N. Adams (British Museum Research Publication, 2010)
Introduction: Recourse to written sources in order to elucidate aspects of Byzantine material culture constitutes a valid method of enquiry often adopted by archaeologists and art historians, especially those whose interests lie in areas for which there is little or inconclusive archaeological documentation. In the case of artefact categories amply attested in the archaeological record the written evidence can and has been fruitfully quarried for complementary information on typology and technology, production and distribution, function and meaning.
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In the field of Byzantine jewellery studies the usefulness of this approach was demonstrated, over 20 years ago, by the work of Hetherington on the ownership and distribution of Byzantine enamels. Hetherington’s early recognition of the potential of Byzantine legal documents in Byzantine material culture studies needs to be acknowledged, especially as it predates the work of the late Nicholas Oikonomides that has made this body of evidence widely known to archaeologists and art historians. In his seminal study on the contents of middle-class Byzantine households based on legal documents of the 11th to the 15th centuries, Oikonomides dedicates half a paragraph to jewellery, noting that it was found in all types of households, where it primarily functioned as an investment. A closer and more systematic examination of these documents reveals that there is much more and varied information to be gleaned from them.
Byzantine Jewellery: The Evidence from Byzantine Legal Documents
By Maria G. Parani
Intelligible Beauty: Recent Research on Byzantine Jewellery, ed. Ch. Entwistle and N. Adams (British Museum Research Publication, 2010)
Introduction: Recourse to written sources in order to elucidate aspects of Byzantine material culture constitutes a valid method of enquiry often adopted by archaeologists and art historians, especially those whose interests lie in areas for which there is little or inconclusive archaeological documentation. In the case of artefact categories amply attested in the archaeological record the written evidence can and has been fruitfully quarried for complementary information on typology and technology, production and distribution, function and meaning.
In the field of Byzantine jewellery studies the usefulness of this approach was demonstrated, over 20 years ago, by the work of Hetherington on the ownership and distribution of Byzantine enamels. Hetherington’s early recognition of the potential of Byzantine legal documents in Byzantine material culture studies needs to be acknowledged, especially as it predates the work of the late Nicholas Oikonomides that has made this body of evidence widely known to archaeologists and art historians. In his seminal study on the contents of middle-class Byzantine households based on legal documents of the 11th to the 15th centuries, Oikonomides dedicates half a paragraph to jewellery, noting that it was found in all types of households, where it primarily functioned as an investment. A closer and more systematic examination of these documents reveals that there is much more and varied information to be gleaned from them.
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Top Image: Byzantine jewellery at the British Museum – photo by Johnbod / Wikimedia Commons
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