Metal jewelry from burials and socioeconomic status in rural Jordan in Late Antiquity
Part of : Mediterranean archaeology & archaeometry : international journal ; Vol.15, No.2, 2015, pages 81-99
Issue:
Pages:
81-99
Author:
Abstract:
Metal jewelry is frequently found in tombs in Jordan dating to Late Antiquity and archaeological data provides a general view of economic prosperity in the region during this period. Metal artifacts recovered from mortuary contexts have long been used by archaeologists as evidence of wealth and socioeconomic status. This paper combines materials analysis with material culture theory to examine the use of metal jewelry in the expression and negotiation of economic status in mortuary contexts in Late Antique Jordan. We contextualize this material within both local and regional social and economic conditions to demonstrate the importance of color in analyzing the choices made by both producers and consumers of metal jewelry.
Subject (LC):
Keywords:
Late Antiquity, mortuary, jewelry, copper, technological choice
Notes:
Corresponding author: H. Kory Cooper ([email protected])
References (1):
- Allan, J.W. (1979) Persian Metal Technology 700-1300 AD. London: Ithaca Press.al-Ahmed, Z., and Sari, S. (1994) Compositional and typological study of some Islamic copper-based alloys bracelets. Abhath Al-Yarmouk 10, 39-56.al-Muheisen, Z. (1991) Yasileh: a new site in northern Jordan. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 35, 341-46.al-Muheisen, Z. (1992) Yasileh. American Journal of Archaeology 96, 533-534.al-Muheisen, Z. and El-Najjar, M. (1994) An anthropological study of the human remains from Yasileh: a classical site in northern Jordan. Mu’tah Journal for Research and Studies 9, 5-27.al-Shorman, A. (2006) Tomb Reuse at Yasileh: A Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan. Medi-terranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 6, 43-48.Aviam, M. (2004) Regionalism of tombs and burial customs in the Galilee During the Hel-lenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. In: M. Aviam (ed.) Jews, Pagans and Chris-tians in the Galilee: 25 Years of Excavations and Surveys Hellenistic to Byzantine Peri-ods, 257-313, Rochester, University of Rochester Press.Banaji, J. (2001) Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Bar, D. (2004) Geographical implications of population and settlement growth in Late An-tique Palestine. Journal of Historical Geography 30, 1-10.Bayley, J. (1998) The production of brass in antiquity with particular reference to RomanBritain. In: P.T. Craddock (ed.) 2000 Years of Zinc and Brass, pp. 7-27, London, British Mu-seum.Bishop, M.C. and Coulston, J.C.N. (1993) Roman Military Equipment. London, B.T. Bats-ford.Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Brown, P. (1992) Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire.Madison, University of Wisconsin Press.Caley, E.R. (1964) Orichalcum and Related Ancient Alloys. New York, AmericanNumismatic Society.Cannon, A. (1989) The historical dimension in mortuary expressions of status and senti-ment. Current Anthropology 30, 437-58.Chapman, R.W. (1981) Archaeological theory and communal burial in prehistoric Europe. In: I. Hodder, G. Isaac and N. Hammond (eds.) Pattern of the Past: Studies in Hon-our of David L. Clarke, 387-412, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Clark, L. (1987) Gravestones: Reflectors of Ethnicity or Class? In: S.M. Spencer-Wood (ed.) Consumer Choice in Historical Archaeology, 383-395, New York, Plenum Press.Cooper, H.K. (2000) Analysis of Late Roman-Byzantine Copper Alloy Artifacts from Northern Jordan. Unpublished MA Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Uni-versity of Arkansas.Craddock, P.T. (1978) The composition of the copper alloys used by the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Civilizations 3. The origins and early use of brass. Journal of Archaeo-logical Science 5, 1-16.Craddock, P.T., 1979. The copper alloys of the Medieval Islamic world - inheritors of the Classical tradition. World Archaeology 11, 68-79.Craddock, P.T., S.C. La Niece, & D. Hook (1998) Brass in the Medieval Islamic World. In: P.T. Craddock (ed.) 2000 Years of Zinc and Brass, 73-113, London, British Muse-um.Decker, M. (2001). Food for an Empire: wine and oil production in north Syria. In S. Kingsley & M. Decker (eds.) Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean dur-ing Late Antiquity, 69-86, Oxford, Oxbow Books.Dungworth, D. (1995) Iron Age and Roman Copper Alloys from Northern Britain. Un-published PhD Dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Durham.Dungworth, D. (1997) Roman copper alloys: analysis of artefacts from northern Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 24, 901-910.Dungworth, D. (2008) Caley’s Zinc Decline Reconsidered. The Numismatic Chronicle 156, 228-234.Ellis, S. (2006) Middle class houses in Late Antiquity. In: W. Bowden, A. Gutteridge, & M. Carlos (eds.) Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity, 413-437, Boston, Brill.Foss, C. (1995) The Near Eastern countryside in Late Antiquity: a review article. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 14, 213-234.Foss, C. (2002) Life in city and country. In: C. Mango (ed.) The Oxford History of Byzantium, 71-95, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Frankenstein, S. and Rowlands, M.J. (1978) The internal structure and regional context of Early Iron Age society in southwestern Germany. Bulletin of the Institute of Ar-chaeology London 15, 73-112.Hamilton, E.G. (1996) Technology and Social Change in Belgic Gaul: Copper Working at the Titelberg, Luxembourg, 125 B.C.-A.D. 300. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylva-nia.Hauptmann, A., Begemann, E., Pernicka, E. and Schmitt-Strecer, S. (1992) Early copper produced at Feinan, Wadi Araba, Jordan: the composition of ores and copper. Archaeomaterials 6, 1-33.Hayden, B. (1998) Practical and prestige technologies: the evolution of material systems. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5, 1-55.Hendy, M.F. (1985) Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy c. 300-1450. Cambridge, MIT Press.Hirschfeld, Y. (1997) Farms and villages in Byzantine Palestine. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51, 33-71.Hodder, I. (1982) Symbols in Action: Ethnoarchaeological Studies of Material Culture. Cam-bridge, Cambridge University Press.Hosler, D. (2002) The Sounds and Colors of Power: The Sacred Metallurgical Technology of An-cient West Mexico. Cambridge, MIT Press.Hughes, M. J., Cowell, M.R., and Craddock, P.T. (1976) Atomic absorption techniques in Archaeology. Archaeometry 18, 19-37.Hughes, R. (1993) Artificial patination. In: S. LaNiece and P.T. Craddock (eds.) Metal Plat-ing and Patination: Cultural, Technical, and Historical Developments, 1-18, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.Hughes, R. and Rowe, M. (1983) The Colouring, Bronzing, and Patination of Metals: A Manu-al for the Fine Metalworker and Sculptor: Cast Bronze, Cast Brass, Copper and Copper-Plate, Gilding Metal, Sheet Yellow Brass, Silver and Silver-Plate. London, Craftscouncil.Hunt, E.D. (1982) Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire AD 312-460. Oxford, Clarendon Press.de Jesus, P.S. (1980) The Development of Prehistoric Mining and Metallurgy in Anatolia. Ox-ford, BAR.Johns, C. (1996) The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions. London, UCL Press.Jones, A.H.M. (1953) Inflation under the Roman Empire. Economic History Review 5, 293-318.Jones, A.H.M. (1964) The Later Roman Empire 284-602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.Joyce, R.A. (2005) Archaeology of the Body. Annual Review of Anthropology 34, 139-58.Keates, S. (2002) The flashing blade. In: A. Jones & G. MacGregor (eds.) Colouring the Past: The Significance of Colour in Archaeological Research, 109-126, Oxford, Berg.Kennedy, H. (2000) Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. In A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, and M. Whitby (eds.) Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600. The Cambridge Ancient History, XIV, 588-611, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Kingsley, S. (2001) The economic impact of the Palestinian wine trade in Late Antiquity. In: S. Kingsley and M. Decker (eds.) Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterra-nean during Late Antiquity, 44-68, Oxford, Oxbow Books.Kingsley, S., 2003. Late Antique trade: research methodologies and field practice. In: L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.) Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology, 113-138, Boston, Brill.Kingsley, S. and Decker, M. (2001) New Rome, new theories on inter-regional exchange. an introduction to the east Mediterranean economy in Late Antiquity. In: S. Kingsley and M. Decker (eds.), Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean During Late Antiquity, 1-27, Oxford, Oxbow Books.Krug, H. (1998) Comparative Roman-Byzantine tombs in Transjordan. In: S.D. Water-house (ed.), The Necropolis of Hesban: A Typology of Tombs, 135-171, Berrien Springs, Andrews University Press.Lahiri, N. (1995) Indian metal and metal-related artifacts as cultural signifiers: an ethno-graphic perspective. World Archaeology 27, 116-32.Lechtman, H. (1984) Andean value systems and the development of prehistoric metal. Technology and Culture 25, 1-36.Lemonnier, P. (1993) Introduction. In: P. Lemonnier (ed.), Technological Choices: Transfor-mation in Material Cultures Since the Neolithic, 1-35, New York, Routledge.LoCascio, E. (1981) State and coinage in the late republic and early empire. The Journal of Roman Studies 71, 76-86.Mackay, D. (1949) The jewellery of Palmyra and its significance. Iraq 11, 160-187.Maguire, H. (1999) The good life. In: G.W. Bowersock, P. Brown, and O. Grabar (eds.), Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, 238-258, Cambridge, Bellknap Press of Harvard University.Mango, M.M. (2001) Beyond the amphora: non-ceramic evidence for Late Antiquity in-dustry and trade. In: S. Kingsley and M. Decker (eds.), Economy and Exchange in the East Mediterranean During Late Antiquity, 87-106, Oxford, Oxbow Books.Matschke, K.P. (2002) Mining. In: A.E. Laiou (ed.), The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, 115-120, Washington, D.C., Dum-barton Oaks.Mayer, W. (2006) Poverty and society in the world of John Chrysostom. In: W.A. Bowden, A. Gutteridge, and M. Carlos (eds.), Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity, 465-484, Boston, Brill.Meeks, N. (1993) Surface characterization of tinned bronze, high-tin bronze, tinned iron and arsenical bronze. In: S. LaNiece and P.T. Craddock (eds.), Metal Plating and Patination: Cultural, Technical, and Historical Developments, 247-275, Oxford, But-terworth-Heinemann.Miller, D. (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption. New York, Basil Blackwell.Moorey, P.R.S. (1994) Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries. Oxford, Clarendon Press.Ogden, J. (1982) Jewellery of the Ancient World. London, Trefoil Books Ltd.Ogden, J. (1990) Casting doubt: economic and technological considerations regarding metal casting in the ancient world. Material Issues in Art and Archaeology 2,713-716.Ogden, J. (1992) Interpreting the Past: Ancient Jewellery. London, British Museum Press.Ottaway, B.S. (2001) Innovation, production and specialization in Early Prehistoric cop-per Metallurgy. European Journal of Archaeology 4, 87-112.Papathanassiou, M.K. (2002) Metallurgy and metalworking techniques. In: A.E. Laiou (ed.), The Economic History of Byzantium: From the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century, 121-127, Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks.Parker, S.T. (1999) The Byzantine Period: an empire’s new Holy Land. Near EasternArchaeology 62, 134-181.Patrich, J. (1995) Church, state and the transformation of Palestine: the Byzantine Period(324-640). In: T.E. Levy (ed.), The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, 470-487, London, Equinox.Pearson, M.P. (2000) The Archaeology of Death and Burial. College Station, Texas A&M Uni-versity Press.Penhallurick, R.D. (1986) Tin in Antiquity. London, The Institute of Metals.Piccirillo, M. (1985) Rural settlements in Byzantine Jordan. Studies in the History and Ar-chaeology of Jordan II, 257-261.Pigott, V.C. (1996) Near Eastern archaeometallurgy. In: J.S. Cooper and G.M. Schwartz, The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-First Century, 139-176, Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns.Plunkett, P.A. and Jones, T.S. (1999) Metal Prices in the United States Through 1998. Wash-ingon, D.C., Interior Department, Geological Survey.Ponting, M. (1999) East meets west in post-classical Bet She’an: the archaeometallurgy of culture change. Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 1311-1321.Ponting, M. (2002a) Keeping up with the Romans? Romanisation and copper alloys in First Revolt Palestine. Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgical Studies 22, 3-6.Ponting, M. (2002b) Roman military copper-alloy artefacts from Israel: questions of or-ganization and ethnicity. Archaeometry 44, 555-571.Ponting, M. (2003) From Damscus to Denia: the scientific analysis of three groups of Fat-imid Period metalwork. Historic Metallurgy 37, 85-105.Pydyn, A. (1998) Universal or relative? Social, economic, and symbolic values in CentralEurope in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In: D. Bailey (ed.),The Archaeology of Value: Essays on Prestige and the Processes of Valuation, 97-105,Oxford, Archeopress.Rackham, H. (1952) Pliny; Natural History, Books XXXIII-XXXV. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.Rahmani, L.Y. (1985) On some Byzantine brass rings in the state collections. Atiqot 17, 168-181.Randsborg, K. (1973) Wealth and social structure as reflected in Bronze Age burials – a quantitative approach. In: C. Renfrew (ed.), The Explanation of Culture Change: Models in Prehistory, 565-570, London, Duckworth.Reece, R. (1999) The Later Roman Empire: An Archaeology AD 150-600. Charleston, Tempus.Reece, R. (2003) Coins and the Late Roman economy. In: L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.), Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology, 139-168, Boston, Brill.Renfrew, A.C. (1986) Varna and the emergence of wealth in prehistoric Europe. In: A. Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, 141-168, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Riederer, J. (2002) The use of standardised copper alloys in Roman metal technology. In: A. Guimlia-Mair (ed.), I Bronzi Antichi: Produzione e Tecnologia: Atti del XV Congresso Internazionale Sui Bronzi Antichi Organizzato Dall’Università di Udine, Sede di Gorizia, Grado-Aquilieia, 22-26 maggio 2001, Monographies Instrumentum 21, 284-291, Montagnac, Monique Mergoil.Rose, J.C., Burke, D.L. (eds.) (2004) Sa’ad: A Late Roman/Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan. Irbid, Yarmouk University Publications.Rose, J.C., Burke, D.L. (2005) Making money from buried treasure. Culture WithoutContext 14, 4-8.Rose, J.C., Turshan, N., Cooper, H.K., Kehrberg, I., and Mitchem, J.M. (2004a) Artifacts. In: J.C. Rose and D.L. Burke (eds.), A Late Roman/Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan, 115-148, Irbid, Yarmouk University Publications.Rose, J.C., Burke, D.L., and Johnson, K.L. (2004b) Tombs. In: J.C. Rose and D.L. Burke (eds.), Sa’ad: A Late Roman/Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan, 98-108, Irbid, Yar-mouk University Publications.Rose, J.C., El-Najjar, M., and Burke, D.L. (2007) Trade and the acquisition of wealth in ru-ral Late Antique north Jordan. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan IX, 61-70.Safrai, Z. (1994) The Economy of Roman Palestine. London, Routledge.Sari, S. (2004) Structures. In: J.C. Rose and D.L. Burke (eds.), Sa’ad: A Late Roman/Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan, 9-41, Irbid, Yarmouk University Publications.Saunders, N.J. (2002) The colours of light: materiality and chromatic cultures of the Americas. In: A. Jones and G. MacGregor (eds.), Colouring the Past: The Signifi-cance of Colour in Archaeological Research, 209-226, Oxford, Berg.Schachner, L. (2006) Social life in Late Antiquity: a bibliographic essay. In: W. Bowden, A. Gutteridge, and M. Carlos (eds.), Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity, 41-93, Boston, Brill.Schiffer, M.B., Skibo, J.M. (1987) Theory and experiment in the study of technological change. Current Anthropology 28, 595-622.Shennan, S.E. (1975) The social organization of Branc. Antiquity 49, 279-287.Sillar, B., Tite, M.S. (2000) The challenge of ‘technological choices’ for materials science approaches in archaeology. Archaeometry 42, 2-20.Smith, C.S. (1981) A Search For Structure: Selected Essays on Science, Art, and History. Cam-bridge, MIT Press.Sodini, J.P. (2003) Archaeology and Late Antique social structures. In: L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.), Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology, 25-56, Boston, Brill.Sørensen, M.L.S. (1997) Reading dress: The construction of social categories and identities in Bronze Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 5, 93-114.Stout, A.M. (2001) Jewelry as a symbol of status in the Roman Empire. In: J.L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante (eds.), The World of Roman Costume, 77-100, Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press.Swift, E. (2003) Late-Roman bead necklaces and bracelets. Journal of Roman Archaeology16, 336-49.Tate, G. (1997) The Syrian countryside during the Roman Era. In: S.E. Alcock (ed.), The Early Roman Empire in the East, 55-71, Oxford, Oxbow Books.Trombley, F.R. (2003) Epigraphic data on village culture and social institutions: an inter-regional comparison (Syria, Phoenice Libanensis and Arabia). In: W. Bowden, L. Lavan, and C. Machado (eds.), Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside, 73-101, Boston, Brill.Tsafrir, Y. (1996) Some notes on the settlement and demography of Palestine in the Byz-antine Period: the archaeological evidence. In: J.D. Seger (ed.), Retrieving the Past: Essays on Archaeological Research and Methodology in Honor of Gus. W. Van Beek, 69-83, Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns.Turner, B.S. (1988) Status. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.Unglik, H. (1991) Structure, composition, and technology of Late Roman copper alloy ar-tifacts from the Canadian excavations at Carthage. Archaeomaterials 5, 91-110.Uscateau, A., Martín-Bueno, M. (1997) The macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan): from a market place to an industrial area. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Re-search 307, 67-88.Veblen, T. (1979) [1899] The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York, Penguin.Voight, L.A. (2000) Contemporary Fashions and Jewelry in the Roman East: Evidence from the Mosaics of Antioch-on-the-Orontes. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University.Voutsaki, S. (1997) The Creation of Value and Prestige in the Aegean Late Bronze Age.Journal of European Archaeology 5, 34–52.Waldbaum, J.C. (1983) Metalwork from Sardis: the finds through 1974. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.Ward-Perkins, B. (2000) Specialized production and exchange. In: A. Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, & M. Whitby (eds.), Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors, A.D. 425-600, 346-391, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Waterhouse, S.D. (ed.) (1998) The Necropolis of Hesban: A Typology of Tombs. Berrien Springs, Andrews University Press.Williams, K.D., El-Najjar, M., Rose, J.C., Al-Koufahi, H., King, M.J., and Al-Awad, F. (2004) Skeletal biology. In: J.C. Rose and D.L. Burke (eds.), Sa’ad: A Late Ro-man/Byzantine Site in Northern Jordan, 149-180, Irbid, Yarmouk University Publi-cations.Wobst, H. (1977) Stylistic behavior and information exchange. In: C.E. Cleland (ed.), For the Director: Research Essays in Honor of James B. Griffin, 317-342, Ann Arbor, Uni-versity of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology.Woodward, I. (2007) Understanding Material Culture. Los Angeles, SAGE Publications Ltd.Young, R.S. (1981) The Gordion Excavations, Final Reports: Vol. I Three Great Tumuli. Univer-sity of Pennsylvania Museum Monograph 43. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum.
