DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0232
182 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
technique, they are often reckoned among- the most im-
portant monuments of the period. But to the Mycenaean
women, and the men as well, — for one example above cited
shows that the men also wore them, — they had a further
element of value. The stone was certainly prized for its
intrinsic quality; for as a rule we find in use only the rarer
varieties, namely, agate, crystal, amethyst, sard, sardonyx,
jasper, and chalcedony. Owing- to the value of the stone,
enhanced as it was by the engraver's art, they are rarely
found in numbers ; and so we infer that it was customary
to wear but one or two strung together with less expensive
beads. In this respect the Vaphio tomb is exceptional;
still, while so many engraved gems were found by the hands
of the skeleton there, only two lay at the breast, and these
appear to have been strung in a necklace with eighty other
plain round beads of amethyst. This was doubtless the
rule, and bracelets of engraved gems (such as we find at
Vaphio) must have been very rare. These gems have
been and still are called " island-stones," — a designation
due to the fact that the earlier known examples were chiefly
from the islands of the Aegean (Melos, Crete, etc.); but
this name can no longer justify itself, now that the most
numerous and finest specimens have recently been found in
the centres of Mycenaean culture. Accordingly it has been
proposedl to name them " Mycenaean stones," although
their fabrication certainly outlasted the Mycenaean age.
Of these stones we sometimes find imitations in glass-
paste, engraved like the gems, but these are of slight im-
Giass-paste portance now, owing to the very imperfect state in
Gewgaws whicn they are preserved ; and there is no doubt
that even in antiquity they were comparatively little prized.
For not only did the material yield more readily to the
1 By Perrot, Bull. Corr. Hellen., 1891, p. 518.
technique, they are often reckoned among- the most im-
portant monuments of the period. But to the Mycenaean
women, and the men as well, — for one example above cited
shows that the men also wore them, — they had a further
element of value. The stone was certainly prized for its
intrinsic quality; for as a rule we find in use only the rarer
varieties, namely, agate, crystal, amethyst, sard, sardonyx,
jasper, and chalcedony. Owing- to the value of the stone,
enhanced as it was by the engraver's art, they are rarely
found in numbers ; and so we infer that it was customary
to wear but one or two strung together with less expensive
beads. In this respect the Vaphio tomb is exceptional;
still, while so many engraved gems were found by the hands
of the skeleton there, only two lay at the breast, and these
appear to have been strung in a necklace with eighty other
plain round beads of amethyst. This was doubtless the
rule, and bracelets of engraved gems (such as we find at
Vaphio) must have been very rare. These gems have
been and still are called " island-stones," — a designation
due to the fact that the earlier known examples were chiefly
from the islands of the Aegean (Melos, Crete, etc.); but
this name can no longer justify itself, now that the most
numerous and finest specimens have recently been found in
the centres of Mycenaean culture. Accordingly it has been
proposedl to name them " Mycenaean stones," although
their fabrication certainly outlasted the Mycenaean age.
Of these stones we sometimes find imitations in glass-
paste, engraved like the gems, but these are of slight im-
Giass-paste portance now, owing to the very imperfect state in
Gewgaws whicn they are preserved ; and there is no doubt
that even in antiquity they were comparatively little prized.
For not only did the material yield more readily to the
1 By Perrot, Bull. Corr. Hellen., 1891, p. 518.