 I hope you recognize this lovely image. This is that wonderful ensemble of Hellenistic jewelry that was covered in our previous case study, in which I had a conversation with Mary Louise Hart of the Getty Villa and we talked about this incredible ensemble of pieces that were all found together, focusing particularly in on the diadem on the right and the hairnet with its lovely dangling pieces on the left. And in this case study, we're going to look at more types of garnet uses in the antique world, including some jewelry and moving particularly on to the use of garnets in rings. First, I want to make the point that the material we saw from the Getty Villa is special but not completely unique. And what you're seeing here is another such ensemble. This one is in Berlin in the Altus Museum, which houses much of the classical art collection. And you can see that there is a lovely hairnet. We'll look at a closer view of that in a moment. More of those spiral, snaky armbands a really pretty possibly fringed diadem or choker that you see in gold, some wonderful earrings and then this fabulous garnet necklace with a Heracles knot that I'm showing you in some details on the left. And that's what's surrounding most of this ensemble. And this is, discoveries like this are relatively rare, and so it is very special to see them. But you might remember that we were talking about the Heracles knot, both with Mary Louise at the Getty and also with Adam Levine at Toledo. And it came up that the knot is something that's very difficult, if not impossible to break because of its structure. And that it can be a sign of love and commitment. So this would be a very appropriate sort of thing for a wealthy man to give his wife, for example. Here is a closer view of the hairnet from that ensemble in Berlin. And you can see the central figure is the God Hermes or Roman Mercury. And you can recognize him from the wings that appear to be coming from his hair. You might recall that he has a winged helmet. And you see those two little loops right by his neck. So that's an indication that this hairnet too would have had little dangling fringes probably made of gold and garnet. What I think is so fantastic about this particular hairnet and makes it really distinctive is the fact that all of these areas where the gold wires cross each other, these have been turned into settings for tiny round polished garnets. And I have a detail of that on the right. It really is marvelous. You'll notice that quite a few of these are missing, but still the effect must have been particularly stunning, especially against a contrast of human hair. Imagine if, for example, the wearer had dark hair, how this would have just glowed against that. Although the great jewelry ensembles are relatively rare, rings are quite commonly found with garnets through multiple periods of history. And here we see one such ring. This is an unadorned garnet just simply polished into a rounded cabochon form. And these rounded forms are what were more favored in the antique world. You really don't start seeing faceted jewels until much, much later. But as we'll see, simple rounded cabochons were not quite as common as signet rings, rings with some sort of engraving on them and a sign that would be special to the wearer. And we'll see a few of those next. Here we're looking at two engraved rings. And it's possible that these could have been used as signet rings used to press into wax to make a seal, for example. The one on the left with the 56 in the photo shows the figure of Marcius, who was a Seder, a half human creature who had the audacity in Greek mythology to have a contest with the god Apollo playing the lyre. And he lost and his punishment was to be bound up and you see him bound with his arms behind him to what looks like a tree trunk on the right side of that gem. And he was flayed alive. On the right side, you see a musician holding a harp or a lyre and wearing a peplos, a type of Greek garment. And both of these, again, are garnets. Here's a particularly spectacular ring. This one is spectacular for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'd like you to take a look at that garnet. And you can imagine that this would have come from a fairly large stone. And the jeweler here has cut it in such a way that it really shows that sort of anthrax glowing coal quality of the garnet that was celebrated by Theophrastus and by Pliny. It seems to glow from within. And I really like the close-up I have on the right for that. This is a signet ring. So it was carved in such a way so that like a cylinder seal, when you pressed it into something soft, most likely melted wax in this case, it would leave a relief impression. And so you can see that the inscription is backwards and also that the figure has been carved into the stone so that it will project in relief when it's pressed into wax. Like coins, signet rings and regular signets were a means of spreading a particular propaganda image for individuals in authority. They could, because the impressions of seals were portable just like coins were in constant circulation. So if you wanted to have a particular image spread over a wide territory, what better way than through things like coins and through seals, signet rings. And so here we see Theodosius II emphasizing his power. You might notice there's a real emphasis on large eyes, on a very large crown on his head. He's wearing a rich cloak and has an extremely elaborate shoulder brooch on one side and seems also to have some sort of ornament, maybe earrings actually on his ears. So all of these are meant to kind of show us him in his authority. We're moving back in time now, back to the Hellenistic period and here I want you to just notice the incredible quality of workmanship on this particular ring. And this is a piece that isn't much larger than, it's about the size of a nickel, as I recall. So not a particularly large work. And take a look at just the incredible amount of detail in this image with this elaborate hairstyle, beautifully modeled face, even with some cracking and damage to the gemstone. This is a really spectacular work. One of the last things I'm going to show you here is a tiny little portrait head made from garnet. And this depicts one of the Ptolemaic Egyptian queens, either Arsinoe or Buraniki and there were I think two Arsinoes and two Buranikis. And it's kind of difficult to tell them apart because they tend to share in the same sort of means of being depicted. Usually they are a veiled figure and there are a couple of other characteristics, but you can see we have this lovely veiled figure and the gem here has been modeled in such a way so that it appears that this figure has a really nice tight bun of hair underneath kind of a gauzy, silky veil. It's a real mark of skill of this artisan. And also taking advantage of just working the stone in such a way as to show it to the best effect, which I think is the mark of a true craftsman. Here are a couple of other views of that figure. I've zoomed in maybe a little too far on the left, but those strange blue lumps, those are actually my thumb and my index finger inside of blue gloves in the conservation area at the Getty Villa. And I want you to particularly focus in on the image on the right. You can see that this is not a piece that's been carved completely in the round. It's kind of a random chip of garnet that has then been shaped into this wonderful portrait bust. And so what would have been the purpose of something like this? Well, perhaps this would be the kind of thing that the queen herself would have commissioned to give to someone in her favor, or possibly this was meant to be put into some sort of larger object, perhaps a piece of jewelry or some other sort of ensemble, but it is definitely a luxury item meant to be appreciated for its beauty and for its craftsmanship and for the quality of the gemstone itself, that wonderful red glow. Here's our last piece, and this is a Roman head. And you can see, again, I've zoomed way in to show you just how tiny this is. But this is a female head with kind of a complicated hairstyle, sort of a top that has been divided up into three segments, and then there's a bit of hairstyle in the back. And this might have been commissioned as a little portrait head for someone to give as a gift. It was certainly meant to be picked up and admired. Perhaps it could have been put into a setting because it does definitely have a base and there's some breakage on the gem that seems to indicate that maybe it was set into some sort of a setting, perhaps for a brooch or the pendant to a necklace. Again, we just don't know, but it's a compelling little thing. Here are two other views. Again, zoomed in close enough that you can see the texture on the blue gloves I was wearing at the Getty Villa, but you can see the level of modeling on this piece. And then on the right, you can see how that hairstyle kind of works out with its various pieces. And then just below the hairstyle, there's sort of a groove there where presumably a metal fitting would have been placed around this gem so that it could be worn or displayed in some other fashion. And remember when we're talking about the Roman world, we're talking about a world in which images tend to have a pretty decent amount of significance. We don't have cheap and quick images the way we do now in the age of digital photography. So perhaps this was something that a husband wore as a symbol of his wife or something else. We just don't know. But these are just a few examples of the sheer wealth of small scale works of art that we have in Garnet from the ancient world.