Jewellery in Anatolia

Ornaments of the Archaic period are plain but nevertheless of impressive appearance. 

The most important examples belonging to this period in Anatolia were found in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. 
These were votive offering to the goddess Artemis; among the finds were numerous earrings, brooches, fibulae and dress ornaments made of gold, silver and electrum.

Another region of Western Anatolia in which Archaic jewelry is frequently encountered is Lydia.

At Sardis, which was the center of a atrapy after the Persioan king Cyrus put an end to Lydian rule in 546 B.C. 
And in the surrounding area, Persian motifs began to be seen, in these years, also called the Achaemenid period, it is observed in the works created with the Persian jeweler's craft that the Achaemenid style was evolved. 

In the ornaments of this period, the labor of a very ostentatious but disciplined style, various animal heads and fantastic creatures become prominent. 

The most important group amount the works of jewelry of this period, which are mostly seen in the areas around Satrap capitals like Sardis and Daskyleion, is that obtained from the Ikiztepe tumulus near Usak. 

This group of finds which are of very high artistic value and painstaking workmanship, shows the quality of life of the Achaemenid dynasty.

In the Hellenistic period the tecnique and artistic appereance of the jewelery's art have reached the zenith. 

Though carrying some of the characteristics of Greco-Persian jewelry, human and animal figures are used to a striking degree in ornaments. 

One of the most important developments encountered in this period the wide use of various precious stones in ornaments. 

In this period artists were in search of new motifs and the Knot of Hercules motif thought to be of Egyptian origin, became very popular.

In the Jewelery of Anatolia in the Roman period, local characteristics became prominent, thought at firs its products remain faithful to the Hellenistic traditions.

Some precious stones and glass continue to be used but a decline in quality begins. 

Between the 2nd and the 4th centuries A.D. various local characteristics became even more widely used in ornaments of the surviving jewelry of this period the majority are earrings and rings presented as gifts to graves.

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