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Posts Tagged ‘Rome’

Any tour to Italy in search of art and culture must take in the unforgettable and ancient ruins of Pompeii, only a few hours from Italy’s capital city Rome. Follow in the footsteps of the British gentility on Grand Tour with a trip to the Gulf of Naples where you can find a culture that was captured forever in the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

Pompeii, once a popular tourist destination for the ancient Romans, is now one of the most popular tourist sites in Italy and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, devastating the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, these ancient cities were buried, preserved and lost under thick layers of ash. This natural event that devastated the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum now offer tourists the opportunity to see how people lived, and died, two thousand years ago.

Pompeii is now an outdoor museum and an excavation site that provides an exciting archaeological journey into Roman life in the 1st century. The Roman settlement, once lost under almost 60 feet of ash and pumice, was rediscovered in 1748. Since then numerous excavations have unearthed many rare discoveries including well-preserved frescoes showing what everyday life was like for its doomed inhabitants.

Even if you’re not interested in history the Pompeii site is a fascinating find. Providing a time capsule of Roman life and architecture, the excavated town includes cobbles streets, grand houses, villas, baths and a brothel. The baths contain stuccoed vaults with preserved images of nymphs and cupids while the Forum shows where the civic, commercial, political and religious heart of the town was located.

From the ruling class down to slaves, no one in the city was spared after Vesuvius erupted. As ash and soot covered the city, people and animals were frozen in time. Giuseppe Fiorelli, the director of one of Pompeii’s many excavations instructed workers to pour liquid plaster into cavities left in the ashes by decomposed bodies. These plaster casts show incredible detail of the people of Pompeii in their last moments.

If you wish to visit Pompeii, then it often proves a good idea to take one of the many tours offered once you arrive from your flights to Rome. From Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci (Fiumicino) airport, take either a taxi or the train to Rome’s Termini Station and then the Eurostar to Naples.

The Circumvesuviana is one of Naples’ suburban rail services which runs around the base of Mount Vesuvius and connects its nearby cities. The ancient site of Pompeii is just 100 metres from the Pompei Scavi train which can be found half-way along the Circumvesuviana line.

The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author and is intended purely for information and interest purposes only. It should not be used to make any decisions or take any actions. Any links are included for information purposes only.

Roman Glass Jewelry

Roman Glass is an ancient glass, discovered in archaeological excavation sites in Israel and in other Mediterranean countries.The fine Sterling Silver Roman Glass Jewelry is one of the most popular types and styles originated from Israel enabling to wear an entirely unique piece of 2,000-year-old history.

The glass in this aqua-hued jewelry began life as a vase, jug, or vessel. Uncovered from ancient Roman archaeological sites in modern-day Israel, each fragment has been textured and colored by centuries of wind and weather. Each bears the marks of not only its past life as a household or temple object but also the very earth in which it rested until being transformed into a unique accent. Each piece of Roman glass is framed by a sterling silver bezel to create a unique roman glass jewel.

The designs for the jewels are based on artifacts and drawings also discovered on the archeological digs. The Roman Glass is a beautiful piece of history dating back 2,000 years to the time of the Roman Empire. The Roman Glass used for jewel  today in Israel is found in archeological digs throughout the land of Israel.

The natural phenomenon which the glass has undergone over the many years it has been buried have given it the unique and beautiful aqua shades we enjoy today in earrings , necklaces and bracelets. Initially, in the Roman empire, glass was mainly used for vessels and available only for the wealthy.

At that time, glass was manufactured by core forming, casting, cutting and grinding. However, since the invention of the glass blowing, glass was available to the public in vast numbers, mass produced in a large variety of shapes and forms. Due to the great popularity of glass during those ancient times, we today are priviliged to make use of these gorgeous historical pieces with which we enhance the beauty of our roman glass jewelry. Ancient Israel, due to its large stretches of sandy dunes and beaches, was one of the largest glass producers of the Roman Empire.

These same sands helped preserve the glass through the centuries, shaping and tempering it into the jewelry-quality pieces being excavated today. Today the fragments of the 2000 years old roman glass that were once part of the lip of a goblet, jar, or other vessel are used in Israel to create beautiful jewelry that mixes the typical blue and green old glass excavated from archaeological digs with silver or gold creating a piece of art and history to wear with love. A certificate of authenticity is available for the Roman Glass jewelry.

History of Roman Glass

It is interesting to know some facts about the glass history and the Roman Glass history, collected from several sources. The History of Glass Glass is formed when sand (silica), soda (alkali), and lime are fused at high temperatures. The color of the glass can be altered by adjusting the atmosphere in the furnace and by adding specific metal oxides to the glass “batch” (such as cobalt for dark blue, tin for opaque white, antimony and manganese for colorless glass).

A venerable legend perpetuated as late as the seventh century A.D. in the writings of Isidore of Seville gives a suitable miraculous explanation for the discovery of this elemental–yet truly wondrous–material – This was its origin: in a part of Syria which is called Phoenicia, there is a swamp close to Judaea, around the base of Mt. Carmel, from which the Bellus River arises . . . whose sands are purified from contamination by the torrent’s flow. The story is that here a ship of natron [sodium carbonate] merchants had been shipwrecked; when they were scattered about on the shore preparing food and no stones were at hand for propping up their pots, they brought lumps of natron from the ship.

The sand of the shore became mixed with the burning natron and translucent streams of a new liquid flowed forth: and this was the origin of glass.(Isidore of Seville, Etymologies XVI.16. Translation by Charles Witke.) It is not surprising that the ancient authorities thought of Phoenicia as the birthplace of glass, for the Syro-Palestine region did indeed become a major center of glass production in antiquity, along with Egypt. However, glass seems actually to have been “discovered” not in Phoenicia, but in Mesopotamia. Archaeological research now places the first evidence of true glass there at around 2500 B.C.

At first it was used for beads, seals, and architectural decoration. Some 1,000 years elapsed before glass vessels are known to have been produced. Vessels of glass quickly became widespread in the second half of the second millennium B.C. They were popular not only in Mesopotamia but also in Egypt and the Aegean. The earliest vessels were core-formed. Opaque, dark glass in its molten state was wound around a clay core attached to a metal rod. The skin of hot glass was fashioned with tools in order to shape its external features. Lighter colored strands of hot glass were then trailed on the surface and often “dragged” to produce festoon patterns. The pot surface was marvered (that is, rolled on a smooth, flat surface to produce a level finish). Finally, it was cooled slowly before the clay core was scraped out of the hardened vessel.

This glassware typically imitated forms originally established for ceramic, metal, and stone vessels . Somewhat later, the molding technique was developed, whereby glass chips or molten glass were packed or forced into a mold and then fused. After a molded vessel was annealed (cooled slowly in a special chamber of the glass furnace), it was often ground and polished in order to refine the rim and any other rough edges. One typical shape for molded vessels of the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods (c. 150 -50 B.C.) was the so-called pillar-molded bowl. Here exterior ribs radiate up from the base, stopping abruptly near the rim to allow a smooth margin around the circumference.

This type is ubiquitous; and it attests to the free and rapid exchange of ideas in glass-making throughout the Greater Mediterranean sphere. The site of Tel Anafa in Israel is a small settlement in the Upper Galilee. During ten seasons of fieldwork between 1968 and 1986, Saul Weinberg and his successor Sharon Herbert oversaw the uncovering of part of a small settlement of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. In Tel Anafa I, Herbert presents the architecture and the stratigraphic sequence (text and some illustrations in fasc. i, locus summary and plates to Chs. 1 and 2 in fasc. ii). The volume also includes studies by other scholars of the geological setting of the site, the stamped amphora handles, coins, vertebrate fauna, and a single Tyrian sealing. Tel Anafa II, i is devoted to the Hellenistic and Roman pottery.

A future volume (II, ii) will complete the series with publication of the pre-Hellenistic and Islamic pottery, lamps, glass, metalware, stucco, stone tools, and the palaeobotanical remains. Tel Anafa (recently excavated jointly by the Universities of Michigan and Missouri) has provided critical information on the chronological limits of these bowls within the Roman period. Glass vessels were initially available only to the very wealthy and only in rather diminutive sizes.

They were manufactured by core forming, casting, cutting and grinding. The invention of glass blowing around 50 BC brought glass vessels to the general public in vast numbers, mass produced in great variety of forms and hence brought ancient glass into the reach of the modern collector of even modest means. One can nowadays own a Roman glass bowl, or drink from a Roman glass beaker, or wear ancient jewellery where glass was used widely. In 63 BC, the Romans conquered the Syro-Palestine area.

They brought back with them glassmakers to Rome.Soon after, the first transparent glass sheets were produced in Rome. The word vitrum, meaning glass, entered the Latin language.Rome’s political, military, and economic dominanace in the Mediterranean world was a major factor in attracting skilled craftsmen to set up workshops in the city, but equally important was the fact that the establishment of the Roman industry roughly coincided with the invention of glassblowing. The new technique led craftsmen to create novel and unique shapes; examples exist of flasks and bottles shaped like foot sandals, wine barrels, fruits, and even helmets and animals. Some combined blowing with glass-casting and pottery-molding technologies to create the so-called mold-blowing process.

Further innovations and stylistic changes saw the continued use of casting and free-blowing to create a variety of open and closed forms that could then be engraved or facet-cut in any number of patterns and designs. Core-formed and cast glass vessels were first produced in Egypt and Mesopotamia as early as the fifteenth century B.C., but only began to be imported and, to a lesser extent, made on the Italian peninsula in the mid-first millennium B.C.

By the time of the Roman Republic (509-27 B.C.), such vessels, used as tableware or as containers for expensive oils, perfumes, and medicines, were common in Etruria (modern Tuscany) and Magna Graecia (areas of southern Italy including modern Campania, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily). However, there is very little evidence for similar glass objects in central Italian and Roman contexts until the mid-first century B.C. The reasons for this are unclear, but it suggests that the Roman glass industry sprang from almost nothing and developed to full maturity over a couple of generations during the first half of the first century A.D. Doubtless Rome’s emergence as the dominant political, military, and economic power in the Mediterranean world was a major factor in attracting skilled craftsmen to set up workshops in the city, but equally important was the fact that the establishment of the Roman industry roughly coincided with the invention of glassblowing.

This invention revolutionized ancient glass production, putting it on a par with the other major industries, such as that of pottery and metalwares (as 20.49.2-12). Likewise, glassblowing allowed craftsmen to make a much greater variety of shapes than before. Combined with the inherent attractiveness of glass-it is nonporous, translucent (if not transparent), and odorless-this adaptability encouraged people to change their tastes and habits, so that, for example, glass drinking cups rapidly supplanted pottery equivalents. In fact, the production of certain types of native Italian clay cups, bowls, and beakers declined through the Augustan period, and by the mid-first century A.D. had ceased altogether.However, although blown glass came to dominate Roman glass production, it did not altogether supplant cast glass. Especially in the first half of the first century A.D., much Roman glass was made by casting, and the forms and decoration of early Roman cast vessels demonstrate a strong Hellenistic influence.

The Roman glass industry owed a great deal to eastern Mediterranean glassmakers, who first developed the skills and techniques that made glass so popular that it can be found on every archaeological site, not only throughout the Roman empire but also in lands far beyond its frontiers. Cast Glass Although the core-formed industry dominated glass manufacture in the Greek world, casting techniques also played an important role in the development of glass in the ninth to fourth centuries B.C. Cast glass was produced in two basic ways-through the lost-wax method and with various open and plunger molds.

The most common method used by Roman glassmakers for most of the open-form cups and bowls in the first century B.C. was the Hellenistic technique of sagging glass (81.10.243) over a convex “former” mold. However, various casting and cutting methods were continuously utilized as style and popular preference demanded. The Romans also adopted and adapted various color and design schemes from the Hellenistic glass traditions, applying such designs as network glass and gold-band glass to novel shapes and forms. Distinctly Roman innovations in fabric styles and colors include marbled mosaic glass, short-strip mosaic glass, and the crisp, lathe-cut profiles of a new breed of fine as monochrome and colorless tablewares of the early empire, introduced around 20 A.D.

This class of glassware became one of the most prized styles because it closely resembled luxury items such as the highly valued rock crystal objects, Augustan Arretine ceramics (as 10.210.37), and bronze and silver tablewares (as 20.49.2-12) so favored by the aristocratic and prosperous classes of Roman society. In fact, these fine wares were the only glass objects continually formed via casting, even up to the as Late Flavian, Trajanic, and Hadrianic periods (96-138 A.D.), after glassblowing superceded casting as the dominant method of glassware manufacture in the early first century A.D. Blown Glass SOMETIME AROUND 70 B.C., in Jerusalem, someone realized that, if you took a glass tube — then the stock for mass production of beads — sealed one end and blew into the other, you could create a glass bulb. Blow hard enough and long enough, and you could make a small bottle.

This was glassblowing at its most primitive. It is quite possible that, without further refinement, this moment of experimentation might have passed unnoticed. A couple of decades later, however, the introduction of a separate blowpipe, together with a tool-kit of variously-sized pincers and paddles, made it possible to blow and shape glass with much greater control, and with much greater novelty.

The new technology revolutionized the Italian glass industry, stimulating an enormous increase in the range of shapes and designs that glassworkers could produce. A glassworker’s creativity was no longer bound by the technical restrictions of the laborious casting process, as blowing allowed for previously unparalleled versatility and speed of manufacture. These advantages spurred a rapid evolution of style and form, and experimentation with the new technique led craftsmen to create novel and unique shapes; examples exist of flasks and bottles shaped like foot sandals, wine barrels, fruits, and even helmets and animals.

Some combined blowing with glass-casting and pottery-molding technologies to create the so-called mold-blowing process. Further innovations and stylistic changes saw the continued use of casting and free-blowing to create a variety of open and closed forms that could then be engraved or facet-cut in any number of patterns and designs. But the potential of a technological idea will only come to fruition if its seed is planted in an encouraging cultural environment. During Rome’s Republican Era, in the dictatorial times of Sulla and Julius Caesar, such encouragement seems to have been lacking. In the Hellenistic world, the firmly established traditions of working glass — either by blending threads of it into closed vessel forms or by slumping glass over a pre-shaped model for open ones — were producing fine wares with which the infant technique of free-blowing could not yet compete.

In the Roman world, however, pottery was still the material of choice for everything domestic, from fish platters to perfume bottles, and no one seemed to be in any hurry to change that situation. Enter the Emperor Augustus. It is said that he had no love of foreigners; he viewed the appreciable numbers of them living in Rome around 10 B.C. as a potential source for the corruption of traditional Roman values. If I interpret his subsequent actions correctly, he wanted the Italian mainland to be far more self-sufficient wherever possible. So it was that Italian businesses in certain crafts — most obviously, pottery- and cloth-making — were encouraged to expand. The craft of glassworking now was adopted from the Hellenistic world with much energy and skill. An ancient Industrial Revolution was underway.

To get things moving, the Romans simply enslaved hundreds of skilled craftsmen in the eastern provinces, uprooting them from their homes and resettling them in the outskirts of rapidly-growing Roman cities. Pottery-makers were imported from Asia Minor, particularly from around Pergamum, and put to work at Arretium; Greek craftsmen were moved from Athens to Lyons and other cities in central Gaul; glassworkers were brought in from the provinces of Syria, Judaea, and Aegyptus — most likely from the cities of Sidon, Jerusalem, and Alexandria — and put to work in shops at Naples, Aquileia, and just outside Rome itself. There was an immediate market niche for glassware in Augustan times.

Like many ancient peoples, the Romans believed in an afterlife that was an idealized form of their worldly experience. According to its means, the family of each dead Roman was obliged to provide furnishings for the grave. Such furnishings always included regular domestic items — plates of food, flasks of wine, and so on — but it was also a tradition to include offerings of perfume. The Roman wealthy would put these offerings in bottles (unguentaria) made of silver or alabaster. The eastern craftsmen who brought with them the skill of glassblowing now offered the rest of the population an alternative in glass; to be sure, not something as elegant or colorful as might have been wished, but which everyone could afford. The free-blown unguentarium was one of the immediate and long-term successes of the newly emerging industry. Modern excavations have revealed many instances where a grave contains not just one or two but a couple of dozen of these, all mass-produced, each in a matter of minutes at most.

At the same time, glass captured the popular imagination by virtue of its translucency. You could see the color of wine in a beaker, or how well a bottle was filled even if it was sealed — which could not be said for items made of pottery, or indeed of bronze, silver, or gold. The production of wine glasses soared in the Augustan era, actually causing the demise of some of the pottery workshops that specialized in traditional beaker types. It was glass’s distinctive property of transparency that stimulated the Emperor Nero’s tutor, Lucius Seneca to observe that ” … Apples seem more beautiful if they are floating in a glass.” (Investigations in Natural Science I.6).

And, from the middle of the first century A.D. onward, squared-sided glass bottles — typically with capacities in the half- to one-liter range — were used for a great deal of the short-range movement of liquids such as olive oil and the popular fish sauce known as garum. Thus the industrialization of glassworking in the Augustan era came about through the influence of three distinct forces: First, by virtue of certain historical events (Augustus’s rise to power and his promotion of craft-centralization on the Italian mainland); second, because of a technical innovation (the invention of glassblowing in one of Rome’s eastern provinces); and third, the social pressure related to fashion or taste (a traditional link between perfumery and Roman funerary ritual). Change in the Roman glassworking industry was always most dramatic whenever all three of these forces came together at one time.

Usage of Roman Glass artifacts

At the height of its popularity and usefulness in Rome, glass was present in nearly every aspect of daily life-from a lady’s morning toilette to a merchant’s afternoon business dealings to the evening cena, or dinner. Glass alabastra , unguentaria, and other small bottles and boxes held the various oils, perfumes, and cosmetics used by nearly every member of Roman society. Pyxides often contained jewelry with glass elements such as beads, cameos, and intaglios , made to imitate semi-precious stone like carnelian, emerald, rock crystal, sapphire, garnet, sardonyx, and amethyst. Merchants and traders routinely packed, shipped, and sold all manner of foodstuffs and other goods across the Mediterranean in glass bottles and jars of all shapes and sizes, supplying Rome with a great variety of exotic materials from far-off parts of the empire. Other applications of glass included multicolored tesserae used in elaborate floor and wall mosaics, and mirrors containing colorless glass with wax, plaster, or metal backing that provided a reflective surface. Glass windowpanes were first made in the early imperial period, and used most prominently in the public baths to prevent drafts. Because window glass in Rome was intended to provide insulation and security, rather than illumination or as a way of viewing the world outside, little, if any, attention was paid to making it perfectly transparent or of even thickness.

Window glass could be either cast or blown. Cast panes were poured and rolled over flat, usually wooden molds laden with a layer of sand, and then ground or polished on one side. Blown panes were created by cutting and flattening a long cylinder of blown glass.

AN INDUSTRY THOUGH Roman glassworking certainly was, it was one that maintained a remarkable degree of dynamism over the centuries. The shape and decoration of two of its main products — the unguentarium and the wine beaker — were being modified every few decades, sometimes quite sharply, and there were many new items of glassware introduced that expanded the glassworker’s repertoire in significant ways. The way that the Romans committed themselves so heavily to the maintenance of good ports all around the Mediterranean coastline and of fine roads that criss-crossed the entire Empire on land was also critical for keeping the Roman glassmaking industry so dynamic.

Of course, the main purpose of such maintenance was to assure the easy movement of troops from one trouble spot to another, and of administrative information from one city to another. But these ports and roads also allowed the movement of people and their ideas. Signatures and inscriptions in Greek indicate clearly enough that eastern Mediterranean craftsmen settled at various places in northern Italy and central Gaul; that north African and Syrian soldiers were conscripted to serve in the army in northern England, thereafter to settle there as tradesmen; and that businessmen of every background and philosophical persuasion traded wherever it was to their advantage to do so. Thus, every Roman city became a social melting-pot where technical innovations could be passed on, blending with or displacing old ideas, sometimes in the space of just a decade or two.

The industrial activities of the Roman world responded accordingly, with a freshness of purpose and an ongoing rise in skill. Jewelry in the Roman Times Ancient Roman glass jewelry reached its height during the Augustan age, at the beginning of the Empire. This meant that in many ways the glass jewelry were deprived of much of the expressive freedom one might expect and hope for. The buyers of this fine artistic jewelry were the conservative political.

The period of peace achieved during the rule of Augustus and Augustus made this possible, especially after the vicious fighting of the Roman civil wars. Ancient Roman jewelry in earlier times was derived from both Hellenistic and Etruscan jewelry. In addition, as Roman jewelry designs freed itself of Hellenistic and Etruscan influences, greater use was made of colored stones such as: topazes, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and pearls. Trojan and Cretan artisans of the Minoan period, although working at opposite ends of the Aegean region, crafted earrings, bracelets, and necklaces of a common type that persisted from about 2500 BC to the beginning of the Classical period of Greek art 479 BC – 323 BC. Roman jewelry was highly influenced by some of the designs of the places they conquered and established connections with. The creators spared no effort in making some of the most exquisite and ornamental compositions. Rings were a major symbol in the body of ancient Roman jewelry.

Ornamental Roman jewelry was worn by women of high status. They often wore jewelry on their ears, neck, arms and hands. Ancient Roman designs and fashion jewelry also included seal rings, amulets and talismans. The cameo and hoop earrings were introduced in ancient Roman times. Ancient Roman glass jewelry reached its height during the Augustan age, at the beginning of the Empire. This meant that in many ways the glass jewelry were deprived of much of the expressive freedom one might expect and hope for.

The buyers of this fine artistic jewelry were the conservative political. The period of peace achieved during the rule of Augustus and Augustus made this possible, especially after the vicious fighting of the Roman civil wars. The gold beads of ancient Rome were artfully shaped to create images of flowers and animals. The most common fact that is assumed by most is that the ancient Roman jewelry has a similar resembles to the Greek and Etruscan jewelry.

An assortment of Israeli handmade Roman glass jewelry at Bluenoemi Jewelry  at the page.

Early inhabitants

In the territory now covered by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, there is evidence of primitive inhabitants right back to the Paleolithic or old stone age over 35,000 years ago. The oldest artifacts from this period are decorated bones found at Oetrange.

However, the first real evidence of civilization is from the Neolithic or 5th millennium BC when houses began to appear. Traces have been found in the south of Luxembourg at Aspelt, Weiler-la-Tour, as well as at Grevenmacher and Diekirch. The dwellings were made of a combination of tree trunks for the basic structure, mud-clad wickerwork walls, and roofs of thatched reeds or straw. Pottery from this period has been found near Remerschen.

While there is not much evidence of communities in Luxembourg at the last beginning of the poohs beginning of the Bronze Age, a number of sites dating back to the period between the 13th and the 8th century BC provide evidence of dwellings and reveal artifacts such as pottery, knives and jewelry. These include Nospelt, Dalheim, Mompach and Remerschen.

The Hallstatt culture

The discovery in 1846 of a prehistoric cemetery at Hallstatt in Austria revealed distinctive artifacts from the Neolithic through to the early Iron Age from 600 to 450 BC. These are considered to be the first evidence of Celtic civilization and served as a model for similar finds which were to occur in other parts of Europe in areas inhabited by the Celts. In Luxembourg too, evidence of this early period comes mainly from fairly modest tombs such as those found in Niederanven. However, the tombs found in south-east Luxembourg at Grosbous, Flaxweiler and Altrier which date back to between 450 and 250 BC contained much richer finds.

Judging from the objects discovered at Altrier, the tomb from about 450 BC must have been that of a high-ranking chieftain. It contained a bronze Etruscan stamnos, an iron sword, an ornate bronze and coral fibula (brooch) and a gold bracelet. The Grosbous tomb, part of a small cemetery, is particularly interesting as the corpse had been placed on a two-wheeled chariot providing indications of how the Celts constructed such vehicles.

Principal Celtic sites

The Celtic civilization reached its height in the 1st century BC, prior to the Roman conquest in 54 BC. Most of the evidence from that period has been discovered in tombs, many closely associated with Titelberg, a 50 ha site which reveals much about the dwellings and handicrafts of the period.

Titelberg

Titelberg is the site of a large Celtic settlement or oppidum in the extreme south west of Luxembourg near Rodange and Differdange. Though it had been inhabited from about 300 BC, by the 1st century BC, the community had reached a high level of urbanization and was almost certainly the capital of the Treveri people. It was by far the largest of the Treveri settlements at the time, no doubt as a result of its proximity to two of the most important Celtic roads, one from the south connecting the Rhne to the Moselle valley and the north, the other leading to Reims and the west. Another attraction was the iron ore which could be mined in the immediate vicinity and was indeed increasingly smelted to produce knives, lances, swords and cooking utensils and equipment.

Covering an area of some 50 ha, the oval-shaped Titelberg plateau rising 100 m above the River Chiers, is approximately 1 km long (NW to SE) and 500 m wide. Evidence of the foundations of numerous dwellings, a public space for religious or political purposes, and the 9-m high ramparts which still stand at the SW entrance today, clearly demonstrate the importance of the oppidum which, until the Roman conquest, appears to have been the seat of the Treveri chieftains.

One of the most important finds on Titelberg has been a huge number of Celtic coins which come not only from the Treveri themselves but from several other Celtic tribes. This indicates that it had become a centre of trade and commerce showing signs of urbanization. Facilities for minting coins have been excavated close to the residential area and appear to have been used over an extended period, both during the purely Celtic period and under the Romans as the Celts began to adopt Roman culture.

A very large number of both Celtic and Gallo-Roman fibulae have also been found on the site. In a multitude of different shapes and sizes, these bronze clasps, sometimes hinged, were used either as ornamental brooches or for pinning garments together.

Initially, the Romans converted the Celtic dwellings to houses with stone foundations. But towards the end of the 1st century BC, the Romans established their centre of interest in Trier which also became the new capital for the Treveri. Indeed, the Romans dismantled the ramparts and reduced the oppidum to a vicus which nevertheless continued to be inhabited for another 400 years.

Clemency

A Celtic funeral chamber measuring 4.30 m by 4.20 m, the largest Gallic tomb ever found, was recently discovered at Clemency. From the offerings in the tomb, it was obviously the burial place of a Celtic nobleman. These included ten wine amphorae, an Italic bronze basin, an oil lamp from Campania, an iron grill and some 30 Gallic pots. There was also a chimney from an iron smelter in the chamber testifying to the deceased’s association with iron production.

Nospelt

Tombs excavated at Kreckelbierg, just north-west of the village of Nospelt, contain an impressive range of articles including wine flagons, articles of pottery, spurs, knives, lances and a lantern testifying to the nobility of those buried. It is thought the tombs might belong to chieftains from the Titelberg settlement. It is interesting to note that some of the artefacts including a tall amphora came from as far away as the Mediterranean, showing the extent of trade with other regions at the time.

Kehlen

A necropolis from the 1st century was discovered in the early 1970s on the Juckelsboesch plateau between Mamer and Kehlen. A beautiful dark blue glass bowl was among the offerings found there.

Goeblange

In 1993, the National Museum of History and Art excavated Celtic tombs dating back to 50 BC to 30 BC which had been discovered in 1966 about 1 km NW of the Roman ruins in an area known as Scheierheck. The tombs were no doubt the resting place of aristocrats – four men and one woman – judging from the artifacts which were found there. These included: 1 amphoric wine flagon, 4 bottles, 7 plates, 5 pots, 7 bowls, 5 cups, 1 flat plate, 1 goblet, 1 drinking horn, 1 iron knife, 2 lance blades, 2 spurs, 3 bronze brooches, 1 pair of scissors and the remains of cremation, including those of a wild boar.

Feulen

The 133 tombs uncovered at Feulen in 1996 date from the 2nd century BC until Gallo-Roman times. They have revealed numerous fibulae, arms and tools made of iron, and a large collection of pottery including two amphorae.

Crisis of the 3rd century BC

During the century from 250 to 150 BC, the area between the Rhine and the Meuse underwent a drastic restructuring as some crisis forced most signs of inhabitation into the heights of the Hunsrck. Following this crisis, population returned to the lowlands in the form of the Gaulish tribes known to us from classical texts.

The Treveri

Main article: Treveri

The Celtic tribe in what is now Luxembourg during and after the La Tne period was known as the Treveri. Though Celtic in language, they claimed to be descended from the Germans to bolster their warlike reputation. By and large, the Treveri were more successful than most Gallic tribes in cooperating with the Romans who completed their occupation in 53 BC under Julius Caesar. Two first-century AD revolts did not permanently damage their cordial relations with Rome, and the Treveri adapted readily to Roman civilisation.

References

Works cited

^ a b Elizabeth Hamilton: The Celts and Urbanization – the Enduring Puzzle of the Oppida. Retrieved 21 November 2007.

^ Paleolithic period from National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg

^ Neolithic houses from National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg

^ Neolithic pottery from National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg

^ Old Iron Age from National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg

^ Jeannot Metzler, Catherine Gaeng: Protohistoire from Prhistoire et Protohistoire au Luxembourg, Muse national d’histoire et d’art, Luxembourg, 2005

^ http://www.unizd.hr/Portals/20/Gheorghiu, Nash, Cavulli.pdf Ralph M. Rowlett: Stratified Iron Age Chieftains Houses on the Titelberg, 13th Annual Meeting of European Association of the Archaeologists, Croatia, Zadar, September 2007.

^ Matthew L. Shaw: The North Smelter at Titelberg – Post-imperial Bronze Recycling in Belgic Gaul. Retrieved 21 November 2007.

^ Nicolas Gaspar: Les fibules gauloises et gallo-romaines du Titelberg, Luxembourg, Muse national distoire et drt, 2007

^ a b Jeannot Metzler. “Le Luxembourg avant le Luxembourg.” In Histoire du Luxembourg : Le destin europen d’un  petit pays  (ed. Gilbert Trausch, 2003). Toulouse: ditions Privat. ISBN 2-7089-4773-7. (French)

^ Clemency L’ge du Fer rcent from Luxembourg’s National Museum of History and Art. Retrieved 26 November 2007.

^ Beigaben von Grab D. Sptkeltische Zeit 50 – 30 v. Chr. Goeblingen-Nospelt Scheierheck. Retrieved 21 November 2007.

^ Bol de verre ctel from Luxembourg’s National Museum of History and Art. Retrieved 28 November 2007.

^ Beigaben von Grab D. Sptkeltische Zeit 50 – 30 v. Chr. Goeblingen-Nospelt Scheierheck. Retrieved 21 November 2007.

^ Sebastian Schendzielorz: Feulen : ein sptlatnezeitlich-frhrmisches Grberfeld in Luxemburg, Dossiers drchologie du Muse national distoire et drt (lX), Luxembourg, Muse national distoire et drt, 2006

^ Tacitus: Germania, Chapter 28. Retrieved 12 December 2007.

Further reading

Gaspar, Nicolas: Die keltischen und gallo-rmischen Fibeln vom Titelberg: Les fibules gauloises et gallo-romaines du Titelberg, Luxembourg, Muse national distoire et drt, 2007, 325 p., ISBN 13 : 978-2-87985-936-1.

Metzler, Jeannot: Das treverische Oppidum auf dem Titelberg : zur Kontinuitt zwischen der sptkeltischen und der frhrmischen Zeit in Nord-Gallien, Luxembourg, Muse national distoire et drt, 1995, 789 p., ISBN 287985024X

Metzler, J.,/ Metzler-Zens, N./ Mniel, P. et al. (Hrsg.): Lamadelaine une ncropole de lppidum du Titelberg. Dossier drcheologie du Muse National distoire et drt IV. Luxembourg 1999.

Rowlett, R. M./ Thomas, H. L./ Rowlett, E. S.-J..: “Stratified Iron Age House Floors in the Titelberg”, Luxembourg. In Journal of Field Archaeology. Vol. 9, No. 3, 1982, 301312.

Thomas, H. L., Rowlett, R. M., Rowlett, E. S.-J.: “The Titelberg: A Hill Fort of Celtic and Roman Times”. In Archaeology 28:1, 1975, pp.5557.

Thomas, H. L., Rowlett, R. M., Rowlett, E. S.-J.: “Excavations of the Titelberg. Luxembourg.” In Journal of Field Archaeology 3:3, 1976, pp.241259.

Shaw, Matthew L.: The North Smelter at Titelberg – Post-imperial Bronze Recycling in Belgic Gaul. University of Missouri-Columbia. 2007.

Weiller, Raymond: “Coins From Features Found by the Missouri Excavations at Titelberg”. In Horizons and Styles: Studies in Art and Archaeology in Honour of Professor Homer L. Thomas, ed. Paul strm, pp. 269-289, Paul strms Frlag: Jonsered. 1993, ISBN 91-7081-072-9

v  d  e

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Categories: Celtic culture | History of Luxembourg | Ancient Gaul

History

See also: History of Lancashire

The earliest evidence of occupation in Ribchester is from the Bronze Age.

Roman history

Main article: Bremetennacum

The village was originally established as a Roman auxiliary fort named Bremetennacum or Bremetenacum Veteranorum. The first fort was built in timber in AD 72/73 by the Twentieth Legion. The fort was renovated in the late 1st century AD and was rebuilt in stone in the early 2nd century. During the life of the fort, a village grew up around it. A fort remained at Ribchester until the 4th century AD and its remains can still be seen around the present village.

Plan of the principia at Ribchester Fort

A report on Roman remains at Ribchester was published in Roman Britain in 1914 (Haverfield, 1915):

“In the spring of 1913 a small school-building was pulled down at Ribchester, and the Manchester Classical Association was able to resume its examination of the Principia (praetorium) of the Roman fort, above a part of which this building had stood. The work was carried out by Prof. W. B. Anderson, of Manchester University, and Mr. D. Atkinson, Research Fellow of Reading College, and, though limited in extent, was very successful.

“The first discovery of the Principia is due to Miss Greenall, who about 1905 was building a house close to the school and took care that certain remains found by her builders should be duly noted: excavations in 1906-7, however, left the size and extent of these remains somewhat uncertain and resulted in what we now know to be an incorrect plan. The work done last spring (1913) makes it plain (see illustration) that the Principia fronted in normal fashion the main street of the fort (gravel laid on cobbles) running from the north to the south gate. But, abnormally, the frontage was formed by a verandah or colonnade: the only parallel which I can quote is from Caersws, where excavations in 1909 revealed a similar verandah in front of the Principia. Next to the verandah stood the usual Outer Court with a colonnade round it and two wells in it (one is the usual provision): the colonnade seemed to have been twice rebuilt. Beyond that are fainter traces of the Inner Court which, however, lies mostly underneath a churchyard: the only fairly clear feature is a room (A on plan) which seems to have stood on the right side of the Inner Court, as at Chesters and Ambleside. Behind this, probably, stood the usual five office rooms. If we carry the Principia about twenty feet further back, which would be a full allowance for these rooms with their walling, the end of the whole structure will line with the ends of the granaries found some years ago. This, or something very like it, is what we should naturally expect. We then obtain a structure measuring 81 112 feet (34 m), the latter dimension including a verandah 8 feet (2.4 m) wide. This again seems a reasonable result. Ribchester was a large fort, about 6 acres (24,000 m2), garrisoned by cavalry; in a similar fort at Chesters, on Hadrian’s Wall, the Principia measured 85 125 feet (38 m): in the ‘North Camp’ at Camelon, another fort of much the same size (nearly 6 acres), they measured 92 120 feet (37 m).”

The most famous artifact discovered in Ribchester, and dating from the Roman period, is the elaborate cavalry helmet found in Church Street in the 1700s and now held in the British Museum as the gift of Charles Towneley.

Post-Roman

Church Street, Ribchester, looking south towards the River Ribble.

“It is written upon a wall in Rome; Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom”.

Little is known about post Roman Ribchester although the presence of Saint Wilfrid’s Church indicates that it retained some significance. When Henry VIIIs antiquary visited Ribchester in the 1540s he described it thus: ‘Ribchestre …hath been an auncient towne. Great squarid stones, voultes and antique coynes be found there…’ When, a short while later, William Camden, author of Britannia (1586), visited the village, he recorded the saying that starts this section.

That the site of the Roman fort remained the focus of the village is indicated by the later building of Saint Wilfrid’s Church very nearly over the Principia or headquarters area of the Roman Camp. The church’s website provides a detailed history of both Saint Wilfrid’s and Saint Saviour’s Church, which stands in the nearby settlement of Stydd and which is perhaps a remnant of a Knights Templar or Knights Hospitallers establishment.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries the village became, like many in East Lancashire, a centre for cotton weaving. Initially in the homes of the weavers and latterly in two mills (Bee Mill and Corporation Mill) built on the Preston Road on the northern edge of the village.

In 1838 William Howitt published his Rural Life of England in which he described conditions in the weaving districts of East Lancashire. ‘Everywhere extend wild, naked hills, in many places totally un-reclaimed, in others enclosed, but exhibiting all the signs of neglected spiritless husbandry …Over these naked and desolate hills are scattered to their very tops, in all directions, the habitations of a swarming population of weavers… In Ribchester our chaise was pursued by swarms of [these] wooden-shod lads like swarms of flies and were only beaten off for a moment to close in upon you again, and their sisters showed equally the extravagance of rudeness in which they were suffered to grow up, by running out of the houses as we passed and poking mops and brushes at the horses heads. No one attempted to restrain or rebuke them; yet no one of the adult population offered you the least insult; and if you asked the way, gave you the most ready directions, and if you went into their houses, treated you with perfect civility and showed an affection for these little brats that was honourable to their hearts and wanted only directing by a better intelligence. The uncouthness of these poor people is not that of evil disposition, but of pressing poverty and continued neglect’

The weaving of cotton and other textiles continued in Ribchester until the 1980s when the last weaving business closed in Bee Mill.

Geography

The village is situated at the foot of Longridge Fell and on the banks of the River Ribble. The solid geography is of thick boulder clay deposits from the River Ribble over Sabden Shale. The area around the village shows signs of the river having moved with obvious terracing caused by the meanders.

The River Ribble is prone to extreme spates and this often leads to flooding in Ribchester during the winter months.

The Ribchester stretch of the River Ribble.

The Ribble in full spate.

The Office of National Statistics gives the following land use for the Ribchester ward.

Land Use

Percentage

Domestic Building

0.8

Non-Domestic Building

0.4

Road

1.3

Domestic Garden

2.3

Green Space

93.8

Water

0.7

Demography

In the year 2000 the Ribchester Millennium Projects Committee marked the millennium with the publication of a book entitled Ribchester: A Millennium Record. Its main aim was to record events during 2000 but as an adjunct to that it carried out a statistical survey of the village.

The survey, which was conducted in January 2000, collected data from 500 households in the parish of Ribchester and produced data relating to 1244 people. The following demographic data is drawn from this survey.

81% of the sample were born in Lancashire; 4% were born in Yorkshire.

96% of the sample were born in England.

Approximately 75% of the sample travelled less than 10 miles (16 km) to work.

The UK Office of National Statistics shows a population estimate (in 2004) of 1,548 persons of whom 756 were male and 792 female.

The 2001 census for the Ribchester ward gives the following employment statistics:

Employment

Percentage

Full Time

39.2

Part Time

12.6

Self Employed

15.0

Unemployed

2.0

Student

6.0

Retired

16.6

Home

4.7

Permanently Sick

2.7

Other

1.3

Economy

The two mills that were the mainstay of the village in the early part of the 20th Century are closed. One, the Corporation Mill, was demolished in the 1980s. The other, Bee Mill, is now home to a range of small businesses. There are three public houses in the village, the White Bull, the Black Bull and the Ribchester Arms as well as a Sports and Social Club that was the working mens club associated with the mills. There is a small SPAR shop which occupies the site once occupied by the Cooperative Store and a tea room.

Landmarks

Ribchester is a popular destination for visitors who are drawn not only by its picturesque setting on the River Ribble with views towards Pendle Hill but also by a number of interesting and attractive buildings.

Saint Wilfrid’s Church

The interior of Saint Wilfrid’s Church.

Saint Wilfrid’s Church is one of the most picturesque in the Ribble Valley. It stands by the River Ribble on what was the centre of the Roman Fort. It is believed to have been founded by Saint Wilfrid in the 8th Century.

Saint Peter and Pauls Church and Stydd Alms Houses

Although properly in the neighbouring settlement of Stydd Saint Peter and Paul’s Church is an early barn church. Nearby are alms houses and the Church of Saint Saviour.

The portico of the White Bull.

The Millennium Sculpture Garden

The sculpture modelled on Trajan’s Column depicting scenes from Ribchester’s history.

This is the result of a community project to create public art to commemorate the Millennium. Four sculptures, created by sculptor Fiona Bowley, are set in a garden leading from Church Street into the Village’s playing field. The sculptures all reflect aspects of Ribchester life and history; they comprise: a sun dial, a column (modelled on Trajan’s column in Rome) showing aspects of Ribchester history, a celebration of local myths and tales (‘The Pig, the Ribber and the Devil’) and finally a piece celebrating Ribchester’s community spirit.

The White Bull

The White Bull Pub stands in the middle of the village and is well known for its portico which is said to be supported by two pillars taken from the Roman fort. Above the portico is a rustic wooden representation of a white bull. The pub was patronised by the members of Time Team during their three-day visit to the village in September 1993.

Weavers’ Cottages

Weavers’ cottages on Church Street.

Opposite the White Bull Pub are a row of cottages noteworthy for their unusual configuration of windows. Built for the hand loom weavers they have three levels with a single window at the uppermost. Although it is commonly believed that the window in the top level is to illuminate the looms this may not be the case as the weaving would probably have been carried out in the lowest part of the house because of the size of the loom and the need for damp conditions to keep the cotton flexible.

Excavated Roman Buildings

Adjoining the churchyard of Saint Wilfrid’s Church are the excavated remains of the granaries which belonged to the Roman fort. A short distance east of the village are the remains of the Roman baths.

Roman Museum

Near to Saint Wilfrid’s Church is the Roman Museum which has recently been refurbished and remodelled. The Museum houses many of the finds from the Roman fort.

Ribchester Bridge

Two miles upstream of Ribchester lies Ribchester Bridge. Rebuilt in the 1770s, after severe flooding damaged it, the bridge gives it name to a hornpipe published by a Thomas Marsden in his Collection of Original Lancashire Hornpipes, Old and New, issued in 1705.

Religion

Census returns for Ribchester show that 86.7% of the population expressed themselves to be Christian with the majority of the remaining population professing no religion.

There are three places of worship in Ribchester. They are Saint Wilfrids (which incorporates Saint Saviours, Stydd) which is a Church of England Church within the Diocese of Blackburn. Saint Peter and Paul’s Church in Stydd is a Catholic Church coming under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford. There is also the Mission Church.

Sports and Recreation

Although Ribchester is a small community it has a number of local sports and recreational groups and facilities. Many of these are focussed on playing fields situated to the west of Church Street (alongside a lane called Popes Croft). These were the gift of a notable local family, the Openshaws. Ribchester Tennis Club have a pavilion and two hard tennis courts on the playing fields. There is a football pavilion which is the headquarters of the Ribchester Junior Football Club. The playing fields also hold a large, well equipped, children’s adventure play area.

Ribchester and District Angling Club (RADAC) leases fishing on the Rivers Ribble and Hodder in the surrounding area.

The Ribchester Amateur Theatre Society (RATS) performs plays and pantomimes in the Parochial Church Hall.

Events

Field Day

The Field Day parade turns up Water Street.

On the third weekend of June each year the village celebrates its annual Field Day. Such an event is common to the villages in the area where they are variously known as Club Days or Gala Days. The event consists, on the Saturday, of a parade of decorated floats and fancy dress classes around the village. Led by local brass bands the parade makes its way to playing fields at the side of the village where marquees and stalls provide entertainment for villagers and visitors and a location for art and craft competitions. Many streets in the village close themselves off at the end of the afternoon and have street parties. On the Sunday afternoon a village tea party takes place in the marquee.

May Day Market

Each year the village organises a ‘May Day Market’ on the Spring Bank holiday when most of the village clubs, churches and charitable organisations set up and manage stalls as a means of raising funds to support their activities through the year. The market takes place on ‘The Hillock’ which is the small triangle of land outside the White Bull pub.

Ribchester Festival of Music and Art

Usually held in June each year the festival brings internationally renowned musicians and performers to Ribchester for four or five days of performances. The majority of performances take place in Saint Wilfrids and Saint Saviours churches with additional events taking place in the pubs and around the Village.

Gallery

A window of Ribchester Primary School.

St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church.

St. Wilfrids’ tower.

A misty Christmas Day morning in St. Wilfrid’s graveyard.

Looking down an alley connecting Church Street (foreground) and Water Street.

Homes on the western side of Church Street.

The White Bull, one of three pubs in the village.

The Palm Sunday parade moving from outside the White Bull Pub to Saint Wilfrid’s Church.

Ribchester Fort, built by the Twentieth Legion.

Ribchester Fort’s Roman bath buildings

An aerial view of Ribchester

References

Notes

^ Time Team episode “On the Edge of an Empire”

Bibliography

Buxton, K. and Howard-Davis, C. (2000) Bremetenacum: excavations at Roman Ribchester 1980, 1989-1990, Lancaster imprints, no. 9, Lancaster University Archaeological Unit, ISBN 1-86220-083-1

Haverfield, F. (1915) Roman Britain in 1914, British Academy supplimental papers III, Oxford University Press, (Online Text,Project Gutenburg)

Smith, T. C. and Shortt, J (1890) The history of the parish of Ribchester, in the county of Lancaster, London: Bemrose & sons, 283p (Online Text, American Libraries)

Edwards, B.J.N. (2000) The Romans in Ribchester, Discovery and Excavation, Centre for North-West Regional Studies, University of Lancaster, ISBN 1-86220-085-8

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ribchester

Vindolanda Tablets mentioning Ribchester Vindolanda Tablets Online

Ribchester Museum

Saint Wilfrid’s Church

Ribchester Parish Council

Ribchester Local History Society

Ribchester and District Angling Club

Ribchester Tennis Club

Ribchester Amateur Theatre Society

‘The Parish of Ribchester’, A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7 (1912), pp. 36-44. British History Web Site

Music for The Ribchester Bridge Hornpipe

The Ribchester Roman Hoard (including Parade Helmet) at the British Museum

Categories: Villages in Lancashire | Civil parishes in Lancashire | Geography of Ribble Valley

Archeologists think the necklace was created while in the stone age approximately 45,000 years before than earlier thought. April 2004, experts who were excavating a cave in Southern Africa uncovered forty-one mollusks in which may have been strung as a necklace about seventy five thousand years ago.

Before this finding the oldest acknowledged necklace to have been found about 30,000 B.C. these were made largely of shells, bones, pebbles, animal teeth or claws, strung on a thread. Fundamentally the identical concept is utilized nowadays nevertheless you will find variants.

Around 2500 B.C. gold metal was beginning to be used in neck jewelry. Gold neck adornments and chokers had been discovered at the Royal Grave of Ur. They are in what is now identified as Iraq. 2000 B.C. had been when Sumerian bead neck jewelry started to make use of alternating patterns of colored stones and gemstones and metals such as copper or silver.

Ancient Egyptian neck jewelry evolved from straightforward stringed beads to intricate patterns and include the ‘broad collar’ as well as pectoral kind. These were used by both genders, most commonly royalty as well as wealthy citizens. These were typically laid to rest together with their dead owners.

During the Classical Greek time period from about 480 to 300 B.C. nearly all necklaces had been three dimensional pendants. They were mainly in the form of acorns, seeds, or heads. They were dangled from a row of flat elements usually some type of rosettes.

Gold had been plentiful during the entire Greek Empire when Alexander the Great vanquished the Orient in 356-323 B.C. Among golds uses, was to manufacture necklaces and also other types of jewelry.

In Historical Rome the bearing of jewelry had actually been frowned on. Legislation governed how much precious metal could be worn by wives or left along with the dead.

From around the first century on, Roman Jewelry begun to differentiate itself. Gemstones came into use and were typically cut in circles or oblong shapes. In the end of the subsequent century gold piercing methods were invented. It produced a lace like quality in gold neck jewelry. The preferred design of that time period would have been a sequence of differently colored gemstones connected by gold links.

During the second and third centuries it became trendy to put on numerous necklaces all at the same time. The types of neck jewelry in some cases suggested the level of wealth or class of the wearer. Necklaces were extremely popular in whichever type could be made. During the next several centuries the interest of wearing necklaces waned considerably. Around the late fourteenth century necklaces began to regain their attractiveness as a result of fashions decolletage.

Ever since then, necklaces have become used by every one of the classes. A favourite gift of kids for their mothers is definitely the famed or perhaps infamous macaroni necklace. What new mother doesn’t love such a present from the heart? They’re valuable not in crystals or gold but in sentiment and heart value.

Necklaces are generally worn now for various causes not the least of which is personal adornment. Many people put on medals that are religiously important for example those with depictions of the Saints or Jesus Christ. Many people wear an ordinary cross whilst others will wear a Crucifix which is a cross upon which the image of the body of Christ is positioned. It stands to reason that it may be said that necklaces have been and will remain a piece of jewelry which is completely convenient in its style and design and the motive of the wearer.